Games that meaningfully teach you things
I've been deep in learning how to rewire sections of my house, trying to understand the logic behind my older (1950s-era) electrical system. In the process, I came across a free game on Steam called Wired developed by the University of Cambridge's Engineering Department. It's a puzzle game that gradually introduces core concepts in circuitry and logical flow. It doesn't replace proper training, but it is an engaging supplement compared to reading electrical code books.
But anyways, I though I would ask about games that don't just entertain but also teach. Not strictly edutainment in the shallow sense, but games that impart understanding, intuition, or practical knowledge through their mechanics.
What are some games you've played that taught you something substantial? I'm thinking anything from real world skills, conceptual insights, functional knowledge, or anything that stuck with you after playing.
Crusader Kings, Europa Universalis, and Victoria gave me a better sense of world history than any history class I've ever taken. How things were outside of the big players, how socioeconomic pressures and changing technology led to differences in governance, and a variety of other things about history and how it's interconnected.
Some of the events are worth a trip to wikipedia too. There are plenty of hooks to get you immersed in the history between 1444 and 1821 in EU4. CK, Victoria, and even Hearts of Iron do it too, but I find them far less focused on the actual history aspect than EU is.
Even in its abstraction of history it manages to teach you a lot. Not just history, but peoples and cultures too.
It tends to break apart when you conquer half the globe or even sooner when you fully colonize Africa about a century or three early, but otherwise still maintains a through line you can follow.
Agree 100%.
Also, the amount of global geography they teach you is incredible. There are entire regions in the world that I've never been to but know fairly accurately what the climate and topography there is like and what the cities there are called purely because of my vast experience in those Paradox games you listed.
I mean the right answer is obviously Kerbal Space Program. It's already been mentioned, but it deserves a parent comment to itself. No other game comes close to making something as complex as orbital mechanics make such intuitive sense. It's easy to forget that the average person doesn't know what ∆v is. I'm not sure most people actually know that you go sideways real real fast to get to orbit—the idea that you could somehow "fall off" the space station seems prevalent enough to cause me concern about this. It's the only video game I can think of that I think should be mandatory in middle school science classes.
KSP made all the space stuff I learned in the last finally click. It's challenging but incredibly rewarding. I want to replay KSP1 soon, I still have a long term task of landing Jeb on every celestial body, plant a flag, and bring him home.
I'm sad about KSP2, it's a game that should have been much better than it was but was super mismanaged.
I am, however, keeping an eye on Kitten Space Agency. It aims to be the successor to KSP and has potential to grow into something great if it is done right.
Zachtronics’ Exapunks is basically “assembly programming the video game.”
Somehow they managed to make programming in assembly fun.
Zachtronics' programing series are interesting. I love them to death and think they are great, and I do think they are educational. However, I don't think I would say they teach programming. Where they excel is actually teaching you how to apply your programming knowledge to algorithms and challenges. I feel that they make you a better programmer, but I also feel they are not a great entry point for a novice programmer because of implied knowledge after a certain point.
That’s probably a fair point. I don’t think I ever finished Exapunks, but I also was playing it a few months after I took an assembly programming class and was probably burning out on that style of programming. Also having to print out the zines for reference was a challenge, and I preferred printed over PDF.
Yeah that tracks. It’s good for applying knowledge of algorithms and such, maybe not the best for teaching those algorithms. But, good for reinforcing learning.
I thought about adding a special call out from Zachtronics games. Coincidentally, I own six of their games, but I can't say I got very deep or far into them. I think the one I have enjoyed the most out of all of them is TIS-100.
The Logical Journey of the Zoombinis is, basically, algorithms for kids obscured by nose colors, sneezing cliffs, and pizza trolls. Even as an adult it's fun to try and figure out optimal solutions.
I forget which one, but there's a VR mechanic simulator game that modeled its engine on Mazda's BP platform in a different car. You can more or less use the info there to get an understanding of 1990-2005 Miata engines, plus certain Kia Sephia and Ford Escort GT models.
(EDIT: Wrench!)
Carmen Sandiego taught me a lot of geography back in the day.
Steam Engine Simulator comes to mind and is pretty self-explanatory. Kerbal Space Program taught me so much about going to space. Granted everything is scaled down a good bit, but the underlying mechanics are legitimate.
I tried this when it first released and really enjoyed it. Looking at the Steam page, they released a game/DLC behind it!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2601380/Steam_Engine_Simulator__Power_Generation/
I don't think I felt a greater sense of achievement after I landed on the Mun. That followed landing on another planets very quickly once I understood the terminology, how to use the icons on the navmap, and the concept of applying the burns at specific times. Hopefully Kitten Space Agency passes the torch onto a revamped game.
+1 for the Steam Engine Simulator, and I have yet to reach Mun... but KSP really let me explore my inner physic nerd.
Kerbal space program blew up around the time I was studying orbital mechanics in college and the game honestly is a very helpful visualisation of how space travel works.
