How one Boise State professor is using video games to teach international relations

Video games are extremely popular, and the number of people who play them grew dramatically during the COVID-19 pandemic. Some estimates say as many as three billion people play video games, and more than 215 million play in the U.S.

So as Michael Allen was sitting down playing “Minecraft” and “World of Warcraft,” he started thinking about how he could use these games to help him teach international relations at Boise State University.

It turns out these games are easy ways to look at trade, terrorism, human rights, monetary policy and even civil war.

Allen, who is a professor and lead of the political science program at Boise State, wrote a book titled “The Gamer’s Guide to International Relations,” and he joined Idaho Matters to tell us more about how he’s using popular video games to teach the concepts of international relations.