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In Europe alone, more than 120,000 children and 150,000 adolescents are diagnosed with cancer every year. Thanks to treatment innovations the survival rates of young patients' cancer increase substantially every year, but improved prognoses are in many cases linked to longer treatments. To cope with the social, emotional, and developmental challenges associated with cancer, play and playful activities are widely recognized as fundamental for adolescents and children. This article presents the results of an exploratory study conducted to better understand the role of free digital play for young cancer patients (0-17 years). Methodology: 15 semi-structured qualitative interviews were conducted, divided into two groups. The first group consisted of four experts and the second group consisted of 11 parents of young cancer patients. Conversations with the participants revolved around children's use of digital platforms during cancer treatment, emphasizing their motivations to play digitally, methods and patterns of use, perceived benefits, and impact on children's social interactions, identity development, and personal narrative. The results show that digital play becomes a valuable activity for young cancer patients during three phases of the treatment: (1) inpatient care; (2) outpatient care; and (3) remission. We also identified three types of digital play patients engage with: (1) playing with digital games; (2) playfully interacting with digital technologies; and (3) the overlap between digital and non-digital play. Finally, the results also show that digital play has an impact on at least three aspects of young patients' lives: (1) social interactions; (2) identity development; and (3) communication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article draws on the concept of spatialisation to better understand the development of a digital games industry on the periphery of mainland Europe, on the island of Ireland. Positioning digital games within the cultural and creative industries, we explore how global networks of production in this industry get territorialised, negotiated and shaped by local factors. Drawing upon an industry-wide survey in Ireland we found that employment has grown by 400% in the last decade but that this rate of employment growth and its concentration in large urban areas masks significant ruptures and shifts which more detailed spatial, occupational and social analysis reveals: in particular, how the state, multinational game companies, and physical and human capital interact to shape an industry which is strong in middleware, localisation and support but weak in content development. An understanding of global digital games production networks and of occupational patterns in this industry is, we believe, crucial for national and European cultural policies for the digital games industry and for the cultural and creative industries more generally. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]