Affect Channel Model of Evaluation in the Context of Digital Games

Abstract

Psychological emotion theories are underused in digital game research, possibly because they are divided into several competing camps and because they do not provide a framework easily applied to a context of digital games. I present a first step towards an integration of the camps, especially by combining Panksepp's view on primary processes, Scherer's component process model, and Cacioppo and others' evaluative space model. While specifying the different parts of the affect channel model of evaluation, I discuss how they are likely related to common game-related phenomena.