The Relationship Between
Video Game Flow and Structure
Jayne
Gackenbach
Department of Psychology
Poster presented at the 2007 International
Communication Association Meeting,
Introduction
In
a series of studies the author has been investigating the effects of video game
play on various measures of consciousness. In the present study consciousness
was conceptualized as psychological flow. This experience of flow has oft been
reported in the sport and media literatures and has been reported as a result
of or simultaneous with video game play. The structural characteristics of
gaming have been much studied as well, but the point of this inquiry is to ask
are there structural characteristics of games that are more or less likely to
be associated with the experience of psychological flow during game play?
Psychological Flow
· Flow consists of three major components,
the merging of action and awareness, a sense of control and an altered sense of
time.
· 
Conditions
for flow: a clear set of goals; a balance between perceived challenges and
perceived skills; and the presence of clear and immediate feedback.
Flow and Media Use
· Csikszentmihalyi, et
al. (2005) argue that cultures select artifacts as a function of the degree to
which their use elicits flow.
· Theme is picked up in the communication
studies literature which has examined the relationship between flow and media
enjoyment.
· Flow may account for media enjoyment.
· Not all media experiences are enjoyable
no less bring on feelings of flow.
· Flow in computer use is associated with
online web experience, hackers motivation, use of a broad range of information
technologies, and internet based education.
· “Some might
comment that Csikszentmihalyi seemed to have video games in mind when he
developed the concept of flow” (Sherry 2004; p. 339).
· Several video game researchers have noted
such a relationship.
Structural Characteristics of Gaming
· Structural characteristics of gaming has largely
focused upon elements which affect real life such as violence, sex role
stereotypes or play performance (e.g., point of view and image quality).
·
General structural preferences have also
been examined.
·
In gambling literature structural
characteristics have been well documented in terms of their role in the
acquisition, development and maintenance of gambling behavior.
Thus the
question posed in the present inquiry is, what is the relationship between
video game structure and flow during gaming?
Method
Participants
·
Data was collected from online questionnaires from 464 participants.
Materials
·
Informed consent.
·
Questionnaire including demographics and
typical video game play.
·
Structural
Preferences Questionnaire dealt with sound, graphics, background and setting, duration of
game, rate of play, advancement rate, use of humor, control options, game
dynamics, winning and losing features, character development, and multiplayer
features.
·
Video Game Play and Flow Scale with two of the seven subscales
dealt with addiction. The
flow subscales included concentration, playfulness, distortion in time,
telepresence, and exploratory behavior.
Results
Video game groups were defined by
frequency of play, length of typical play session, age begun play with high
scores given to younger starts, number of types of games played, length of last
video game played, and age of peak frequency of video game play (younger ages
higher).
Video Game Flow
· Because there were
two conceptual types of flow scales (flow and addiction) total mean flow scores
for each group of subscales were calculated.
· Video game group ANCOVA’s with sex
and motion sickness controlled. Both resulted in video game group differences:
flow, F(3,202)= 2.932, p<.05; addiction, F(3,202)=
3.844, p<.01.
· High players reported more flow during
play while for the addiction subscales mean high game players reported lower
scores than low game players.
· High game players experience flow but not
addiction.
Table
1: Flow Subscale Means as a Function of Video Game Group
|
Flow Subscales |
Video
Game Group |
Mean[1] |
Standard
Deviation |
|
|
flow addiction |
Low Video Gamers |
3.0990 |
2.09327 |
101 |
|
|
High Video Gamers |
3.1841 |
1.54074 |
105 |
|
flow concentration |
Low Video Gamers |
4.1312 |
1.84817 |
101 |
|
|
High Video Gamers |
4.7429 |
1.47473 |
105 |
|
flow salience (also addiction) |
Low Video Gamers |
3.1832 |
2.17368 |
101 |
|
|
High Video Gamers |
3.6405 |
1.64446 |
105 |
|
flow playfulness |
Low Video Gamers |
3.0545 |
2.19078 |
101 |
|
|
High Video Gamers |
3.5000 |
1.77582 |
105 |
|
flow telepresence |
Low Video Gamers |
3.1010 |
2.21840 |
101 |
|
|
High Video Gamers |
2.7429 |
1.63888 |
105 |
|
flow exploratory |
Low Video Gamers |
3.5730 |
2.05170 |
101 |
|
|
High Video Gamers |
4.3048 |
1.69867 |
105 |
|
flow distortion |
Low Video Gamers |
4.4191 |
2.03996 |
101 |
|
|
High Video Gamers |
5.0159 |
1.65016 |
105 |
Video Game Play Structure Preferences
To reduce this data a factor analysis of
these items was computed from the replies of the lower and upper third video
game groups (263 subjects).
