Trigger Happy
absorption in which the dynamic form of successful play becomes beautiful and satisfying. How exactly does such an experience come about?
One highly influential attempt at a logical interpretation of “fun” has been made by psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, with his concept of “flow.” Csikszentmihalyi was interested in the fact that musicians, rock climbers, chess players and other people engaged in very complex tasks reported an experience of ecstasy or bliss, losing track of time and losing the sense of self. He decided that, although on the face of it each activity was markedly different, all his subjects must be having the same sort of experience, which he termed “flow.” In this state, “action follows upon action according to an internal logic that seems to need no conscious intervention by the actor.” And “there is little distinction between self and environment, between stimulus and response, or between past, present and future.”44
Now this sounds like fun. It sounds a lot like the “Zen” experience of playing a good videogame. Interestingly, Csikszentmihalyi notes that flow
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44 Quoted in SatÔ Ikuya’s fascinating history of bosozoku, or motorcycle gangs in Japan, who also apparently experience “flow” during their races: Kamikaze Biker: Parody and Anomy in Affluent Japan
