What took them so long?

I’ve long thought that the most obvious "educational" game would be a massively multiplayer online game for language learning–since so much of playing is just being able to communicate. There have been anecdotal reports of players learning English from playing games, but now a game designed to do just that:

Wiz World Online, developed by 8D World, a start-up based in Shanghai, China, and Woburn, Mass., was built by Rick Goodman, who developed the popular games Age of Empires and Empire Earth. In his latest virtual world, instead of re-enacting historical battles, Chinese children can learn English.

But here’s what makes this really interesting. According to the article:

Venture capitalists and entrepreneurs are increasingly interested in Web companies that have to do with education, an area they say has not yet been transformed by the Internet.

“The fundamental education business models are coming down,” said Alex Finkelstein, a general partner at Spark Capital, which led a $7 million venture capital round for 8D World.

Only a few years ago, he said, people did not think education was suited to the Web, but companies like Rosetta Stone, a language learning Web company that went public this year, has proven them wrong. “Those are educational products that not only teach people, but are becoming very very big, profitable companies,” he said.