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From as far back as JumpStart 1st Grade, players collect points by playing games and interacting with the world, which eventually become designer milk caps, the hot commodity of a mid-90s 1st grade classroom.

Games motivate players in a myriad of different ways, sometimes changing and adapting with the times, sometimes carving out new ways to do so, but they always push players forward.Įdutainment games do likewise.

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Even in-game, there is something daunting, but ever so satisfying, about filling out a vast upgrade tree for one’s player character. Objectives push players forward, whether plot-related or not: collect these things, overcome this obstacle, rescue these people. Nowadays, there are achievements, trophies, leaderboards in all sorts of different games. The short version: gameplay makes learning less boring, and learning makes gameplay more accessible than it would be in traditional video games! Continue?Īsk anyone who’s played an arcade game in the last few decades, or anyone who’s picked up a side-scrolling Super Mario game since the 1980s, there’s always a mention of “Hi Scores,” or tracking one’s score somehow. There is no minimum they need to serve Frankie the Dog is thrilled with their efforts no matter what. In JumpStart 1st Grade, players try to serve as many students their lunch as possible before a time limit runs out.

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(2015) theorize that, in Edutainment, “activities can primarily have a learning focus (learning mechanics) or an assessment focus (assessment mechanics),” although, “in many cases, they focus on both.” I’ve read this as Edutainment having a twofold goal for players: learning how to play the game (understanding the material AND the game mechanics), and learning how to win the game (showing you understand the material). It is, after all, what differentiates a game from other forms of media. The most important part of any game, above story, above characters, above the neat little doodads players can acquire in-game, is the actual element of interactivity, or of gameplay. Parallels in Plain Sight - Educational Games as Games Mechanics Make the Game By examining both aspects of Edutainment separately, we can see the potential they not only had back in the/my Golden Age of Education Games, but the medium’s potential going forward.

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To figure out the full extent, I’m going to look back at my old educational video games (referred to as Edutainment from here on), the JumpStart series and the ClueFinders (grade-level entries only), to find out what makes them tick both as video games and as educational tools. JumpStart 1st Grade had a hub classroom.īut thinking back, many years out of grade school and way too deep into a love of video games, I got to wondering, was there any specific rhyme or reason to games like that? Turns out, yeah, these educational games are a bit more than just rote drills and challenges you could find on your homework sheets, splashed against a colorful, interactive backdrop.