Abstract
Our media-driven culture is constantly inundating us with messages and symbols that represent idealized types rather than actual human beings. Take, for example, the photo of your favorite celebrity who appears on the cover of a magazine. Rarely does the digitally altered/enhanced image that was taken under the most ideal of conditions match the way that person actually looks on a typical day under normal circumstances. Yet the reality that we create for ourselves is based on the images that we see and not the “truth” as it actually exists. Hence we strive to become something that is unattainable and we accept standards that are not very realistic.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Notes
For a discussion of life stories, see McAdams, Dan P. 1993, 1997. The Stories We Live by: Personal Myths and the Making of the Self. New York: Guilford Press.
Some of the reasons why people like to play World of Warcraft is discussed in Billieux, Joel, Martial Van der Linden, Sophia Achab, Yasser Khazaal, Laura Paraskevopoulos, Daniele Zullino, and Gabriel Thorens. 2013. “Why Do You Play World of Warcraft? An In-Depth Exploration of Self-Reported Motivations to Play Online and In-Game Behaviours in the Virtual World of Azeroth.” Computers in Human Behavior 29: 103–109.
A general review of the literature about engagement in games can be found in Boyle, Elizabeth A., Thomas M. Connolly, Thomas Hainey, and James M. Boyle. 2012. “Engagement in Digital Entertainment Games: A Systematic Review.” Computers in Human Behavior 28: 771–780.
A sense of belonging and the importance for student retention is discussed in Morrow, Jennifer Ann and Margot E. Ackermann. 2012. “Intention to Persist and Retention of First-Year Students: The Importance of Motivation and Sense of Belonging.” College Student Journal 46 (3): 483–491
Freeman, Tierra M., Lynley H. Anderman, and Jane M. Jensen. 2007. “Sense of Belonging in College Freshmen at the Classroom and Campus Levels.” Journal of Experimental Education 75 (3): 203–220.
For an example using World of Warcraft, see Bessiere, Katherine, A. Fleming Seay, and Sara Kiesler. 2007. “The Ideal Elf: Identity Exploration in World of Warcraft.” CyberPsychology and Behavior 10 (4): 530–535.
See Przybylski, Andrew K., Netta Weinstein, Kou Murayama, Martin F. Lynch, and Richard M. Ryan. 2012. “The Ideal Self at Play: The Appeal of Video Games That Let You Be All You Can Be.” Psychological Science 23 (1): 69–76.
See, for example, Kim, Changsoo, Sang-Gun Lee, and Minchoel Kang. 2012. “I Became an Attractive Person in the Virtual World: Users’ Identification with Virtual Communities and Avatars.” Computers in Human Behavior 28: 1663–1669.
Blascovich, Jim and Jeremy Bailenson. 2011. Infinite Reality: Avatars, Eternal Life, New Worlds and the Dawn of the Virtual Revolution. New York: HaperCollins.
Yee, Nick, Jeremy N. Bailenson, and Nicolas Ducheneaut. 2009. “The Proteus Effect.” Communication Research 36 (2): 285–312.
The importance of meaning is discussed in Baumeister, Roy F. 1991. Meanings of Life. New York: The Guilford Press. When surveying academics, graduate students, and administrators, Linda Hagedorn identified the following as the most important source of meaning: “I live to contribute something that is greater than myself.”
Hagedorn, Linda Serra. 2012. “The Meaning of Academic Life.” The Review of Higher Education 35 (3): 485–512.
For another perspective on the importance of story, see Sachs, Jonah. 2012. Winning the Story Wars: Why Those Who Tell (and Live) the Best Stories Will Rule the Future. Cambridge: Harvard Business School Press.
Kahneman, Daniel. 2011. “Thinking, Fast and Slow.” Chap. 11. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux.
The role of morality in experimental outcomes and what it says about the real world is explored in Levitt, Steven D. and John A. List. 2007. “What Do Laboratory Experiments Measuring Social Preferences Reveal about the Real World?” Journal of Economic Perspectives 21 (2): 153–174.
For a discussion of status quo bias, see Kahneman, Daniel, Jack L. Knetsch, and Richard H. Thaler. 1991. “The Endowment Effect, Loss Aversion, and Status Quo Bias: Anomalies.” Journal of Economic Perspectives 5 (1): 193–206.
Perhaps the clearest statement of the role of freedom in economics was made by Milton Friedman in Friedman, Milton. 1962. Capitalism and Freedom. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Loewenstein, George F. and Elizabeth A. Mannix. 1994. “The Effects of Interfirm Mobility and Individual Versus Group Decision Making on Managerial Time Horizons.” Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes 59: 371–390.
Thaler, Richard H. and Cass R. Sunstein. 2008. Nudge: Improving Decisions about Health, Wealth and Happiness. New Haven: Yale University Press.
