I found this via RockPaperShotgun. It raises a lot of what I think we already know and/or suspect, but it was cool to read it all linked together.

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/elements/2013/11/the-psychology-of-first-person-shooter-games.html

While at first I disagreed, citing myself my runs in Mirror's Edge, I remembered the vast majority of my 'flow' moments (and the longest too) were in Halo, even in multiplayer sometimes.

However, Ihave stopped playing FPSs, or at least attaining 'flow' doing so, quite a while ago. H4 got close, but not quite there. I wonder why...

If you have any interest in the topic, I highly recommend Csikszentmihalyi's book.

Video games are explicitly designed to illicit flow states. To say the researchers are 'discovering' a link between them only reveals the harrowing depths of their previous ignorance.

Jaime "30 seconds of fun" Griesemer‎ has referred directly to Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi's book 'Flow' as a source he used in designing Halo. In fact he is the reason I bought and read that book and have it sitting next to me right now.

I've found flow to be a very flexible and powerful theory with great explanatory power. It's a very useful framework to generate ideas for changing systems to make them more conducive to producing flow states.

The book is definitely worth a read, but for reference, the 'Elements of Enjoyment' as listed in the book are:

• A challenging activity that requires skills (challenge-level appropriate to the person)
  
• The merging of action and awareness (no room left to think about anything else)
  
• Clear goals and feedback (and immediate feedback at that)
  
• Concentration on the task at hand (able to block out or have no distractions)
  
• The paradox of control (feeling of exercising control on their 'world' (whether they really are or not))
  
• The loss of self-consciousness
  
• The transformation of time (the activity has it's own rhythm so things seem to go faster or slower than usual)

One might conjecture that a first person perspective can help with a loss of self since one has less on-screen reminder of a 'self' (in the form of an avatar).

However, it is absolutely a mistake to suggest that FPSes are better at inducing flow inherently because you have to get so many other things right as well. The study they referenced was a joke too: comparing one of the best games ever to one that wasn't very well received and another I've never even heard of. Sheesh.

The 'escape from the reality' applies to many games and most flow-inducing activities. A gun in the context of flow provides control and very clear, immediate feedback (pull trigger, gun fires, bullet hits enemy, enemy dies). Bad shooters, bad games and poor elements of otherwise good games can often be explained in terms of failures on one or more of the above points.

e.g. prometheans aren't as fun to fight as covenant because the feedback of dealing damage to them isn't as clear (among other things)

The best 'flow' I've experienced was typically from shmups and run and guns rather than FPS games. I wonder if the author of the article has even stepped foot in an arcade?

And anything by Platinum :-p

• A challenging activity that requires skills (challenge-level appropriate to the person)
  
• The merging of action and awareness (no room left to think about anything else)
  
• Clear goals and feedback (and immediate feedback at that)
  
• Concentration on the task at hand (able to block out or have no distractions)
  
• The paradox of control (feeling of exercising control on their 'world' (whether they really are or not))
  
• The loss of self-consciousness
  
• The transformation of time (the activity has it's own rhythm so things seem to go faster or slower than usual)

Merging of action and awareness is in opposition to what I personally feel when in the Zone. When I get in the zone, all that other stuff happens. Like, you can see every bullet and suddenly you have an awareness of every single thing on screen, or paths for your character to take just jump out at you. That sort of has the same effect as time slowing down.

But, all of that becomes absolutely automatic. Like, in the zone, I'm doing all this stuff on autopilot, which actually gives my mind a chance to think about totally different things. I could probably hold a conversation with someone once I've passed the threshold about some unrelated topic, all the while dodging bullets.

Heh. Because that's totally what we want from video games. For them to be structured such that we can easily hold random conversations while still doing well. :p

I get what you're saying, it just seems a bit counterintuitive to being in the zone... of a video game. :)

Video games are explicitly designed to illicit flow states. To say the researchers are 'discovering' a link between them only reveals the harrowing depths of their previous ignorance.

Jaime "30 seconds of fun" Griesemer‎ has referred directly to Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi's book 'Flow' as a source he used in designing Halo. In fact he is the reason I bought and read that book and have it sitting next to me right now.

I've found flow to be a very flexible and powerful theory with great explanatory power. It's a very useful framework to generate ideas for changing systems to make them more conducive to producing flow states.

The book is definitely worth a read, but for reference, the 'Elements of Enjoyment' as listed in the book are:

• A challenging activity that requires skills (challenge-level appropriate to the person)
  
• The merging of action and awareness (no room left to think about anything else)
  
• Clear goals and feedback (and immediate feedback at that)
  
• Concentration on the task at hand (able to block out or have no distractions)
  
• The paradox of control (feeling of exercising control on their 'world' (whether they really are or not))
  
• The loss of self-consciousness
  
• The transformation of time (the activity has it's own rhythm so things seem to go faster or slower than usual)

One might conjecture that a first person perspective can help with a loss of self since one has less on-screen reminder of a 'self' (in the form of an avatar).

However, it is absolutely a mistake to suggest that FPSes are better at inducing flow inherently because you have to get so many other things right as well. The study they referenced was a joke too: comparing one of the best games ever to one that wasn't very well received and another I've never even heard of. Sheesh.

The 'escape from the reality' applies to many games and most flow-inducing activities. A gun in the context of flow provides control and very clear, immediate feedback (pull trigger, gun fires, bullet hits enemy, enemy dies). Bad shooters, bad games and poor elements of otherwise good games can often be explained in terms of failures on one or more of the above points.

e.g. prometheans aren't as fun to fight as covenant because the feedback of dealing damage to them isn't as clear (among other things)

I think the reason FPS games are focused on here is because they are the easiest for many people to relate to. The perspective and general modes of agency are ones that most people, gamers or not, can understand on a very basic level through their real-world experiences. With pretty much any other method of presentation, you have to work a little harder to map your perceptions.

~m

I think the reason FPS games are focused on here is because they are the easiest for many people to relate to. The perspective and general modes of agency are ones that most people, gamers or not, can understand on a very basic level through their real-world experiences. With pretty much any other method of presentation, you have to work a little harder to map your perceptions.

~m

My dad can easily play Mario, but can't for the life of him figure out Halo. Explain that one :-p

You may be right when the occulus rift becomes commonplace, but in my opinion FPS is pretty taxing initially.