Philips Magnavox Videogames and the Entertainment Revolution Trigger Happy - Manual (Page 292)

Trigger Happy
294
Pleasure increases up to a point according to
difficulty. So it seems very likely that one crucial
component of videogaming pleasure is in fact a certain
level of anxiety. This sounds counterintuitive but is
supported by simple experiments that report increased
heart rate and adrenaline levels among videogame
users. And my own experience is that even when
demands and skill are generally matched, there are
periods during the game when I am aware of a
temporary, small mismatch between them—the game is
asking slightly more of my skill than I feel confident of
being able to deliver, and a large part of the game’s
pleasure lies in overcoming these regular challenges.
Now what about the “feelings of complete control”
that are said to accompany a flow experience? I think
there is, again, something wrong with this way of
putting it. We have said that videogames provide a
particular pleasure of control, especially when they
offer rich controls whose interaction allows for a great
deal of variation, and when the controls result in
amplification of input. How does this compare with the
case of playing a piece of music at the piano? Here, too,
the interaction of controls (keys and pedals) is a “deep”
one, offering a potentially infinite array of sonorities;
here, too, amplification of input is at work,