What is the role of video games within education?

Video games have become a standardised part of the entertainment industry and there are many people out there that would call them selves ‘gamers’. These ‘gamers’ use video games as a form of entertainment and escapism as an everyday thing but there are such things as video games that aren’t designed solely for their entertainment value. Education has been known to use video games as an education tool but it doesn’t appear to be a widely used or popular thing. The potential for video games to be used along side the regular text book or to even replace them is uncertain. It is not widely known how they are being used now and of what audience they appeal to best. Are computer and video games successful in educating everyone to a standard that is needed or are they used more as support tools? Their will be research into peoples attitudes from an industry and public view as well as seeing how they have changed over time. There are other areas of education other than the schools and university course criteria such as making people aware and educating them on such issues as bullying within schools and how to cope and what to do. The genre of serious video games is another area of video games used as education.