They’re meant to educate people by simulating real-world events and are often created with the best of intentions. Problem is, education, science and health care aren’t exactly the stuff of exciting entertainment, let alone video games. —Daniel Terdiman —What’s wrong with serious games? (C|Net News.com)

Okay, but I’m uncomfortable with the word “entertanment,” since that carries the idea that the entertainer is doing the work, and the entertained just sits there. Sitting in front of a TV may require mental work to connect the dots in the plot and understadnd the jokes, but a game that involved doing nothing but watching a plot unfold would be boring. I’m not implying that Terdiman doesn’ t know what a game is. It’s just the choice of the word “entertaining” grates on me.