USA Today Examines History Of Serious Games

A report by major newspaper USA Today has examined the history of serious games, in another example of mainstream news coverage for the serious game movement, while at the same time citing several game examples such as Archimage's Nanoswarm: Invasion from Inner Space and the UN funded Food Force. The report investigates serious games as a whole, which began to gain steam in 2002 following the U.S. Army's release of America's Army as a freely downloadable PC game over the Internet. Later contributions included the Hidden Agenda Contest, sponsored by the Liemandt Foundation in 2003, which saw “college students compete for $25,000 by creating educational games for middle schoolers.” This same foundation funded a project to determine whether or not GameCube consoles and mobile phones could assist adolescents and young adults deal with chronic diseases like diabetes. The report also talked about The National Institutes of Health-funded serious games Nanoswarm: Invasion from Inner Space and Escape from Diab, two video games currently in development by Houston-based developer Archimage in conjunction with the Children's Nutritional Research Center of Baylor College of Medicine in an effort to help prevent childhood obesity and Type II diabetes. Those interested in learning more can read the complete USA Today report which includes quotes from teachers, professors, and other individuals involved with the development and implementation of serious games for a variety of purposes.