SGS Feature: 'Breaking the Grip of Dominant Ideas In Games'

In today's main feature from new Gamasutra sister site Serious Games Source, which deals with games created for training, health, government, military, educational and other uses, Tim Carter, who currently works for the Simulation & Training Lab of the Washington Hospital Center, debuts an editorial piece titled: "Breaking the Grip of Dominant Ideas In Games: What Serious Game Projects Have To Offer Entertainment Game Developers." In his introduction to his article, Carter notes: "Serious game projects give us an opportunity to revitalize the creative dimension of entertainment game design. They give us a chance to break old notions – entrenched in commercial game culture – of what games should be so we may do truly new things. Serious games should be on the drawing board of every major game studio – even if only as prototyping exercises – because they force the flabby functional game design muscles of producers, programmers, artists, playtesters, actual designers, and even the players themselves – used to resting on the laurels of their assumptions of what is fun – to tighten up once more. Beyond the opportunity to provide excellent education and training, they offer us a chance to take entertainment games in new directions, with new topics and new ideas of what fun can be." You can read the full Serious Games Source feature on the subject, including more intriguing opinions from Carter (no registration required, please feel free to link to this feature from external websites).