Games for Teaching and Learning History: a Systematic Literature Review Jorge Oceja 1 , David Abián-Cubillo 1 and Marina Torres-Trimallez 2 1 University of Cantabria, Santander, Spain 2 Catholic University of Leuven, Leuven, Belgium jorge.oceja@unican.es davidalberto.abian@unican.es marina.torrestrimallez@kuleuven.be Abstract: This work shows a systematic literature review carried out within Scopus database to identify educational projects where games have been used to teach geography and history in secondary education. Following most of PRISMA methodology procedures, while adapting some of its protocols, we identified 255 works. After the first data cleaning, we applied our inclusion and exclusion criteria to end up with 125 relevant results which were refined in later stages. Within our final sample, we applied descriptive statistics to confirm that most projects appear in conference proceedings and that they use mainly educational games created ad hoc instead of commercial games. Many times, these projects have not been implemented and even in these cases, their educational impact is rarely measured rigorously. Keywords: video games, history, geography, systematic literature review, COTS 1. Introduction Video games are a form of convergent media that involve narrative elements and ludic components. Despite the attempts made by several authors to define what a video game is (Juul, 2010; Salen and Zimmerman, 2004), in this work, we understand video games (and also physical games) as artistic products, created with a ludic intention, which provide an artificial system accepted by the players who interact with it in a new complex experience that depends mainly on the emotional dimension (Oceja, 2020). Furthermore, video games, like other cultural artifacts, represent a diverse media that can take the form of casual games, Commercial Off-the-Shelf Games (COTS), or artistic pieces exploring creative possibilities. This diversity in video games is also becoming diversity in who plays video games. In the United States, 55% of players are men and 45% are women (Entertainment Software Association, 2021) with similar data in Europe, where 53% of players are men and 47% of women. The average age of players is more than 30 years old and the ways and devices where they play (57% mobile, 46% home consoles, and 42% PC) also highlight this diversity. The increased popularity of video games has been accompanied by some criticism in the mass media which many times has approached games through stereotypes and simplifications. Among them, we find the characterization of players as a homogeneous community, the bias shown when representing events such as esports as competitions destined only to teenage, desensitized boys, or the representation of games only through triple-A and blockbuster games. Furthermore, one of the most common negative stereotypes is the idea of games as problematic media responsible for causing addictions and violence. Admitting that some best-selling games could confirm partially those clichés, it is important to note that video games offer great educational possibilities. For instance, a meta-analysis carried out by Sitzmann and Ely (2011) with more than 55 studies showed that simulation games could improve self-efficacy by 20%, declarative knowledge by 11%, procedural knowledge by 14%, retention by 9%, and transfer by 5%. Besides their impact on the learning process, other authors mention benefits associated with spatial abilities (Green and Bavelier, 2003) or the ability to solve problems (Ko, 2002). Moreover, video games can also bring benefits in the acquisition of educational content that is part of the official curriculum. This has been studied extensively for several subjects such as math (Ottar and Hanghøjh, 2020), language arts and literature (Beavis, 2014) and foreign languages (Rudis & Poštić, 2017). Nevertheless, the educational possibilities of games for teaching Geography or History, has not been explored deeply and it is not easy to find scientific works documenting in detail good educational projects. In fact, there is no information about what academic production (academic journals, conference proceedings, etc.) has tried more consistently to do that. Also, within this scientific production, it is not clear what kind of games do these 419