‘How to effectively use Civ IV in higher education’

John Timmer, writing for Ars Technica:

When it came to international relations, the Civ-playing students were able to formulate more sophisticated and probing questions. But, when handed a tactical situation to analyze, Schwartz suggested they were completely lost, and often failed to come up with any questions at all. For the Call of Duty players, the converse was true.

I learned some important lessons from the Civilization series of games. Lessons like “never trust Gandhi.”

I kid, sort of. In reality I do feel like I learned quite a bit about strategic thinking — there’s really nothing quite like putting yourself in someone’s simulated shoes.