Game Spotlight (Education: History) Master of Olympus Zeus + Pharaoh

Games can be great aids to education, any gamer will tell you that, there are always games that helped a gamer learn something or sparked an interest in a topic. Due to the article I wrote on education and gaming, here on this blog. a few people have asked me to recommend specific games to them that might help their kids learn about topics in interesting ways. So I had the idea to spotlight some of the games I personally think are interesting and informative!

So to kick off this brand new type of post I have chosen two games that are very dear to me personally. Master of Olympus Zeus and Pharaoh,  both were published by Sierra and developed by Impressions Games / Activision. They may be retro but the charming visual design and style still looks nice even to this date. These games are really great for learning about ancient history and will be a great conversation starter for you and your kids. 

Master of Olympus Zeus: 

This game is very obviously about ancient Greece, so how good is it for leaning about this part of history?  You play as a ruler that has to build and run cities, this involves tasks ranging from making sure your people are fed and watered, to honouring the Gods and Goddesses with massive temples and even building a mighty military. The way the game is structured teaches useful skills in and of itself, like management and tactics but it is the history that is my main focus here.  Master of Olympus is actually reasonably Historically accurate (Given our current knowledge of the time period) it also weaves in the more mythical side of ancient Greece in an interesting and engaging way.  Some of the missions are based on recorded  events and exploits of Greek heroes detailed in the Homeric Epics. Every inch of the game is steeped in the time period it is set in, from the comical names of the people running around the city, to the often funny quotes they say.   

I think this game would be a great way in for anyone wanting to learn about ancient Greece in a fun and engaging way, its accuracies will delight and its inaccuracies will be a great talking point (especially if you get your kids to research on their own and compare and contrast what they find) it is an entertaining game with some funny jokes and references dotted throughout and boasts interesting, intuitive mechanics. It also has a nice variety of difficulty settings so you can play an easy game or go for more of a challenge.  Fair warning though I have found this game to be often utterly absorbing, it is so easy to spend hours building fantastic cities, immersed in the splendour of ancient Greece. 

I think despite its age it does hold up really well and has a reasonable price tag on GoG.com. (which I tend to use for their easy and no fuss downloads as well as pretty decent pricing.) The graphics as I mentioned are dated but still very pretty due to style.  This game will teach people (especially kids) a lot about ancient Greece passively while they are having fun but its true wealth for learning is in the detail and this game is packed with little details that are ripe for further research and conversation.  This really is an old gem of a game and if you engage with your kids using it you both will end up learning a lot!

Also worth noting is this games expansion pack Poseidon, this focuses on the God of the sea and Atlantis and while it deviates from fact and history it delves into myth and rumour. It is a very fun expansion and is a great way to learn about the myths of Atlantis.  Not quite as useful for teaching History but still great fun! It also adds a level and campaign editor which itself can passively teach a whole load of useful skills like math and design.

Pharaoh: 

Although it came out a year earlier than Zeus this game is by no means dwarfed by its younger sibling. This game is all about ancient Egypt and again is surprisingly accurate in terms of its historical content.  The controls are largely the same and equally intuitive and although a little different from Zeus it proves fairly easy to switch between the two once you have learned them.      

Once again the real gems of this game are in the details, the little jokes and references, accurate names for buildings , every inch of this game even down to the music really make you feel like you are running a city in ancient Egypt just like its younger sibling makes you feel like you are running a city in ancient Greece.  Again the passive management and tactical skills alone make it a valid game to suggest your kids try, from building military, to trading, to making alliances with other cities these two games are both, in my opinion, well in the top spot for best city building games out there.

The one and only critique I have for this game is due to the slight lack of Deity coverage. The ancient Egyptians were big on their Gods and only four of the major Gods and Goddesses are covered in great detail, though the others do get nods in some of the bigger temples.  In the light of education however this can be completely used to a parent or teachers advantage by getting kids to research on their own and compare and contrast. 

This game also has an expansion 'Cleopatra' dedicated to the female pharaoh, moving the games times setting forward.  This expansion stays pretty historically accurate and adds new and interesting features like mountain based tomb complexes.  They like Zeus + Poseidon come bundled on GoG.com for a pretty reasonable price.

I chose to cover both of these games because they are made by the same developers merely a year apart and both focus on periods of history I really love.  They both use the same mechanics and play style and are two gems when it comes to city building games.  I would highly recommend buying both and have personally spent many hours playing each, immersed in ancient Greece and Egypt alike. 

Games can be really great aids to learning and if you engage with your kids on these games you will both get a lot out of them, these make learning fun and enjoyable and should spark interest in what are two amazing periods in history!  

How to learn Japanese the nerdy way (like a boss)

Japanese... this language has fascinated me for so long, the way it sounds, the beauty of its writing, love it or hate it it's hard to deny its usefulness at the least.

So for those who are unlucky and never got the opportunity to study this in formal schooling or even for those of you who are indeed lucky enough to be doing this at school etc then lets dig in!

For all my fellow nerds out there Japanese is probably one of the most accessible and indeed useful languages out there! Want to watch your anime in subs without having to read? Better learn Japanese. Want to read imported game manuals or pre production game info? Again you are going to need to get a basic grasp. 

So what are some of the ways you can learn easily just by being your nerdy self you ask? Well believe it or not there are heaps of things you can do that will both passively and actively boost your learning of this amazing language. 

