SGS Feature: 'Russ Phelps On Serious Games For The Military'

Today's main feature written for Gamasutra sister site Serious Games Source, which deals with games created for training, health, government, military, educational and other uses, takes a look at the serious games industry from a military perspective. Specifically, the site sat spoke with Russ Phelps, president of Intelligence Gaming, a company devoted to creating military-themed serious games, to get his thoughts on the industry, as well as the projects with which he is currently involved. In this excerpt, Phelps gives his thoughts on the serious games market as it stands today: "I think there is terrific potential inside and outside the defense market. Within the serious games market there are so many applications and technologies that to identify them as an aggregate is a mistake. In this sense, the expansion of the SG market will expand or contract at varying rates relative to each technological area. To me, games are merely an application within the greater SG marketplace – they are innovation showcases or composites of embedded technologies like AI, graphics, simulation physics etc. While gaming applications will grow in the coming years, I believe their use may plateau until government policy and standards are formulated to deal with issues like platform standards, security, and classifications. In the larger view, however, I see gaming technologies proliferating at unbelievable rates and will disrupt traditional simulation and modeling for the government sector. I also strongly believe that gaming technologies will radically reshape the way that training, education and the transference of real-world experience and knowledge will occur." You can now read the full Serious Games Source feature on the subject, including more of Phelps' comments on the topic of serious games and the military (no registration required, please feel free to link to this feature from external websites).