Beyond Enjoyment: A Cognitive-Emotional Perspective of Gamification

Abstract

The success of gamified systems depends on their ability to engage players by eliciting both positive and negative emotions, but little guidance exists on creating emotional experiences through gamified design. This paper reviews work in psychology and neuroscience to highlight the interactive processes of cognition and emotion, and describes their relevance to gamification. Drawing on a model of the cognitive structure of emotions, and the mechanics-dynamics-emotions (MDE) framework for gamification, this paper advances a cognitive-emotional perspective of gamification and provides general propositions and directions for future research.