·
Factor 1 is a “General Gaming” factor including a wide
range of items related to the gaming experience.
·
Factor 2 is best identified as related to the
“Realism” of the game environment.
·
Factor 3 deals with “Multiplayer” elements.
·
Factor 4’s emphasis is on “Puzzle” qualities of
gaming.
·
Factor 5 is about “Glitz” or glamour of the game
elements.
·
Factor 6, deals with the various game “Obstacles”.
The
video game structure factor scores were computed and were examined as a
function of game player group with sex of participant and motion sickness as
covariates in an ANCOVA.
Three of the six ANCOVA’s were significant (General Gaming
F(3, 229)= 19.026, p<.0001; Multiplayer F(3, 229)= 12.937, p<.0001;
Puzzle (F(3, 229)= 11.080, p<.0001). Not surprisingly in each case frequent
gamers had a higher preference for each structural component.
Flow and Structure
Based upon the previous findings of flow and
structure differences as a function of video game group, one might expect there
to be a direct relationship between flow and structure. This was examined with
a factor analysis on the high and low video game groups combined for the flow
subscales and the structure factor scores.
Table
2: Factor Analysis of Flow Subscales and Structure Factor Scores
|
|
Factors |
|||||
|
|
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
|
flow concentration |
.906 |
.078 |
.113 |
-.031 |
-.019 |
.036 |
|
flow addiction |
.911 |
-.166 |
-.060 |
.073 |
.050 |
-.002 |
|
flow salience |
.946 |
-.024 |
.019 |
.092 |
.037 |
.022 |
|
flow playfulness |
.937 |
-.051 |
-.004 |
.121 |
.013 |
|
|
flow telepresence |
.879 |
-.173 |
-.190 |
.092 |
-.043 |
.034 |
|
flow exploratory |
.944 |
.090 |
.083 |
.047 |
.041 |
.058 |
|
flow distortion |
.852 |
.103 |
.123 |
-.056 |
.082 |
.019 |
|
flow sum score |
.995 |
-.024 |
.011 |
.055 |
.025 |
.028 |
|
structure factor 1 score general gaming |
-.049 |
.989 |
-.001 |
.017 |
.005 |
.007 |
|
structure factor 2 score realism |
-.295 |
-.034 |
.102 |
.218 |
-.796 |
.116 |
|
structure factor 3 score multiplayer |
.079 |
-.001 |
.972 |
-.034 |
-.024 |
-.024 |
|
structure factor 4 score puzzle |
-.387 |
-.055 |
.160 |
.416 |
.596 |
.187 |
|
structure factor 5 score glitz |
-.248 |
-.025 |
.058 |
-.877 |
.085 |
.069 |
|
structure factor 6 score obstacles |
.109 |
.008 |
-.025 |
-.045 |
-.027 |
.972 |
Discussion
High
video game players, as defined by a variety of variables, reported more overall
flow and preferences for several structural elements of games than those who
were low video gamers. Additionally the relationship between flow and game
structure was examined. It is concluded that flow is not especially associated
with any one structural element of a game except perhaps not being a puzzle
like game. This puzzle factor included finding things, collecting things,
solving puzzles, and hidden areas in games. These seem to identify a factor
associated with more thinking than the other structural factors and thus the
low score of the puzzle structure factor associated with flow. Flow after all
does have a thinking component to a certain degree but is generally only experienced
when one gets beyond the thinking aspect to the task mastery aspect. Thus all
games once they are played with sufficient frequency lead to this state of
consciousness, no matter the structure of the game, just as playing music or
participating in sports does.