Has the Edutainment Trend Gone Too Far?

I’m not sure if I should be frightened or impressed. Here is a list of websites offering various types of simulations of real life or “educational” games, some of them are quite bizarre:

News Gaming
“Simulation meets political cartoons. We are a team of independent game developers who believe video games are not simply an amusement. Games and simulations can also make us think about what is going on in this world. Periodically, we will use games and simulations to analyze, debate, comment and editorialize major international news.Come and join us. Play with fire.”
www.newsgaming.com/

The Serious Games Initiative
http://www.seriousgames.org/

Unicef Games
(You get to airlift supplies to Guatemala.)
http://www.unicefgames.org/

The Rainforest Foundation
“Help us stop the carve-up of the Congo rainforest!”
http://www.rainforestfoundationuk.org/s-Games
(It didn’t work on my computer.)

Kids, Play With Your Food
"The Fantastic Food Challenge, a package of four computer games, is designed to teach people who get nutrition aid such as federal food stamps how to make better use of their food.”
http://www.wired.com/news/games/0,2101,64593,00.html