Tropico is an interesting game that can be a great educational tool if used right. I played Tropico V it is a real-time city builder game where you are trying to start a new country on an island. You have to manage resources and trade with other countries to keep advancing. I like the aspects of trade and gathering to get new technologies and expand further out. It also has implements of natural disasters. When I was playing I had most of my buildings destroyed by a tornado! It forced me to quickly rebuild if I wanted to keep myself from going into debt.
This game is a good educational tool. It can be used to teach about trade and relations with other countries. I liked when I would be given the option to pay other countries for my freedom essentially. It was a cool choice when you can give in and give up one of the most valuable recourses, money, or you can stand up to them and possibly get attacked. It is a lot of risk and reward decisions that need to be made. The game does a good job of being playable multiple times. You can attempt different strategies to keep your city going. I only played twice, but I imagine you can get very good at the game and be ready for anything.
I liked the implementation of natural disasters. I am an environmental studies major and have learned a lot about them. Seeing them destroy my city was horrible, but it defiantly is a real problem that happens to countries. I also enjoy that there is a finite number of resources. It makes overharvesting a problem if you try to exploit the land you will lose out eventually.
As we have seen throughout this class, I think simulation games are better than action games when it comes to education. You can use this game to teach about relations and trade while not having students too distracted by the gameplay. It is a more relaxed way of teaching through gaming that games like Call of Duty and the Assassin’s Creed franchises cannot provide. I think this game is the second-best game we looked at this semester in regards to teaching a classroom. It does such a great job showing what it is like to manage a country and how countries have interacted with each other throughout history. The only game I would rank higher than this is Civilization VI. It is hard to beat a game that goes into so much depth and accurate simulation. If you prefer real-time games like Tropico V more than turn-based games then Tropico V could be the perfect educational tool for you. It does a lot of the same things Civ VI does, but in a faster-pasted environment.