Is instructional video game an oxymoron?

Hundreds of recent video games reward players for shooting villains, vaporizing monsters or solving puzzles. But only one encourages regular and rigorous hand washing.

That game, Stop Fluin' Around, came not from a major developer but from an alliance of several public interest groups, including the Partnership for Food Safety Education. Free on the Internet, the animated interactive game rewards players for answering questions like "Where can the flu hide?" (The answer to that one: on hands that have not been washed.)

Few would find it as compelling as video game best sellers like Grand Theft Auto or the alien-fighting Halo 2. But thrills are not the point. Stop Fluin' Around, which arrived in December, is one of dozens of instructional online games that public interest organizations, advocacy groups and government agencies say have become the best way to reach a generation of children and teenagers weaned on video games and the Web.

Some Web sites, like that of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, have had instructional games since the late 1990's. But according to Kurt D. Squire, an assistant professor of educational communication and technology at the University of Wisconsin, the use of such games is growing exponentially as more organizations see interactive games as a way to capture and hold the attention of people bombarded with numerous competing messages.

"In an era where you can't guarantee people are even watching television commercials, getting someone to interact for 15 or 20 minutes is just huge," Mr. Squire said.

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