The Relative Nature of Playing, Selecting and Experiencing Games

• In Event: ECREA-Panel: The Future of Digital Games Research: New Phenomena, New Methods, New Theories

Abstract

Communication theories such as uses and gratifications see media selection as a conscious choice by an independent subject in an environment characterized by scarcity. Today’s media-saturated world inverses this proposition, however, turning it into a process of elimination rather than pursuit. Moreover, many digital games offer the possibility of ‘perpetual play’ in that they do not offer a clear ending, further shifting the balance towards relative elimination whereby the sheer promise of a certain gratification as a motivation for use is replaced by one of being more gratifying than other, equally accessible media. In my talk, I will propose a number of ideas for dealing with this shift including a study presenting a novel, relative method for measuring enjoyment in games with young children which was shown to be a better predictor of in game behavior than traditional, absolute subjective enjoyment measures.

Author

• Jan Van Looy, Ghent U