How could a game have taught your favorite topic in school?

[J T]

I wouldn't want my surgeon using a game to learn how to use a scalpel, I'd want cadavers. But I would want my surgeon to use a game that teaches anatomy. They could have all the organs all jumbled up and have to put the puzzle back together again, or they could have an interactive e-doll that you can stimulate with electrodes throughout the brain to see what the different regions do. It would be a great learning tool.

And there are tons of economic games out there Luke, that sound kind of like what you are describing. Take Capitalism 2 for example, which has been used at ivy league schools to teach the basics of business and economics in a way that is more fun than any stale old textbook.

[J T]

Well I'm a software engineer, so solving logical problems is the main task I face each day.

Have you tried SpaceChem? It is a game where you are supposedly a chemical engineer. It has some of the most challenging logic puzzles I have ever come across anywhere. There are even multiple solutions to the puzzles.

I had more to say about it here.

[Luke]

And there are tons of economic games out there Luke, that sound kind of like what you are describing. Take Capitalism 2 for example, which is has been used at ivy league schools to teach the basics of business and economics in a way that is more fun than any stale old textbook.

True there are tons of economic games and simulators out there, but I would still argue that they are very, very far from real life. There is no game I know of where you have to fire a single Mother of two who also works a late night shift at Wal-Mart just to make ends meet.

I'll take the stale old text book too. True games can teach fundamentals, but they dick around too much. Games might be more "fun", but they are way more time consuming than reading, thinking, and grinding it out. I think you would also agree that you learn more by starting from step one, and not having a game give you options.

[BoringSupreez]

And there are tons of economic games out there Luke, that sound kind of like what you are describing. Take Capitalism 2 for example, which is has been used at ivy league schools to teach the basics of business and economics in a way that is more fun than any stale old textbook.

True there are tons of economic games and simulators out there, but I would still argue that they are very, very far from real life. There is no game I know of where you have to fire a single Mother of two who also works a late night shift at Wal-Mart just to make ends meet.

That would be a business management simulator, not an economics game.

[Luke]

That would be a business management simulator, not an economics game.

Being a manager includes management, economics, finance, accounting, sales and marketing. And that was JT and I were discussing, not simply economics.

[J T]

True there are tons of economic games and simulators out there, but I would still argue that they are very, very far from real life. There is no game I know of where you have to fire a single Mother of two who also works a late night shift at Wal-Mart just to make ends meet.

Even more difficult than that, how about managing a Sweatshop?

[shmuk]

This might be kind of a cheap trick... But the making of an asteroids game could teach trigonometry (converting angles/speeds into perpendicular x/y values), as well as teaching momentum and physics in a frictionless and gravityless environment.

[Original_Name]

I literally learned how to read by playing Final Fantasy VII (yes, I'm younger than alot of you guys on here), although that was more a case of a game seeming so damn cool that I was motivated to use a variety of post-game accessories to familiarize myself with the vocabulary of the game's narrative. Still, you'd be shocked at the words I was using at seven years old due to my experience with that game's vocabulary.

To this day, much of my knowledge of the westernization of Japanese society is informed by the setting of Shenmue. The electric hum of Coca-Cola machines less than a block away from the Torii gates leading up to traditional Shinto shrines defines a great deal of the modern Japanese cultural experience. I've taken a great deal of courses on Japanese culture, and I'm surprisingly capable of speaking on this topic in a way that's engaging to Japanese people even without having physically been to Japan.

Social studies, history, and art are among the most potent subjects that the interactive medium can enhance, so long as developers stay true to the source material. However, Rez is a title which expands upon the original synaesthetic concepts put forward by Kandinsky in order to create a more dynamic representation of the depth of the concept, made possible through the interactivity. Ikaruga, even in its minimalist representation of Taoism, enabled a better understanding of the cosmic Taoist experience -- camp though it may be in comparison to what actual devotees experience, Ikaruga creates a PERSONAL experience in the Taoist tradition, rather than recounting a third-person interpretation of it. Seaman taught me a great deal about biology, cultural theory, communication theory, and artificial intelligence theory in a way that engaged me PERSONALLY in the experience, therefore it was like a more full-bodied, mature version of raising butterflies in Elementary School combined with a discourse on the role of active communication in accepting cultures and philosophies separate from your own.

I think that music in particular probably has the greatest potential of any to be taught through interactive audio-visuals, and this goes back at least as far as the Miracle Piano Teaching System on the NES. You could literally teach the basics of any instrument so long as the input method is intuitive and the software is constructive.

General cause-and-effect is extremely important in the medium -- I don't think it's any coincidence how many mathematical and political (and ecological, for that matter,) themes arise in games because of this.

[Original_Name]

On an overt level, NiGHTS encourages a person to reach for their goals despite adversity. On another level, it prompts psychological growth through its use of Jungian concepts, like individuation (the collection of the children's dream energies represents the integration of the different parts of the psyche). I might have to upload my essay on the matter.

PLEASE post this up! I was just speaking with a friend of mine about the psychological concepts adapted by NiGHTS a week or so ago, but didn't have a comprehensive guide!

[Nintendork666]

I literally learned how to read by playing Final Fantasy VII

My cousin (8 years older) claims he helped me learn how to read by letting me play Chrono Trigger.