Educational games: What do you think Boring or Awesome?

[Hug_a_Panda_Ben]

I'm not sure about the rest of you guys, but as much as I love playing games, I'm finding as I get older that I like playing games that are fun, but also help me learn something at the same time.

I like games like Bookworm, Word Warp, Brain Age, or playfish's Geo Challenge (Facebook game). Even if I play these games for hours I don't feel as guilty as I would spending hours playing something like World of Warcraft (though while playing it is fun).

It probably has something to do with my age (I'm in my late 20's but have played games all my life), but what I was wondering was how you guys felt about educational games.

Do you guys like them? Are they too boring? Do you guys know any good educational games?

Reason why I'm asking is that our company, Hug a Panda, is creating educational games, but we want to create educational games that people actually play (and aren't just for children too...).

Would love to hear your thoughts!

[drelbs]

"Educational" games are great if they're fun.

Best one ever: Robot Odyssey (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robot_Odyssey)!

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/2f/TitleScreen.png

[Hug_a_Panda_Ben]

"Educational" games are great if they're fun.

Best one ever: Robot Odyssey (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robot_Odyssey)!



I agree that edu games are only great if they're fun ... sometimes I feel like most educational games focus too much on the education and not enough on the fun.

Thanks for the heads up on Robot Odyssey...i read the wiki article and was impressed how hardcore this game seemed after I read "the game teaches the basic concepts of electrical engineering and digital logic in general." That's pretty cool.

One of my favorite edu games was Typing of the Dead (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Typing_of_the_Dead)

http://hugapanda.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/Typing-of-the-Dead-Cover.png

Which IMO totally beat the pants off of Mavis Beacon (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mavis_Beacon).
http://hugapanda.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/Mavis-Beacon-Teaches-Typing.jpg

If anyone is interested I did a blog post on Educational Gaming Done Right and Wrong (http://hugapanda.com/blog/2009/10/educational-gaming-done-right-and-wrong/)...

[Devilishly Good]

Mindracer Duel was fun as a head to head game. There's a Lite to try as well.

http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=318847713&mt=8

[Grumps]

Edu games are always great. You get to learn something while relaxing away. Games like House of The Dead (typing) is may work even better than traditional tap to kill because its less repetitive in some way...haha

[Seishu]

One of my favorite edu games is the original Oregon Trail.

[Outkast1]

I'm not sure if it qualifies as an "educational game" or not but I work at Cisco and we actually have a game on the appstore- Cisco Edge Quest 2 (sorry I don't know how to make an iTunes link). It's free though if you want to check it out.

Your basically kind of racing through lanes of a "network" and you need to avoid obstacles. I haven't played it in a long time (playing a "work game" kind of takes the fun away for me) but I remember there are some educational aspects around general routing and switching.

[Somerandomdude]

The problem is that most of these games turn out to be complete crap. Best example I can think of is Mario's Time Machine. It's terrible. Unfortunately, that's the kind of game that's typical of edutainment games.

On the other hand, there are a few. The best one (and maybe the only really awesome one I can think of right now) is without a doubt Typing of the Dead. It combines learning how to type, humor, and watching zombies explode in a similar setting to another great game. I can't get enough of this game sometimes, and the things they'll have you typing will have you laughing. Now if all edutainment games were like this.

Personally, I seem to like games where you think, but don't necessarily learn something.

[Outkast1]

Hey Somerandomdude, offtopic..

In your sig it says you're waiting for Final Fantasy!? Are you just... waiting for it :) or do you know something I don't???

[Seishu]

I'm not sure if it qualifies as an "educational game" or not but I work at Cisco and we actually have a game on the appstore- Cisco Edge Quest 2 (sorry I don't know how to make an iTunes link). It's free though if you want to check it out.

Your basically kind of racing through lanes of a "network" and you need to avoid obstacles. I haven't played it in a long time (playing a "work game" kind of takes the fun away for me) but I remember there are some educational aspects around general routing and switching.
I've tried your game out, and while it's not that exciting, it is somewhat educational. Maybe if the speed was cranked up a bit...

[Skate]

Because I am still young (not like 10 though), I don't find educational games very fun, mostly because they usually turn into complete crap. Like Mavis beacon (it was mandatory to "play" it at my old school).

[Outkast1]

No argument there. (replying to Seishu)

[Hug_a_Panda_Ben]

Because I am still young (not like 10 though), I don't find educational games very fun, mostly because they usually turn into complete crap. Like Mavis beacon (it was mandatory to "play" it at my old school).

Yeah, I know what you mean. When I was younger the last thing I wanted to play was something educational (though I did like Oregon Trail back in the day...but mostly because you could hunt deer and stuff...and those days it was on an Apple IIe computer with no fancy graphics).

I didn't like Mavis Beacon...and I would have hated if they made me play that. I'd rather play this version of it...

Mavis Beacon teaches Stereotyping!
http://hugapanda.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/This-looks-more-fun-than-Mavis-Beacon-Original.jpg

[Hug_a_Panda_Ben]

Thanks for all the great comments here...it's been, how do I say..."educational" (couldn't help myself...)

I think I agree with Somerandomdude how "Personally, I seem to like games where you think, but don't necessarily learn something."

Puzzle games are great for this cause you feel you are exercising a part of your brain that sometimes doesn't get that much exercise.

Overall from the responses I've seen here it doesn't seem like there's much in terms of fun educational games...Hopefully we can rise to the challenge :)

In case you were wondering or curious our first game is a content learning game/race. You race by answering questions is how I'd describe it. While it's constantly being improved here's a video of the very early days of it. Our first playable prototype.

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I'd be interested to see what you guys think. Flame on! Haha...