Philips Magnavox Videogames and the Entertainment Revolution Trigger Happy - Manual (Page 290)

Trigger Happy
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absorption in which the dynamic form of successful
play becomes beautiful and satisfying. How exactly
does such an experience come about?
One highly influential attempt at a logical
interpretation of “fun” has been made by psychologist
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, with his concept of “flow.”
Csikszentmihalyi was interested in the fact that
musicians, rock climbers, chess players and other
people engaged in very complex tasks reported an
experience of ecstasy or bliss, losing track of time and
losing the sense of self. He decided that, although on
the face of it each activity was markedly different, all
his subjects must be having the same sort of experience,
which he termed “flow.” In this state, “action follows
upon action according to an internal logic that seems to
need no conscious intervention by the actor.” And
“there is little distinction between self and environment,
between stimulus and response, or between past,
present and future.”
44
Now this sounds like fun. It sounds a lot like the
“Zen” experience of playing a good videogame.
Interestingly, Csikszentmihalyi notes that flow
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44 Quoted in SatÔ Ikuya’s fascinating history of bosozoku, or motorcycle
gangs in Japan, who also apparently experience “flow” during their races:
Kamikaze Biker: Parody and Anomy in Affluent Japan