The Oscillating Flow Model

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi proposed the 'flow' model as a psychological explanation of an extreme state of joy/focus. He developed the model by studying the work process of painters, many of whom did not expect their art to be profitable, and many of whom lost interest in their work once they were done with it. This raised the question: what was motivating the painters to paint? To answer this question, Csikszentmihalyi developed his flow model, which assumes that human attention is a sort of limited resource, and that people enter the state of flow when their attention is entirely focused on achieving a task (Csikszentmihalyi, 1988)

Csikszentmihalyi's model has a lot to say about human consciousness, and the concept of the self, and how these agents may have evolved. But of the greatest interest to game designers is his assertion that ...

"The universal precondition for flow is that a person should percieve that there is something for him or her to do, and that he or she is capable of doing it." (Csikszentmihalyi, 1988, p.30)

... and, furthermore, that there must be a balance between the skills of a person, and the challenge of the task they're facing, for flow to occur. Too much challenge, and the person is anxious. Too little, and the person is bored. He goes on to explain that flow will cease when an activity's challenge is exhausted. Thus, tic-tac-toe is easily mastered and discarded, but chess remains interesting for centuries.

Flow can be expressed in a graph, like this:



Jesse Schell - mentioning this model - takes it a step further. He argues that, though acceptable, a linear increase in difficulty will be less interesting that an oscillating one. This sinusoidal relationship between challenge and skill - such that the flow's trajectory is punctuated by moments coasting anxiety and moments coasting boredom - can be seen in many games, and will feel more satisfying to the player. Schell gives the example of a shooter where the player is given a weapon. The player must use this weapon to fight an increasing number of enemies, and overcome increasingly difficult challenges, until they eventually pass the most difficult challenge and the 'crest' of the flow oscillation. Following this, the player is given a new, more powerful gun, providing momentary relief of challenge, which rewards the player's efforts. This relief is soon met with increasing challenge again (Schell, 2015, p.141).

This version of flow can also be expressed as a graph:



With this in mind, I'm hoping to create a game that emulates at least one oscillation in the flow channel. The game should begin easy, then ascend to a more difficult level.


References
- Csikszentmihalyi, M. Csikszentmihalyi, I. S. 1988. Optimal Experience: Psychological Studies of Flow. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- Schell, J. 2015. The Art of Game Design: A Book of Lenses. 2nd ed. Boca Raton: CRC Press.