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The Aesthetic Motives of Play

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Emotion in Games

Part of the book series: Socio-Affective Computing ((SAC,volume 4))

Abstract

Why do people enjoy playing games? The answer, in its most general form, is that there are aesthetic pleasures offered by games and other play experiences that meet powerful and profound human and animal needs. As such, we can identify specific aesthetic motives of play, and one of the clearest ways of characterizing these motives is in terms of the emotional experiences associated with them.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Bolton, Bolton, UK

    Chris Bateman

  2. International Hobo, Manchester, UK

    Chris Bateman

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  1. Chris Bateman
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Communication and Computer Systems, National Technical University of Athens, Zographou, Greece

    Kostas Karpouzis

  2. Institute of Digital Games, University of Malta, Msida, Malta

    Georgios N. Yannakakis

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Bateman, C. (2016). The Aesthetic Motives of Play. In: Karpouzis, K., Yannakakis, G. (eds) Emotion in Games. Socio-Affective Computing, vol 4. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-41316-7_1

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