We've written extensively about gaming as a worldchanging tool. David Rejeski wants to take it seriously as such and have the U.S. government fund a "Corporation for Public Gaming" analagous to the the Corporation for Public Broadcasting that brought us NOVA and Sesame Street:
"The best kept secret in the world of computer and video games is the rise of a movement now in the thousands -- of gamers dedicated to applying games to serious challenges such as education, training, medical treatment, or better government. The Serious Games movement is in many ways todays equivalent of yesterdays advocates for non-commercial, educational TV, who knew that the potential of the medium was unrealized and went far beyond pure entertainment....
"However, serious games, like serious TV, are likely to remain a sidebar in the history of mass media. Non-commercial television floundered, despite millions of dollars of investment by the Ford Foundation, until the government stepped in and created a viable and long-lasting alternative. With similar vision and foresight, and a relatively small amount of funding, this could happen with video and computer games.
A Corporation for Public Gaming (CPG) could be established that would operate on a model similar to its broadcasting equivalent, providing grants to develop a diversity of games for the public good. Like CPB, the goal of the CPG would be to provide high-quality games, which inform, enlighten and enrich the public.
