See also: 5 creepy ways video games are trying to get you addicted
And:
Jane McGonigal: Gaming can make a better world
So far, World of Warcraft players have spent 5.93 million years solving problems in the game. . Jane McGonigal
“We’re witnessing what amounts to no less than a mass-exodus to virtual worlds and online game environments” – economist Edward Castronova
Wired: Reality Is Broken. Game Designers Must Fix It
Human computation, a talk by Luis von Ahn
Luis von Ahn talks about how to “constructively channel human brainpower using computer games. For example, the ESP Game, described in this talk, is an enjoyable online game — many people play over 40 hours a week — and when people play, they help label images on the Web with descriptive keywords.” Not sure that is very useful or constructive, or fun, but perhaps some other real world game can be made using the same mechanisms.Over 9 billion human hours of solitaire was played in 2003.