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I grew up playing a lot of educational games. Some of them were great, others not so much. My favorite by far though, was The Logical Journey of the Zoombinis [

by Wilduck 15y ago

I grew up playing a lot of educational games. Some of them were great, others not so much. My favorite by far though, was The Logical Journey of the Zoombinis [1]. It was fun, and it wasn't forceful in trying to "teach" things, but it did force me to think logically and consistently, and did a good job of ramping up the difficulty at appropriate times. On the other hand, you have games like Jump Start Second Grade [2], which are incredibly forceful in trying to "teach". I can't remember learning anything from them. I think the big difference between these games was that in one case, there is a finite set of actions that one can perform and all that the player learns is the result of one of those actions (jump start second grade). In the other case, there is a much larger set of actions, where there is not one right answer, but instead lots of correct actions, which are correct because they follow consistent and rigorously defined criteria (The logical journey of the zoombinis). This may just be a personality trait for me, but I still have this preference. It's why I prefer Minecraft to Final Fantasy. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logical_Journey_Of_The_Zoombinis http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logical_Journey_Of_The_Zoombini... [2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JumpStart_2nd_Grade http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JumpStart_2nd_Grade

_delirium 15y ago
I agree on that explanation; I feel I learned a lot from educational games that had a more simulation/exploration flavor. We played some oil-prospecting game in elementary school that was pretty informative (I doubt I otherwise would've learned in school how searching and drilling for oil works). I also learned most of what I know about bridge engineering from the game Bridge Builder, though it was an indie game not explicitly targeted as "educational". There is some vague background knowledge you can also learn just be making a game fun against a backdrop that kids can pull in via osmosis. There are miscellaneous things I know about the American west's geography mainly due to Oregon Trail, for example.
- TeMPOraL 15y ago
  > There is some vague background knowledge you can also learn just be making a game fun against a backdrop that kids can pull in via osmosis. I think this concept is heavily underexplored and I'd be happy to see more of this kind of games. I also wonder if anyone tried to embed some learning into gameplay in a more goal-oriented way. I personally had some ideas about what would be an arcade/logical platform game with physics oriented gameplay. The game might ask you to e.g. solve an equation to succeed or reach the goal faster (like, find a right angle for cannon to fire at, so that it knocks down a bonus thing you need, opens a door, etc.). Maybe not force you to do it, just hint towards it while allowing for a more direct solutions - creating an environment in which using maths can help player achieve better in-game results. Real game results, not silly 'multiply this-and-that to get 1000 points'. Game first, education second. I wonder if anyone ever tried that.

by Wilduck 15y ago

_delirium 15y ago

I agree on that explanation; I feel I learned a lot from educational games that had a more simulation/exploration flavor. We played some oil-prospecting game in elementary school that was pretty informative (I doubt I otherwise would've learned in school how searching and drilling for oil works). I also learned most of what I know about bridge engineering from the game Bridge Builder, though it was an indie game not explicitly targeted as "educational". There is some vague background knowledge you can also learn just be making a game fun against a backdrop that kids can pull in via osmosis. There are miscellaneous things I know about the American west's geography mainly due to Oregon Trail, for example.

TeMPOraL 15y ago
> There is some vague background knowledge you can also learn just be making a game fun against a backdrop that kids can pull in via osmosis. I think this concept is heavily underexplored and I'd be happy to see more of this kind of games. I also wonder if anyone tried to embed some learning into gameplay in a more goal-oriented way. I personally had some ideas about what would be an arcade/logical platform game with physics oriented gameplay. The game might ask you to e.g. solve an equation to succeed or reach the goal faster (like, find a right angle for cannon to fire at, so that it knocks down a bonus thing you need, opens a door, etc.). Maybe not force you to do it, just hint towards it while allowing for a more direct solutions - creating an environment in which using maths can help player achieve better in-game results. Real game results, not silly 'multiply this-and-that to get 1000 points'. Game first, education second. I wonder if anyone ever tried that.