This week we discussed the value of games in education, in addition to gender roles, sexual orientation, and romance options in video games. To begin the week, we talked about “When Rivers Were Trails” and how it was designed to be used in classrooms to aid in education of native american culture and history. The developers of the game took special care to make the game most accessible to the learning demographic, being elementary to high schoolers, and worked with “indigenous contributors” to make the game as historically accurate as they could. This is just one instance of a genre that was once much bigger in the video game industry, and ruled classrooms and personal computers alike. Games made for the sole purpose of education are nothing new, but are much more scarce than when I was young in the late 90’s and early 2000’s. I remember seeing and playing so many different games aimed towards kids back in the day, educational or otherwise, but this market has seemed to diminish. I’ve had fond memories with these educational games in and out of classes, with games such as the “Putt-Putt” series, “Math Blasters”, “Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing”, “Zoombinis”, and various licensed games, such as “Winnie the Pooh” educational games. While these games vary in their educational content and teachings, they were all meant to cater to small kids. Although these games once existed in abundance, they dwindle in numbers as the years go on. It may be that developers are tending to find them as “Not profitable” when compared to regular games, but in my opinion, all games can have educational value. For instance, playing card games like “Hearthstone” for so long has taught me to think ahead when playing games, and has improved my problem solving. “Luigi’s Mansion” taught me how to play video games in general, as it was one of the first games I beat without any help. Additionally, we discussed the role relationships and romance mechanics take in games, as well as the role of gender and sexuality in games. One example we specifically talked about in class was with the “Fable” series, which allows the player to see the sexualities of all NPC’s on their character descriptions. While this can be seen as a step forward when compared to most games, it also seems quite disingenuous that a character is labeled as their sexuality. At the same time, a game like “Mass Effect” allows you to romance anyone you want, with almost no limitations. This can also seem disingenuous, as not everyone is a pansexual romancer in real life either. It seems to be a gray area in games as of right now,  but the idea of “romance” evolves everyday. Games should follow suit in this evolution, and find a perfect middle in how to handle the relationship.