Interesting point in "Towards Augmented Reality Gaming" about the use of games in HCI. This called xploring New concepts through games:

Computer gaming provides a unique prototyping arena for human-computer interactions. Due to the entertaining nature of the gaming interactions, users are willing to explore innovative metaphors, modalities, and hardware even when they are not as apparent or fluid as the designer might have hoped. In addition, there is a certain universality of a sense of play that entices users who would not be interested in testing prototype systems normally. In fact, sometimes researchers have to limit access to their new systems for fear of premature release.

Another advantage is that game play can be designed to hide limitations in the current implementation of a system while exploring its potential. In the past, entertainment platforms have been used for explorations in computer supported collaborative work (CSCW) [Evard93], artificial intelligence [Agre87], agents [Foner97], on-line communities and education [Bruckman97], perception [Wren95,Wren99], and synthetic character development [Johnson99,Kline99], to name a few. Currently, computer gaming provides an excellent framework for working in wearable computing and augmented reality. In the constructs of a game, CSCW, HCI, graphics, autonomous agents, mobile sensing and pattern recognition, wireless networking, and distributed databases can be explored in a community of wearable computer users. As infrastructure needs are determined and the infrastructure improved, new metaphors and uses can be introduced. With time, these improvements can be directed towards development of longer term, everyday-use wearable computing.

Agre, P. & Chapman, D. "Pengi: An implementation of a theory of activity." In Proceedings of the Sixth National Conference on Artificial Intelligence (pp. 268--272), 1987

Bruckman. A. "MOOSE Crossing: Construction, Community, and Learning in a Networked Virtual World for Kids." PhD Dissertation, MIT Media Lab, May 1997. Evard R. "Collaborative Networked Communication: MUDs as Systems Tools," Proceedings of the Seventh Systems Administration Conference (LISA VII), USENIX Monterey CA, November 1993.

Foner. "Entertaining Agents: A Sociological Case Study." The Proceedings of the First International Conference on Autonomous Agents, 1997.

M.P. Johnson, A. Wilson, B. Blumberg, C. Kline, and A. Bobick. "Sympathethic Interfaces: Using a Plush Toy to Direct Synthetic Characters." In Proceedings of CHI 99.

C. Kline and B. Blumberg. "The Art and Science of Synthetic Character Design." Proceedings of the AISB Symposium on AI and Creativity in Entertainment and Visual Art, Edinburgh, Scotland, 1999.

C. Wren, F. Sparacino, A. Azarbayejani, T. Darrell, T. Starner, A. Kotani, C. Chao, M. Hlavac, K. Russell, A. Pentland. "Perceptive Spaces for Performance and Entertainment: Untethered Interaction Using Computer Vision and Audition", Applied Artificial Intelligence Journal, 1995

C. Wren. "Understanding Expressing Action." Perceptual Computing Technical Report #498. 1999.