Family Tech: Serious gaming becomes a career option

If you ask kids these days what they want to be when they grow up, you do not hear astronaut, firefighter or police officer as often as you would expect. They all want to be video game creators.

Working on a major video game, like they all see themselves doing, is about as long odds as working on a blockbuster film. The competition is fierce, and the talent expectations are astronomical.

What can you do to encourage your child’s dream if game creation is the dream, yet help them to find a way to make a living?

There is another kind of gaming in technology, serious gaming. George Mason University defines serious gaming as being a way to train or educate the player about a topic, that it might enable the player to investigate an area or the game might be advertising a product or cause.

It adds, “Serious games have been developed in a number of arenas, including defense, education, scientific exploration, health care, emergency management, city planning, engineering, politics and religion.”

Recently my son and I went to an open house at the George Mason campus in Manassas and visited the Mason Serious Game Institute.

Read the rest at www.FamilyTechOnline.com

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