Edutainment

The escapist isn't just for zero punctuation. They also have some interesting articles like this one.

It starts with a dinner party where a man says he's a game designer and is astonished by the negative reaction he gets. So, he seeks to find the root of the hatred towards video games.

It's a very well written article. I pulled this section out because Dave Taylor reflects my views:

"Dave Taylor, who worked on Doom and Quake, and who is currently a producer and agent in the industry, agreed with me that it was sad, but wondered if the industry hadn't set a little bit of this fire, too. "I also feel that the game industry in its greed and desperation for sales has been negligent of this growing issue of the fallout of kids playing games. We're all about how addictive the game is, how much replayability there is and making sure it's a popular genre like FPS. That's fine and all, but the result is that you're creating a program that turns kids into game-playing automatons that spend a lot of time on it because of how addictive and replayable the games are, and that makes them very good at twitch reactions for hiding, jumping, crouching, shooting, lobbing grenades, etc. I agree that a great multiplayer FPS can teach valuable skills when it comes to teamwork and tactics ... but it doesn't improve the basics, like literacy, math skills, physical fitness and diet. These are a lot more important to responsible parents, and if your kid is either playing games all day or pining and whining to play games all day because his friends can, then you're not going to have a lovely view of the medium."

Video games can be used for the basics that Dave mentions. Edutainment, the word itself brings images of cheap, simple games that are made for children and are usually not very fun.

On the other hand, a game like Civilization 4 has a plethora of information just ready and waiting for you. In the game, this tiny button brings you to the civilopedia. So if your playing as the Mongols, and it makes you curious about Ghengis Khan, the information is just a click away.

Lucky for us, Civilization is coming out on the consoles. It'll be called civilization: revolution. If you've never played any civ games, or maybe want something educational and fun for your child, I implore you to play civilization.

One cool thing about playing the civ games, is you can get a perspective on the entire history of the human race, instead of just seeing the world from your limited life time. The game can only do so much, but with a strong imagination, the mind can try.

If there was any game that could help you take your perspective beyond the history of our human race, Spore is coming out this September.

Whenever I think about the lack of imagination and originality in upcoming video games, spore seems to be the only game that says "not me!".

I hope it sells more then The Sims and we see more of the gaming industry to follow suit.