I just gave a paper for the Playing the Gallery symposium organized by the McIntosh Gallery, The University of Western Ontario. My paper was on “The Problem with Serious Games” where I worked with definitions of play to work out the tensions between playing games and serious work.
Serious Games (not serious gaming) is a label being used to self identify and authorize games designed for non-entertainment purposes. In 2002 the Serious Games Initiative was founded at the Woodrow Wilson Center for International Scholars. The CMP Game Group has been running semi-academic Serious Game Summits and a web site Serious Game Source.