Fun

Yesterday, I stumbled upon this fascinating info graphic (click to enlarge):

It was created by game experience designer Nicole Lazzaro and shows the different kinds of positive emotions that gamers can experience while playing a well-crafted game. The underlying data was obtained from in-depth interviews and thorough observations of 60 gamers.

I am not a gamer myself (or rather, I stopped being one at age 14…) but I like the chart and the underlying concept for its striking similarity to some frameworks from Positive Psychology. It seems pretty easy to map the four types of fun to Seligman´s PERMA framework:

• “Easy Fun” and Imagination can be found in Positive Emotions.
• “Hard Fun” and Mastery can be found in Engagement and Achievement.
• “People Fun” and Bonding can be found in Relationships.
• “Serious Fun” and Value can be found in Meaning and also Achievement.

I´m always fascinated when different thinkers come to similar conclusions starting at totally different angles of a certain subject. Lazzaro has a presentation on Slideshare where she explores her framework in more depth. Have (maybe four types…) of fun with it!