"Educational" games

[blank0000]

Every so often when I'm walking by some store or watching TV, I'll run into an add featuring a supposed "educational" video game. Though their seems to be a multitude of them at this point, the same message seems to apply for all of them.

-Our games our good
-kids like vg's.
-your kid will like ours
-normal vg's are terrible, mind rotting, fragments of the devil, designed to corrupt your child and brainwash.
-our vg's are god like in everyway, hand crafted by the leading scientists to teach your child how to read, write and inevitably become a well rounded member of society.

What follows is a short montage of these "games" usually consisting of familiar cartoon characters, and the alphabet. After seeing a decent amount of these adds, I've began to wonder if said games aren?t more harmful to children, or at least less stimulating, then an actual "mainstream" game.

Don?t get me wrong, the idea alone of using games to teach younger kids is admirable. However, each one I've seen looks like it was made with a design teams that seem less interested in creating an educational experience, and more interested in swindling stressed parents. (the irony is overwhelming)

With such underwhelming content, wouldn?t it be better for a child to just play a real game? Wouldn?t something like Okami or even Katamari be better for helping a child develop thinking or problem solving skills, not to mention add a twist or two to their imagination. This community will probably give me a one sided response, but honestly, I?d like to know how others feel about education and its place in the game industry.

 

[jim_doki]

The thinking behind an educational game is that here is a medium we can use to teach our children while they do something they like. It's the same with VHS and DVD edu programs. They don't hate "real" games, they're just different. Remember Mario is Missing? Freddie the Fish? Putt Putt? All really good games (for kids) with educational content.

 

[jezz8me]

I really liked games like Age Of Empires 2 as a child and it taught me heaps about Medieval history. God of war, if it wasn't so violent, could be a good way to teach mythology to children as well.

Point and clicks have some form of educational value most of the time. I think i learned about the weather from Pyjama Sam: Thunder And Lightening Aren't so Frightening as a child.

I agree with Jim that we can have awesome games that teach kids something. We need more of those Pyjama Sam, Spy Fox, Freddie The Fish, Putt Putt style games. They were the best thing in children's entertainment since Play School.

 

[jezz8me]

Gizmo's and Gadgets was a great one that educates about how things work. There was also a lab game from Siera i cannot remember the name of

 

[ZenMonkey47]

The best educational games are the ones that don't set out to be educational.

Sengoku and Sangoku Muso (Samurai and Dynasty Warriors) taught me a great deal about Japan's warring states period (occasionally I'll even surprise Japanese people with their own history, which is great because I live pretty close to one of the major battle sites) and the Three Kingdoms period of China (Which after I learned the Japanese names for the Chinese generals gave me a great "in" with some of my Japanese co-workers)

Now if only they made a Muso about the American Revolution...

 

[Easykill]

I for one played a series of good educational video games that had math and puzzles based on your age and grade level. I can't remember the name, but it really was entertaining, and it taught me a lot. No Disney characters or anything like that. I wouldn't mind playing it now if they made the puzzles a bit harder.

 

[Kogarian]

I really liked games like Age Of Empires 2 as a child and it taught me heaps about Medieval history.

Too true. It taught me economic basics and gave me a historical knowledge that helps me even to this day.

 

[defcon 1]

I would love to see more games that aren't only educational, but fun. I believe a lot of kids don't learn well because they simply don't care enough to hold attention. I watched School House Rock when I was younger and the songs were catchy enough for me to watch again and remember.

There are also games like Civ. I don't think it's a good way to study for a social studies test but they're on the right track with establishing social and economic concepts.

I would like the idea but prefer it being a lower priority in the industry's focus. I like my mind-rotting goodness

 

[stompy]

I always have, and always will, hate those educational games. I feel that they don't teach any better than a parent sitting down with a child, and through, say, novels and such, teach the child. I am aware of this thread [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/9.56392], which shows a parent teaching their child through video games, but my understanding is that the parent created a game with their child, not played an 'educational' game, as described in this thread. Maybe I'm somewhat of an elitist prick, but I just don't like them.

But I am all for children playing video games suitable for them. Just hate the 'We're not really video games, which are bad. We're here to help your kids'.

/rant

 

[propertyofcobra]

Put me in the camp of people who learned about medieval history through Age of Empires 2: Age of Kings. GREAT game, that one. Any game that has you follow Jean of Arc to her bloody death HAS to be great. Add extreme amounts of historical information and voila!

I hate 'educational' games. As others say, they're mind-rotting stupid bits of sucky development meant to suck cash from parents who don't know better.
I love games that genuinely teach you information, such as Age of Empires.

Any other series of games like that? (Please, nothing on WW2. There is no WW2 game that really shows how it was. When was the last time a WW2 game even MENTIONED the holocaust, in PASSING?)

 

[Cougers]

Is 'The Sims' educational?
Another thing is the new 'GTA IV' game is bringing 'Global Warming' into the gaming scene, seeing with it's advertisment on 'Gas fueled emission' vehicles to prevent Global Warming, I like the idea on that!

 

[irrelevantnugget]

I really liked games like Age Of Empires 2 as a child and it taught me heaps about Medieval history.

Too true. It taught me economic basics and gave me a historical knowledge that helps me even to this day.

Same 'ere. People thought I knew everything in school. If the teacher asked a question and nobody knew it, they all looked at me. And I actually happened to know it, most of the time -.-

 

[Anton P. Nym]

SimCity taught me that I should never be an urban planner... but it did give me some idea of how urban economies work.

Digging into backstory stuff for games that borrow heavily from real-world mythologies also started some mental gears grinding. Halo's the one I've dug the deepest into, but I suspect that God of War would be even better suited at getting people interested in the myths of ancient Greece; I also suspect that Grim Fandango would probably act as a good launching point for digging into the myths surrounding Central American traditional beliefs. (And did Prey go into Navajo legends at all?)

Living not far from the site of the Battle of the Thames (1813?) it'd be cool to see a developer from around here work up a good edu-tainment game based on the War of 1812.

-- Steve