Gaming and museum visitors

Here's an interesting post about the future of gaming from Mashable. I've long been interested in the how gaming may affect the visitor experience, both in the ways that games encourage social behaviour and develops a range of skills, as well as inculcating a new generation of kids into paying small amounts for downloadable content (micropayments).

Demos (UK) did a study called Their Space: Education for a digital generation that has a chapter on gaming and Pew Internet also did a report on Teens, video games and civics.

I'm curious to see if anyone has done some work in this area about how the principles behind gaming can be (or have been) used in developing online or physical programs? I found this on Nina's blog: Should museums be happiness engines? which is also a good read.

So, any thoughts?