Adding educational funcionalities to classic board games

TL;DR

This paper transforms classic board games into educational tools by adding question-based functionalities, making them accessible via web browsers for learning purposes.

Contribution

It introduces a method to convert traditional board games into serious educational games using simple web technologies, enhancing accessibility and engagement.

Findings

Games are easily playable on any device with a browser.

Educational functionalities successfully integrated into classic games.

Open-source software available for educational use.

Abstract

In this paper we revisit some classic board games like Pachisi or the Game of Gosse. The main contribution of the paper is to design and add some functionalities to the games in order to transform them in serious games, that is, in games with learning and educational purposes. To do that, at the beginning of the game, players choose one or several topics and during the game, players have to anwers questions on these topics in order to move their markers. We choose classic board games because a lot of people are familiar with them so it is very easy to start to play without wasting time learning game rules and, we think that this is an important element to make the game more attractive to people. To enlarge the number of potential users we have implement the games just using html and javascript and the games can be used in any web browser, in any computer (including tablets) , in any computer arquitecture (Windows, Mac, Linux) and no internet/server conexion is required. Associated software is distributed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 licence and can be obtained at http://www.ctim.es/SeriousGames