Serious games usually have a message promoting education, science, health care or even the military. They’re meant to educate people by simulating real-world events and are often created with the best of intentions. The problem is, education, science and health care aren’t exactly the stuff of exciting entertainment, let alone video games.

So what to do about it? A Tuesday morning panel at the Serious Games Summit, an adjunct event to the Game Developers Conference in San Jose, California, took the question on. The panel, titled “What’s wrong with serious games?” was led by Ben Sawyer, Serious Games Summit content chair, who was joined by James Gee, a professor of learning sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Henry Kelly, president of the Federation of American Scientists.

Part of the problem, Gee said, is that the serious-games industry has yet to seriously define itself. Therefore, he said, those in the industry must concentrate on locking down what it is about. ”We have to really confront the central questions and fight over them,” Gee said, “so that there might be some central convergence.”

But one thing favoring serious games is the very power of games themselves, something which can promote fundamental change.

Read the full article by Daniel Terdiman at CNET.