I agree that's the ultimate goal, but I think if opening a REPL is sitting at the grown-up's table, then this is a booster seat. Having a game like this helps

I agree that's the ultimate goal, but I think if opening a REPL is sitting at the grown-up's table, then this is a booster seat. Having a game like this helps things get moving in a non-intimidating way or at least seems better than searching for analogies or sketching out pseudo-code. And after the game you can say, "Remember that for each card? Well here's what that looks like in real life..." and have it relate better (perhaps). At least I now have a phrase for updating code written by several people who apparently didn't talk to each other: coding on monkey island.