Can games have educational value?

Chris Crawford, in his book The Art of Computer Game Design says that young animals and children learn by playing.  Watch a lion cub chasing a butterfly; yes he's playing, but he's also deadly serious.

Children, too, learn by playing.  In my own search for a preschool for my daughter, I instantly eliminated any that had "learn through play" or any equivalent as its slogan.  If they really have to state the obvious, then it's probably clear that they mean "play" the way adults think children should play with directed "circle time" and teacher-led songs and stories.  (My daughter is enrolled in an Emmi Pikler school, similar to Montessori in its approach in that an environment is set up in which children choose to do what they want.)

"In light of this, the question "Can games have educational value?" becomes absurd.  It is not games but schools that are the newfangled notion, the untested fad, the violator of tradition." (Crawford, 1982, p16)
Interesting way of flipping the issue, isn't it!