SubJeff on 13/12/2012 at 21:01

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So I've long been interested in the educational qualities of games, or rather the learning that you get from games. I don't mean games that are meant to teach you stuff like maths or whatever, but the entire gamut of stuff you'll learn.

SpaceChem is my go-to game on this subject. It doesn't really teach chemistry but the number of bonds each atom can have is passively learned, as is the existence of isomers. But primarily its a logic game and boy does it mess your head up. Its one of the hardest games, intellectually, I've ever taken on and I love it for that. Its not just doing the missions its doing them well. I've spend ages getting less cycles or time out of simple tasks just to beat my friends on the leaderboard.

I saw this great video on TED: (http://www.ted.com/talks/daphne_bavelier_your_brain_on_video_games.html)

Daphne Bavelier explains how first person shooters passively train visual tracking skills. FPS gamers are much better than non-gamers and just playing a game trains you and you retain that ability for a significant amount of time.

I'm sure you've all heard of the Japanese studies on PlayStation playing laparoscopic surgeons vs non-playing surgeons. Its a little contentious because the medical world needs everything "validated" before it can accept what is staring it in the face, but yeah the PS players were faster and more accurate. I've experienced this myself - when I was an intern/junior house officer on a surgical rotation a notoriously fussy consultant/attending asked me to stay on and be his cameraman for the bugaboo hard case that the chief resident was specially coming in for, based on my performance in the previous cases (I said no because I knew I was needed on the ward and the other intern was swamped).

Simpler stuff I've noticed is passive learning like the nature and composition of the armour used in WW2 via playing Company of Heroes, or geographical and historical knowledge gained from the Total War games.

So I'm interested in skills or knowledge that people think they've picked up and from which games. It doesn't matter if its an actual educational game, one that has a clear educational content even if that isn't the point (like SpaceChem) or something that is pure entertainment.

I don't believe that you learn nothing from any game. I've learnt a new skill in playing Hotline Miami - co-ordination of the mouse and keyboard in a way I'm not used to.

Malleus on 13/12/2012 at 21:36

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http://i.imgur.com/CIjIw.jpg

Anyway, the only thing I can add is that I liked how in the Assassin's Creed games there were this encyclopedia that had information about buildings, events, etc. You could catch on to a little bit of history from that, at least as far as buildings and landmarks are concerned (I liked these nice touches like the Saint Peter's Basilica being under construction during AC:B, since it was actually under construction during that time) - though lot of the events in the games were also somewhat historically accurate too.

Sulphur on 13/12/2012 at 21:56

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Yeah. I mean, look at Koki.

catbarf on 14/12/2012 at 01:09

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I wish games could teach more information (as opposed to skills, like multitasking), but most that I've played are very surface-level and often inaccurate depictions of real topics. Shogun 2: Total War has a historical component, but it's clouded by inaccurate pop-culture elements and is very limited in chronology. Assassin's Creed has some historicity, but it's very basic plot elements that can be gleaned from a quick read on Wikipedia.

There are pure education games, and there are action-with-a-theme games that can teach you something, but not many games that are directly in between. I think the comparison would be how some movies are documentaries, and some are explosionfests, but in between are movies with real context and meaningful themes that can teach something useful about the world. There don't seem to be many games like that, since gameplay always seems to get in the way of really going in-depth.

Granted, the above is written with history and the real world in mind, as opposed to more abstract concepts like chemistry and physics. Again, those seem to be largely abstracted, since the real thing is fairly dull and doesn't make for good entertainment; just look at how Hollywood has tried to use computer programming and math.

I think the games I learn the most from are physics-based, like Garry's Mod. It starts with simple physics concepts, and then moved into programming with logic gates, and then into pure code through an in-game coding environment. I ended up researching internal combustion engines and aerodynamics online so I could build better approximations of them in-game. Another one would be Kerbal Space Program, where you either learn what a Hohmann transfer orbit is or your rockets go hopelessly streaking out into space.

Also, first-person shooters teach a lot more than many people realize. I've been to airsoft games where groups of 10-13 year olds can hold their own against their much older counterparts, simply because they've grown up on competitive shooters and the actions involved in shooting people and clearing rooms are second nature to them. They may not be great at it, since a lot doesn't transfer over, but they start with some level of familiarity that I find really interesting.

Jason Moyer on 14/12/2012 at 03:56

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Robot Odyssey