10 Best Games with Real Educational Value?

[XLjedi]

I was browsing Amazon earlier today and happened upon a custom created list or two for various PC game enthusiasts... most were along the lines of:
Best War Games
Best Games of All Time
Best Platformers
...yawn...

And so the lists went; mostly mindless collections of various Doom-ish FPS drivel.


And then the idea struck me...:hmm:

What might be interesting would be to compile a list of games and simulations that teachers or parents could recommend to their high school students that involved practical examples of teaching subjects and perhaps they could even base some assignments on?

Of course, Silent Hunter 3 & 4 immediately comes to mind for students of math and trig... I was trying to come up with the top 10 games that are fun to play and also have great educational value.

Math & WWII History: SH3 & 4
Business Mgmt: Railroad Tycoon 3 (but not SM Railroads!)
Urban Planning: SimCity 4
Aerodynamics: MS Flight Sim

Can you think of any others (any school subject) to help expand the list to a Top 10? :hmm:

[TheBrauerHour]

First off, WOOT 100th post!!!

Ok, now that I got that out of the way...

I remember a year or two ago a game was released about the 2004 election. You could make a candidate and send him or her through the whole election process I think. I never played it so can't tell you how realistic it was but it may be a worthy mention for a Govt class.

[geetrue]

I think Generals Zero hour is educational ... You have to control your building and your money income at the same time.
Teaches you values in money management.

You have to replace your lost men and equipment or perish. You have to be agressive
or lose the battle if your just hung up on defense.

You have to make decisions in a hurry so it helps in other everyday activities.

Car racing games teach you to control your speed or die.

Football or all sports games are good at developing think ahead skills too.

PC/console games are not just for the sake of exercising your fingers.
They can make or break you in a real life situation.

[Camaero]

Janes WWII Fighters tought me a hell of a lot and was first thing to open my now large interest in history. I wached videos with interviews from actual aces, I also watched real combat footage and read up on the specs of each plane. So much great info was in that game. It just immersed me so much. Then best of all, I was actually able to fly the planes. It was just so great during my very early teens. Listening to crappy music while I flew was awesome.

I wouldn't even give a damn about sub sims and be here now if it wasn't for that game.

[kiwi_2005]

Biowares Neverwinter nights 1, is used for students to team up and solve quests as a group. I read an article where some schools in the UK tried this game out. Over here primary schools have Age of Empires 2 on school PCs for pupils to play as groups in city building.

Depending on what you do EVE online can teach a fare bit about economics, infact I guess it was in the new-york times or something. :p

[P_Funk]

Well Myst comes to mind for working the old cerebral juices. I never finished it despite houirs of plodding away. Similar to that is a game called Grim Fandango from 1998 that was a puzzle game but involved some nice story. Damn those puzzels were harsh.

I noticed that geetrue mentioned Generals as a source for education. Generally that holds true for most RTS's but the really interesting ones are the ones that break the mould. Back in the day Total Annihilation was the antithesis of Starcraft. It wasn't just about economy. Instead it had rudimentary economics, like build a metal extractor and leave it and it makes metal, solar collectors, and once you have enough to build you build a diverse balanced attacking force that can deal with the enemy. The economy functioned more like a real one in that you didn't need to babysit the extraction of every crystal or whatever it is but instead you built the extractor and it generated a consistent stream of resources. It demanded scouting to see the enemy's movements, see his army makeup so that you could counter it, it involved land air and sea, it also included rudimentary weapon physics so that mortar like weapons actually fired over hills but had no accuracy and vehicles couldn't see over hills. Missiles fired at aircraft spun and winded, and bombers drops bombs with questionable accuracy and caused lots of splash damage. Really it was a tactically stimulating game. Supreme Commander is the next generation of that though I've not played it myself. I hear its even better though.
In the same vein Homeworld and Homeworld 2 are space RTS's that involve 3 dimensions of space to work in.

Thats all I got for now.

[Reaves]

Leisure Suit Larry

As a kid it taught me all about life.

*Gigady gigady

[Iron Budokan]

Oregan Trail was a good game and it had good educational value, too. Orbiter is another good game with EXCELLENT educational value.

[XLjedi]

Some good suggestions here...

I think the commentary on strategic RTS's in general is probably true for all. However, I'm not sure that resource mgmnt and troop mobilization are enough for an educational recommendation. For instance, the detailed economic model in Pacific Storm might have some value... but just harvesting crystals and sending waves of drones into a blender is perhaps a tad too gamey.

I was thinking possibly one of the Total War titles, but I haven't played any of those myself. ...or maybe some of the strategy games of the civil war era.

I'm also looking for stuff that is currently and readily available... a couple of the suggestions are good (Grim Fandango, Oregon Trail, and Myst) although it would probably be difficult to locate those gems at the local Best Buy.

[Jimbuna]

GWX....teaches you patience and how to create a structured plan

[XLjedi]

Originally Posted by jimbuna

GWX....teaches you patience and how to create a structured plan

Yeah, I was half-tempted to suggest that if students could figure out how to successfully mod SH3 to GWX that it might qualify as a decent homework assignment for a computer lab class.

On the other hand, if they could figure out how to get SH4 to run bug free they would earn an automatic A for the semester... (and then they'd have to show the rest of us how to do it!) :rotfl:

[Jimbuna]

Originally Posted by aaronblood

Yeah, I was half-tempted to suggest that if students could figure out how to successfully mod SH3 to GWX that it might qualify as a decent homework assignment for a computer lab class.

On the other hand, if they could figure out how to get SH4 to run bug free they would earn an automatic A for the semester... (and then they'd have to show the rest of us how to do it!) :rotfl:

A+ me thinks Kaleun

[fatty]

RE: SH3/4... these games might be good for inspiring students to do historical research on their own, but the games themselves, unmodded at least, don't teach too much except that submarines roamed the ocean, blew stuff up, and were blown up. As far as the trig and such, you're assuming that you can captivate the attention of a group of typical 15-18 year olds to play on 100% difficulty long enough to figure out what kind of math to apply and where.

My choice is any non-graphical Zork game. Easy to set up and play, no graphical simulation of violence, and teaches language skills which, IMHO, is what graduating students in my region are lacking the most today.

I became a speed-reader from playing MUDs in high school. Since I stopped, I've lost that ability - it's a shame there are no good ones left

[XLjedi]

Originally Posted by fatty

RE: SH3/4... these games might be good for inspiring students to do historical research on their own, but the games themselves, unmodded at least, don't teach too much except that submarines roamed the ocean, blew stuff up, and were blown up. As far as the trig and such, you're assuming that you can captivate the attention of a group of typical 15-18 year olds to play on 100% difficulty long enough to figure out what kind of math to apply and where.

My choice is any non-graphical Zork game. Easy to set up and play, no graphical simulation of violence, and teaches language skills which, IMHO, is what graduating students in my region are lacking the most today.

I became a speed-reader from playing MUDs in high school. Since I stopped, I've lost that ability - it's a shame there are no good ones left

So lemme get this straight...

You think it's highly unlikely to get the average (assumed attention deficit) 15-18yr old interested in playing SH on 100% realism and yet somehow you expect they'll be willing to put down Halo for an hour to play Zork?

I'm afraid the era of text-based adventure games has long passed...

However, you do bring up a good point. There may be some adventure games out there that do involve a deep story line and plot that does require some reading comprehension and problem solving skills. Perhaps something like Neverwinter Nights, KoTOR, or Final Fantasy then?