Guest article by Chris Wright from Dadding on the Road. This article is part of our Gameschooling with Video Games series.
We’re living in a golden age of game acquisition with many different online marketplaces. These marketplaces are quickly becoming the only way to get these games, especially on computers and mobile devices.
Computer Games
Steam
Steam was probably the first, and is by far the largest, online marketplace for buying games for computers. They also often have huge discount sales in the summer and winter where users can pick up many titles, even “AAA” titles, for cheap.
Steam is also well known for its “Early Access” games, where developers post their games that are still technically in development for users to play and submit feedback.
One last boon for Steam is their proprietary Steamdeck handheld console (by Valve; Steam’s parent company) that allows users to play games from their Steam library anywhere. A lot of these games are typically “PC-only” so taking them on the road is a huge deal.
Epic Games
Epic Games is like Steam’s little brother. Most of the games available on Steam are also available on Epic, with the exception of a few game studios preferring one platform over the other. What Epic Games is really known for is its free games. Every week, Epic Games gives away a game, and not just an old, cheap, or unpopular game. Sometimes the freebie is a AAA title that retails for $60 or more.
GOG.com
Gog, or Good Old Games, is a godsend for old-school gamers like myself. While it’s true that PCs don’t drastically change as fast as consoles do, they do change over time. Because of this, a lot of older video games aren’t able to play on modern systems without modification. What Gog does is find these games and patch them to run again, opening up huge libraries of otherwise forgotten games.
Other Options
There are several other online game marketplaces, often linked to a specific studio as well as Amazon with its line of in-house development. While less and less true, one can still occasionally find PC games in brick-and-mortar stores, stored on physical media, but that is becoming more rare, and almost unheard of for independent titles from small studios.
Console Games
Console games are primarily purchased in brick-and-mortar stores, as the consoles require a physical disk or cartridge to play. There are some limited digital marketplaces, and these are all console-specific.
Mobile Games
Whether you’re on an iPhone or Android, the App Store is where you’ll find games. Even Amazon’s Fire tablets have a version of the Android App Store. Reading the user reviews before downloading will educate you on how effective the app is, or if it’s mostly an ad farm.
What Can I Teach Through Video Games?
In a nutshell, anything. For your convenience, I’ll be writing several articles on specific subjects and what games are a good fit for that subject. These subjects will be Social Studies, including history and geography; Science; Hand-Eye Coordination; English/Language Arts; Math; and Socialization.