This is a topic I’ve been meaning to write a post about for some time now, namely what an educational game should look like.  Or probably better worded, what educational gaming means to me (and ultimately what we’re trying to do here at Hug a Panda).

The allure of educational games

For a long time people have been betting that educational games (ie games that help people learn stuff) would revolutionize the way people learn.  The pitch is great.  Play games (which are fun) and learn stuff at the same time.  I mean, who wouldn’t want to do that?  Sign me up.  The reality, however, is that while many people have made educational games very few have been successful or reached critical mass.  Given the choice I think most people would rather play Halo than Jimmy’s Calculus Adventures (I just made that game up).

So what’s the problem?

I think the crux (i love that word) of the problem is that educational games are cursed with having to provide educational benefit first and then secondly have entertainment value.  This I think can be attributed to the fact that many of the people who make educational games are educators themselves.  So naturally they want to use a game that can highlight a teaching point.  The gaming part takes backseat.  The primary goal with these types of educational games is to teach and the secondary goal is fun.  Often times the “educational game” is nothing but a quiz in disguise.  There is absolutely nothing wrong with this methodology, but if the goal is to get people to play these games over the other types of games then good luck.  People naturally gravitate to fun experiences.

Here is an example to illustrate this point.

GeoNet

I did a quick search on google for “educational games” and randomly clicked on one of the links.  This took me to Education Place a website operated by the textbook publisher Houghtnn Mifflin.  On here they have a wide selection of educational games.  I selected GeoNet which they described as:

GeoNet is a challenging online game based on the six essential elements from the National Geography Standards.

Now I don’t mean to pick on GeoNet, but if I were looking for games to play and saw that description I would turn and run the other way.  It’s not that I don’t like geography, but it just sounds boring.  If they wanted to get me to play a better description would have been:

GeoNet:  Save the planet from Zombies by inflicting maximum damage with your geography-laced silver bullets.

But for the sake of research I proceeded.  Below is a video of me playing GeoNet.

If you watched the video you can see that GeoNet is nothing but a quiz skinned with a cute furry animal and “game” like interface.  At one point they asked me to look at a graph of  “Chinese Population in California” and answer the question “What year did the Chinese population peak, then begin to decrease?”  Does that remind you of anything?  It reminded me of a math test.  Might as well ask me to find the limit to a function (don’t ask me for the answer cause I have no clue).

Bottomline is that GeoNet isn’t particularly fun and playing felt more like taking test than playing an entertaining game.   It’s obvious that this game is well intentioned;  teach students valuable lessons in geography.  However, I can’t see many people playing this game on their own.  I know I wouldn’t but then I’m probably not in their targeted “kid” demographic.  Which brings me to my next point…

Education games are only for kids?

My other beef with the educational gaming market is that for some reason like 90% of the educational games out there are all designed for kids!  Apparently once you become an adult you don’t need to learn anymore.  That’s poppycock!  As a somewhat mature 29 year old who grew up playing all sorts of video games and who likes learning new things I want more developers to start making games that I would play just as much as World of Warcraft, Halo, Modern Warfare 2 etc…

I guess I am growing up because I’ve gotten to the point where I still like playing games, but I don’t have as much time as I used to play games, and so I don’t play as much.  I’m not joking when I say that most of my “game playing” now is done via Youtube–meaning I just watch other people play games via the videos they upload.  That’s how I beat Resident Evil 4.  The point is if I’m going to spend time playing a game I’d want to have fun and also learning something new at the same time (besides learning where extra health packs are hidden).

The 3 Commandments of educational games

Based on what we see is wrong with educational games this is how we plan to do things differently.  We plan to follow our self-created 3 Commandments of Educational Games:

1. Thou shall not be only acceptable for children (adults need to play and learn too)
2. Thou shall be fun, truly fun
3. Thou shall not feel like work when playing

What do you guys think?  Is fun educational gaming a reality or a far off pipe dream?