Playboy magazine highlights Georgia Tech prof

By Laura Diamond

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Playboy magazine named a gaming professor at Georgia Tech to its list of the 20 most innovative college professors in the nation.

Ian Bogost, an associate professor, is a video game designer, critic and researcher. He's also co-founder of Persuasive Games, which focuses on social and political issues such as airport security, flu epidemics and tort reform.

Bogost was highlighted as an "indie gamer" for his work in video game technology and production.

The magazine described his work in this way:  "The deep thinker within a supposedly childish realm -- video games -- Bogost refuses to view his medium as mindless entertainment. And so his games -- e.g., Killer Flu ('a game about how seasonal flus mutate and spread') -- play more like wry documentaries than Grand Theft Auto."