Comment I learned from Sim City (Score 1) 160
A game with both long term and short term goals is important. To keep a kid interested you need short term gratification, but obviously complex problem solving can't be done in 15 minutes. I thought that Sim City mix both well because with 15 minutes of play you can make some improvements, but you are always working towards a challenging goal that feels great when you complete it. And you are allowed to stop and come back to it letting you brainstorm while you are off the computer on how to expand and improve your city/people. Also, if you make a mistake, you can see the effects but you don't necessarily have to start from scratch. Overtime, you get better at planning and thinking out your decisions. You use trial and error then you start to predict (accurately) what might happen if you put something in place based off previous experience. This is applicable to real life. With little puzzle games you only get the instant gratification of solving something right away and you don't utilize your long term planning skills. Also, you learn how to control and manipulate multiple variables - a key for scientific inquiry latter on.