Projects of worth: Exploring meaningfulness in videogame experiences

Videogames have become a ubiquitous form of cultural entertainment. Within popular culture, they
are often seen as offering fun, thrilling or pleasurable experiences, and scholarship has tended to
examine their negative aspects and effects on individuals, including addiction, increased aggression
and stereotyping. However, there is an emerging understanding that has begun to focus on the positive
aspects of entertainment media consumption. In investigating this potential of entertainment media as
having the capacity to evoke meaningful experiences, scholars have come to adopt Aristotle’s
philosophical notion of “eudaimonia”. Indeed, videogame scholars are beginning to investigate
videogames as having the potential to evoke complex and reflective emotional experiences in players.
This research thus continues on this intellectual trajectory by focusing on its central research question:
How do videogames have the capacity to generate personal meaning? The research adopts a qualitative
multimethod approach. It first investigates various disciplinary perspectives (e.g. philosophical,
psychological and spiritual) on the concept of meaningfulness, before examining scholarship which
considers how videogames might provide meaningful experiences in players. I then apply this
collection of theoretical concepts in establishing a videogame design framework through which I
develop a game prototype which aims to be meaningful via story and various design features. Finally,
I produce an exegesis to critically analyse the creative practice of developing my prototype. My
reflections suggest that, during my creative practice, meaning emerges as I enter specific mental states
that allow me to reflect and contemplate on subjective thoughts and feelings which manifest in the
creation of the prototype.