Now for a bit of shameless self promotion…..

Our very own Loot-Ninja, yours truly (plus my reluctant pal Sean), has participated in a recent design competition held by EA designer Brice Morrison over at his site and came in the top three entries.

The contest was to design a game that is both entertaining and provides a peripheral benefit to the player, whether they are learning something new, improving way of life, or having an overall positive impact on the player.   My design was a game that could be described as Lemonade Stand and Drug Wars meet the Global Credit Crisis. Hit the link for more information on the contest and submissions.

This serves as nice reminder that games as entertainment are not completely restricted to blowing stuff up, killing things, or learning the useless talents of playing fake instruments.  While all that stuff is fun, games can actually teach us somethings about ourselves or our world.

Does anyone have any thoughts on any mainstream games that entertained and provided some benefit to you?  I can say with confidence that Spectrum Holobyte’s Falcon 3.0 taught me a lot about flying.