Cole, Tom. 2021. ”Moments to Talk About”: Designing for the Eudaimonic Gameplay Experience. Doctoral thesis, Goldsmiths, University of London [Thesis] https://research.gold.ac.uk/id/eprint/29689/ The version presented here may differ from the published, performed or presented work. Please go to the persistent GRO record above for more information. If you believe that any material held in the repository infringes copyright law, please contact the Repository Team at Goldsmiths, University of London via the following email address: [email protected]. The item will be removed from the repository while any claim is being investigated. For more information, please contact the GRO team: [email protected] “Moments to Talk About”: Designing for the Eudaimonic Gameplay Experience Thomas Cole Department of Computing Goldsmiths, University of London April 2020 (corrections December 2020) Thesis submitted in requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Abstract This thesis investigates the mixed-affect emotional experience of playing videogames. Its contribution is by way of a set of grounded theories that help us understand the game players’ mixed-affect emotional experience, and that support ana- lysts and designers in seeking to broaden and deepen emotional engagement in videogames. This was the product of three studies: First — An analysis of magazine reviews for a selection of videogames sug- gested there were two kinds of challenge being presented. Functional challenge — the commonly accepted notion of challenge, where dexterity and skill with the controls or strategy is used to overcome challenges, and emotional chal- lenge — where resolution of tension within the narrative, emotional exploration of ambiguities within the diegesis, or identification with characters is overcome with cognitive and affective effort. Second — further investigation into the notion of emotional challenge be- come a reflection on the nature and definition of agency. A new theory of agency was constructed — comprising of Interpretive, Actual, Mechanical, and Fictional Agency. Interpretive Fictional Agency was highlighted as particularly important in facilitating a mixed-affect gameplay experience. Third — further interviews led to a core concept of ‘emotional exploration’ — an analogy that is useful in helping explain how to design for emotional chal- lenge, why players would be interested in seeking it out, and how the mixed- affect emotional experience is constituted during gameplay. These three theories are integrated and the mixed-affect emotional experi- ence of interest resulting from gameplay is defined as the ‘Eudaimonic Game- play Experience’. It is hoped that this will help developers and researchers better understand how to analyse and design single-player videogames that increase the chances for a deep, reflective and more varied emotional experience to take place, and take advantage of the latent expressive and artistic potential that still remains under-explored in videogames. 1 Contents List of Figures 5 List of Tables 5 Declaration 6 Acknowledgements 7 1 Introduction 9 2 Literature Review 14 2.1 Introduction ............................... 14 2.2 Emotions ................................. 15 2.2.1 Psychology ............................ 15 2.2.2 Ben Ze’ev’s Philosophy of Emotion ............... 20 2.3 Emotions in Games ........................... 23 2.3.1 Academia ............................. 23 2.3.2 Industry Sources ......................... 33 2.3.3 Summary of Emotions in Games ................ 35 2.4 Specifying the broader and deeper emotional experience ...... 36 2.4.1 Why study this? ......................... 36 2.4.2 ‘Avant-garde’ ........................... 37 2.4.3 Carroll’s Theory of Art ...................... 38 2.5 The Difference Interactivity Makes .................. 39 2.6 Extant Theory .............................. 41 2.6.1 Agency ............................... 41 2.6.2 Self-Determination Theory ................... 43 2.6.3 Stenseng’s Escapism Scale ................... 45 2.6.4 Hedonia and Eudaimonia .................... 46 2.6.5 Eudaimonic Entertainment Experience ............ 47 2.6.6 Bartsch .............................. 48 2.6.7 The Aesthetic Experience of the Sublime ........... 50 3 Methodology 53 3.1 Introduction ............................... 53 3.2 GTM Overview .............................. 54 3.2.1 History of GTM .......................... 56 3.2.2 Common methods and concepts ................ 58 3.2.3 Variations of GTM ........................ 60 3.2.4 Summary of the differences between the variants ...... 64 3.2.5 GTM vs. other qualitative methodologies ........... 66 2 3.3 Example procedure for a Grounded Theory project ......... 68 3.4 Usage of GTM in this Project ...................... 