Games that have "educated" you

[DarthMol]

I recently finished playing Valiant Hearts: The Great War - fantastic game, beatiful artwork and story - which is set in WWI. This puzzle adventure game is freely based on historic events but what I really liked about it was it told you a bit about the history behind what was happening in the game.

This was done through short entries accompanied by a picture giving a brief history of the battle or place you would be in at each part of the game. You'd then get a feel for what it might have been like as you play that section.

You can also find items in the levels which also have a brief description of what they were and what they were used for in the war: e.g. a small trench spade which the brief commentary tells you that soldiers sharpened the edges in order to use it as a weapon (viscerally demonstrated in the BF 1 trailer).

I came away from playing Valiant Hearts - both moved by the sincere story and, to my surprise, a bit more well informed about WWI.

What games have "educated" you in some way? In other words, taught you about the real world as you've played.

Notable others for me have been Assassins Creed (historic locations and buildings), Age of Empires II (great military leaders of the past)

 

[DieGrootHammer]

The obvious answer for me would be Kerbal Space Program. It taught me a fair few things about orbital mechanics and accurate space flight. If you want to properly play and properly enjoy the game it's just so much better to educate yourself on things like the Oberth Effect, Hohmann transfers, delta-v calculations, TWR calculations etc.

Deus Ex was also my first encounter with conspiracy theories of secret societies, and prompted me to start reading and learning about their history as well

Then games like Age of Empires and Rise of Nations is a good source of historic information, and have some really interesting points to share. In fact, lump Civilization into the mix as well

 

[Mister 44]

Some things I have learned from games:

• The best way to exorcise a demon is with a double-barrel, sawed-off shotgun.
• This one Japanese game taught me a lot (more than I needed to know, actually) about enemas.
• There is always a monster in the closet.
• Old people are very wise but tend to be cryptic.
• If there are a lot of food and first-aid kits laying around on the ground, prepare to die.
• Eating from a trashcan is totally acceptable and won't cause any health issues what-so-ever.
• Most problems in life can be solved by pressing buttons in a predefined sequence.
• The final sign of the apocalypse will be a timer counting down from 5 appearing above the heads of, well, everybody.

 

[mottamort]

Sid Meiers Civilisation 1 (yea, the oooold one) with its entire frikking encyclopedia about wonders, military types etc fascinated the CRAP out of me and I really learnt a lot of world history from it. The only other one I can think that even came close was Knights of Honor, which gave a bit of feudal europe history

 

[Jamie McKane]

The obvious answer for me would be Kerbal Space Program. It taught me a fair few things about orbital mechanics and accurate space flight. If you want to properly play and properly enjoy the game it's just so much better to educate yourself on things like the Oberth Effect, Hohmann transfers, delta-v calculations, TWR calculations etc.

This. It's so rewarding to apply real-world mathematics in Kerbal Space Program and use it to build awesome space craft/complete missions.

Now I feel like installing it again

 

[Gforced]

Yup Kerbal for sure. Learning about how acceleration works in orbit changed my view of space. Docking to a space station in real life is something akin to magic.

 

[Rambo919]

Thrixxx

Was years back when I had much less moral self control.... boredom, curiosity and hormones should not mix.

 

[murfle]

I learnt who John Muir was from Sam and Max

 

[mk786]

Age of Empires - Didnt know who Gengis khan, William Wallace and Joan of Arch were.