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It's really hard to make good games without your primary purpose being that they're fun. When you make a game and it's main purpose is educational, it won't be

It's really hard to make good games without your primary purpose being that they're fun. When you make a game and it's main purpose is educational, it won't be fun and nobody will want to play it.

stormbeard 6y ago
What about something like Kerbal Space Program? Orbital mechanics can get pretty dry, but a game like that can allow us to “play” with concepts and build intuition that we would otherwise have to do problem sets ad nauseum.
- polishdude20 6y ago
  Ah yes that is a good one. Maybe it's just rare to make a good game that's also educational. Then again KSP is more fun than educational I think. Or at least, rocket space flight stuff is already such a fun topic to learn about.
tannerbrockwell 6y ago
This is not about making a game out of education. It is about taking the multi-user, remote / virtual interface and using that infrastructure to support the online delivery of content. If Harvard bought a game company they would have that infrastructure. It is possible to build it, of course. The problem I see with that method is you risk confusing the goal by focusing on the educational aspect too early on. What a persisting educational enterprise needs is scalability / and sustainability. Take for instance Call of Duty Mobile, it is fairly easy with a little dedication to achieve LEGENDARY status in the Battle Royale mode each season. Such an effort requires focus, skill and dedication. What if Harvard had a mode beyond Legendary, where you had to train / skill-up in actual real world knowledge? Then as you achieved those rankings, you would get bonus / rewards. I could envision a Chemistry track that took you through enough basics that you could solve in game problems. The same for Physics, Electronics and of course the easiest since it is already virtual, Computer Science / Programming. The infrastructure is the hardest part. Adding the educational tracks is easy as it can evolve overtime.

It's really hard to make good games without your primary purpose being that they're fun. When you make a game and it's main purpose is educational, it won't be fun and nobody will want to play it.

stormbeard 6y ago

What about something like Kerbal Space Program? Orbital mechanics can get pretty dry, but a game like that can allow us to “play” with concepts and build intuition that we would otherwise have to do problem sets ad nauseum.

polishdude20 6y ago
Ah yes that is a good one. Maybe it's just rare to make a good game that's also educational. Then again KSP is more fun than educational I think. Or at least, rocket space flight stuff is already such a fun topic to learn about.

tannerbrockwell 6y ago

This is not about making a game out of education. It is about taking the multi-user, remote / virtual interface and using that infrastructure to support the online delivery of content. If Harvard bought a game company they would have that infrastructure. It is possible to build it, of course. The problem I see with that method is you risk confusing the goal by focusing on the educational aspect too early on. What a persisting educational enterprise needs is scalability / and sustainability. Take for instance Call of Duty Mobile, it is fairly easy with a little dedication to achieve LEGENDARY status in the Battle Royale mode each season. Such an effort requires focus, skill and dedication. What if Harvard had a mode beyond Legendary, where you had to train / skill-up in actual real world knowledge? Then as you achieved those rankings, you would get bonus / rewards. I could envision a Chemistry track that took you through enough basics that you could solve in game problems. The same for Physics, Electronics and of course the easiest since it is already virtual, Computer Science / Programming. The infrastructure is the hardest part. Adding the educational tracks is easy as it can evolve overtime.