The Games Game

A Serious Side to Games (November 2004)

Dear Tom,

You may remember me. We had lunch some months ago and you gave me some great advice.

I just returned from the Serious Games Summit and read your article to the young man whose parents want him to study a "serious" career. I think he might benefit from all that went on at the Serious Games Summit if there is anyway to get that information out to him.

I met a woman from the Library of Congress who wants to build history games using rare historical documents. I met a "policy maker" in the government working on things like mass.balance where the budget of Massachusettes was simulated and the populace given the game of balancing it (only one person out of thousands succeeded). Educational specialists are looking at games not only as teaching tools, but also to provide better educational assessments. And the most ubiquitous presence was the US Army whose games are used to train combat soldiers.

One of the games that made a big buzz is being built by Breakaway Games and is called "A Force More Powerful". It is a simulation that uses peaceful means for changing governemental policies.

So if this young man needs some "serious" ammunition to pursue his career, there are dozens of articles about the Summit.

Thanks,

Judy L. Tyrer

Dear Judy,

Thanks so much for sharing those thoughts. This topic has generated more interest than I expected. And you're right, I have noticed growth in the academic field of game research. In fact, I met some researchers at the Korea Games Conference in October. I'll take this opportunity to share two further thoughts on how games shouldn't be dismissed as frivolous.

When I was the keeper of the Shanghai flame at Activision, I got calls from therapists and parents, people who had observed the therapeutic benefits of simple games like the classic solitaire tile-matching game Shanghai. There were benefits for patients suffering from brain injuries, and for developmentally disabled patients needing help developing hand-eye coordination. One therapist suggested that we sell the game as a therapy aid. I discussed the idea with the marketing person at the time, but nothing came of it.

Through my work with Shanghai, I became enamored of the real four-player game of mah-jongg. One of my mah-jongg activities has been to help set the record straight about the origins of mah-jongg. Much of what we know about the early days of mah-jongg we owe to some game researchers who did field research on games in China in the nineteenth century.

Social games like mah-jongg, bridge, poker, and grown-up board games have been shown to be beneficial for older adults (the main demographic for card games and table games like mah-jongg). Besides the obvious (having people with whom to talk and have a good time), there is also the exercise thing. I don't mean physical exercise, I mean mental. Working the brain keeps the gray cells active.

Violence in video games and computer games makes good headlines and makes a safe target for lawmakers who are glad to avoid controversial topics like government funding for medical research or birth control. And headlines make people shortsighted. They tend not to look beyond the headlines to see the stories that would get buried in the back pages.