You d be surprised at how easy it is to teach critical thinking, problem solving, and cooperative learning skills using a game as a platform, not as a reward. Games allows your students to explore the rich challenges that games offer, and it s for you to use and manage. They require few materials and are easy to teach.
Games are great problem solving practice.
Adding a level of consciousness to how they are playing will give them excellent skills. Games are the perfect arena for risk taking and experimentation. The very nature of games creates a false but highly intense investment. Players want badly to win, but as soon as the game is over, this intensity usually evaporates. See what happens.