Baba Is You doesn't really teach any real life skills, but it does challenge perceptions of how rules work and how to manipulate + break them towards innovative solutions.
Zachtronic games like Space Chem for loops and algorithm efficiency.
Over The Wire and Hack Net for networking, security and hacking.
Following the thread hoping to learn more real life skills games. Is there one that teaches building code and or home construction?
Yeah, I'm hoping to find a good game for building code and home constructor too. What started me down the path looking at Wired was looking at Electrician Simulator. Based on those user reviews, not a very good game and seems to be on the trend of low-quality sims being released without much thought or research.
Bitburner for coding! I learned a lot more from that than Hacknet.
Wow, I have never seen Bitburner before! I do some periodic scripting in ServiceNow and have always wanted to take a deeper dive in to javascript. I will give it a whirl)
It's great fun, and I learned a lot (and rehoned old coding skills). Unfortunately I quit playing a while ago. It also doubles as a great idler, and I actually had it up and running at work (which is programming unrelated) to just have my crappy code execute because I hadn't taken the time or figured how to streamline better/faster output.
Another Bitburner here! It's literally open on my desktop right now. Great game for JavaScript, though it doesn't hold your hand. Think of it more as a sandbox to explore. It has a ton of different mechanics, and very self-led.
So after doing a bit more research last night, I couldn't find games per se, but simulators. Primarily driven through an LMS or eTextbook companion.
Interplay Learning - has a lot of courses across HVAC, electrical, solar, and so on. You can do the simulations in VR or on your desktop. There appears to be a free trial so I may spend some time over the next hour or so getting my headset set up and testing this one out.
I also found this Meta-specific platform for VR electrical training. I don't have a meta headset, so I am out of luck on this one.
ImmerseLearn has a variety of courses you can enroll in (and I assume pay $$$) to learn plumbing and HVAC.
Finally, there is Delmar Online Training Simulations that has some pretty good feedback based on reddit threads I was reviewing. There is a residential codes program available on some random PC software download sites, but I didn't want to chance downloading off one of those.
This might sound dumb, Yakuza 0 has a real estate mini-game, basically you can buy properties that will produce money long term, you do a big investment upfront and then collect fees periodically.
At first, I was not interested in the mini-game, nor I had enough saved for the first property, so I ignored it, this means that getting money required doing tasks that yield very little, and you struggle a lot at the beginning, you are not poor, but you have to be mindful with what you buy.
After saving for the first property purchase is when I got the learning, money stopped being a concern, I realized how easy landlords have it in life, it got me thinking how most wealth is inherited and not made, and how the majority of people will never even have the chance to buy a property for themselves.
This was something that I knew, but the game got me to actually experienced it from the point of view of wealthy people, to realize how unfair the system is unless you are lucky in many aspects, and that effort alone will not grant success, and by success I mean having true life security and roof over your head, not having to be uncertain for your future because you lose your job.
Oh good heavens you have just described crack cocaine tailor made for me, wrapped up in candy coated silly Japanese humour. Oh no. So long, world.
After playing many of the main games, sequels and spin-offs, I have to say that crack cocaine completely fits the description for these games.
You typically don't hire legally-not-Michael-Jackson as an advisor. Or a chicken (not a metaphor, an actual poultry member you win in a bowling championship). And you don't beat up other opponent in the area. Or at least not yourself.
Something tells me that housing would be better if we really do this.
Hopefully not a problem that I’m posting twice. This is not a video game but I feel I have to mention social deception/deduction “board” games here. With enough experience you can make tens of thousands of dollars with the skills you’ll learn. People don’t like to acknowledge it, but during salary negotiations your prospective employer will lie to you. “This is our standard offer”, “This is the l best we can to”, “We currently have another candidate we’re talking to” can all be lies. You need to be able to both detect when these are lies and capably lie back. Just pick things to say that can’t come back to bite you and of course maintain professionalism at all times. There’s also the strategy aspect of negotiation, but if you’re still caught up on the faulty feeling that lying in a negotiation is wrong you’ll be stuck at square 1.
I’ve been playing games like The Resistance, Avalon, Among Us, and Blood on the Clocktower for years. These days I put at least a couple hours into them per week, sometimes much more than that.
There is also the very real possibility that HR will not hire candidates who negotiate and have a procedure in place to rescind offer when they see a counter.
It's not you against one human hiring manager; it's you against a hostile corporate culture.
I've never seen that, but I'm also in a high demand field.
While I generally agree with you that corporate work culture is stacked against workers, years of reading Ask A Manager suggests to me that negotiating is still almost always your best bet. The site is full of success stories of people successfully negotiating more compensation. There are some instances of people losing an offer due to negotiating, but it's really just dodging a bullet for an unhealthy work environment.
Also, AAM is not a game, but probably the best resource I know of for job hunting, negotiation, and navigating work life.
Most of my answers have been said. Still I know people who passed Chinese history class taught by my friends mom from dynasty warriors.
