ABSTRACT
This chapter reports on a study that took place and coincided with a wider upsurge of interest in the possibilities offered by digital games and games-based learning for schools. Teachers and students in the Serious Play schools were therefore working within both state and national contexts, with curriculum and assessment requirements configured and coming together in ways that shaped practice and imposed external frameworks over teachers' work. The games and game-making software mentioned here were those in currency at the time of the research. Games that students played at home along with interrelated platforms, social media services and on- and offline media forms reflected not only the time and place of the study, but also their network of friendships, practices and interactions out of school. The chapter makes an important contribution to contemporary understandings about the robust and skilful use of games, and in deepening understandings of core issues at the heart of educational work with games.
