WASHINGTON, DC--Military, government, healthcare, hard science, and industry: conservative fields that seem to have very little to do with GameSpot's raison d'être. But now, organizations in all these areas are turning more and more to games developed especially for their needs: serious games.

The second annual Serious Games Summit, which began today in Washington DC, provides an opportunity for buyers and developers of these games to meet and greet and to share information about this relatively new segment of the game industry. There were more sessions, speakers, and attendees than at last year's event, indicating that the field seems to be in serious growth mode.

Dr. Peter Perla of the Center for Naval Analyses and Doug Whatley, CEO of serious game developer BreakAway Ltd, presented this morning's keynote address. The two spoke on the nature of serious games, the components of a successful wargame, and the need for a scientific, systematic way to define and design war games.

Tellingly, Whatley included a definition of serious games at the beginning of his presentation: the recognition that these games form a distinct market segment is so recent that the boundaries still aren't clear. In his words, "serious games are not intended primarily for entertainment, but use the techniques of entertainment games to achieve a real-world purpose."

Even more interestingly, Whatley devoted a large part of his time on stage to describing the game development cycle from concept through production and final delivery: information that would be taken for granted at most industry events.

Later in the day, we asked Whatley about his presentation, and he confirmed our guess: Many organizations seeking out a "serious game" to promote their agenda have no connection to the game industry and are "uninformed" about game development. Whatley drafted his presentation in hopes that a basic understanding of the development process would help smooth interactions between serious game buyers and developers.

Inexperienced customers notwithstanding, serious games are big business. Developers are selling serious games at a rapid and increasing rate. Whatley says BreakAway has doubled or tripled its serious games revenue every year for the last four years, while another conference speaker, Peter Hoskins of authoring environment developer Anark, has seen similar results: His company's serious games-related revenue has doubled year on year in each of the last two years.

Conference director Jamil Moledina (who also directs the Game Developers Conference held on the West Coast) has the same positive impression of the market's health as the developers we interviewed.

He described himself as "very pleasantly impressed" by the positive response to this year's conference. In only its second iteration, the conference has attracted 700 attendees, far ahead of last year, and Moledina commented that rather than slowing to a trickle as the conference approached, registrations continued to flow in at a healthy rate right up until the day of the conference. And though military-sponsored games like America's Army tend to have the highest profile, Moledina noted that corporate training is the most commonly named area of interest for attendees at this year's conference.

What's driving the rapid uptake of serious games? Anark's Hoskins suggested a few reasons. Though the concept is still new, enough organizations have adopted serious games that the "pioneer era" is over, and the way is open for "settlers," companies that wait for techniques and technology to demonstrate their merits before jumping in.

Moreover, as Hoskins explained, conservative organizations like corporations and government bodies are finally "starting to see game technology as a validation, rather than a negative." They realize that game technology is both cutting edge and stable: Code that has proven itself in heavy use by millions of gamers is more than robust enough for a corporate environment.

The problems that Anark's customers have solved using their tools make it clear that beyond offering high performance, serious games are also extremely cost-effective solutions to complex problems. Describing an airline maintenance simulator based on their technology, they note that providing a sample engine for a mechanic to practice repairs on is cost-prohibitive.

Even a simple repair like fixing the in-flight entertainment system, if not carried out quickly and correctly, can ground an aircraft, resulting in an opportunity cost of $100,000 or more per day. But if he has access to a simulator that one customer has built using Anark's software, a mechanic can practice a given repair a dozen times before the plane to be repaired arrives at his hangar. By then, the mechanic is prepared to send it on its way with a minimum of downtime, resulting in, well, "serious" savings over the life of the plane.