Chapter 2: Searching for the Fun in Learning: A Historical Perspective on the Evolution of Educational Video Games

This chapter aims to provide a historical perspective on the evolution of the field of games and learning, to provide readers with a sense of the technological, design, and theoretical advances that have shaped these developments, and advance some reflections on how educational games may move into the future.

The activity that games are most usually associated with in society is play. The possibility of play-based learning has been recognized, criticized, and debated by educators from Piaget to Vygotsky to Plato (Hunnicutt, 1990;

Piaget, 1964; Vygotsky, 1978 ) over many centuries. Learning through play is important more broadly, as it is one of the foundations of culture, and Huizinga (1955) argues that playing and knowing have evolved as two strands of the same braid.