I should have linked this all earlier, but it’s time for a belated introduction: meet Ian Bogost, who has some interesting things to say about serious games. Says he:

“We tend to think of the world in terms of sound bites and simplistic ideas. Video games allow us to model complexity.”

He’s the one who wrote the book. For the quick run-down, here’s a quick entertaining interview with the man himself. (Sorry about the adverts, but embed code wasn’t working for some reason . . . the internet gods are not happy with me today.)

He can tell you more about himself than I can. But there are a few things of note, like his Persuasive Games site where you can DL and play many of his creations. Most of the games have political or social messages, and most are quick to play. They’re columns, not treatises, from the rhetorical point of view. But they make the point nicely: this medium can convey very sophisticated messages.

For instance, we’ve got games on immigration, airport security, photocopying and activism. Try ’em . . .