Games for Learning

There is a misconception that games can not teach us anything if not directly educational. A notion I would like to rebuke as it generates nothing but bland and ham fisted games that force information down kids troughs. Games are art, and like any piece of art there was an intention and message trying to be brought across to the audience. Bellow I've gathered several of my favorite games that may not be tagged as educational, but are telling stories that can be used to make a learned subject far more engaging or interesting.

Papers Please (History and Deduction)

Set in Aristoska, a finical Soviet Union at the height of its power. Players fill the role of a check point officer tasked with reviewing passport information for immigrating refugees. Though this, players not only see the soulless wheels of soviet bureaucracy in action as human beings are reduced to numbers and pay deductions. They all see firsthand the pressures of a totalitarian society and the utter ruthlessness the state enforces onto its citizens and anyone entering the country.

Return of the Obra Din (English and Deduction with a little history)

Return of the Obra Din is a mystery set in 1800 England when a cargo ship, the Obra Din, washes back into English waters after two years lost at sea. The player is sent as an insurance broker charged with uncovering the status of the crew in order to file the correct payments. Armed with only a leger and a strange pocket watch that allows them to view the moment before someone died; the player begins to unravel what happened to the crew of the Obra Din. In which players will have to rely on their own deductive abilities to solve puzzles and identify all 40+ members of the Obra Din, how they died and what killed them. On top of that the game is an engaging mystery beginning to end, employing masterful world building and drip-feeding players information. A marvel for anyone who enjoys a good mystery or a well-constructed piece of fiction.

Tetris Effect (Music)

Tetris Effect is a deceptively simple yet imaginative game. The team behind it basically just took Tetris and tied it to several backing tracks and VFX’s. So as someone plays and does better the music becomes more dynamic and the visuals become more bombastic. And the selection isn’t just the typical swath of well-known styles. It has everything from techno and jazz to tribal drums and chanting. A great way to introduce or begin a conversation about world music or how music can be used in junction with other media to create something far greater then the sum of its parts.

Kerbal Space Program (Science, manly Aeronautics)

This delightfully morbid game has the player take the role of chief engineer among the Kebals, a race of small green men who have just entered the space fairing age of their evolution. The player is tasked with designing and launching rockets that will first take them to the outer orbits of their planet, to beyond the furthest stars. Now that’s all well and dandy but the lynch pin in the game is that all the rockets launched react like real rockets. They need to be aerodynamic, have enough fuel for launch, be able to survive reentry, be light enough to take off and above all, prevent horrible face melting death to the adorable little kerbals who willingly risk there lives in these death traps even after forty of the past missions have all been colossal failures.

The Assassin’s Creed Series (History) [especially Origins, Odyssey and Unity]

Up front, the ones I’m recommending are my least favorite Assassin’s creed games. There bloated with micropayments and have effectively ripped stealth out of the game by layering in RPG mechanics that take away from the core experience of Assassins Creed, IE, sneaking around and stabbing Fascists. However, that said these games are basically interactive museums, Origins in particular as Ubisoft has released DLC for the game that turns the game map into a guided tour of Ancient Egypt. So I am recommending these three not for their outstanding quality as games like other examples on this list, I am pointing them out as an interactive alternative to reading. It also may give someone a rare opportunity to see some of these land marks, Ubisoft goes to painstaking lengths to portray land marks in Assassins Creed. In fact they did such a good job with Notre Dame in Unity that the French government used that model as a reference when rebuilding after the fire. So if anything I recommend these less as games and more as tools for helping history come alive.

Civilization (Economics, city planning, how resources make or break empires)

Off the bat, if you do decide to use Civilization as a tool to help your children learn about the inner workings of empire and the steps we take to get there, play as a unit. All versions of Civ have multiplayer and allows you to adjust the skill level of AI opponents. Its also a lot more fun losing to someone in the room then online or someone who doesn’t even exist. That aside, the Civilization series is a long-standing strategy series where in players compete to be the best empire in the world. Taking the rains of history’s great empires and leaders from Hiawatha and the Iroquois Confederacy to Queen Elizabeth and the English Empire. To win players must gather resources, expand their territory and make nice (or conquer) with surrounding cities in order to win. All while managing the goings on in the city, how much food is being produced to how heavy are taxes, to the support of the populace.

Where the Water Tastes Like Whine (Music, English, History)

A wonderful little gem that may not have the most complex gameplay system but has one interesting premise. Set in 1920 America the player takes control over a vagabond wondering the land looking for and telling stories. All across America he finds strange people and stranger stories, retelling them as he goes. The whole game is a wonderful simulation on how folk lore starts, cause as your true stories travel they grow more and more embellished and farther from the truth. Its also an examination on stories, what our story and the stories we tell says about ourselves. And there are plenty of wonderful (and ok) stories scattered around America. My favorite comes from a black preacher in the south who wonders around preaching to whoever will listen. And the story he tells is about his faith, about how its helped him though so much in his life but at the same time he questions it. Like when he has to comfort the parents of a decided ten year old boy and somehow explain to them how an all knowing all loving God took there child from them.

If that wasn’t enough then the music in this game is also phenomenal[w1] , changing as you wander across the country going from folksy to blues to Latin as you cross state to state. It can be jarring at times, but it also is a treasure trove of music that has build that foundations of modern music so it’s a fun way to introduce and talk about it.

[w1]