Though some parents may be loathe to hear it, video games can offer an educational experience.
Battling zombies, defusing a bomb or raiding an undersea kingdom on their face are not marketable skills, but logic and critical thinking can be.
In the decades since "Pong," a giant monkey and a plumber introduced video games to America, the industry that has grown around video games has largely been concerned with entertainment.
But as the industry continues to expand and mature, some are exploring whether video games can be used to teach and train.
Portland-based Digitalmill, a video game development and consulting firm, is at the forefront of a new movement called "serious games," which aims to use the technology and aesthetic of games to solve real-world issues.
As the serious-games movement grows, it will be up to developers like Digitalmill to be equal parts evangelist, architect and technical support.
"People are waking up to the idea," said Ben Sawyer, president of Digitalmill. "More are looking at (games) as what is more sophisticated than anything else right now."
That includes organizations like the U.S. Army, which created perhaps one of the more well-known serious games, "America's Army," which lets players experience Army life from boot camp to hostile missions.
HopeLab, which works with the chronically ill, released the game "Re-Mission," a shooter game that lets players fight cancer cells and provide chemotherapy. The game was designed to encourage young cancer patients to stay on top of their treatment regimen.
In the game "Darfur is Dying," players take on the role of a young refugee trying to go about daily life while avoiding attacks from outside militias. The game was created by mtvU, the International Crisis Group and the Reebok Human Rights Foundation.
Digitalmill was one of the creators behind "Virtual U," a computer game that simulates the challenges of running a university. The game was designed to help train college administrators.
Akin to the popular city-building SimCity games, the game lets users decide everything from the annual budget, faculty hiring, courses, research endeavors and athletic teams.
Though a number of serious games are already on the market, Sawyer said Digitalmill is exploring what exactly serious games are and how they can be used.
Working with the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, Digitalmill created the Serious Games Initiative as a community to bring together game developers and professionals to explore the uses for serious games.
Last fall they secured a grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation for research into the impact of gaming on health and health care.
Sawyer said the video game industry needs to give more attention to research and development. For gaming companies it may seem difficult to divert time or money from core software and games, he said.
Sawyer said one of the biggest hurdles has been bringing together game developers and outside groups. But slowly that is starting to change, he said.
"It's like hiring a music video director for your car commercial," she said. "You don't want it to look like the old commercials."
Digitalmill collaborated with Internet networking company Cisco on several education and training games.
Jerry Bush, a program manager who works in network training at Cisco, said the company needed a game that could act as a test prep. To earn network certification, students can get training help through the company's Web site.
Bush said education games are appealing because they are more engaging than homework while reinforcing curriculum.
After creating two quiz games to help students studying for network administrator certification, they created "The Binary Game." Made up of patterns of ones and zeroes, the binary system is the basis for all modern computing.
In "The...
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