Flow, immersion & what breaks them
From mechanics to experience (MDA and Schell's tetrad), the flow channel, three sources of immersion, agency and presence, and the distractors that break them. In the practical you play Juggle Circle and measure your own flow.
Slides: use the arrow keys or swipe; press F for full screen and Esc for an overview.
- Explain flow using the challenge–skill channel, and name at least four of its conditions.
- Distinguish sensory, challenge-based and imaginative immersion, and the barriers that block each.
- Classify distractors and predict which ones break flow for which player type and genre.
- Design a simple test with a baseline, a manipulation and a self-report measure.
Before the practical, know your top Hexad type (12-question test). Afterwards, type your three rows into the class Google Sheet (Players tab), using your player ID or initials, not your full name.
Activity files
- Juggle Circle activity sheetDOCX
- Juggle Circle class data spreadsheetXLSX
- Reading your flow score (note)MD
Key reading
Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1990) Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience. New York: Harper & Row.
Hunicke, R., LeBlanc, M. and Zubek, R. (2004) 'MDA: a formal approach to game design and game research'. Link
Brown, E. and Cairns, P. (2004) 'A grounded investigation of game immersion', CHI '04 Extended Abstracts, pp. 1297–1300.
Ermi, L. and Mäyrä, F. (2005) 'Fundamental components of the gameplay experience: analysing immersion', DiGRA 2005.
Sweetser, P. and Wyeth, P. (2005) 'GameFlow: a model for evaluating player enjoyment in games', Computers in Entertainment, 3(3).