As a games student, I can tell you that there's really no structured critical discussion around games in an academic sense. Not even in terms of critiquing games as playable. The one class where we sat down and analyzed games was run by a guy who wasn't even really part of our department, though we did build a few critical tools here and there.
Of course gaming can spur learning, intentionally or no. I still remember my third grade class, sitting and learning the Oregon Trail, the Incredible Machine, at home I had Reader Rabbit, the Humongous Entertainment games, and eventually more "gamey" games on the N64. Every one of these contributed to my growth as a person just as reading and watching movies did. They are part of culture and should be treated as such.
The problem with gaming academia is that everybody wants to be "groundbreaking" and begin ignoring aspects of games which actually make them enjoyable. I'm sure some folk genuinely are just looking for better narrative threads in games, but they assume too much and drown themselves out in negativity. These people don't talk about their experiences playing games because they've been told to be ashamed of it. They will not examine the actual cultural history of the medium because it will prove them just how little they actually understand.
Academia doesn't like games because academia is still largely run by old fogies who grew up being told by the media that games were bad and a waste of time. Those that want to make games a subject are mainly doing it for attention, not out of love. There are some great examinations out there, don't get me wrong. I've read quite a few good articles on Game Studies that really bolster my hope that we're starting to strip away the crap which surrounds some of the flimsier "academics".
Even those people though, even great people like Frank Cifaldi, are willing to believe what they're told by the anti-gamers because they'd prefer there to be a problem which they can "solve". They don't want to examine the depths and complexities of the media's horseshit, they'd rather there be a "minority of gamers" which are "misogynistic" that they can "eliminate" to "create a safe space". The heads of my department buy into this crap and it's sickening. I feel that gaming academia has a long way to go before it can even remotely call itself "respectable", and I sure as hell am not talking about the gamers when I say that.