Integrating Games as Extended Metaphors

I am not a big fan of most educational games. They seem to suffer from the Jeopardy Disease, which is to say they require students to recite disconnected facts with the goal of earning points. Don't get me wrong, this might be fine for review purposes. However, I've had some success in using games to teach concepts:

Dodgeball - I do a modified dodgeball game where there are tiny teams that can then form alliances with big teams. This teaches the alliance system as well as imperialism (the desire to take over the world)

Risk: I use a modified version of this game in teaching the causes of World War I

Pit: There's a card game I made that's similar to this that shows the rational/irrational side of the stock market and we usually discuss whether the market is a "check" on greed or if it creates greed

Monopoly: I begin with basic Monopoly and then change the rules for socialism and communism. In socialism, no one goes bankrupt. There are high taxes. Passing "Go" redistributes wealth. In communism, I control the board and all people make the same salary, all properties are redistributed. We then talk about the pros and cons of each system.

Tag: I play a version of tag where each person has to tag all other people and only the tenth person can be free (all other nine people become "it" as well) I use this to explain the fear of communism in the Cold War and also the destruction of native civilization based upon disease (The book 1491 does a great job with this subject)

Simon Says: It's a simple game, but a great one to teach socialization and obedience and the dangers of it. We discuss the concepts of freedom and coercian and militarism in school. This helps set up the unit on World War II.

Incidentally, I want to reiterate that I don't do games all the time. Typically, these are created in the beginning and become a reference for us later on in the unit.