Purposeful Games

A new SFWeekly article on Jane McGonigal and ARGs - Alternative Reality Games that weave back and forth between real and virtual worlds:

McGonigal wants to harness the power of the communal cerebellum her games create, and put it to work solving real-world problems. Maybe young folks in warring countries could play games together, and would be less inclined to shed each other's blood. Maybe players could analyze real scientific data in the course of a game, crunching numbers and looking for patterns just as they always do, but with a payoff that goes beyond advancing to the next stage of a game.
World Without Oil is McGonigal's bold step forward ... The tagline declares its intentions to be a public service announcement about the world's dangerous dependence on oil: "Play it — before you live it."