Why Games for Good Belong in Every Classroom

When I started my global gaming career 25 years ago,  gamification was seen as a distraction from learning. Yet today, the culture has shifted. “Gamification” is increasingly common in the classroom, and recent research underscores its value. Minecraft lives on classroom syllabi. Yet games still too often remain an add-on, a rainy-day activity, a Friday reward, or a single digital tool on the classroom cart. That sells games short. If we want students who are curious, collaborative, and capable of solving real-world problems, especially in an age of AI, then games for good should be a core component across all subject matters in the classroom.

In the face of a rapidly evolving workforce, educators, technologists, and foundations are being called to reimagine the classroom experience to support students and learners of every age, boosting durable skills like creativity, teamwork, and communication, as well as critical thinking.

Design Thinking

At a recent trustee retreat at Occidental College, Professor Damian Stocking described how every sound or action carries resonance — it reverberates across time, culture, and community. Education and design share that same truth. Every policy, tool, or classroom choice sends ripples that shape how young people see themselves and the systems they inhabit.

If we accept that, we must also accept that impact without inclusion is imposition, and innovation without empathy is isolation. Games for good challenge those dynamics by making learning collaborative and participatory. Students don’t just consume lessons; they design them.

This is the essence of design thinking, an iterative process that prizes curiosity, testing, and reflection. Through gameplay and game design, students learn to navigate complexity, embrace failure, and approach problem-solving as a creative act. In doing so, they develop the durable skills that define lifelong learners and civic innovators.

This idea of design thinking refers to a process that celebrates curiosity, testing, and reflection. Through gameplay and game design, students begin to understand how to manage complexity, handle failure, and approach problem-solving creatively. In doing this, young people can develop critical skills.

What’s Happening Right Now in Game Design?

Currently, in the gaming industry, studios are already innovating the way game design is approached. Let’s look at a few examples:

1. Playing for the Planet Alliance: Led by the UN, this alliance partners with studios to weave meaningful environmental quests and carbon-reduction objectives into games, encouraging sustainable action. For example, this includes games such as Alba: A Wildlife Adventure.
2. Microsoft | Xbox: Taking sustainable action further in design, this game developer and publisher showcases its eco-conscious nature by offering recycled hardware and carbon-aware console updates, underscoring that sustainable decisions don’t have to be for marketing purposes alone.
3. Niantic Spatial: Working with nonprofits, this organization helps communities bring communal spaces to life through AR experiences. One of the most famous examples of this is Pokémon Go.
4. Riot Games’ Social Impact Fund: Since 2019, this fund has raised over $50 million for more than 450 organizations across 28 regions. This demonstrates how player communities can spur change worldwide.

Each of these examples demonstrates how games can help us design and build a better world.

Games for Change

As the board chair of Games for Change, the world’s largest non-profit partnering with technology and gaming companies, nonprofits, foundations, and government agencies to run world-class events, public arcades, design challenges, and youth programs, I witness how a global community can use games to tackle real-world challenges, sparking purpose and passion in and outside of the classroom.  

For example, now in its eleventh year, the Student Challenge invites game innovators and learners aged 10 -25 years old to design playable prototypes around the UN Sustainable Goals. To date, the competition has reached more than 70,000 students and almost 2,000 educators and faculty across 600cities in 91 countries, inspiring the creation of over 6,600 original student-designed games that connect learning to action. 

From November to April 2026, participants will design and submit games for consideration in regional and global competitions, with Game Jams taking place worldwide throughout the season. This works to transform empathy and systems thinking into useful skills.

Additionally, educators collaborate with Global Game Jam to access valuable funding, training, and support to bring Student Challenge Game Jams to their own classrooms. Additionally, resources like the Game Plan Educator Program can be useful for teachers, providing them with the knowledge to integrate game design and technology into instruction. Knowing how to use AI responsibly is also a huge part of the lessons.

Additionally, just this year, the organization launched G4C Learn, the world’s largest online resource library featuring lesson plans, tutorials, and toolkits to guide students, teachers, and faculty on topics like game design, game-based learning, esports, career pathways, and more.

Other ways educators can bring purposeful design into any subject matter is through The Next Gen Summit, which provides teens with a free platform to explore design, esports, and mentorship, helping them see themselves as both creators and changemakers.

Implement Game Design Programs Today

Game design offers a range of benefits in the classroom. Games for Change freely offer teachers and students the opportunity to think systemically and design toward meaningful solutions.

Now is the time to stop asking whether games for good belong in classrooms. They are here. What’s left is to ensure that every single educator and learner have the resources that can drive social impact through play and design to build a better future for our communities and across the globe.