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What are some of the best educational games?
89
Ṁ7kṀ31k
2027
15%
Other
10%
PianoVision
9%
Quantum Odyssey
6%
Treasure Cove
6%
The Farmer Was Replaced
6%
Brain Age
6%
Dance Dance Revolution
6%
Math blasters
4%
Rocksmith
4%
Turing Complete
3%
Scale of the universe
3%
NandGame
2%
SHENZHEN I/O
2%
runescape
1.8%
Zoombinis
1.7%
Mahjong
1.2%
Scrandle

I'm looking for games that help people learn useful concepts. The games need to actually be enjoyable; an "educational" game that no one wants to play isn't actually doing much education. A few examples:

  • Cellcraft: Teaches basic cellular biology.

  • Minecraft: Teaches the basics of logic circuits. (Borderline because most players nowadays have no clue how redstone works.)

  • Understand/Eleusis: Teaches inductive reasoning.

  • Cookie Clicker: Teaches the power of exponential growth. (Ok, this one's a bit of a reach.)

  • Kerbal Space Program: Teaches orbital mechanics.

  • Manufactoria: Teaches concepts relating to finite-state automata and formal grammars. (This one likely isn't very fun for most people who aren't already interested in that sort of stuff, so it's not as good an example.)

  • Number Munchers: teaches basic arithmetic. (May not be all that fun.)

  • Magic: The Gathering: Teaches probabilistic reasoning. (Though not so much nowadays, most players are casual commander players who don't learn basic strategy.)

  • Universal Paperclips: Teaches people about our impending doom.

I'll resolve this market to the top 5 suggested games that I haven't played before, in 30/25/20/15/10 proportions based on the importance of the topics they teach and how good I think they are at teaching them.

There's no set resolution date on this market; I'll leave it open until I've had a chance to try out all of the suggestions that look interesting.

There will be no AI clarifications added to this market's description.

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bought Ṁ5 YES

Before it gets disqualified, dance dance revolution teaches music signatures, rhythm, note quantization, and simply by taking it excessively seriously you will also learn what the different musical components of songs are, what instruments there are and what they sound like, and some footwork. Obviously not "dancing", per se

This market informed me of the existence of The Farmer Was Replaced. I've played it these past couple of days and had loads of fun! Thank you Mr. Isaac King for creating this market.

bought Ṁ250 NO

@journcy Mahjong causes great damage to the human spirit without a single benefit

does manifold markets count as a game?

Dyson Sphere Program

bought Ṁ25 YES

@SorenJ I second turing complete. Having attended a cs degree, I'd say that game easily teaches the equivalent of a couple of modules, on computer architecture and low level programming!

Does manifold count as a game?

This one? Yes. :)

@No_uh teaches you how the brits have the worst fucking taste ever https://scrandle.com/

bought Ṁ200 YES

Hopefully virtual/augmented reality games are admissible!

PianioVision is a fantastic tool for practicing piano, a bit like playing Guitar Hero but on a real instrument.

I don't expect it to do too well because the resolution criteria make this sound more like a popularity contest than anything else, but I had to suggest it because it's been such a useful and valuable one for me.

@bens this teaches everything: geography, languages and scripts, license plates, lens aberrations, vehicles, street and urban infrastructure, utility pole design, vegetation, climate conditions around the world, etc

@IsaacKing just computer games? Or all games?

@bens All games. Eleusis is a card game.

The Farmer Was Replaced teaches both coding and solving problems through code as you advance through an rpg-style skill tree. https://store.steampowered.com/app/2060160/The_Farmer_Was_Replaced/

Crusader Kings 3

@Dulaman What does it teach?

@IsaacKing medieval geopolitics and social dynamics

@Dulaman oh good one tbh

Whoever is buying Yes on Magic the Gathering should really wait for clarification because I have a very high confidence that Isaac has actually played Magic the Gathering in the past. The market description includes "that I haven't played before".

@Eliza no way Isaac has played Magic, that seems unlikely to me from first principles, I mean, base rates are pretty low probably only 1% of Americans have played Magic, and he’s a Canadian and Canadians tend to be worse than Americans (and therefore have lower percentages at most things) so maybe like 0.5%. Even if we account for the fact that we know Isaac is famously a Magic player and TD, from Bayesian reasoning we probably shouldn’t go higher than like 10-15%

@IsaacKing it would really help me bet on this if I knew which of the listed games you have already played, since the description seems to say games you already played are ineligible to resolve Yes (? can you confirm that?).

@Eliza Games disqualified because I've played them before:

  • Chess

  • Monopoly

  • Age of Empires (Not sure if I played II specifically but I'll count the series since they're not that different)

  • Magic: The Gathering

  • Terraforming Mars

  • Civilization VI (I'm not sure if I played VI, but I played a ton of V and I have a vague recollection of briefly testing out VI)

  • Poker

  • Universal Paperclips

  • Cellcraft

  • Kerbal Space Program (Come on guys, it literally mentions this one in the description)

  • Factorio

There are also a few that I have a vague recollection of the name, but can't remember if I've played them, I would have to check:

  • Airport CEO

  • Plague Inc: Evolved

  • Europa Universalis

  • Poly Bridge

And answers disqualified for not being games:

  • Cool Math Games

  • Duolingo

I guess for all the ones I don't remember I shouldn't disqualify them, because the point of this market is for me to learn about new ways to teach people, and if I don't remember them then clearly I'm not already aware. So those 4 are still in.

@IsaacKing (Is this a thing where you can N/A already-played-games so it’s safe to bet without knowing what you’ve played?)

@TannerNewell They can't be N/A'd, but we could edit the titles to indicate they're ineligible.

sold Ṁ92 YES

@Eliza Good idea, done

Hmm, is it possible to convert a linked multi-choice market to unlinked? This would let me resolve answers one by one like I do on /IsaacKing/what-games-will-i-enjoy-playing-wit-cbf45af4ff9d, would be a better format.

@IsaacKing Sadly, that can't be done.

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