A method for developing thinking skills comprises directing participants to play one or more real time strategy games and then directing the participants to engage in discussions about the game and the decisions that were made during game play. The steps of playing the game and then discussing the gaming experience may be repeated in an iterative fashion. Larger objectives external and/or in addition to the in-game objectives may be laid out for the participants, so that the participants are competing and/or trying to achieve objectives beyond those inherent in the real time strategy game itself. Also, a real time strategy (RTS) game provides “game within a game” capabilities, such that the game terrain (e.g., a game board) is divided up into a finite number of fragments. Within each fragment, game play is in real-time. A game at the fragment level is called a “local” real time strategy game (Local RTS), and the game at the level that encompasses the entire game terrain is called a “global” real time strategy game (Global RTS). The end of the game is reached when the Global RTS game is finished, not when a Local RTS game is finished.