Why Games?
Games are not just for younger kids. Games and simulations can offer older students something that textbooks rarely do: a role to inhabit, a decision to make, and a consequence to wrestle with. They offer a level of agency that fits perfectly with a student-centered classroom.
Ninety-nine percent of my students will not become professional historians. That’s okay. I want them to develop an interest in the discipline that they can carry with them into adulthood and help them develop as critical thinkers along the way; sometimes, class should just be fun. Games and simulations can have an academic purpose and class should not be a boring trudge through content and traditional assignments.
When structured intentionally, games and simulations allow students to experience abstract concepts, making them more real and leading to deeper learning. Students can apply factual knowledge in context and practice historical thinking skills from the curriculum in a way that is both emotionally and socially engaging.
Games and simulations can also help them see history as a series of decisions made by real people under pressure with limited information rather than a tidy series predetermined events. Effective game-based learning in the social studies classroom is not about amusement for amusement’s sake; it’s about establishing an interactive structure that clarifies how systems work and makes thinking and learning visible through actions.
When I am considering how and where to integrate games or simulations into my own practice, there are a few steps I work through. First: Is the simulation concept-driven or content-driven? The answer determines the structure, mechanics, and complexity of the simulation. Sometimes there’s already an excellent activity created by another brilliant teacher that fits my needs perfectly. Other times, I need to design something more tailored to my classroom. When I’m building a simulation from scratch, I rely on the principles below to guide the development process and ensure it serves the learning goals and will be a worthwhile use of time.
Principles of Game Design
Make the System Visible – Systems are all around us. Economic incentives, political constraints, or social hierarchies create very real limits on human behavior and shape how historical events have unfolded. A good game makes it easy for students to see the underlying logic of these systems. Players should be able to articulate how the game models reality and where it simplifies. Finding the balance between the two is another challenge.
Decision Must Matter – If you have ever played poker at a free table where chips are worthless, then you understand why this principle is important. There will always be one player who raises when they should fold, going all-in on a three-eight off suite because they “might get lucky.” Games can only function as intended when choices have real consequences. Students need to consider trade-offs, limited resources, uncertainty, or risk in a way that mirrors real world or historical dynamics. This also makes things more fun.
Roles Create Perspective – Giving students roles forces them to consider how different actors perceive events and how agency functions. Ideally, all roles have limited information so each student experiences a version of Rumsfeld’s known knowns, known unknowns, and unknown unknowns. Roles encourages concrete analysis of perspective and help students build historical empathy.
Keep Cognitive Load Appropriate – Don’t overload students with rules. A simple mechanic that models one key idea is more powerful than a complicated system that tries to do everything at once. In their book How Learning Happens, Paul Kirschner and Carl Hendrick synthesize decades of research on working memory, showing that high cognitive load consumes the mental bandwidth students need to think flexibly and deeply. In short, if students are too focused on rules and mechanics they will struggle to internalize the conceptual or content-based learning is meant to demystify. As students get more familiar with certain types of games or simulations, then you can introduce more complex mechanics to model more sophisticated historical processes. Simplicity should always be the starting point.
Build in Reflection – The game is only half the lesson; the debrief is the other half. Students must connect their experiences back to the concept being taught, historical case-study, or essential question. Without this the students will likely remember they did something fun, but struggle to explain its academic purpose.
Use Mechanics as Metaphors – There are a lot of mechanics that can be built into games: dice, bidding, resource tokens, hidden information, time pressure, etc. Whatever mechanics are chosen should reflect the dynamics of the larger system being modeled. For example:
- scarcity = limited tokens
- uncertainty = dice or hidden cards
- hierarchy = uneven information or asymmetric power
- diplomacy = trading, alliances, negotiation
Mechanics should mirror your learning goal.
Clarify Issues of Accuracy – Models are, by their nature, simplified and inaccurate. Make sure you specify what the game simplifies, exaggerates, or distorts. Students learn historical critical thinking by examining what a model shows and what it leaves out. Treaty negotiations are a great example of this. Students should assess how their simulated treaty differed from a real treaty, thereby analyzing differing power structures, factors, or personalities. Alternate history can have value if it is carefully crafted.
There are, of course, some historical topics that are not appropriate for games or simulations as they would risk trivializing things insensitively. Like any other pedagogical strategy, games and simulations need to be one tool among many. I love Harkness discussions, but I don’t do them every day. I assign DBQs because they bring together so many historical thinking skills, but if I asked students to write on daily I’d face a mutiny. Games and simulations are no different.
Examples
I wish I had the technical know-how to design something web-based like several of the resources below. If you’ve never used them, check them out. However, you don’t need a super-techy simulation to get students to think and engage deeply.
Evolution of Trust – This simulation breaks down the basics around game theory and cooperation vs. betrayal. Great for application for studying causation in wars, diplomacy, or similar topics. I’ve used after a more basic game of prisoner’s dilemma to teach the World Wars.
Build Your STAX – This investing game is based around real historical data. Students will be introduced to various investment tools and can consider economics concepts like risk, diversification, business cycles, etc. Makes for a great lesson opener. I guarantee the students, no matter the age, will replay after school to try and maximize their earnings.
Diplomacy – I have written before about integrating Diplomacy into history courses. Play it online using the webDiplomacy or backstabbr platforms.
Activehistory.co.uk – These are pay to play, but I’ve used a couple of them and like the way they push students to make and justify decisions with historical detail.
Some of my own creations are available in previous posts. Recently, I’ve been designing them for both AP European History and my 9th grade Integrated Social Studies course.