Stock Trade DS Impresses… Makes Me Want Edutainment

Now this is interesting. Normally I don’t post about impressions, after all there really isn’t much to say about them. But impressions about Stock Trading games, now that’s worthy of posting. Especially when said game isn’t really a game at all, but a piece of software to teach you how to trade stocks online, complete with a pack-in form to sign up for an account at a financial institution. I understand that there have always been “edutainment” titles out on the market, but this is the first time I’ve seen such a purely instructional software application for adults packaged as a gaming experience.

We’ll see how this thing does on the market (obviously taking into account that it’s rather dry subject matter) but I’m all for broadening gaming with this instructional stuff. Learning in a gaming environment is certainly a different and engaging way to do things. Hopefully Western publishers will start taking even more risks with their “non-games.” The DS’s non-traditional audience certainly merits at least a couple of titles like this around here. I want to practice and learn Hiragana, Katakana, and Kanji on my DS dammit!

source: Kotaku