Abstract
This chapter deals with online games, and in particular it wrestles with the idea that online gaming and immersion may be emancipatory due to their framing within interactive, decentralized, and self-organizing platforms. If the future of online games takes this route, then it may offer us the chance to move from the ‘rule-driven’ frames within which many standard video game users become isolated. Playing online games that are embedded in social media such as Facebook and Twitter is more than an individual competition against a computer as a ‘rational perfect mirror’; it is both an interactive experience of a second self and a shared group action. It provides the highest degree of focus and concentration simultaneously with social networking. Online games have additional features that provide the user with rich, immediate feedback and that can induce high levels of immersion in the game as well as a feeling of control (Chiang et al., 2011). Thus, this new venue may encourage a state of flow, or an optimal experience from the positive psychology perspective (Csikszentmihalyi, 1991), along with a heightened interest in discovery and creativity if employed properly.
The illiterate of the twenty-first century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn.
(Alvin Toffler)
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Yüksel, M. (2013). Framing Online Games Positively: Entertainment and Engagement through ‘Mindful Loss’ of Flow. In: Teigland, R., Power, D. (eds) The Immersive Internet. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137283023_13
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137283023_13
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