This classroom-based action research study investigated the creative implementation of fluency instruction for English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners through the use of a virtual character-playing simulation called Place Out of Time (POOT). The researchers sought to identify what supported and impeded student participation in this game-based learning environment. Participants included 35 ninth grade students at a highly ranked university preparatory school in Eastern Europe. This study employed narrative inquiry, drawing from game discourse (e.g., participant observations), surrounding discourse (e.g., classroom observation) and meta discourse, (e.g., interviews, focus groups, and post-activity reflection papers). Thematic analysis revealed the students' desires for an increase in academic rigor related to POOT instruction. Four sub-themes pertaining to academic rigor emerged: content legitimacy, accountability, website functionality, and dynamic interactions. Subsequently, the authors advise classroom teachers to consider several crucial factors when instituting creative fluency instruction with high-achieving EFL students: exercise precaution when labeling learning environments as "games;" apportion feedback that is frequent, contextualized, and consequential; and oversee and redirect non-participation.