Do you think more games should try to teach players?

I don't mind some decent edutainment now and then, but I think it's the best fit for these kinda period piece games.

Yeah I don't see why not. Historical parodies like Wolfenstein could be really cool if contrasted with facts and real history as contrast in maybe some side mode or menu. Teaching people about the things you are playing off of could even enhance the enjoyment of the main game for people that are willing to look at it.

I feel like Paradox games or stuff like Total War and Civilization are also a nice fit for a lot of history and socieconomic learning, you could put a bit more meat on the reality of what those games are abstracts of.

Other than that there's plenty you could do in other genres too. You don't have to full Rocksmith, but Guitar Hero could've defintely put something in where people could learn basic music theory. Even just playing off of sheet music with a visual metronome could be an interesting mode even if you are still just using 5 plastic buttons.

Though honestly in a lot of cases I respect that developers don't have the time or don't prioritize things like this when they could be working on their core idea instead. I would personally value trying to make my ideal game instead of adding neat things on the side.

Yeah, I wish big publishers were financially incentivized to make different types of games, like nonfictional, documentary-style video games. Although, and I'm sure this will sound trite, but I don't think that a game needs to explicitly teach you about a specific topic in order to have an educational value.

Every game teaches me something, fam

You give me a Mass Effect game that teaches me the specifics of various planets we know of but still have all the fictional stuff in there too; I would be all over that.

On the balance, I have to say no. I mean, sure, that would be cool. I don't dispute games can be a powerful tool for learning - I learned more about Sekigahara history from playing Kessen than I did from a college class studying Japanese history, and AC:2 got me pretty interested in the Renaissance.

Having said that, if you're going to do it, do it right - and I have no confidence in developers to consistently do it right. For example, ME:A is a game that was so completely ignorant of basic science it made me cringe. There's a part in that game where your head-computer tells you "your blood will boil in 30 seconds" if you are exposed to the environment, and then lists the exterior temperature at 55 degrees Celsius. That's like 130 degrees Fahrenheit. That's unpleasantly hot, sure, but not "I'll die immediately without a sealed environment suit" hot.

That same planet was also supposed to be simultaneously "tidally locked" and have the entire surface in eternal daylight. With one sun. It's like the developers didn't even bother to pick up a single science book. If that's the quality of learning we'd get in games, then I'll pass.

Sure if it makes sense thematically. I like learning.

But there's game types where it probably doesn't make as much sense. Say like tetris.

For sure, this stuff in AC is actually making me want to buy the game.

It’s what I always wanted from this series.

Definitely the idea isn’t applicable universally, but I would love to see more of it.

Depends on the circumstance...

I think Brothers in Arms: The Road to Hill 30 was a respectful game that suits and edutainment mode. The same can’t be said for all games.

Though I kinda want to see this become common place so I can hold out hope for an edutainment mode in a new Duke Nukem game...

@therealturk: Well it’s a good thing that level of carelessness didn’t impact all facets of that game. Right?

...Right?

I liked the WW2 stuff in Brothers in Arms.

But if the balance was off, i would probably be annoyed.

What I love most about AC games is how they immerse us in a well researched historical peroid. I'm often inspired to seek out wikipedia or documentaries on youtube. I'd be interested in an fearures that teach players about history if done well, if done well.