For those who’ve played flash games as a child (Popcap, Miniclip, Addictingames), flash portals were a source — a collection of mini games that could be accessed anytime, anywhere, provided you’ve got a computer.
Newgrounds and Kongregate continue to be strong, community-driven portals (now ad-stricken, unfortunately) that update games and flash animations daily. The forums are packed, and both portals have incorporated their own “mini games” into the web — they’ve gamified the community, essentially, to facilitate communication and interaction between players.
With that in mind, will there ever be a portal for educational/health games? “Games for change” have their own website, and numerous other publishers and designers publish under their own domains. However, there’s no easily accessible method for players to recognize them other than through games news sites — they very rarely pay to advertise themselves, and only attend game conferences for Kickstarter/Greenlight to vocalize their works.
Could there be a portal for educational games, based off English/GED literacy levels, areas taught, difficult level? Who would fund it, and how would it work in an international setting? Could it be used to teach minority groups out of reach/inaccessible via normal means?
I think the reason why there is such a struggle to implement gaming into education is that it takes away the “coolness” that comes with gaming. Kids would much rather play sports and drive around causing mayhem in GTA than using a game to learn school related “boring” topics. There’s a health channel on TV, There’s the science channel, and all of these have much less viewership than the entertainment part of cable. Surely these educational games exist and they will continue to grow, however I say there is a slim chance they become as mainstream as flash games on miniclip. The topic is what attracts the gamer, not the actual game itself. Crossword puzzles have been around for ages. Yet more people would rather play PS4.