Dungeon Flow: Player Experiences of Flow in World of Warcraft

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

contributor: Thames, Ryan C. (author)
date: 2011-02-16T21:42:29Z (accessioned); 2011-02-16T21:42:29Z (available); 2010 (issued)
identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10339/30415 (uri)
description: This study sought to explore player experiences of flow in the Massively Multiplayer Online Game (MMO) World of Warcraft. Data from personal interviews, conducted after one-hour play sessions, was compared to Csikszentmihalyi's proposed elements of flow to determine in what segments of the game each participant experienced flow, if any. Recordings from the play sessions were then analyzed to determine what messages coincided with these flow segments. Results suggested that 2 of the 5 participants experienced a flow state, with 3 flow segments identified overall. All three of the flow segments identified happened while participants were playing in "dungeons" within the game, and common messages within these segments were proposed. The study ultimately yielded many implications for future research regarding flow and video games. (abstract)
language: en (iso)
publisher: Wake Forest University
subject: flow; games; MMO; new media; play; video games
title: Dungeon Flow: Player Experiences of Flow in World of Warcraft
type: Thesis; Hazen, Michael D (committeeChair); Krcmar, Marina B (committeeMember); Black, Jim (committeeMember)
degree: Communication (discipline)