With the widespread public interest in games as learning tools, digital game-based learning (DGBL) proponents now need to explain why games are engaging and effective and how those principles can be leveraged to best integrate games into the learning process. In this article, Richard Van Eck outlines why DGBL is effective and engaging, how those principles can leveraged to implement DGBL, how faculty can integrate commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) DGBL in the classroom, what DGBL means for institutional IT support, and the lessons that can be learned from past attempts at technological innovations in learning. (Contains 17 endnotes.)