Game Decisions

 Game Decisions

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This weeks reading was about Flow in video games, it is a theory by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. It is applied when creating a video game to keep the user engaged.  

What is Flow? Flow is a psychological theory that game developers incorporate to keep players playing. It is a way of getting hold of a player and keep them playing  for hours upon hours, that is the hope of course. Flow can be implemented by presenting a challenge to the player based on their skill level, it usually starts off simple so as to not scare the player into thinking they are not going to be able to play on but instead make them feel like the are learning how to play and are feeling a sense of achievement from doing so, On the flip side the challenge cannot be too easy as the user may get board and made feel like they are not being tested enough and stop playing. If the challenge being presented to the user is proving to be adequate and is keeping them engaged then the player will be in a state of hyper focus, which is the state of mind that game developers want you to be when playing their game. Once the player is in this state any external awareness is rendered mute to them as they are fully focused on completing the challenge that the game is presenting them. Developers must be conscious of how they try and implement the flow state in video games as it can be the make or break of the game being fun or not.

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I have looked at this topic further and have found some useful resources should you look to delve deeper into it.

the first is another blog post about flow theory and what surrounds it, you can find it HERE!  

second is an article that goes into detail about the cognitive psychology around game design, you can find it HERE!    

I found this nice video about flow and how gamers enter into it, you can watch it HERE!