The Positive Psychology of Gaming: Immersion through Flow in Simulations

Abstract

Lately, online games have been gaining increasing attention as an outlet. In “positive psychology”, Csikszentmihalyi (1991) found out that a large part of happiness is achieved by voluntary activities - half of which is determined by flow. Csikszentmihalyi studied people’s inner states while pursuing activities that appear to contain intrinsic rewards, such as dance, sports and music. He highlighted an experience of “flow state” which is merging action and awareness through total immersion in an activity that is challenging yet closely matched to one’s skills (1991). Gaming may be emancipatory due to their framing within interactive, decentralized and self-organizing platforms. While flow is highly correlated with subjective well-being, it also enhances focus, perception, learning capacity, recall and self-esteem of players. Playing online games that are embedded in social media such as Facebook and Twitter is more than an isolated competition against a computer; it is both an interactive experience of a second self and a shared group action. Getting immediate feedback can induce high levels of engagement in the game as well as a feeling of control and development. Such games provide the highest degree of concentration simultaneously with social networking. Consequently, this new venue may enhance an optimal experience of flow along with a heightened interest in creativity, collaborative discovery and learning, if employed properly. Based on both the prior empirical research and literature, The researcher has I analyzed a few examples from commercial games of an emergent economy and then reviewed findings and inferences on serious games.