244. The Meaning of Games & Flow

Many assume that, when a game's over, there's nothing more to reflect on besides the fun. Positive psychology's theory of "Flow" prompts a similar stance. But what if games & Flow are both saying more than we might suppose at first glance?

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Papers Please
Undertale
Brenda Romero's Train

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Links for the Curious

Soderman, B. (2021) Against Flow: Video Games and the Flowing Subject. The MIT Press. Available at: https://doi.org/10.7551/mitpress/1283....

2023-09-08 (observed) - 📡 by Mike Rugnetta (no date). Available at: https://satelliteantennaemoji.substac... (Accessed: 26 September 2023).

169 | C. Thi Nguyen on Games, Art, Values, and Agency – Sean Carroll (no date). Available at: https://www.preposterousuniverse.com/... (Accessed: 15 September 2023).April 08, A.M.B. and 2013 (2013)

Flow, Player and Employee Jounrey, Game Developer. Available at: https://www.gamedeveloper.com/busines... (Accessed: 23 September 2023).

Csikszentmihalyi, M. and Bennett, S. (1971) ‘An Exploratory Model of Play’, American Anthropologist, 73(1), pp. 45–58.DICE 2010: ‘Design Outside the Box’ Presentation (2015). Available at:    • Видео   (Accessed: 26 September 2023).

Eliasson, D. (no date) ‘What Level Design Elements Determine Flow?’, level design [Preprint].Frequently Asked Questions on Flow - Steven Kotler (no date). Available at: https://www.stevenkotler.com/rabbit-h... (Accessed: 26 September 2023).

Interactive Principles (no date). Available at: https://eharpste.github.io/interactiv... (Accessed: 14 September 2023).

March 22, S.B. and 2012 (2012) Cognitive Flow: The Psychology of Great Game Design, Game Developer. Available at: https://www.gamedeveloper.com/design/... (Accessed: 22 September 2023).

Nicholson, S. (2015) ‘A RECIPE for Meaningful Gamification’, in T. Reiners and L.C. Wood (eds) Gamification in Education and Business. Cham: Springer International Publishing, pp. 1–20. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-102....

Show’, ‘The Ezra Klein (2022) ‘Opinion | Are We Measuring Our Lives in All the Wrong Ways?’, The New York Times, 25 February. Available at: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/25/op... (Accessed: 14 September 2023).

Staff, W. (no date) ‘Next-Gen Dashboards Teach Leadfoots How to Hypermile’, Wired. Available at: https://www.wired.com/2008/12/when-fo... (Accessed: 26 September 2023).

The “Flow” state’s influence during game design process. | by Ramón Díaz | Medium (no date). Available at:   / the-applications-relevance-of-flow-state-d...   (Accessed: 22 September 2023).

The Tyranny of the Marginal User - by Ivan Vendrov (no date). Available at: https://nothinghuman.substack.com/p/t... (Accessed: 15 September 2023).

(2) Overwatch: Reinhardt Gameplay - Route 66 Payload Attack - YouTube (no date). Available at:    • Overwatch: Reinhardt Gameplay - Route 66 P...   (Accessed: 1 October 2023).

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