With all the delays of Spore, it will be interesting to see what the final product looks like. The latest news is that it will be out for the holidays. Games can be a great tool to develop thinking skills, like problem solving and risk management.

Getting the acceptance from the mainstream business and educational establishments will be a great challenge. Games are criticized by people who do not play games and are just going on what they have heard about a game. For example the latest controversy about “Mass Effect”. An article from Wired.com (http://blog.wired.com/games/2008/01/mass-effect-mes.html) says that “No-one from Fox News played any of Mass Effect before reporting on it, and instead gathered their information about its sexual content by “watching it on the Internet.”

If the critics are basing their criticism on second or third hand information we are in for a long public relations battle to bring games into corporate and educational institutions in a meaningful way.

Richard
Learn2Day.com