Abstract. Serious Games are now an established field of study. In this field most would attribute the rise of Serious Games to Clark C Abt's creation of the term in 1970, or indeed Ben Sawyer's popularization of it in 2002. However, considering the rich history of purposing non-digital games, itself preceded by discussions of purposing play that are traceable to the work of Plato, it can be said that Serious Games is a contemporary manifestation of centuries old theories and practices. In this chapter, we explore the pre-history of Serious Games, beginning with the suggested purpose, and purposing of play. Throughout this historical review we identify key in research and practice that are apparent in the contemporary Serious Games field.

This article shares research facilitated by a multinational technology provider, converging mobile networked technology (tablets) used across school and home, a technology enhanced community 'third space' providing workshops for students aged 6-9 with their parents/carers. The approach taken avoids the instrumental measurement of functional digital literacy competences, but instead seeks to negotiate a more nuanced and complex understanding of the 'uses of literacy ' [from Hoggart, R. 1957

Emotions play an important role in cognition, memory, attention and motivation but the current generation of educational games largely ignore emotions' role in learning. However, there is a movement within games development for entertainment to create more affective gameplay. As such this paper will discuss how new research from affective neuroscience, affective computing and contemporary psychological learning theories can inform educational game development. Firstly outlining our current understanding of emotions in learning, this paper will then explore three key aspects of affective game design: sensing and recognition of emotions; modelling emotions and emotion expression by game characters and player avatars. In this section it will review currently available technology, theories and models as appropriate. Finally this paper will explain how incorporating these aspects in educational game design can produce more effectual learning experiences by being aware of affective game design principles that effect attention, memory and motivation. Although this paper is not conclusive, it is comprehensive enough to bridge the gap between academia and industry, so that commercial educational games development can benefit from our current understanding of affective game design and emotions role in attention, memory and motivation.

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