Adventure games designed for use on home computers are a potentially powerful instructional resource in English as a second language because they promote problem-solving using the target language and are highly motivating to students. The games, whose objective is usually for the user to defeat an obscure force and recover a precious object, are varied in design, and are most suitable for the development of communicative fluency in the language when they (1) do not focus on the mere manipulation of vocabulary and/or grammatical forms, (2) encourage meaningful discovery learning without ignoring meaningful reception learning, (3) create opportunities for interpersonal interaction, and (4) integrate communicative abilities. Research has found challenge, fantasy, and curiosity to be the most crucial motivating factors. Elements of computer games that will contribute to second language learning include clear goals, use of language to achieve the goals but not as the goals themselves, feedback, an uncertain outcome, multiple difficulty levels, use of hidden information as a communicative device, unpredictability, randomness, and engaging the user's curiosity and search for novelty. Teachers can use these criteria to find effective materials and to help in the development of new or improved software. (MSE)