ABSTRACT
Popular accounts of the serious games movement have often fallen back on the image of the computer as a “teaching machine” that “programs” its users-for better or for worse. The fantasy is that one can just plant kids in front of a black box and have them “learn” as if learning involved nothing more than absorbing content. Picture that sequence from The Matrix where Neo has new skills downloaded directly into his head and can use them instantly. Those who fear that games may turn normal youth into psycho killers similarly hope that serious games might transform them into historians, scientists, engineers, and tycoons. At the same time, teachers express anxiety that their pedagogical labor will be displaced by the game console.
