Some Educational Games Were Ahead of Their Time
I got an email from an online university site pointing out that they have a post on 20 educational games that were ahead of their time. It’s a good list and may get you thinking of how fun educational games can be. Obviously, it’s their list which may be missing games that you once loved when you were younger. My favourite from their list is none other than Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego?
Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego? (1985):
Game developer Gary Carlston, a founder of Broderbund, wanted to make geography fun for learners, so he spearheaded this early educational project. To say it was successful would be an understatement, as it spawned numerous sequels (players could track Carmen through the U.S., Europe, and even time) and a game show in the early 1990s. Play involved chasing down a master thief, the eponymous Carmen Sandiego, around the world and answering geography questions correctly in order to retrieve objects and foil her plans. Its success was not only in its popularity: it also proved that games were the ideal medium for making just about any educational topic, even those that didn’t usually get kids excited about, fun and engaging.
Related posts:
- One Approach to Evaluating Educational Games
- Ever Lost Your Sense of Time While Playing Games?
- Serious Game Companies in Toronto by The Star
- 10.5 Million for serious games goes to… Raytheon
- Ten Tips for Serious Game Makers
This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 12th, 2012 at 13:25 and is filed under Education, Video Games. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

