"An Odd Kind of Pleasure": Differentiating Emotional Challenge in Digital Games
summary
Survey of 171 players asks for a single challenging or emotionally challenging game moment and codes responses. Emotional challenge appears as confronting difficult themes, forced decisions with no good outcome, or having to manage intense negative feelings; it evokes a wider range of negative emotions, leads to more appreciation while enjoyment remains similar, sometimes causes rage quit, and correlates with lower immersion on conventional scales. Results argue that standard challenge measures miss these experiences and need new assessment tools.
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chapters (6)
- 0:00Introduction and personal experience
- 3:01Defining emotional challenge
- 4:46Research gap and study design
- 9:24Key findings on emotional challenge
- 12:36Implications for game design
- 14:47Q&A session
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