More Gamification: Serious Games

In my last post, I wrote about playing games for education in the classroom.  This time, I want to talk about games that students can play at home.  I found one called 3rd World Farmer that does a great job illustrating the hardships faced by people in certain other areas of the world.  The player controls a family struggling to succeed on a farm under harsh conditions, battling drought, sickness, civil war, and a slew of other calamities.  Each turn in the game covers a year, meaning that one game might span generations - if you're lucky.  3rd World Farmer is a relatively simple, but brutally difficult game.  I played at least a dozen times, and most of my families died out before achieving success.



3rd World Farmer was available in Spanish for a time, and I hope the translated version returns.  It would be an excellent at-home complement to farming, finance, or even family vocabulary units, reinforcing the material while also promoting strategic thinking and global awareness.