Games Used To Teach History

Next Generation is reporting on the use of games in educational situations. From the article: "Age of Empires III deals with the conquest and colonization of the Americas; fertile ground for imaginative students. Taking on the role of a European power - desperate to grab land and resources - helps students understand the motivation and planning behind invasion. It also paves the way for learning about its consequences. That, at least, is the theory."

Not the best

[Joe the Lesser]

If you want serious history games, check out Paradox [paradoxplaza.com].

Re:Koei games

[Niahak]

Koei's games got me interested not only in the Three Kingdoms period, but also in other similar conflicts in China & Japan, leading to a general interest in Chinese & Japanese history.
I heard that their next plan for a Dynasty Warriors-ish game is one set in the Hundred Years' War - it'll be interesting to see if they can pull it off.

There are a lot of stages in history that can be made into the background of a great story, and I have a feeling that Koei's going to find even more. They did some nice experimenting a while back with Genghis Khan, Uncharted Waters, etc. and I'd like to see more of that done.

By the way, did you get "Pluvius" from Gemfire? Good game, I'd like to see it re-done.

Civ

[AsiNisiMasa]

As for the "understanding motivations" issue, I can definately bite. When I first started playing Civ II I would never want to try for a military victory. Then I got older and better at it (Civ III by then) and started to understand the reasons why one would do such a thing. Specifically, if you get tanks before anyone else, game over for them. When you have military superiority, you go for it. It's enlightening when you first find yourself being militaristically greedy.

As for history, I thought Civ II was better. they actually had factual information regarding untis/science etc. Civ III just has in game info. I dunno about AoE.