Flow into addiction? …

Everyone at some stage in their life has experienced what is referred to as being “in the zone”.It is a feeling of complete concentration and intense focus towards a certain activity or task.The activity can be anything ranging from reading a book to playing a competitive  sport.A person experiencing what  professor Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi labelled as “flow” becomes fully engaged in an activity, losing all sense of time and emotional problems in the process.Csikszentmihalyi defined flow as “a state in which people are so involved in an activity that nothing else seems to matter; the experience is so enjoyable that people will continue to do it even at great cost, for the sheer sake of doing it.” (Csikszentmihalyi, 1990).

To achieve a flow experience a delicate balance needs to be maintained  between a perceived challenge and the skills required to meet this challenge.Take video games for example.I can recall several experiences where I stopped playing a game because I perceived it as too easy .My skill set had evolved to the point where the game no longer presented a challenge.Therefore I quickly became bored and stopped playing.A similar problem occurs when a games difficulty is too high for no apparent reason.In these cases I become quickly frustrated which results in the same outcome previously mentioned.I would need to be confronted with progressively more difficult challenges to test my every developing skill set. John Carl presented a suitable example of a novice tennis player could experience flow from simply hitting a ball against a wall(Carl: A Theory of Optimal Experience).As her skills increased she would need to be presented with more difficult challenges to remain in flow ..If the challenge is too difficult(she faces off against a professional player) she will become anxious and frustrated.A challenge that was to easy would lead to boredom. However when a balance is struck between ability and challenge it can inspire people to practice,work or play longer and harder.

Here is a diagram depicting the relationship between challenge and abilities in regards to the flow theory(Chen, 2014).

Now onto this subject as it relates to the heading of this post.Can flow correspond or lead to addiction?.Surely anything that causes someone to lose track of both time and self could be potentially dangerous.Especially in a medium that can be so engaging and immersive.Studies have shown that 10 to 15 per cent of gamers exhibit signs that meet the criteria for addiction(Video-game-addiction.org, 2014).For example tHe worlds created in MMOs can be so enthralling that individuals substitute real-life interaction with virtual fantasy.However through my research on this topic I have concluded that this  may not be the case.A study amongst Taiwanese college students in relation to the flow theory in Internet Gaming addiction concluded that individuals with addiction tendencies had a lower flow state then those of us how are not.Which makes sense to me because an addicted person plays games because they feel as if they MUST,while others play for enjoyment.As a result normal games will experience a much higher sense of satisfaction then their addicted counterparts.An addicted gamer’s goal is a realize from dissatisfaction rather then achieving satisfaction itself .

In concluding this blog I was surprised to find out that flow and addiction do not as strongly correlate as I initially assumed.THere is a huge difference between someone who loses track of time due to a sense of flow and an individual who neglects time to feed an addicted impulse.

Video-game-addiction.org, (2014). Video Game Addiction – Internet Gaming Addiction. [online] Available at: http://www.video-game-addiction.org/ [Accessed 20 Dec. 2014].

Chen, J. (2014). Welcome to Flow in Games. [online] Jenovachen.com. Available at: http://www.jenovachen.com/flowingames/flowtheory.htm [Accessed 20 Dec. 2014].

Chiang, Y. T., Lin, S. S. J., Cheng, C. Y., & Liu, E. Z. F. (2011). Exploring Online Game Players’ Flow
Experiences and Positive Affect. The Turkish Online Journal of Educational Technology, 10(1), 106-114.

Ethics in Video Gaming

Throughout the course of our study of Game analysis a frequent subject of debate was of ethics in video games.Is it the responsibility of the games developers to ensure a game does not cross any lines   when it comes to violence and ethical issues such as murder and massacres.Especially in recent years where every few months another news story breaks about another mass murdering of innocent civilians.  We were asked to consider what would we do if we were a programmer working on an unethical game?Would we take the money and keep our mouths shut or  stand up and voice out concerns.

I wrote in an earlier blog about my opinions of violence in video games.My opinion remains mostly unchanged on the matter.A game developer should have free reign to make a game without the fear of backlash from addressing controversial topics.Recently however I watched a trailer for an upcoming game known as “Hatred” created by Polish studio Destructive Creations that has has slightly changed my opinion on the matter. There is one line that I believe should not be crossed.Hatred is a game that ” revels in mass murder”[1].The trailer begins with the central character proclaiming his absolute hatred for humanity as he is seen loading guns into his jacket.He proclaims that he has always wanted to kill people and wishes for a violent death.The rest of the trailer contained some of the most disturbing murderous images I have seen in gaming.The “protagonist”  kills countless innocents revels in his savagery.The screams of pleads of the civilians effected me very deeply.In Games such as G TA the Player is capable of doing much of what the character does in the trailer except the player is penalized in other games(GTAs number of”stars”)

In Hatred the player is rewarded for this.The following is actual dialogue from the game.

“My name is not important. What is important is what I’m going to do…This is the time of vengeance and no life is worth saving. And I will put in the grave as many as I can. It’s time for me to kill. And it’s time for me to die. My genocide crusade begins here.””[1].

I can only imagine how families who have been affected by similar real life events in America or Pakistan .These people lost someone they loved because of a mass murder/s .The fact that a developer is trying to capitalize an this controversial topic to turn a profit makes me sick.There are many game developers doing wonderful and amazing things with games.It angers me that this rubbish will get more publicity then the majority of them.

[1]Polygon, (2014). The worst trailer of the year revels in slaughtering innocents. [online] Available at: http://www.polygon.com/2014/10/16/6988687/the-worst-trailer-of-the-year-revels-in-slaughtering-innocents [Accessed 16 Dec. 2014].