I wish it were this easy to walk into a shop and buy a house.

After living in the same cramped studio apartment next to the Chicago River for the past four years, I'm moving out and up by scoping out some new apartments. Having used an apartment search company to find my current cubicle, and living in friends apartments before that one, I've realized I really don't know squat about finding apartments. While nursing my wounds, physical and mental, after a long day of apartment scouring it struck me - why aren't there more life training games? Sure, we have games like Animal Crossing (general environmental care, home improvement, mortgage and financial management), The Sims (quality of life/time manager) and of course your dating simulation games, but these games don't often address the standard pitfalls of everyday life obstacles, obstacles such as getting a new apartment.

Why is that? Animal Crossing and The Sims have proven that people are willing to accept, even embrace that style of gameplay, attention to nuance and mundane goals. Of course, the prospect of playing a game that solely is about apartment hunting sounds absolutely boring but then again so does a game about pulling weeds and digging up fossils. And just like film, television or the simple printed page, games can be used to educate and inform - in fact, video games are arguably better at prepping a citizen for life outside of the safety net of family than anything else but actual life experience. Video games are all about trial and error in a simulated environment - goals & obstacles, making decisions at the drop of a hat and adapting to failure extremely quickly to advance to the next goal. Not to mention recent games such as Knights of the Old Republic which blends ethical quandaries with your standard RPG combat, and upcoming games like Fable promise to take social interaction and interactive morality in a new and intense direction. And let's not forget all the of the army sims out there.

Learning how to work at a curry house is all fine and good, but how about something that isn't just blue collar (or the equivalent thereof)?

Of course, Apartment Hunting 2004 and Employment! wouldn't have the engaging combat of say, Full Spectrum Warrior, but if Harvest Moon can be a riveting and engrossing experience, then I'm sure someone can infuse these games with vibrant gameplay. First and foremost though, these types of games should emphasize learning and self-improvement; you should be able to walk away with some lessons learned and some new mental tools to assist you when you have to go out into the sunny real world. Armed with a handful of AH2004 hours under my belt, my confidence in attaining a quality apartment should increase with my freshly gained knowledge that I should bring cash to shell out for 'apartment application fees' (or as the layman would say, pay for credit checks). These games shouldn't be forty hour epics (unless of course, the gamer wants to continue playing, as their character gets older and the world around them grows) and it shouldn't cost $50 either. Think of them as engaging study tools aimed at burgeoning adults, ones that haven't been around the block too many times (or have any refuse to learn anything from their experiences).

So how about it developers? Let's herald in a new subgenre of (dare I say it?) educational games, games for life, games that we as gamers can actually learn new skills other than increasing thumb dexterity. And all you readers out there, let's hear your ideas for games that you think could actually enrich your lives in a meaningful way!