Gaming is certainly starting to become a factor when people are thinking about education. Serious games as a resource are starting to poke into the vocabulary of admins and there are conferences (like GLS in July put on by UW – Madison that also has a gaming minor in it’s education program). But this morning, I caught this – Liberty Univerity in Lynchberg is offering a different kind of gaming program.
Gamefest is a contest that is being put on to recruit students with a grand prize of a full scholarship ($80K USD) going to the winner. The University is a religiously oriented place (Fundemental Baptist) that obvuously won’t be using games that are adult themed – but the great thing is that there are a host of family friendly games out there for them to choose from. So while I don’t think something like this help games in the classroom, it does show that there are games out there that a religiously based institution would use for it’s contest. And that might be just enough to get some people to at least thaw their cold attitudes to games.
And if you still need more convincing – watch the Coke ad on Youtube/GV and then think about what the reach of gaming is in this society.
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