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Limited Notions of Game Design
This type of game, while useful in some contexts, does not take advantage of the computer's ability to represent complex visual phenomena, create rich interactive microworlds, model dynamic systems, or allow creative expression. These games also reinforce notions that learning is not fun on its own and needs to be sugar-coated with extrinisic rewards. This pedagogical model may actually reduce students' motivation for learning. Some games actually promote misconceptions by representing information in pedagogically questionable ways. A challenge for designers of educational games is to find ways to fuse educational content with the gameplay, so that students are solving authentic problems, engaging in meaningful scientific, mathematic, or engineering practices, thinking creatively within these domains, and communicating their ideas expressively.
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Very
few educational games go beyond simple "drill-and-practice"
pedagogy. The educational "content" is added onto familiar game
formulas such as shooting, matching, or jumping games. In these
games, the computer is essentially a flashcard machine that presents
the players with prescribed problems, monitors the player, adjusts
the type of problem to match player performance, and then records
player progress. 
