The main problem is that, while fascinating to some, the real world just plain isn't as interesting as an intrepid fantasyscape. If one could manage to engender the same "sensawunda" as speculative worlds do, without stretching fact, it would be quite the accomplishment.
Need a tall, brawny fella to come by and inspect your pickle? Perhaps I may be this fella.I think there's a lot of potential in this idea. What educators need to understand, though, is that games have to be allowed to construct fantasy to teach the topic. For instance, Full Metal Alchemist is an excellent framing device for teaching chemistry, even if you have to correct a few things.
Such educational games could be just as varied, artistic and far-reaching as standard entertainment games. An educational game about poaching could put one in the shoes of a poacher as a FPS game — even if it was a ROBOT POACHER from SPACE EARTH. Having some fantasy in there isn't going to reduce the product's educational value as long as the product draws clear attention to its central themes and point.
A game like Monster Hunter, with some changes, could be used to study the general shape of an ecosystem on a simple level. What better way to introduce kids to an ecosystem than to force them to use it to effectively hunt monsters?
The tricky issue here, though, is propaganda. Education and propaganda are twins, so as educational games become more powerful and well-developed, so too will propaganda games.
edited 3rd Mar '12 3:11:32 PM by MadassAlex
Swordsman Troper — Reclaiming The Blade — WatchDuring college, I and some friends had been playing with the idea of a RPG in which spellcasting required solving certain kinds of mathematical problems.
Any branch of mathematics would have been related to a school of magic, spell level would have been connected to problem difficulty, and spell power would have been connected to the time taken to arrive at the correct solution.
We never really worked out the details, but I think that the idea had merit.
edited 3rd Mar '12 3:38:22 PM by Carciofus
But they seem to know where they are going, the ones who walk away from Omelas.Heh, Carcio - I've seen fan material for Planescape. New critters, to be exact, from the plane of Mechanus. Mathematical concepts made flesh. Functions, sets, groups. Picture that: having to run away from an angry differentiation operator.
Oh god, I'd kill myself at the first sight of one. Math already seems to have a malevolent presence in this world and a desire to see me suffer. To see it given flesh?
Oh god. Oh gog.
Although that idea does sound pretty nifty and reasonably marketable.
I also think that things like the Total War series could be an excellent way to impart some knowledge of history in lots of folks, albeit all of the military sort.
Still, I think that at this point, it makes the most sense to work this sort of stuff into the idea of a video game the same way you would a novel. It can be central to the theme and play a part in mechanics, but it needs to be part of a whole, not the central focus.
Charlie Tunoku is a lover and a fighter.Pandemic (here I link to its improved sequel
), in which you are a mad scientist attempting to design a super-illness that kills everyone.
As with the example of Total War, a decently made game's going to teach some about, say, history.
Another example for Carcio: there's been a system, that a joke was that to play it you had to know calculus.
Age of Empires/Mythology, Total War, World War II shooters, etc., have all, at some stage, had me go off to read some actual information on things in the games, although it winds up being useless knowledge, anyway, and I don't really need games to motivate me to learn the useful things since I do that of my own volition.
Conspiracy Code
A full American history class in the form of a video game. Can't vouch for quality, but an interesting idea. Also, it's available in Florida.
SUCK IT
Go play Kentucky Route Zero. Now.All immediately hide themselves under the tables, only the exponential sits calmly on the chair.
The derivation comes in, sees a function and says "Hey, you don't fear me?"
"No, I am e to the x", says the exponential self-confidently.
"Well" replies the derivation "but who says I differentiate along x?"
Technically, Rithmomachy
is a board game which teaches about number theory and various kind of progressions. But I've never played it, and I know of no one who does...

I just had an interesting idea. Nerds know a lot about Dungeons and Dragons and LOTR, and any other half decent worldbuilt sci-fi fantasy series. They don't even have to study the "facts" they just know them, because it's fun.
Why aren't education games styled after such things made for teenagers/adults (by adults I mean college students)? Why is learning only allowed to be fun for preschoolers? People are learning off video games all the time, they're just learning useless crap. What if a video game were based off the real world and filled with real world facts? If it is well made and informative, I bet tons of students would put money out for them.