I have been trying with very little success to introduce Serious Games into the university environment. There are two barriers here
- Books and lectures are viewed as the best way to transmit knowledge. Games (and the videos of the previous media generation) are percieved as anti-education, things that dull the superior mind.
- Expense (development, freeing up experts).
I have begun to see some success with number 1 by teaching people to use PowerPoint games in their class. PowerPoint is such a familiar tool here that building games to reinforce the learning of factual information is readily accepted. Medical faculty have some appreciation for the vast amount of information that first and second year students must memorize so finding ways to make memorization less painful is encouraged.
The expense issue is a barrier I can't seem to get past.