The concept of bounded rationality was introduced in Simon, Herbert A. 1955. “A Behavioral Model of Rational Choice.” Quarterly Journal of Economics 69: 99–118.
See Scitovsky, Tibor. 1992. The Joyless Economy: The Psychology of Human Satisfaction. Revised Edition ed. New York: Oxford University Press.
In a later article that discusses the issue of school violence, Scitovsky argues that in contrast to calls for schools to focus more of their attention on reading, writing, and arithmetic, they should instead increase the teaching of leisure skills. Increases in worker productivity has increased the amount of leisure time, which has expanded the need for an increase in peaceful leisure activities to alleviate boredom and the violence that it generates. Scitovsky, Tibor. 1999. “Boredom–an Overlooked Disease?” Challenge 42 (5): 5–15.
Although materialism was also related to several meanings of education, the current study suggests that in terms of aspirations, what matters most in predicting such students’ meanings of education is the degree to which their values are grounded in an interest in their own psychological development, their relationships with others, and their wider community. Henderson-King, Donna and Amanda M. Mitchell. 2011. “Do Materialism, Intrinsic Aspirations, and Meaning in Life Predict Students’ Meanings of Education?” Social Psychology of Education 14: 130.
Flow is an idea developed by Csikszenthmihalyi, one of the founders of positive psychology, in Csikszenthmihalyi, Mihaly. 1975. Beyond Boredom and Anxiety. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
The concept of flow in collaborative game-based learning is discussed in Admiraal, Wilfried, Jantina Huizenga, Sanne Akkerman, and Geert ten Dam. 2011. “The Concept of Flow in Collaborative Game-Based Learning.” Computers in Human Behavior 27: 1185–1194.
An attempt to measure the flow experience for gamers can be found in Procci, Katelyn, Allysa R. Singer, Katherine R. Levy, and Clint Bowers. 2012. “Measuring the Flow Experience of Gamers: An Evaluation of the DFS-2.” Computers in Human Behavior 28: 2306–2312.
See Baum, Sandy, Jennifer Ma, and Kathleen Payea. 2013. Education Pays: The Benefits of Higher Education for Individuals and Society. New York: College Board.
Wong, David. 2010. “5 Creepy Ways Video Games Are Trying to Get You Addicted.” Cracked March 19, 2013, http://www.cracked.com/article_18461_5-creepy-ways-video-games-are-trying-to-get-you-addicted.html.
Skinner, Burrhus F. 1971. Beyond Freedom and Dignity. New York: Knopf.
Seligman, Martin E. P. and Mihaly Csikszenthmihalyi. 2000. “Positive Psychology: An Introduction.” American Psychologist 55 (1): 5–14.
Niman, Neil B. 2013. “The Allure of Games: Toward an Updated Theory of the Leisure Class.” Games and Culture 8 (1): 26–42.
Pingle, Mark and Mark Mitchell. 2002. “What Motivates Positional Concerns for Income?” Journal of Economic Psychology 23 (1): 127–148.
See also: Solnick, Sara J. and David Hemenway. 1998. “Is More always Better? A Survey on Positional Concerns.” Journal of Economics Behavior and Organization 37 (3): 373–383.
In order to gain and to hold the esteem of men it is not sufficient merely to possess wealth or power. The wealth or power must be put in evidence, for esteem is awarded only on evidence. Veblen, Thorstein. 1899. The Theory of the Leisure Class. New York: Macmillan, p. 36.
Frank, Robert H. 1999. Luxury Fever: Money and Happiness in an Era of Excess. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Frederick, Shane and George Loewenstein. 1999. “Hedonic Adaptation.” In Well-being: The Foundations of Hedonic Psychology, edited by Daniel Kahneman, Ed Diener, and Norbert Schwarz, 302–329. New York: Russel Sage Foundation.
Kahneman, Daniel and Amos Tversky. 1979. “Prospect Theory: An Analysis of Decisions Under Risk.” Econometrica 47 (2): 263–291.
Loss aversion and housing is discussed in Bokhari, Sheharyar and David Geltner. 2011. “Loss Aversion and Anchoring in Commercial Real Estate Pricing: Empirical Evidence and Price Index Implications.” Real Estate Economics 39 (4): 635–670.
Nalley, Lanier and Andrew McKenzie. 2011. “How Much Is That Exam Grade Really Worth? An Estimation of Student Risk Aversion to Their Unknown Final College Course Grades.” Journal of Economic Education 42 (4): 338–353.
Copyright information
© 2014 Neil B. Niman
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Niman, N.B. (2014). The Allure of Games. In: The Gamification of Higher Education. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137331465_5
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137331465_5
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, New York
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-46412-8
Online ISBN: 978-1-137-33146-5
eBook Packages: Palgrave Business & Management CollectionBusiness and Management (R0)