In July, researchers asked the public for help in translating hundreds of thousands of ancient papyrus fragments in the Ancient Lives online project. On the Ancient Lives website, anyone can play a quick tutorial and then start identifying Greek characters in papyrus fragments.

Just a few days ago, gamers on the protein-folding game FoldIt solved a biological puzzle that had scientists completely baffled.

With the Internet and social media bringing large numbers of people together, there is a great opportunity for causes such as Ancient Lives and FoldIt. Games with a purpose, as these initiatives are sometimes called, harness the power of people to advance human knowledge. In return for lending our collective brainpower, we get the excitement of contributing to something meaningful and, ideally, we enjoy a fun game experience as well.

Have a free moment? Try one of these games with a purpose:

I attended the GLS conference yesterday and was most impressed by the caliber of attendee and the fabulous posters depicting the best and the brightest game/research projects going on. This link will take you to a photo montage of the poster event which quickly and visually displays high quality game development projects (mostly related to education). Most projects also had a research mission. Bravo GLS.

The recent controversy in the popular press over the Electronic Arts release Medal of Honor got me thinking about the ways that “black hat” narrative perspectives can be effective in educational games. If you’re not familiar with the controversy in question, the short version is that the game was originally designed to allow players in multi-player mode to select to play as the Taliban in a present-day military conflict set in Afghanistan. They’ve since removed that option, for what it’s worth.

I understand EA’s original idea from a game-design perspective – I think this New York Times editorial sums up the perspective nicely. But I also understand, and am sympathetic to the reasons why U.S. military, their families, and Americans generally find the notion of killing Americans, even fake digital Americans, as a form of entertainment supremely distasteful and inappropriate.

Because I’m not a recreational gamer, however, and because I spend a good part of my work day thinking about how to use games and simulations as meaningful learning experiences, I had another reaction to this controversy:  What if instead of a recreational game, Electronic Arts were building an immersive simulation to train U.S. troops prior to deployment to Afghanistan? In that case, wouldn’t the opportunity to play as the Taliban be a really useful (if uncomfortable) learning experience?  Isn’t the ability to see the world through the eyes of one’s enemy a really important tactical skill? Couldn’t it even (if the simulation was realistic) import some strategic insight that could save American lives?

I don’t really know anything about the military, so I’m kind of guessing here. But I can think of a couple of other educational games where putting the player in the bad guy’s shoes is, I think, a really effective design strategy.  I’ll discuss them after the break.