Anime: This is obvious to most people that watch anime but you really can start absorbing words without even knowing it just by watching anime. Language experts often say the best way to learn a language is to immerse yourself in it and for those of us that can't afford a trip to Japan anime is pretty much the next best thing.  With so many anime out there anyone can find something they like. So if your into anime already great! Keep watching and watch in Sub (Subtitles) and not Dub. If you haven't watched anime then give it a try, from love stories to adventure to space robots I promise there is an anime that will interest you out there. Again here watching it Japanese with subtitles is key. I myself have been watching anime in sub for years and can pick out and remember a tonne of words with no effort put in on my part! (Stuff like, always, everyone, dream, white, damn, I love you, I am, etc). Granted this is no substitute for actually studying it but boosting both your comprehension of sentence structure,  words and phrases with no actual work involved is a pretty sweet pay off for sitting down and watching some amazing stories. 

Ok you say so I can start to get a really basic grasp just by watching cartoons that's pretty neat and all but what I can do that is nerdy to actually study it? 

Well here are several nerdy things you can do with the help of word charts of Japanese Kanji for both Katakana and Hiragana. 

1. Pokémon Names: Have you ever wonder traded your Pokémon? Got some Japanese ones? Cool use the sheets to figure out the names of the Pokémon and the original Trainer! (write it down and keep a book) See if every now and then you can read them without using the sheet from memory!

2. Imported Games: If you have any Japanese imports use the sheets to try and figure out bits of the manual or game. (again writing it in a book can be helpful)

3. Pre-release game info:  If you love games  and the studio is releasing info before the release you can again use the charts to look up what the characters used actually spell so you can figure out what that boss is going to be and what the moves could be ahead of release!  A YouTuber Gaijin Goombah actually has a mini-series of videos on doing exactly this!

4. Last but not least you can use your internet skills! This may sound like a bit of a no-brainer but the internet is actually pretty jam packed with sites that will help you learn Japanese from Kanji sheets like the ones linked above to actual courses and lessons .

So there you have it folks! Ways to start or boost your leaning of a language just by being your fantastic nerdy self! 

Hope you enjoyed this article and as always if you want to fling me some pocket change so I can keep blogging you can donate via paypal to kara_mad@yahoo.co.uk all donations are loved and greatly appreciated. That is also the email you can get me on if you want to suggest content for me to blog about!

How to get the most out of gaming. (For parents who worry about gamer kids)

It can be a little daunting being a parent in the modern world, with your kids wanting the latest consol for Christmas, spending days glued in front of a TV blasting enemies or jumping bright coloured platforms.

Do you feel like you can't relate to them or worry that they aren't getting anything from the experience other than entertainment? Well there are some simple ways you can put your mind at ease.

Take an interest: This may be really hard to do when your young child is constantly babbling at you about brightly coloured monsters or when your teen is talking about how they 'pwnd' all the enemies and got a lot of head shots but ask them what they are playing and what they like about it. There may be surprising ways you can turn it into a positive experience for them or for both of you! For example if your teen really likes war games, talk to them about the period its depicting, the differences of real verses game world. Any WW2 game can open up a dialog on that part of history, tell them about any relatives that were alive back then, show them family medals from then if you have them. Find out why your child likes the games and talk to them. Maybe the reason your son or daughter likes the monster games is because they take care of them or maybe they enjoy the story, you won't know unless you ask and believe me they will relish in telling you all about it. 

Play together: If you are into games this is easier, Love an old Mario or some other retro game? Take turns in playing it with your kid or better still find a co-op, they will have fun seeing what you like and trying to do it as well as you if not better. If you are not into games this can be a little scary but ask your child to teach you or show you, they will get a massive kick out of feeling so accomplished and helping a grown-up and you get to see how smart they actually are.  

Offer help: Knowing that a parent has your back, even if it's just that you can snuggle on the sofa, safe in the knowledge that they will Google an answer for you when you get stuck, really means a lot to a child. It shows that not only are you interested in them but that you are there for them too! Here is where gamer parent's actually fall over, yes they may have fallen down the same pit at least a hundred times but accept if they don't take you up on your offer of assistance, do help them if they really are stuck but try to encourage them to solve the puzzle or jump a gap on their own. Be supportive and encouraging, as tempting as it is to do it for them, they won't learn or grow if you help them out the moment they become stuck, allow them to progress on their own at their own pace, be supportive if they fail, they will get there in end, no matter how annoying you find the game over music. 

Encourage deeper research:  Tones of games have interesting facts hidden in them, they are a great way to encourage your child to research deeper into things, be it finding all the secret arrears on a walkthrough or learning about the meaning of the names of certain characters; for example in one game a character was called Yggdrasil, this opens up a whole area of research on Norse mythology that you can explore together and may even give you both a deeper understanding of some parts of the game. I myself would not know some of the things I do now if I hadn't seen it in a game and researched it.  You can even weave some games into your child's education, for example if they are studying samurai at school then why not play something Like Shogun Total War and bring that part of history to life in a small way? There are so many games with so many subjects that even pure entertainment games can be an opportunity to educate. 

Pick age appropriate games:  It's very easy to blame games for having a bad effect on your kids but be mindful of the age ratings on games, they are there for a reason and are too often ignored. Can your child really handle the content of the 18 rated game they are bugging you for at the age of 12? A smart way to make informed choices is to play a little yourself or ask the staff in the shop what they think of it. There are games out there that can give very positive life lessons about friendship, love, sacrifice, teamwork and a whole host of other things. For example the game 'Tales of Symphonia' is packed with positive lessons like how to be brave and selfless. Read reviews and make informed choices about the games you actually let your kids play. 

Get the whole family involved: Party games can be a really great way to spend family nights in and they are becoming more and more accessible to non gamers . Why not have a Wii Sports night where even Grandma and Grandpa join in with the bowling? There are plenty of party games that you can enjoy as a family that are not just fun at Christmas or parties but great for family nights in!

So there you go, the key things to keep in mind are; listen, try and relate even in a small or remote way, be supportive, be encouraging, make informed choices on the games they play, get involved if you can, and if you can find an educating tie in go for it!

Update: I will be doing spotlights on games that can help education the first of which is now here.