72 3.5 Interview Procedure ........................... 75 3.5.1 Interview Structure ....................... 75 3.5.2 Usage of Instant Messenger Protocols ............. 76 4 Emotional and Functional Challenge in Core and Avant-garde Videogames 81 4.1 Introduction ............................... 81 4.2 Background ................................ 82 4.3 Method .................................. 84 4.4 Results .................................. 86 4.4.1 Challenge: Emotional vs. Functional ............. 87 4.4.2 Value: Quality vs. Quantity ................... 91 4.4.3 Primary Emotion ......................... 92 4.4.4 Ambiguity and Solitude ..................... 93 4.4.5 Graphics and Sound ....................... 94 4.5 Discussion ................................ 95 5 Thinking and Doing: Challenge, Agency and Emotional Engagement in Videogames 98 5.1 Introduction ............................... 98 5.2 Background ................................ 99 5.3 Methodology ............................... 99 5.3.1 Participants ............................ 100 5.3.2 Procedure ............................. 100 5.4 Results and Discussion ......................... 101 5.4.1 Definitions of terms ....................... 105 5.4.2 Agency Grid ............................ 106 5.4.3 Summary of Results and Discussion ............. 113 5.5 Conclusion ................................ 114 6 “More Than Just Fun”: Emotional Exploration in Videogames 116 6.1 Introduction ............................... 116 6.2 Methodology ............................... 117 6.2.1 Procedure ............................. 117 6.2.2 Recruitment ............................ 119 6.3 Results .................................. 121 6.3.1 Development of Theory ..................... 122 6.3.2 Theoretical Saturation ...................... 124 6.4 Discussion ................................ 124 6.4.1 Emotional Exploration ...................... 124 6.4.2 Summary of Discussion ..................... 133 6.5 Conclusion ................................ 134 3 7 Integration of Theory and The Eudaimonic Gameplay Experience (EGE) 136 7.1 Related Work ............................... 137 7.2 Definition of the Eudaimonic Gameplay Experience ........ 141 7.2.1 What is going on during emotional challenge? ........ 143 7.2.2 Why engage in emotional challenge? .............. 145 7.2.3 How to design for emotional challenge? ............ 147 7.3 Summary ................................. 150 8 Future Work 151 9 Conclusion 156 A Codes from First Pass (Open) Coding for Chapter 5 182 B Codes from Second Pass (Line-by-Line) Coding for Chapter 5 189 C Early codes from Chapter 6 199 D Later Codes and Diagrams from Chapter 6 205 D.1 Code diagrams from Emotional Exploration chapter ........ 205 4 List of Figures 5.1 Agency Grid. ............................... 106 7.1 The Eudaimonic Gameplay Experience (EGE). ............ 142 D.1 Related subsets of codes after initial/open coding under ‘Moti- vations’. The ‘escape from/expansion of self’ and ‘mixed affect’ sections in particular would be used to form focused codes .... 206 D.2 Related subsets of codes after initial/open coding under ‘Prefer- ences’. The ‘exploration’ section in particular would be used to form focused codes ........................... 207 D.3 Related subsets of codes after initial/open coding under ‘Experi- ences’. The ‘emotions’, ‘challenge’ and ‘pleasures’ section in par- ticular would be used to form focused codes. ............ 208 D.4 Emotion Codes compared and sorted relative to one another. ... 209 D.5 Sorted memos after interview nine. .................. 209 D.6 Focused codes/categories and sub codes. .............. 210 D.7 Simplified focused codes. ........................ 211 List of Tables 3.1 Summary of differences in GTM variations .............. 65 6.1 Table of participants ........................... 121 6.2 Focused codes .............................. 123 5 Declaration I, Tom Cole, hereby declare that this thesis and the work presented in it is entirely my own. Where I have consulted the work of others, this is always clearly stated. Sections of this thesis have been part of the following publications: • Cole, T., Cairns, P., & Gillies, M. (2015, October). Emotional and func- tional challenge in core and avant-garde games. In Proceedings of the 2015 Annual Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction in Play (pp. 121-126). • Salisbury, J. H., & Cole, T. (2016, August). Grounded theory in games research: Making the case and exploring the options. In DiGRA/FDG’16- Proceedings of the First International Joint Conference of DiGRA and FDG (Vol. 13, No. 1, pp. 1-14). Digital Games Research Association and Society for the Advancement of the Science of Digital Games. • Cole, T., & Gillies, M. (October 2019). Thinking and Doing: Challenge, Agency, and the