Agenda Item Week 8

From the reading: Gameflow: A Model for Evaluating Player Enjoyment in Games- Sweester & Wyeth

Flow is an experience “so gratifying that people are willing to do it for its own sake, with little concern for what they will get out of it, even when it is difficult or dangerous” [Csikszentmihalyi 1990]. This implies that people play games for the experience itself, and for no external reward. Futhermore, "every flow activity provides a sense of discovery, a creative feeling of being transported into a new reality (a familiar sensation for game players)" (3). Also, the criteria were used to develop a concrete understanding of what constitutes good design and player enjoyment in real-time strategy games. The GameFlow model serves as a starting point for academics and game developers to understand enjoyment in games and to conduct further research into understanding, evaluating and designing enjoyable games (24).

Flow experiences consist of eight elements, as follows:
(1) a task that can be completed;
(2) the ability to concentrate on the task;
(3) that concentration is possible because the task has clear goals;
(4) that concentration is possible because the task provides immediate feedback;
(5) the ability to exercise a sense of control over actions;
(6) a deep but effortless involvement that removes awareness of the frustrations of
everyday life;
(7) concern for self disappears, but sense of self emerges stronger afterwards; and
(8) the sense of the duration of time is altered.
Eight core elements that relate to flow: concentration, challenge, skills, control, clear goals, feedback, immersion, and social.

Are there games where this model wouldn't work?