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 This is actually really interesting to me because several years ago I read a book (and I hate to say I don't remember what book it was), and it was about children, adults, and playing. It was all about how children play in order to learn real life skills that they will need as adults. There were examples of a small village in Africa and the way in which games children played were related to the jobs they may inherit from their parents. There was also a section of adults who played games and at this point it was mostly for social reasons and because they had grown up playing games. The impression I got from the work was that people were, after a certain age, just programmed to play. Games are, I feel, definitely a way in which people learn. It is such an interesting topic for me because in my work with 3-year-olds at an intervention program, we make use of play and games often. Children understand, at a very young age, that games and playing are fun. They learn very well through games and it would be interesting to see how children can learn through virtual games...(as I've never experimented with this at the intervention program)