I’ve always been interested in the positive aspects of computer games. In previous years, I’ve covered Games for Change on my blog. I’ve spent a bit of time in virtual worlds, from the text based MOOs to Second Life and OpenSim. I’ve kicked around OpenCobalt a little and explored virtual worlds from my cellphone.

Part of what I like about things like MOOs, OpenSim and OpenCobalt is that they are worlds that the users can construct themselves, and I believe that this sort of construction has some great educational potential. It is part of what went into what I’ve always told my kids about being allowed to play any computer game that they could write.

I’ve also been very interested in the potential of virtual worlds for therapeutic purposes. Recently, the New York Times ran an article In Cybertherapy, Avatars Assist With Healing. It captures some of the potential for virtual worlds in therapy. The article mentions the CyberTherapy 2011 conference next June in Canada. It looks like an interesting conference and I’m starting to read through some of the material to see if people I know will be presenting.

On the other hand, I’ve been less interested in social gaming. FarmVille just hasn’t captured my attention. What did capture my attention, however, was a request from a friend of Facebook to join CityVille.

Carlos Miranda Levy sent me the invite. is currently Social Entrepreneur in Residence at National University of Singapore. He has also been Information Society Development Consultant at the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean and a 2004-2005 Google Fellow with the Digital Vision Program at Stanford University. His bio at the Digital Vision Program describes him as follows

Carlos Miranda Levy is an Information Technologies Consultant with wide experience on developing ICT strategies for development, education and e-government. A social entrepreneur, developer, and founder of a network of Latin American virtual communities and local, educational, environmental, and cultural websites, Carlos was selected by CNN in 2000 as one of Latin America's Internet 20 most influential people. He has undertaken extensive research and work with educators, education, and human development.

It was enough to make me sit up and take notice. Is Zynga moving its social games in the direction of games for change and social entrepreneurship? Could something similar be done for the health care industry?

If I could find a way to play CityVille without it sucking up all my time and productivity and without it spamming my Facebook wall, I just might check it out.

Yet let me end this off with a very different twist. I’ve been reading a bit of the discussion about WikiLeaks. The best comment I’ve found so far came Josh Wilson. Josh compared the whole story line of Wikileaks with stories coming straight out of Neal Stephenson or William Gibson. Josh talks about cyberwarfare going on. It led me back to thinking about the old movie War Games.

“Shall we play a game?”
“Love to, How about WikiLeaks?”
“Wouldn't you prefer a nice game of CityVille?”
“Later. Let's play WikiLeaks”