Games that teach, and I don't just mean Edutainment (blurgh!) games. - by SubJeff
CCCToad on 14/12/2012 at 05:55
This one's also another "obvious" one, but Portal (and 2) are good examples. There isn't anything that it actually "teaches". However (and ironically) the introduction of a physics-defying portal gun allows the game to do an amazing job of illustrating how Newton's Laws actually work. So much so that I've noticed a strong correlation between which of my friends and family understand physics and who can quickly figure out the game's puzzles. For example, one of my exes is a chemistry whiz, extremely intelligent, and usually very quick to solve problems. But when playing Portal 2 her ability to figure out any puzzle involving objects in motion was on par with your average dumb blonde. By contrast another friend of mine who has a noticeably lower IQ, but has taken more advanced physics courses (and labs) than her was able to quickly figure out that they key to solving most of the puzzles is building and then redirecting momentum.
demagogue on 14/12/2012 at 05:59
Uh, let's see.
From Civilization I sort of picked up the idea of limiting factors & maximization, sort of quasi-economic Nash-ish ways of thinking about maximizing different parameters when you can adjust sliders around with different costs & benefits and it's dynamic what the end result will be as events play out. I use that kind of thinking for other things in life sometimes.
War games -- I mean the really historically accurate sim ones like Steel Panthers or Operational Art of War -- of course teach you a ton about military tactics & strategy, but also the historical context of the battles, and how the geography and politics play into it. A similar one on that note is something like Hearts of Iron, which is a WWII political/battle sim. Very engaging to actually *play* the game of politics & see how it affects morale & production than just reading it in a book.
Playing with Minecraft, especially with Technic, it let's you be creative building the logic of different kinds of contraptions.
When I was playing IL-2, I got into painting my own planes historically accurate to real squadrons and having them fight in the right regions and periods they were there.
Orbiter. Uh, speaks for itself. I learned so much about what space flight actually is. I still consider it a game because at the end of the day, your ship is not going to connect itself to the Int'l Space Station and you watch. But you have to actually do it.
Dark Mod maybe shouldn't count, but I learned a lot coding different features for it -- the ambient sound system, the stealth score, etc. It's actually tied into the gameplay a little though, because you have to think about how the gameplay and code connect when you're working out the code, and be ready for things to fall apart when you're actually playing it in ways you didn't expect. Tracking down a bug by figuring out the logic of how gameplay is breaking down is a kind of fun puzzle in itself.
PigLick on 14/12/2012 at 06:37
In DayZ i learnt how to find north using a watch and tree shadows.
ZylonBane on 14/12/2012 at 07:34
Quote Posted by Phatose
It's much more akin to a flushed out version of Manufactoria.
Yes, the ruddy cheeks really improve it.
henke on 14/12/2012 at 08:25
Quote Posted by PigLick
In DayZ i learnt how to find north using a watch and tree shadows.
I learnt the opposite in Dragon's Dogma, how to find out the time of day by comparing the position of the sun in the sky to my compass. :)
june gloom on 14/12/2012 at 09:13
Quote Posted by EvaUnit02
I've learnt that Americans manufacturing is generally rubbish in comparison to the competition. High performance American cars often have powerful engines, but they can't corner worth a damn. American guns like Thompson M1A1 have recoil out of the ass, so dropping that shit in favour for a scavenged MP40 is always first on agenda.
The M16 has less recoil than the AK-47.
The thing about cornering is that cornering isn't that important to Americans. We generally don't have the tight, narrow roads with sharp bends that Europe does. What we
do have, however, are lots and lots of long straight roads going for miles -- and that's where the engines come in. Different needs.
Also, technically most of our cars
are European, or Japanese. Ford tends to focus much more on heavy-duty pickups, as if everyone in America worked at a ranch or logging camp.
Jason Moyer on 14/12/2012 at 12:46
A bankrupt American car manufacturer (GM) can spit out a new GT1 or GT3 every couple years and dominate the shit out of international competition, so I'm not sure where the hate on US sports cars comes from.
The cars that really handle like shit are all non-American anyway, like the Zonda and the Koenigsegg CCX.
VanBurenPhilips on 14/12/2012 at 15:18
Quote Posted by EvaUnit02
American guns like Thompson M1A1 have recoil out of the ass, so dropping that shit in favour for a scavenged MP40 is always first on agenda.
Haha, true for me in every WWII shooter. But there's a guy at my archery club who likes his guns & fired a Thompson during the war (probably not so common here in the UK) and he said it was practically recoilless. So far I've resisted the temptation to say "well I've fired one in Brothers in Arms and Medal of Honour... " :P
Speaking of which - BiA and SWAT3 did a good job of teaching real tactics. Find, Fix, Flank & Finish in BiA; clearing rooms, tactical reloading and more in SWAT. Not stuff I'm likely to put to use though.
Rock Band drums - the other pro mode instruments were a bit hit & miss, but even 'normal' mode drums taught genuinely useful techniques, transferable to the real thing.
SubJeff on 14/12/2012 at 15:37
I dabble with the guitar a little so I kind of got it already, but a friend of mine who has never been a real guitar music fan said that Guitar Hero really opened his eyes as to the nature of guitar music and helped him appreciate stuff he never would have otherwise.
There are no Thompsons in Red Orchestra unfortunately or we could compare that to other WW2 FPSs seeing as the weapons are all supposed to be pretty accurately modeled.
catbarf on 14/12/2012 at 16:52
Quote Posted by VanBurenPhilips
& fired a Thompson during the war (probably not so common here in the UK) and he said it was practically recoilless.
From personal experience, I have to question that.
A lot of games are pretty accurate as far as weapons handling, but they still have a ways to go. A closed-bolt weapon retains a round in the chamber when you reload, an open-bolt one does not. If the weapon has a bolt catch, you don't need to rack the charging handle when you reload on empty, just push a button. Little details like that don't make or break the experience but are a nice realism touch and fairly easy to implement.
What irks me about rivet-counting games like Red Orchestra is how they try to follow real-world specs (sometimes cherry-picked, RO in particular has a strong Russian bias) but gloss over everything else involved in shooting. The gun may be realistically accurate, but when your character lines up perfectly on the sights in an instant, and can hold the weapon perfectly still, everyone becomes a sniper.
