TIME TO PLAY GORGE – TIME TO LEARN AI: A QUALITATIVE STUDY Klaus P. Jantke, Denise Lengyel, Alexandra Neumann, Imke Hoppe Abteilung Kindermedien Fraunhofer IDMT Hirschlachufer 7 99084 Erfurt Klaus.Jantke@idmt.fraunhofer.de Denise.Lengyel@idmt.fraunhofer.de Alexandra.Neumann@idmt.fraunhofer.de Imke.Hoppe@idmt.fraunhofer.de Zusammenfassung: Game-based learning is apparently more difficult than expected and less successful than claimed in the public. Most serious games that work for learning are not much fun for playing and, vice versa, games that provide much fun are rarely a pedagogical success. When a particular collection of learning goals is made explicit, how to design and implement a game such that playing the game very likely contributes to reaching the goals? Does this work with digital games that do not show the slightest indication of intentionally built-in instruction? GORGE is a very little experimental game designed and implemented for purposes of serious games research. The authors have comprehensive experiences of using the game GORGE in varying experimental settings. The present paper is a report about a qualitative evaluation of effects of playful learning in practice. Edutainment started as a serious attempt to create computer games that taught children different subjects. Arguably, it ended up as a caricature of computer games and a reactionary use of learning theory. [(Egenfeldt-Nielsen, 2007), p. 42]