171: The educational value of board games (guest: Fort Circle Games)

About this episode

Kevin Bertram discusses the educational value of board games and how they can teach history while being enjoyable.

Fort Circle Games takes history very seriously...but not overly so. Titles like Votes for Women and The Halls of Montezuma treat their subject matters with respect (the women's suffrage movement and the Mexican-American War, respectively) with research, consultants, and even facsimiles of documents. It might sound a little dry, but Fort Circle is on a mission: to bring this knowledge to gamers while adhering to modern game-design sensibilities. They want you to learn a thing or three...while having fun. We invited Fort Circle founder and owner Kevin Bertram to talk more about his company's interesting philosophy and how games can be educational, without necessarily being educational games. Timeline: 2:38 - Going Analog's game pick: Behind the Lens: Photographing Earth. 6:50 - Kevin's game pick: Fortress America. 8:52 - More about Fort Circle Games. 17:52 - Kevin's topic: The educational value of board games. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

People in this episode

Host: Going Analog

Guest: Kevin Bertram

Topics covered

• educational board games
• history in games
• game design
• women's suffrage
• Mexican-American War
• learning through play

Keywords

• board games
• education
• history
• game design
• Fort Circle Games
• learning
• suffrage
• war games

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Fort Circle Games

Books & works: Votes for Women, The Halls of Montezuma, Behind the Lens: Photographing Earth, Fortress America

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