Is Super Mario a Super Trainer?

A couple of years ago I won a Nintendo Gamecube at a trade show in Los Angeles. Little did I realize at the time that the gamecube would cost me hundreds of dollars - In games for my kids!

As part of Generation-X, I'm just old enough to have been among the "First Wave" of Gamers. I recall spending my newspaper delivery money on the grand daddy of the TV attached game consoles, Pong. Within a short time, it was on to Atari, and then the Vic 20. The Vic 20 was part of the first wave of PCs, which were used as they are today: To plat lots of games!

Over the years we've talked a great deal about how games; interactive, roll playing, problem solving, team effort, etc, can and should be used in the Training environment, but what about using games on the popular games consoles (Nintendo, PS2, XBox) that people already play to help them learn?

Many of the team games on the market today are too violent to be used "off the shelf" in most corporate training classes, and as far as I can tell, the vast majority of the other "retail" games fall far short of meeting any but the most basic training objectives found in a typical professional training class. What do you think? Please add your comments!

Next up: How hard is it to develop a "training game" for these popular platforms. Can it be done?