3. Learning Game Flow Theory through Media Psychology Education

Title(KR)

• 미디어 심리학 융합교육을 통한 게임 몰입이론학습

Title(ENG)

• Learning Game Flow Theory through Media Psychology Education

Keywords(KR)

• Flow, Game Flow Theory, Media Psychology

Keywords(ENG)

• Flow, Game Flow Theory, Media Psychology

Author

• Jae-Won Choi, and David Wook Koh

Abstract(ENG)

The flow channel is a game design aspect that has been widely used by experienced game designers. A psychologist named Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi found that a person's skill and the difficulty of a task would interact to result in different cognitive and emotional states. When a person’s skill and the difficulty of the task are roughly balanced, he or she enters the flow state. Otherwise, the person becomes bored or frustrated, and switches to another activity[3]. Unfortunately, for game designers, this is the point where the flow theory stops helping. While a designer strive to keep players in the flow channel for as long as possible, he or she has to figure out how to implement the flow channel in the game by oneself. Therefore, in this paper, we tried to bridge or narrow the gap between game flow and psychology theories. We showed how the whole game flow mechanics work and how several major psychological elements operate dynamically and interactively on the game play. The challenges and skills should be balanced and should work together to create game flow experiences. The contents described in the paper was used to teach university students in game design and media psychology courses. Quantitative and qualitative measures show that our media psychology education could be an effective way of teaching a creative design philosophy.

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