IBM Turns to Gaming as Education

There has been talk for many years about how gaming or game theory can have positive impacts on brands, marketing and even learning and retention. Marketers have been quick to apply traditional marketing approaches to the gaming world — product placement, in-game advertising and so on. Educationalists on the other hand have applied gaming snippets to their curriculums — especially as more and more learning moves online — finding benefits in terms of awareness, retention and knowledge transfer. But IBM is taking this a step further … using the closed-world of gaming to create an immersive learning experience that effectively crushes the distinctions between the IBM brand, the service/solutions that they offer and the learning/certification options available.

This game which will provide simulated learning (based on IBM’s new services oriented architecture (SOA) and business process management (BPM) solutions) is still in beta testing with universities and business partners but it will be interesting to see how it plays out.