Current approaches to the design of games for learning can be roughly divided into two main camps:
one claiming that commercial games already employ many strategies that are valuable in the design of
instructional games and that formal instructional design methodologies are not needed, while the other argues
that the design of instructional games must apply traditional practices in formal ways and that games
designers must yield to the better-informed professional instructional designer. The main focus of this paper
is to explore the tension between these two viewpoints. A comparison of game design and instructional
design uncovers several paradoxes which must be reconciled before they can be properly combined to be of
use in the development of instructional games.
