Transformative game experiences: an autoethnography

Transformative game experiences: an autoethnography

Transformative game experiences: an autoethnography

By Jaakko Väkevä

Abstract

“Art is often hailed for its capacity to produce deeply profound experiences that can transform us as persons and alter our perspectives on life. This thesis sets out to explore, in the form of an autoethnography, how such a transformative power could manifest itself in the evolving digital medium of video games. For the study, I played through five critically acclaimed game titles in an attempt to detect and record transformative experiences by collecting both introspective and retrospective personal data of my game experiences in the form of field notes, reflective journals, and memos; the five games included in the study were God of War, DokiDoki Literature Club!, The Stanley Parable, Bloodborne, and The Beginner’s Guide. I perceived my emotionally profound experiences of DokiDoki Literature Club! and The Beginner’s Guide as transformative; both game experiences greatly widened my understanding of games as a medium, but also provided me with newfound perspectives on topics such as depression and creativity, as well as increased my capacity for empathy and self-understanding. Closer analysis and interpretation of the personal data resulted in identifying four overarching themes distinguishing my transformative game experiences from non-transformative ones; these themes can be characterized as follows: (1) a heightened state “cognitive and emotional involvement”, (2) a conception of “playing as myself”, (3) an impression of “unconventional game design”, and (4) post-play “re-engagement with the game experience”. I then examined these themes in a wider context, discussing their relations to existing literature and their possible broader implications regarding transformative game experiences. It seems that several aspects of my personal transformative game experience could potentially correspond to concepts that in the field of empirical aesthetics have been used to model transformative art perception outcomes, but further research is required.”

Reference

Väkevä, J. (2022, August 23). Transformative game experiences: An autoethnography. Aaltodoc. Retrieved October 18, 2022, from https://aaltodoc.aalto.fi/handle/123456789/116300

Keyword

Video games, art, transformative experience, self-reflection, autoethnography, empirical aesthetics, research