Edited by author 10-11-2006 12:43 PM
Motivational Analysis Exercise: Snoods

Player was a thirty nine year-old female that enjoys video games with her children.

0 Uncertain -
2 Uncertain - Experimenting
4 Uncertain - still trying to learn game
6 Annoyed - Guessing, but unsuccessfully
8 Annoyed – Still unsuccessful wants to quit
10 Pleased - some success
12 Annoyed - hard to make sense of rules
14 Annoyed – losing interest
16 Engaged – seems to be figuring things out
18 Engaged – high score
20 Engaged
22 Engaged –
24 Engaged – another high score wanted to continue

Player spent nearly equal amounts of time between the Aroused/Unpleasant and Pleasant/Aroused quadrants of the matrix.

Csikszentmihalyi and Flow:

The initial difficulty of the game caused by the uncertainty of the rules created anxiety which prevented flow from happening. Once the rules were figured out and the player developed some strategies that were successful, she began to relax and enjoy the game. Player reached flow at about the 16 minute mark and remained there for the duration of the time.