Toward this end, the Administration sees video games as a potential way to educate and inspire the nation’s youth. Sony, Microsoft, the ESA, and the MacArthur Foundation, among others, agree. Together, they have arranged a series of video game competitions under the STEM program’s principles.

Read the press release at PR Newswire.

Normally, something like this would be a fluff piece, but it brings up two very intriguing points. First, real adults, as opposed to us tall-children types, are buying and playing Nintendo’s crushingly popular game system. Can you see your parents sitting down for a relaxing night with the ol’ PS3? Secondly, the soon-to-be leader of the free world and most powerful man on the planet plays video games. Maybe not often, maybe not those Ninja Gaiden-style controller snappers, but certainly now and then with his family. It’s a start.

The gamers are winning. After Obama’s eight years are up, will the next presidential race include gamer tags and campaign speeches inside World of Warcraft? Can gamers, as a whole, become the next hot demographic that decides an election? If I have anything to say about it, yes. Yes we can.

From the titular Gigaom article,

Werbach’s involvement in WoW is worth noting as it raises the possibility that in the coming months, he and Crawford will craft strategic policy positions relevant to online games and worlds, including broadband usage, content regulation, etc. Along with Ito and like-minded academics, Werbach sees both as important to the future of work and technology:

“What [Warcraft] does,” he continued in that post, “is provide an incentive for people to develop new software and ideas for collaborative production. Many of those ideas will translate to other group activities, including those within the business world. I think MMOGs will be, at a minimum, a significant testbed for these new technologies, because users see a direct benefit and are willing to experiment with new things.”

We are obviously on the cusp of a brand new, amazing administration. Even in the face of this economic recession, soon depression, the world has seen a boom in information technology. Copyright and IP Law loom large on the horizon, the behavior of the FCC has been questionable, and the Internet dominates commerce, communication, even eclipses media as it was once known.

Here I am, gamer geek, writing up something on a blog for gamers. Hearing about people interested in virtual worlds, thinking about the universe of community that we’re generating for ourselves, who will become part of the FCC is an amazing step forward.

Now, I’m sure everyone is wondering the same thing.

Is Werbach Horde or Alliance?

I certainly hope he’s Horde!