In this issue, I draw together two sets of papers, with apparently different agendas. Most of the original papers in this issue use various learning perspectives and research approaches to explore the challenges and affordances of digital games for learning science. Associated forum papers challenge the authors and us to critically examine our own approaches to developing learning resources that model experiential phenomena, analyzing data and making claims. I locate all these studies within Brian Sutton-Smith's philosophy of play. The other set of papers critically examines neo-liberalism and globalization within a consideration of the dimensions of science. I argue for a synergy between both sets of papers.