We Millennials were raised in the era of the computer lab, when Oregon Trail was a childhood touchstone, and Carmen San Diego had her own TV show on public broadcasting. We’ve carried these games and their lessons with us for decades. But as parents to a fresh generation of gamers, things seem comparatively complicated.
Where’s the educational video game porridge that’s just right?
It’s easy enough to find something bland. Explicitly educational apps like Khan Academy and other school-friendly learning programs that mix language and math lessons with game design, albeit prioritizing learning over fun. But how many kids beg for bonus homework? Meanwhile, the games that can hold kids' interest for longer than a TikTok (Fortnite, Call of Duty) appear at best nutrition-free, and at worst, intellectually regressive. Ask a tween to explain their favorite Roblox brain rot, then resist the urge to declare future generations doomed.
Well, my fellow anxious parents, this haggard veteran games journalist and parent of an 8-year-old has mostly good news. Infinite educational experiences can be had with almost any video game. But to find those games and their educational value, your children will need your help.
It starts with you taking a few video games for a spin. For parents who already love playing, congrats. You have an excuse to play more. For parents who’d prefer a complete video game ban, this will take some philosophical evolution, but what is good parenting if not adaptation?
The best educational video games for kids are the ones they have access to. Many of the games they’re already playing probably fit this description. That could be a new sports game, a weekend-devouring strategy game, or, yes, even a first-person shooter.
To unlock the educational potential of these games, you must first accept that the medium isn’t inherently good or bad, thoughtful or moronic. A video game is what you make of it.
Think of playing video games like surfing Wikipedia. The user-maintained encyclopedia is a notorious internet rabbit hole, inside of which an entire lunch break can be lost “researching” the Hartford Circus Fire or the Valeriepieris circle. However, when wielded with curiosity and intention, Wikipedia becomes an astonishingly powerful starting point for expanding our understanding of nearly every part of the world.
Games operate in similar ways. Like the hyperlinks in a Wikipedia article, games are designed with countless diversions and distractions meant to nab your attention. But they are similarly rife with art, music, storytelling, science, and history.
You’ve probably heard of the Assassin’s Creed series, a blockbuster action franchise that blends sci-fi and historical fiction, tasking players with fighting fictional secret societies lurking in the shadows of real historical settings. More recent entries offer supplementary modes that let players explore their worlds—the decadent recreations of 9th-century Anglo-Saxon England, classical Greece, and Ancient Egypt—like virtual museum exhibits. No violence, just tourism.
Of course, your kid may prefer to play the non-educational side of the game, with all the adventures and, well, assassinations. That, too, has value. Sit alongside your child as they play Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey, and you’ll have an excuse to chat with them later about side characters like Hippokrates or Sokrates. Or if that’s too bookish, explore an ultra-detailed recreation of the Colosseum, from the public’s seats to the fighters’ chambers.
Modern video games are so big, so elaborate, so dense with systems with which to experiment. For those fresh to games, let’s dig into that word: systems. Games are composed of cause and effect systems, or mechanics, that allow you and the game to react to one another. Perhaps a farming game allows you to plant crops and dig irrigation. By putting those two activities together, you get the effect of growing plants without the need for manual, daily watering. That’s a system working—in the world and in the game too!
Look closely enough, and you will find something in nearly every game that strikes curiosity, the tinder that ignites long-term intellectual interest. Madden features deep walkthroughs of the complexity of sports play design, along with deep dives into the history of football. Simulator games like Kerbal Space Program and American Truck Simulator teach players of all ages the fundamentals of real careers, from applied rocket science to the moment-to-moment decisions of long-distance shipping. Minecraft alone allows children to learn everything from engineering to programming to terraforming.
There are exceptions to address. Like so many teachers, child therapists, and mental health experts, I strongly discourage children from playing games that seek to commoditize their time and offer nothing in return beyond dopamine hits. These are the free-to-play games that fill the app stores, the ones that badger your kid to make just one more in-app purchase. These games—like so many social media apps—are created with dark patterns meant to turn play into a habit bordering on addiction.
These games aren’t rabbit holes, they’re rabbit traps. And the best way to get your kid away from them is to redirect their interest to a different field, away from the exploitative junk of their smartphone, and onto a game that they play, rather than a game that plays them.
Many parents make the mistake of limiting their kids' video games to what’s available on their smartphone or tablet, seeing a video game console or PC as a dangerous escalation of the hobby. Take the opposite approach. Console and PC games are largely crafted, intentional experiences, paid for up front. There’s no perfect place for your kids to play games, but smartphones dramatically increase your child’s odds of getting sucked into the worst the hobby has to offer.
So, where do you start on turning gaming experiences into educational gaming experiences?
If your kid is open to you joining them on their video game journey, try to pair their interests with genres ripe with literary, historical, and mathematical subjects. Is your child bookish or loves anime? Sift through visual novels. Do they love history or economics? Search for strategy games. Is your kid obsessed with horror and gore? You will find countless games inspired by Lovecraft, Poe, and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
For parents of kids who prefer to pick their own games, read reviews and analyses of the games. Learn about the settings of the games. Or simply help your child to slow down and see the game not as a distraction, but as a work of art. Behind the fire of a machine gun or the squish of a goomba, there is art. There is music. There is programming and beauty.
Best of all? You can find all types of games at many public libraries, right alongside other educational materials!
I will not promise that any of these games is as enriching as a book, or as educational as their homework. But chosen wisely, they can build interest in their studies and provide a few unforgettable informational nuggets they’ll never forget.
After all, we Oregon Trail players will never forget the dangers of dysentery.
