https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Video_Game_Theory_Reader_2.html?id=oe0zNalKkTgC
Understanding Games as Emotional Experiences by Ari Jarvinen
In this essay, the writer points out that game studies needs to be further developed and expand into more experimental areas. In response, he attempts to establish the groundwork for a methodology to examine the emotional responses video games can elicit. He identifies game play as what he calls a “phasic process”, one that mimics the mental processing of emotion. Because of this, games are significant as aesthetic experiences that are shaped by experience based design choices rather than functional design choices. This view of games opens up many possibilities for design techniques that create more diverse experiences for players.
