Flow (in gaming)

RUNNING HEAD : Flow in Gaming

Flow in Gaming

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Flow , as conceptualized by the positive psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi is a unique mental state which the individual experiencing it becomes fully immersed in an activity due to a pleasant sense of involvement , energized focus and desire to successfully meet its goals . The concept arose from the question of why people perform time-consuming , difficult and often dangerous activities (Csikszentmihalyi , 600 ) without any extrinsic or tangible rewards , which Csizszentmihalyi and his peers attempted to investigate by conducting

extensive interviews with hundreds of artists , athletes , chess players and rock climbers . They consistently found that these individuals experienced a subjective sense of enjoyment that provides the motivation to pursue said activities again , which led to the above concept termed as the flow experience

Currently , some video game designers have turned towards the use of pattern language as conceptualized by urban design theorist and architect Christopher Alexander in to achieve the ideals of the flow experience ' that could hypothetically generate the kind of immersive and pleasurable experience that would generate compelling play experiences that make for addictive video games . Pattern language ' as conceived by Alexander is a kind of generative grammar that permits ideal designs to be created on any conceivable scale , and circumvent some of the challenges inherent in attempting to design large-scale environments , buildings and urban landscapes

Alexander repudiates the notion of organic or evolutionary urban design with the statement that a city is not a tree ' In...