Unfortunately, not all players come to games to have fun. Dave Eng of @University_XP explores the phenomenon of hostile players through four different lenses including cynicism, antagonism, griefing, and toxicity.

If you've published in academic journals, you are well aware of the infamous "Reviewer 2." (Perhaps you've even been Reviewer 2, but that's a story for another time.)

The @ReactingTTPast Consortium just announced their Fall Workshop: an online playtest workshop of Joe Sramek's Birth of the Public Sphere, a game with connections to history, political science, sociology, and cultural studies.

The wide array of player action choices available in some video games make them a great venue for exploring moral choices and ethical decision-making.

This entire thread of game design concepts from @SebastianBae 's students at the @GeorgetownCSS is well worth your time.

Coming October 1st: a brand-new series from the amazing game publishers at @cmichpress.bsky.social . Art and Systems highlights innovative, aesthetically-driven games that explore the intersection of mechanics, narrative, and design.

Using games to explore queer identities can be both fulfilling and challenging. Here's how researchers at @Northeastern studied different approaches to this technique in tabletop RPGs.

Sometimes, games form the basis for communities. This is a great shout-out to @RegimentGG , a military gaming community founded in 2020 with the explicit mission of uniting Veterans and Service Members of the U.S. Armed Forces, through the power of gaming.

A little closer in - registration is still open for GamiCon NOLA, "The Rhythm of Learning", running 4-6 October in New Orleans!

Need your learners to grapple with difficult decisions and real-world challenges? Check out the @CFR_Education simulations. Their library has a wide range of long and short games on a wide variety of topic. You won't be disappointed!

It's an old meme, sir, but it checks out. Originally posted on X by @CodyK76 .

Registration for CircleDC is now open! This amazing DC-based conference, running April 10-12, 2026 and overseen by @fortcircle , is a great place to try new games and network among professionals in the field.

More and more educational institutions are getting on board with games-based learning! At the @UofT , that includes an AR game on germ containment, DnD for problem solving, and board games about end of life conversations.

Water management for communities is incredibly challenging. The @nmsu Learning Games Lab offers Cozy River Valley, a simulation that helps you see the impact of community water choices.

We love games-based learning dissertations, and especially ones that thoughtfully integrate learning theory to tackle real-world challenges.

Yeah, this hits home for us. h/t to @globalgamejam for the original.

In the midst of writing a game, but you're stuck and don't have the time to finish it? Or need help translating your initial vision for a game into a playable prototype? We can help!

Games are great for teaching complex concepts. For example, Dr. Ying "Gina" Tang of @RowanUniversity has designed game-based learning environments that cater to students from middle school through post-university levels.

Looking for some Wild West action with a little multiversal flavor thrown in for good measure? Check out @GrundislavGames 's Rosewater, a thrilling Western adventure in the alternate 19th century world of Lamplight City!

A game that your learners don't understand or you can't run in your institution may as well not exist. That's why every step of our process is focused on understanding your instructional and institutional contexts, so we can find (or make) the right game for you.

Tabletop game (and especially card game) authors: here's a great reflection from Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association member Marie Vibbert about playtesting card games.

Looking for a great tool to teach the seventeenth-century Ottoman Empire and Islamic World? Check out @KynnTyler 's 2D RPG Seyahat: A Journey to Mecca. The game is currently in early access on Steam and will be steadily developing over the next two years.

We're moving into the fall semester, which means it's shameless plug time for us! If you've ever asked yourself "Why should I try a learning game?", we've got the answer.

On the advice of our legal counsel, we'll state that we love this concept. From @Northeastern Global News, "Representing yourself in court can be complicated. This video game aims to make it easier":

Because we're pedants, we'll amend the below to state that microgames are a great introduction to learning games in general. Short, punchy sessions that get the point across quickly without monopolizing a great deal of class time can really show educators the power of the method.

Too many people think that using educational games is equivalent to not having to teach. This superb study by Gresalfi, Barnes, and Pettyjohn makes the opposite argument: teaching styles have a major impact on how well educational games function,

Learning through simulations is a powerful tool. The phenomenal team at @FilamentGames walks us through both the empirical research on why sims are so effective, and shows off some of the best in class currently being used.

. @CMICH_GAMES's Witch Hunt 1649 and Making History have funded; all the more reason to jump in and support them! They now have a stretch goal that includes physical and virtual extensions of both games. And yes, Making History includes some curriculum goodness from yours truly.

"If I create a game, I'll learn." We couldn't agree more. Here's an article from Interactive Learning Environments on how a teacher used a digital game generator to develop thinking skills among primary school students with learning difficulties.

More rock-solid game development advice from @Clint_Davey1.

Need more cool GBLVC 2025 stuff? How about Lemons to Lemonade (L2L), an amazing game by Carroll Cradock , where players draw cards describing frustrating, embarrassing, or crazy events and compete to call out maximum positive outcomes within 60 seconds?

An absolutely perfect paragraph from a great overall piece by @WWATMD and Marcus Jones : "Done well, educational wargaming serves as a form of applied history, offering midshipmen a unique way to engage with historical events, processes, causation, and outcomes.

We're big fans of @FilamentGames and their periodic Resource Roundups, where they share some of best work out there on games and learning.

Our next cool GBLVC 2025 finding comes from Christopher Stuart, who wrote two student-centric micro-tabletop roleplaying games.

If you're one of those folks who grumbles about not having learned to do taxes in school, consider this piece from The Educator about gaming and financial literacy:

Authentic practice for the win! Another great example of @SebastianBae 's enduring impact.

All things in moderation, and that includes video games. Here's a @PsyPost article reporting on a study showing video games as a coping mechanism for academic pressures in some teens:

We agree, @Clint_Davey1

More awesome GBLVC stuff: Amber Sewell, a Teaching and Learning Librarian at @unlv showcased a database of misinformation and media literacy games.

It's fair to say that there is lots of room for innovation in health care, and games-based learning is one fruitful avenue.

.@TheWilsonCenter is an amazing resource for all of us Cold War history nerds (and for nerds of other persuasions as well). Amazing to see them doing an interview with legendary game designer @JasonDCMatthews about "Serious Games: The Past, Present, and Future."

Next up in Cool Stuff We Saw at GBLVC 2025: meet @RyanLSchaaf ! He's an associate professor of EdTech at Notre Dame of Maryland University and a graduate faculty member in the DALET program for the Johns Hopkins School of Education.

"The Oscars of Escape Rooms" may not have a red carpet, but it's still pretty amazing.

Some great game design advice from @Clint_Davey1 !

We're spending the next few Mondays highlighting the coolest stuff we saw at @University_XP 's 2025 Games Based Learning Virtual Conference. Crescent Loom uses simulated circuits to teach neurophysiology concepts and techniques.

Is escapism good? Bad? No idea what it is? Mehmet Kosa and Ahmet Uysal talk us through healthy and unhealthy aspects of escapism in games in "Four Pillars of Healthy Escapism in Games: Emotion Regulation, Mood Management, Coping, and Recovery": link.springer.com/ch...

Escape room? Live-action role play? Why not both? Room Escape Artist writes about the growing trend of performances within escape rooms.

We're proud to have authored the Curriculum Guide for Making History, an exploration of exercising critical thinking skills, practicing empathy, and developing a sharp eye for source bias and narrative construction. It's not just for historians!

Hooray for GBL in science! Turkmenistan announces it will pilot using Immune Patrol for vaccine education in schools.

This @semicoop comic hits a little too close to home. "No, Mom, I don't just create Candy Crush clones."