Transactions on Edutainment I

This volume contains contributions from Edutainment 2008, the 3rd International Conference on E-Learning and Games. It serves as a forum for stimulating and disseminating innovative research ideas, theories, emerging technologies in the field.

With great pleasure we would like to present the ?rst volume of a new journal, Transactions on Edutainment. This journal, part of the Springer series L- tureNotesinComputerScience, is devoted to research and development in the ?eld of edutainment. Edutainment, also known as educational entertainment or entertainment-education,denotes allforms ofentertainmentdesignedto educate as well as to provide fun. This approachis motivated by the increasing demands on individuals for life-long learning and the need to integrate e?ective learning opportunities throughout life. As such, edutainment has attracted increasing interest in the last few years. The ?rst 12 articles of this ?rst issue represent a selection of outstanding contributions from Edutainment 2008, the Third International Conference on E-Learning and Games held in Nanjing, China, in June 2008. These papers are complemented by individual contributions from international experts in this ?eld. The ?rst six articles provide an introduction into the ?eld of edutainment by presenting di?erent application examples. In their article "Designing an Ed- ? ucational Game: Case Study of Euope 2045," Sisler and Brom discuss their experiences in the design of an on-line multi-player strategy game on political, economic, and social issues in contemporary Europe. The following examples point out the crucial role of interaction design and technolgies in the devel- ment of a successful edutainment application.