I met James Portnow (Divide by Zero) at GDC Austin in 2008, and since then we exchanged a few emails and met a couple of times in different conferences (Meaningful Play 2008, GDC Austin 2009). James is proponent of the concept of "Tangencial Learning" or "Collateral Learning" as applied to video games, an idea that aims to better leverage their educational potentials. I found this concept to have some similarities with the developmental proposal of the "Trojan Horse Approach" in regards to the use of indirect and skilfull means to promote more meaningful learning and experiences.

In an article at the website Gamasutra, James Portnow started a very interesting discussion about the "Universal Game, the game aimed at everyone". In my view, he most interesting aspect about this article is how it taps into fundamental aspects of player-customization explored in my academic research, and the challenges to create an "Universal Game" that could work on "multiple levels" - as he points - having great universal appeal to both children and adults as acclaimed popular movies such as Wall-e.

A friend of mine directed me to this very interesting (and unconventional) article written by Borut Pfeiffer, where we discusses about the subject of meaningful games and use of "subversive" startegies in video games. In my view, his ideas present a few points of resonance with some of the concepts proposed in my Trojan Horse Approach to video games, which is one of the core fundamentals of the INDENTRO framework.

Follow below Borut Pfeiffer's article, extracted from http://www.plushapocalypse.com/borut/?p=98

The Plush Apocalypse
Meaningful games must change the world

This question has bothered me for a long time. Since my first brush with real genre criticism (going to GA Tech before the take off of the LCC school my unfortunately minimal humanities requirements were nonetheless wonderfully met by classes like “Movie Genres” and “History of Science Fiction”), I’ve looked for subversive elements in games much like the elements in subversive genres like science fiction.