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[Kay12]

Or games that, despite appearing to be stupid dumbness-incuding entertainment, turned out ot make you smarter in some respect.

My TOP 7:

* Age of Empires (despite the fair amount of dramatization, the game works well for teaching the general image of some historic events)
* Settlers (the game is very similar to QAP and other such optimization tasks)
* Civilization (the reason I knew more about politics, science and wonders of the world than the other kids)
* SimCity (or how taxation works)
* Dwarf Fortress ("seriously K, how do you know all these alloys?")
* Heroes of Might and Magic, NetHack (all the important mythologic creatures)
* Liberal Crime Squad (the reason I know more than my friends about American decisionmaking)

[Shadowlord]

SimAnt might or might not qualify; It had a massive amount of information about ants available, but you'd have had to actually open it and read it. I'm not sure how much the ant colonies fighting was realistic or not, and methinks ants don't normally chase people out of their homes .

[tomas1297]

* Age of Empires (despite the fair amount of dramatization, the game works well for teaching the general image of some historic events)

*Grin* And that you build pyramids by hitting the ground with a rock. And that battering rams can set stone on fire.

[Angel Of Death]

* Age of Empires (despite the fair amount of dramatization, the game works well for teaching the general image of some historic events)

*Grin* And that you build pyramids by hitting the ground with a rock. And that battering rams can set stone on fire.

And you can convert people if you get a priest to slap thin air... Just like real life!

[Kay12]

Ants will engage ants from different colonies occasionally, but as far as I know, they don't practice large-scale warfare or coordinated attacks on other colonies. SimFarm had lots of crop information too, by the way, but it wasn't exactly covert...

* Age of Empires (despite the fair amount of dramatization, the game works well for teaching the general image of some historic events)

*Grin* And that you build pyramids by hitting the ground with a rock. And that battering rams can set stone on fire.

Cosmetics! I was talking about the campaign stories. But there was a fair amount of dramatization there - for example, Barbarossa's body didn't make it to Jerusalem.

[hemmingjay]

The Guild/Guild 2/ANNO 14  all teach about the various social castes in Middle Age Europe as well as the business practices that brought about the industrial revolution. It even touches upon the reasons for imperialism and the crusades.

[Kay12]

Oh, one more: Merchant Prince. If you haven't played it, get DosBox and try. It basically shows how wealthy families made money and used it during the Renaissance. Want a cardinal? Buy one! Want a senator? Buy one! Pope being a jerk? Buy cardinals and hire an assassin!

[lordcooper]

Total War sure did help develop my multitasking abilities.

[Ivefan]

Europa Universalis. Staring at a map for a long time is bound to give you some geographical knowledge.
And some other historical stuff.

[Moron]

Hearts of Iron: All the tech advances had a big page of detailed historical information about the advance being researched, its effect on the progress of the war etc.

Sadly, this was removed in Hearts of Iron II, but there was still a whole lot of historical info about politicians and events in the major countries during the build-up to the war.

Edit: Just an example of the kind of thing I've learned from playing this game:

The anti-tank rifle was considered a failure because by the time it was put into service, tank armour had advanced to the stage where it was largely invulnerable to this weapon. However, its development was important because it paved the way for portable rocket launchers that were much more effective.

[Rakonas]

Crusader Kings to some extent, especially if it has historical events like the killing of the archbishop of canterbury and such.
Europa Universalis, especially if it's 2 or 3 with Magna Mundi.
Victoria.

Honestly, I glided through history courses in highschool because of these three games primarily. "Man, you're actually reading about the Council of Trent? I've experienced that 100 times."

[Ivefan]

Lets just summarize and say that all the Paradox interactive games using that engine will teach you geography and history =P

[Flying Dice]

I've got to agree with DF, Civilization and Age of Empires. I learned more about medieval history and tech from AoE than I have from any class, Civ taught me more about the practical aspects of politics and warfare than any class, and when I took my first geoscience class, I already knew most of the minerals, ores, where they are found, their uses, etc.

[drkpaladin]

Since the game was brought up in another thread, Uncharted Waters: New Horizons taught me everything I know about geography, which is probably why my info is only about 200 years old.

[Levi]

spacechem is a great educational game.  It doesn't teach facts, but it does teach problem solving.