• GigaOm, Thursday, September 11, 2008 11:02 AM

According to a new Forrester Research Report, "It's Time to Take Games Seriously." In fact, that's what the report is called, and it certainly sounds like something we've heard before. But Forrester doesn't actually mean that marketers and retailers need to take games more seriously; rather, the research firm is implying that "serious" games (i.e. real world simulations) need to be taken seriously.

"Serious" games are created with real-world outcomes as their main goal, such as getting a job, learning how to do a certain job, or even flying a plane. Forrester believes this market is set to explode over the next seven years. Why? One main reason is the "green revolution," which is pushing corporations like IBM and SAP to experiment with virtual world training and team building to reduce energy and operational costs. It's also a means of instruction that resonates with young Gen Y employees.

"This comfort with virtualized workspaces has opened the door for the use of video games to help reduce long-term expenses in other cost centers, like training, learning, and team building," the report says, arguing that companies, government agencies and others will increasing turn to serious games, hiring the likes of software developers like Microsoft and Electronic Arts to create them.

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