Which is funny because said mom was apparently consulted by a dev in order to get it right
Bitburner was mentioned elsewhere but I also want to give a shoutout to Stationeers, which is not strictly a coding game and technically does not need any code to function. However, it gives you the ability to control certain things in the game via a very primitive coding language that is a take on the old MIPS language. To use it, you need to learn how to use limited variables and registers, and how to code efficiently. It's a really fun exercise in more fundamental, low-level coding than you typically see nowadays. An example of some code you might run (calculating some ideal gas law stuff):
This war of mine taught me what it feels like to be a civilian in combat zones, and the importance of morale and community for survival.
Forgetful Dictator might be a bit more edutainment than you're looking for, but I had a good time with it. It's a gamified way of learning countries, capitals, flags, and a little bit of trivia.
My wife is down for this game. She loves geography and geography-adjacent trivia!
Forgetful Dictator - geography, world flags, capitals. Quite educational and I think it's free.
The Farmer was Replaced - python programming.
Human Resource Machine the basics of programming.
Hacknet - a reasonable facsimile of hacking / netsec.
Universe Sandbox (Legacy Edition) is unfortunately not available on Steam anymore, and I cannot vouch for its successor, but it was a pretty cool physics / universe simulator.
Cities Skylines - an argument could be made that you learn about city planning and management.
Several of the more recent Assassin's Creed games (Origins, Odyssey, and I think Valhalla) have a "Discovery Tour" mode, which is like a non-violent open world museum tour. It's a great repurposing of the game technology.
...i can't point you to any specific title today, twenty years later, but a popular bridge-building simulator from the early 2000s has since spawned an entire genre of 2d/3d structural design games which do a fantastic job of teaching structural engineering principles...
West Point Bridge Designer - the most enjoyable aspect of my high school engineering class!
Maybe Factorio counts? I've seen a lot of posts from people who said they love the game and also happen to be engineers who design actual factory layouts. It might not directly teach you useful knowledge but the thinking process is probably quite similar.
Personally I've learned a lot from Dwarf Fortress and it's accurate naming of rocks and ores. There's also the rare animals and some fun names for specific animal genders.
Can confirm this, I often describe Factorio and Satisfactory as “all the fun parts of work, and none of the annoying ones.”
I have enjoyed a game called Turing Complete which teaches you computers from logic gate to assembly. I’ve heard it described as the first semester of an electronics degree (but don’t know how accurate that is!).
It’s currently being rebuilt with a different engine which is in alpha stage. I tried the initial game and really like it, although never finished it as then I became a dad, and my free time plummeted.
I plan on trying again when I have a bit more time (and energy!), and the new engine is out of alpha. Would recommend.
Geoguessr. It requires a monthly payment but IMO that’s fair as Google significantly increased their maps API fees a few years back.
I play the game in 2v2 ranked competitive play with a friend. I’m currently Gold 1 (hopefully Master 2 by the end of the year!). As an American I don’t have to know a ton of world knowledge. But since I started playing I have acquired a ton of little pieces of information on all of the countries with good street view coverage.
You need to learn which side of the road the cars drive on. That’s a fun exercise in learning where used to be a British colony. You also just see a ton of the world from the road side. So now I have little questions to ask people I meet. Meet a guy from South Africa? Ask him why every rural property has a sign saying you need to stay away or you’ll get shot. Someone from Uruguay? Ask him about the short buildings in Montevideo (apparently a zoning law type thing).
The game has singlehandedly elevated me out of the “ignorant American” stereotype.
What do you mean by short buildings?
Hardly anything above 3 stories tall.
That's true in more peripheral parts of montevideo. In the more central neighborhoods buildings are at least 5 stories high. Most are around 10. There are height regulations but the shortest limit is around 13 meters, highest is 31 I think. The shorter buildings are more because of economics than regulation.
This was at a hostel. That guy had to run off before I could interrogate him further. I did learn some fun stuff from a Greek guy though. He really hates North Macedonia.
"You know how little that narrows it down?"
Oh, he also hates Turkey
Geotastic is a staple on my team at my work. I paid some amount of money awhile ago so that I could host multiplayer lobbies for large groups and creat custom maps. I solicit feedback on locations from team members like hometowns or dream vacation locations and we play periodically as a group. Always a big hit)
Kingdom Come Deliverance I & II can teach quite a bit about medieval life around 1400 in Bohemia, including the political struggles of the time and the works of early church reformers like Jan Hus.
Both games come with codexes with information about a large number of topics, and the devs worked with historians to reconstruct the historical villages and castles, e.g. Trosky castle.
Depends on what you call a game, but Advent of Code might count for teaching/exercising CS concepts.
CSS Grid Garden (online) for learning CSS by growing your carrot garden.
I've not played it myself, but a while ago I was chatting with a friend about how I don't understand how a computer gets from logic gates and electrical signals to actual computing, they recommended MHRD to demonstrate it.