Meet the Team for Issue 59

[Joe]

Meet the Team for Issue 59

Each week we ask a question of our staff and featured writers to learn a little bit about them and gain some insight into where they are coming from.

This week's question is:

What was your favorite educational game growing up? This doesn't have to be a videogame, for the old-timers in the audience!

Chris Dahlen, "Playing to the Test"
How can you beat Lemonade Stand? We played it in the school computer lab, and it was frustrating and arbitrary - who knew it would rain right after I raised prices? - but it taught a valuable lesson: If you can just figure out the algorithm, you can always get ahead.

Shawn Williams, "Learning the Gaming Way
I think Dungeons & Dragons taught me more than any other "educational" game. I learned how to ration supplies, map reading, basic math skills, how to calculate the length of rope needed for a typical outing and not to drink strange potions I find. Oh, and to hate elves. Important lessons, every one.

Shannon Drake, "Piano Wizards"
I learned a lot playing Doctor.

JR Sutich, Contributing Editor
Dodgeball. I only played it during recess or P.E. so it's educational. It taught me everything I would need to know about Social Engineering and Hierarchy. Machiavelli would have excelled at it. Eliminate the weak and undesirable first, make alliances, then betray as soon as it's to your advantage. Nobody makes me bleed my own blood.

Joe Blancato, Associate Editor
Team sports. Play your position as well as you can, back up the people in front of you and don't get down on slumping teammate where he can hear you. And I also know enough performance-related platitudes to make any boss think I'm humble!

Jessica Fielhauer, Layout Artist
Oregon Trail, baby!

Now, we put the question to you: What was your favorite educational game growing up?

Permalink

 

[Teleios]

Math Blaster
Number Munchers
Treasure Math Storm
Gizmos & Gadgets

 

[Lara Crigger]

When I was very young, my father had a Tandy game about dinosaurs, a game whose name I've long since forgotten. But I remember you had to use certain clues about a dinosaur's fossil to determine what type of dinosaur it was and when it lived. I spent so many hours with those fossils, mainly because I figured if I could master this game, then becoming a paleontologist would be a snap. Wish I could remember the name of it, though. *sigh*

Also, I loved Number Munchers. That's how I learned all my primes!

 

[Goofonian]

I always liked the incredible machine.
Its borderline educational, but they let us play it during classtime at school so I'm gonna run with it.
and I LOVED wrath of the gods, which is still being sold as an educational title for history classes. I've actually been considering picking it up and having another play through.

 

[Meophist]

My dad had me playing tones when I was a kid. Myst, Incredible Machine, Reader Rabbit, Oregon Trail, some trading game, some math game, some life-management game...

Overall, I don't think I really learned alot from those games. That trading game helped with geography, I think.

 

[Bongo Bill]

I don't know whether I actually learned anything from it, but I still play Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego.

 

[DrRosenRosen]

LOGO for introducing me to programming and Will Harvey's Music Construction Set. Also, it's not a game, but Compute's Gazette for making me type in all of those C64 games I wanted to play.