E.g., like Assassins Creed Origins’ museum mode where you could learn about Egypt. Less so things like Hearts of Iron or Crusader Kings.
There’s plenty of educational games aimed at elementary school students, but I’m curious if there are any aimed at older audiences, like the game equivalent of a nonfiction book.
I know everyone has different learning styles, but you actually want the learning to be rote, like a book, despite using an inherently interactive media like a game? I would consider that a flaw, and perhaps even the wrong tool for the job.
If you want a textbook there are lots of textbooks available, lots of videos on youtube that explain topics in depth and in various levels from surface level to tedious detail, what do you even need the game part for? It’s way more work to make something like a game, and what is the game part doing besides getting in the way?
The point of a game is to be fun and allow you to experiment more creatively with different ideas to see how they work in practice so you can learn a thing by doing the thing. It’s a form of hands-on learning, and that’s great.
Something like Kerbal Space Program or Factorio or Cities: Skylines will force you to learn about things like orbital mechanics, telemetry, logic, data organization, observability, and traffic optimization just to proceed meaningfully in the game without ever explicitly telling you that you’re learning. A flight simulator or a farm simulator or a racing simulator or an offroad simulator allows you to experiment with and be challenged with (sometimes in very accurate detail) real issues that the real people in those fields have to deal with and with additional learning materials (again, books, videos) you will be able to learn the same way they do. That’s about as close as games get to being the kind of learning material you seem to be looking for. Maybe you need to be explicitly told what you’re learning, I get it, but if you’re not then allowed to play around with those concepts in real-time, why are you bothering with the game? Games are really not an ideal medium for that kind of education.
If you want book-learning, use a book? Use game-learning for the kind of things gaming is good at.
In seriousness, this came about from visiting a museum and wishing that there was an easy way to revisit it through some sort of 3d simulatio.n And then thinking back on how I enjoyed Carmen Sandiego growing up.
Obviously neither is ideal for learning (focused books are a more effective tool than walking through a museum with a bunch of disparate exhibits), but I wouldn’t discredit the educational impact of the experience. Humans are very visual and tactile creatures.
That being said, I don’t spend my downtime attempting to do things as efficiently as possible. I’m not on a deadline, so there’s no reason for me to pick up a textbook and write essays for the most efficient learning possible. It’s OK to enjoy the experience.
Not games, but you’ve probably heard of the dozens or hundreds of interactive online museums. They got huge during covid proper. They have varying degrees of interactivity, but some are pretty good.
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I know everyone has different learning styles, but you actually want the learning to be rote, like a book, despite using an inherently interactive media like a game? I would consider that a flaw, and perhaps even the wrong tool for the job.
If you want a textbook there are lots of textbooks available, lots of videos on youtube that explain topics in depth and in various levels from surface level to tedious detail, what do you even need the game part for? It’s way more work to make something like a game, and what is the game part doing besides getting in the way?
The point of a game is to be fun and allow you to experiment more creatively with different ideas to see how they work in practice so you can learn a thing by doing the thing. It’s a form of hands-on learning, and that’s great.
Something like Kerbal Space Program or Factorio or Cities: Skylines will force you to learn about things like orbital mechanics, telemetry, logic, data organization, observability, and traffic optimization just to proceed meaningfully in the game without ever explicitly telling you that you’re learning. A flight simulator or a farm simulator or a racing simulator or an offroad simulator allows you to experiment with and be challenged with (sometimes in very accurate detail) real issues that the real people in those fields have to deal with and with additional learning materials (again, books, videos) you will be able to learn the same way they do. That’s about as close as games get to being the kind of learning material you seem to be looking for. Maybe you need to be explicitly told what you’re learning, I get it, but if you’re not then allowed to play around with those concepts in real-time, why are you bothering with the game? Games are really not an ideal medium for that kind of education.
If you want book-learning, use a book? Use game-learning for the kind of things gaming is good at.
well, games are more fun than books 👍
Oh gee, I hadn’t heard of books before.
In seriousness, this came about from visiting a museum and wishing that there was an easy way to revisit it through some sort of 3d simulatio.n And then thinking back on how I enjoyed Carmen Sandiego growing up.
Obviously neither is ideal for learning (focused books are a more effective tool than walking through a museum with a bunch of disparate exhibits), but I wouldn’t discredit the educational impact of the experience. Humans are very visual and tactile creatures.
That being said, I don’t spend my downtime attempting to do things as efficiently as possible. I’m not on a deadline, so there’s no reason for me to pick up a textbook and write essays for the most efficient learning possible. It’s OK to enjoy the experience.
Not games, but you’ve probably heard of the dozens or hundreds of interactive online museums. They got huge during covid proper. They have varying degrees of interactivity, but some are pretty good.
Here is a random site I found with a list.
Proceeds to say there’s only one way to learn.
That’s not what I was saying at all, I was saying that different styles are better suited by certain types of media.