Gaming Zone?

texchanchan writes "The BBC reports on a study by Dr. Costas Karageorghis, Brunel University (London): 'Recent research has suggested that it could be possible for a person immersed in a computer game to achieve the same level of meditative concentration' usually found in religious contemplatives and athletes in 'The Zone.' The article also quotes Dr. Karageorghis as saying 'It's a deeply pleasurable experience and it's something that's not very often experienced by people, rather it's something that often represents people's peak experiences in a particular area.'"

Comments

Hmmm

[Knife_Edge]

Is this really a science article? No, it's a 'Games' article. I have been trying to filter those, but I see they are getting through anyway under the guise of being a different topic. This is not the first time this has happened. Give me a break - Some of us do not care about games at all.

forgetting it's a game

[bskin]

My experience with this is that it can apply to lots of different areas. I think the key is that you're working within a special set of rules, and at some point, you forget what you're actually doing. Normally you still know you're just sitting in a chair playing a game, or coding a program, or maybe throwing around a football. But at some point you just forget all that, and it's like in your mind, the rules of the game are the 'rules' of the real world. To you, there's nothing going on outside of what you're doing. Thinking about it that way, I see no reason it couldn't apply to anything that requires heavy concentration and operates on a set of rules that's different from those of every day life. I think most of us have experienced it in different contexts.

I think it's interesting that this is a phenomenon that a lot of us have discovered on our own, but they're just starting to understand why it happens. I'd like to see more research on this subject in other contexts.

--b.

Re:certain games need the zone

[Alric]

ahhh. no. I see where you're going with that though, and I LIKE it.

sometimes I need to get their attention with no aural stimulus. for example, if I am holding my hands to my neck in the universal sign for "I'm choking on gummi bears," I wish they would look at me and possibly help me, instead of blinking once or twice in some type of morse code acknowledgement.

Re:certain games need the zone

[Buck2]

sometimes ... "I'm choking on gummi bears,"

With friends like that I think you need to learn to chew your food well before swallowing. It also sounds like you should learn to hide the soda well and get couch covers for them to sit on. But maybe I'm just projecting a stereotype.

I choke on things all the time. One time I choked on some carrots and since there was no one around I had to give myself the Heimlich on a railing on a set of stairs. That sucked. Not only because it was a little frightening but also because it made a big mess on the stairs that I then had to clean up. Perhaps you should learn this trick, too.

*sigh*

It sucks to have to be conscientious when chewing. I would have thought evolution would have taken care of that business for me, but apparently NOT.

STUPID ancestors! Why didn't more of you CHOKE TO DEATH so _I_ don't have to WORRY about it!? I'm an AMERICAN and I shouldn't have to DEAL with this shit!