Eric and Alec,Good points (and takhns for being patient on comment moderation while the blogger spam police were fixing my blog). I love rock climbing, which fits into your solitary concept, Eric, (and is certainly addicting), but I don't think of it as a game. Yes, there are games I occasionally play with myself and climbing partners to improve (often as neanderthal as "how many pullups can YOU do?" games), but the basic activity is something that is about flow and growth. Games are different; I'd define them as fundamentally about achieving goals within a specified rule set.Which can go to funny places in museums. I was just talking to a friend this weekend who was raving about her kids' experiences with scavenger hunt worksheets in museums. The kids were getting the exposure to content that you speak of, Alec, but in the context of a very limited game (find the stuff). I always feel mixed about the "value" of these hunts--for the kids, the museum, and all the visitors who get bonked into. But at least from my friend's perspective, her kids loved it and she felt that couching the museum experience--which for some of us may be deep and open-ended--in something proscribed and goal-oriented was very positive for her family.I'd like to see museum games that are specifically about getting that wild open-endedness. More on this this Friday...
