Archaeological Games Don’t Have to Be Fair, and Breaking the Rules Is Okay

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Leveling Up: Gaming and Game Design in Archaeological Education and Outreach" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Many game players work under the assumption that all games need to be fair and balanced. Additionally, many assume that rules-based actions are at the center of gaming. This, however, is not the case when using games in the classroom. Having used games in the classroom for over 10 years, I’ve concluded that the best lessons are learned from unfair games. Often the social interactions that take place outside the rules can be more informative than moves made within the game. Here I outline several of my archaeological game-based activities and how I’ve changed them over the years. Additionally, I suggest how non-game mechanics can aid in student learning after the activity. Many of these insights come not from my archaeological training, but instead from my over 30 years of experience playing board games and roleplaying games.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Leveling Up: Gaming and Game Design in Archaeological Education and Outreach   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 40106.0