Do video games teach historic principles?

While I was in my interview with the professors, we got to talking about virtual economies and how there are many studies being done to determine if video games aren't simply "a waste of time."   I grew up playing regular, super Nintendo and lastly Nintendo 64 before making the switch to PC games where the first game I purchased was Sim City 2000.  You had to quickly learn common principles that cities need to function such as controlling taxes, maintaining water and power supplies, and having adequate governmental forces to regulate crime and natural disasters.

When I started to play "The Sims," (a game where you control the life of an avatar, earn money and build your house gradually) I started to realize and that our lives aren't much different than the fictional characters I'm controlling.  In the game, you have to maintain a balance of Hunger, Comfort, Bladder, Energy, Fun, Social, Hygiene, & Energy.  If any of those gets too low, your "Sim" cannot function efficiently (and sometimes not at all) until those levels are brought up.

When I'm having a busy day, lets say I've been driving to Utah from Washington, eating junk food, my teeth need to be cleaned, I need to take a shower, and I'm starving.  In this condition there's NO WAY I'm going to sit down at my computer and take a blackboard quiz.  I noticed that within myself I behave in a way very similar to that of the avatars in the game "The Sims."

I can write on and on about the benefits of learning from civilizations from "Where in time is Carmen Sandiego" or "Age of Empires."  I remember playing campaigns in the latter game when I controlled Joan of Arc and led her followers to take on missions which actually occurred in real life.


Recently I found another game being advertised on facebook called "City of Wonder" which is designed to show you the progress of civilizations and as they progress, you see why it is and how it is that they get better. The unique items of this game is they provide you with "advisors" by which they recommend you to act/research/purchase varies items for your civilization.  In the image below, the cultural advisors suggests that there is something significant about having religion within a culture to explain the unexplainable.

  As we study the various subjects of democracy and the social contract as well as history in general, we can learn a lot about how and why societies have behaved using video games and see ways in which everything could be better without improper government decisions or the necessity of war.   I believe games may be used as a very resourceful tool to aid in study, but cannot completely teach all concepts/mindsets possible.