Educational Games

Lectures bore me. I like interactive experiences - I like to participate in my own learning. That is why I like dialogues, and it is also why I am now totally enthusiastic about using and creating educational games and simulations.

A few years ago I began attending an utterly amazing and fascinating conference called NASAGA (NorthAmericanSimulationsAndGamingAssociation?). If you go to this conference, you'll meet people who are experts in using games and simulations (and storytelling) to transfer knowledge. The conference itself is completely interactive -- i.e. nary a PowerPoint slide to be seen!

My best game inventions so far include:

PatternsPoker? (http://industriallogic.com/games/pp.html)
PatternsCocktail? (http://industriallogic.com/games/pcocktail.html)
eXPlanations (http://industriallogic.com/games/explanations.html)
Showdown (http://industriallogic.com/games/showdown.html)

My best simulations so far include:

(NEW) PairDraw (http://industriallogic.com/games/pairdraw.html) - a pair-programming simulation
ScreenTest? - an end-2-end xp simulation, used in our eXtremeProgrammingWorkshop.

Is anyone else using games and simulations to help do knowledge transfers? --JoshuaKerievsky

ExtremeHour is an EducationalSimulation?
Gand of Four TrivialPursuit (http://homepages.tesco.net/~jophran/UKPatterns/plunk1/Gofpurs.html), invented by JamesNoble and CharlesWeir (JamesAndCharles) at EuroPLoP'98.
GofMorningtonCrescent