And I thought I was cool when we could play Oregon Trail, Math Blaster, and Kid Pix back in school! Now The Verge is telling us Civilization V is getting an educational version for use in high school history classes in North America. My only solace is that they're making the game more educational so that it will be useful in an academic setting.

That's a great thing because we don't want a generation of young minds growing up thinking that Gandhi was a power hungry warlord. This version will come bundled with lesson plans for teachers, and software that will allow them to track their students progress as they make their way through the game. It appears that the game will set up historic events rather and let you play them out as they did in history rather than do as you will with the world.

This sounds like an awesome idea! I never really had much trouble in history classes to begin with, but I definitely wouldn't have had trouble snagging an A if I had a copy of one of the greatest turn based games ever created teaching me the ways of the world! I'm pretty jealous right now.