Educational Games

[hezeuschrist]

I don't know about you, but if it were possible to learn something from the games I play (read: games that aren't shitty), I think that would be wonderful. I'm not talking about math blaster and abc games, but stuff that could be helpful in life. I think it would be most easily accomplished with RPG's, for a myriad of subjects.

Let's say you want to learn to speak Japanese... well, picking up a book or taking a class will help, but it won't help much. Imagine if there were a game where you had to actually learn the language (basics, and advanced stuff if so desired) to be able to progress. I think it's possible, and while I have no kind of ambition to submit the idea to any company, it'd be killer to actually pick some stuff up while enjoying my games.

[SoulBlazer]

Well, I think Carmen Sandeigo games can teach you stuff about geography, problem solving skills, critical thinking, making educated guesses, and patience -- things we ALL need in our daily lives. :)

And Oregon Trail got me interested in reading books about that.

I also recall playing Agent USA, which was another fun PC game that helped me to learn cities and what not.

And in my 9th grade History class we played a group game where we broke into teams and played a superpower, taking turns and trying to manage our country and prevent nuclear war from breaking out.

Now that I'm thinking about this, other examples come to mind.....a history teacher could use a Civ game, or a SimCity game could be used in a class, or what about Capitalism II for a business course?

I can recall that one class DID use a PC game -- which name escapes me -- on running a central American country. I saw the slyabus on the web. LOL

It was early NES games like Gengeis Khan and Nobuanaga's Ambition that got me interested in Asian History. Really, games like that and Civ got me started to what would eventuly be a American History MA for me.

Finally, I also recall a Apple II game where you played a agent shrunk into a body and you had to go around to various parts and complete various tasks, and you learned about the body as well.

Educational games, in short, CAN be fun. The trick is, however, to present that education without the person even being aware of it. ;)

[Quintracker]

All of the Romance of the Three Kingdom games (especially #3 on snes) got me interested in that time period. It even got me to get the audiobook of Sun Tzu's Art of War :)

[§ Gideon §]

hezeuschrist: How long have you had this idea in your head? It's a very interesting concept; almost as interesting is the fact that it's never been done. I'm noting this day, so that I can smile when the first game like this comes out. Seriously.

... But, would a company be willing to take such a risk?

[hezeuschrist]

I don't think it's really feasable. I mean obviously it wouldn't be possible to become remotely fluent through such a method, but there could be titles (like .hack and Xenosaga) that have hundreds of hours to offer and would all require an exceedingly advanced knowledge of whatever the game revolves around. Enough to get you by with a handbook in whatever country you've been studying. They could even put customs, slang, and other nuances about the culture in there for good measure.

But, such a task would require massive amounts of time to be both educational while not straying from the qualitys of a great game.

[§ Gideon §]

True, but I would argue that it's feasible--just not practical. You mentioned learning a language, though. That could be an easy tie-in with an RPG. The game system would have to be relatively complex in order to assure the player is learning, and the learning curve would have to be tuned perfectly.

Hassles aside, I just like thinking of the possibility of such a game... It would be nice, eh?

[calthaer]

I routinely learned a bunch of German by playing the German versions of Thief and Starcraft. Of course, I was also taking language classes at the same time (I don't think there's any way around that). But the games helped.

[§ Gideon §]

That's cool. I learned the Runic alphabet for Ultima VI. I was young...