ABSTRACT

This chapter argues why knowledge of emotion theories and the ability to assess them from an evolutionary perspective would be useful for game researchers. The traditional emotion theory family within the discrete emotion view, the basic emotion theories posit, in a nutshell, that emotions not only occur in reliable clusters, but they are also natural categories that represent hardwired response programs to coordinate mostly automatic emotion response components. Hence, as there are dozens, if not hundreds of emotion theories, it is also necessary to be able to assess the theories according to whether they conflict with an evolutionary perspective. Instead of discrete emotions, a more fruitful approach to affective phenomena in digital games should consider the affective system as the motivational primus motor of the human mind. Hence, as there are dozens, if not hundreds of emotion theories, it is also necessary to be able to assess the theories according to whether they conflict with an evolutionary perspective.