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Teaching Probability and Risk Assessment Through High-Stakes Simulations

This article argues that probability and risk are taught most effectively through high-stakes simulations rather than abstract formulas. Using roulette, slots, baccarat, blackjack, and corporate war games, it shows how learners experience expected value, variance, combinatorics, conditional probability, Bayesian updating, and tail risk in practical settings.

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UCF’s Training Ground for Serious Fun and Games

Over the past 20 years, UCF’s Florida Interactive Entertainment Academy (FIEA) has graduated more than 1,000 alumni prepared for careers in the growing $450 billion gaming industry and beyond. While many work for major entertainment companies, others apply game design skills to “serious gaming” fields such as military and defense training.

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Virtual Escape Rooms for Emergency Preparedness: Pharmacists Innovate Training Through Gamified Learning

The article describes how clinical pharmacy specialists Deborah Booth and Allison Tempo use gamification to improve disaster preparedness education for pharmacists. They created a PowerPoint-based virtual escape room incorporating quizzes, puzzles, and cultural references to teach emergency management concepts.

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DSU professor combines math skills with tabletop games

The article highlights Dakota State University math professor Justin Schroeder, who combines mathematics, probability, and board game design to engage students and players. Inspired by childhood dice-based simulations, Schroeder created and published two games, Seventh Inning Stretch and Storybook Saga, which blend chance, strategy, and mathematical reasoning.

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The Video Game That Asks You to Ponder the Meaning of Soup

Something Something Soup Something is an interactive game set in 2078 where players act as servers deciding what qualifies as soup for humans, while aliens cook increasingly strange meals. Players must judge items such as batteries in liquid, rocks with garnishes, or frozen substances, choosing whether they are “soup” or “not soup.”

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Playing this "senior" board game is excellent for mental health

Scrabble is often stereotyped as a pastime for seniors, but it is a demanding mental activity beneficial for all ages. Far from being trivial, the game engages memory, attention, concentration, linguistic creativity, and strategic thinking, providing a full cognitive workout. Each turn activates the brain through rapid analysis and careful planning, comparable to mental exercise.

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Introducing “Kata Kita”, Educational Game for Children with Cerebral Palsy by UGM Students

To address delayed speech among children with cerebral palsy at WKCP Yogyakarta, a Universitas Gadjah Mada student team developed Kata Kita, a digital learning game supporting speech therapy. The game integrates augmented reality, audio-sensory technology, and voice recognition to train oromotor and language skills in an engaging way.

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From Chaikhana Tables to Timed Matches, Kurdish Board Game 'Dama' Tries to Reinvent Itself

Dama, a traditional Kurdish board game similar to Turkish Draughts, is more than recreation; it is a cultural ritual rooted in Chaikhanas across Kurdistan. Played orthogonally on an 8×8 board with mandatory captures, Dama emphasizes strategy, patience, and social equality, uniting people across class and region. Historically, it even served as a cover for political resistance.

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This Place Saves Lives: An award for a serious game that looks closer

During the project week “A Different Kind of Game Jam,” TUM students Anie and Rai created This Place Saves Lives, a game exploring marginalized realities within supervised drug consumption rooms. Inspired by real stories and research on gender-specific needs in drug services, the game places players in the role of staff managing limited resources while engaging with users’ personal narratives.

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Gamification and the attention economy

The article critically examines gamification in contemporary digital culture, arguing that while gamification can enhance motivation and engagement, it is often used manipulatively in today’s attention economy. By applying game-like elements such as points, streaks, and leaderboards, platforms encourage desired behaviors while masking deeper purposes, such as data extraction and profit generation.

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Students Launch National Campaign Supporting Class-Designed Game

McPherson College students are launching EcoPyramid, an educational card game, nationwide through a Kickstarter campaign to fund large-scale production and retail distribution. Created in a spring 2025 Stewardship Seminar led by biology professor Dustin Wilgers, the game models ecosystem structures and has already earned a $10,000 Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks grant to reach...

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Game designers bring Scotland's mysterious Picts to life

Game designers and archaeologists have collaborated to create Carved in Stone: A Storyteller’s Guide to the Picts, an illustrated book exploring the complex society of early medieval Scotland’s Picts. Led by Brian Tyrell of Stout Stoat Press and archaeologist Dr Heather Christie, the four-year project draws on recent archaeological research and aims to challenge stereotypes...

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Upping the game: can we ‘gamify’ our way to better health?

Gamification can shift insurance wellness from predicting health outcomes to actively improving them. Like modern weather forecasting, actuaries can move beyond historical patterns to influence future results through targeted interventions. Gamified platforms such as YuLife engage users sustainably, collecting rich behavioural data and motivating healthier choices through game mechanics...

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Learning 'made fun' at library of 1,000 board games

A board game library in Plymouth called Character Creation supports children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities by providing a safe, inclusive space to learn and socialise. Housing over 1,000 games, the project helps develop skills such as maths, problem solving and communication through play.

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