A Tale of Two Games: An Intertwining History of Mainstream and Educational Video Games

Abstract

This paper will look at the histories of both mainstream and education games from 1980-2009 along with the way they coincided through popularity, technological advancements, and educational possibilities. Differences between educational and mainstream games will be explained along with popular video games that fit in each definition. This paper will attempt to identify problems related to mainstream and educational games and how society views the two different genera of games. It has been found that mainstream games were well received from the public and their popularity grew as the decades went on. As for educational games, their popularity tended to start off high with each new decade or advancement in technology, but then petered out. Over time it has been hard to convince people over the use of educational gaming, but towards the end of the 2000s decade edutainment made a comeback.