The Legend Of Zelda And Abraham Maslow’s Theory Of

Running parallel to the criticisms, however, are sales figures. Computer gameswere selling extremely well. In terms of profit, for instance, they were outperformingfilms (Newman, 2004: 3)6. In addition to this, there were other statistics, such as thehigh number of consumers and the duration of player engagement. ‘At the 2002Electronic Gaming Expo Sony announced global shipments of 30 million PlayStation2 consoles’ (2004: 3), whilst ‘typical users [of online roleplaying games] spend 20-30hours a week inside the fantasy. Power users spend every available moment. Some 20percent of users claimed that their fantasy world was their real place of residence; theearth was just a place you go to get food and sleep7’ (Castronova, 2005:1-2). Suchstatistics allowed another thought to take root: surely computer games would not sell aswell, nor vacuum up so much time if they instigate only negative emotions. In otherwords, surely so many people would not pay so much money and spend so much timesimply to feel bad.It seems, therefore, that there is a place for a proper consideration of whatexactly it is about the computer game that draws players to it in such numbers and forsuch periods of time. Surely there has to be something emotionally or psychologicallyenriching, otherwise, why would players bother? Subsequently, the following,fundamental question is raised: what motivates people to play computer games?Within the vast literature that touches upon motivation, one name dominates that of Abraham Maslow8, and, in particular, his hierarchy of needs, something businesstheorist James Gibson has called ‘ one of the most referenced motivation theories ever(1994: 219).’ This thesis suggests that Maslow’s hierarchy of needs provides a usefulconceptual framework within which to explore the prosocial effects of gaming. It notonly provides a set of valuable concepts, but it is also a theory pitched in socialpsychological terms, enabling it to speak directly to the majority of other (negative)studies on the computer game and its players which have also, largely, beenpsychological in orientation. On a more theoretical level, Maslow’s criterion for need6Even though hardware sales are often included in such statistics, the sales figures are still remarkable.Such a notion resonates with Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, the backbone of this thesis. Thethesis argues that food and sleep are some of the only need satisfactions not possible through gameplay.8While Maslow’s work has weaknesses and its critics (and this is discussed in the next chapter), itcontinues to influence.712

satisfactions is comprised of many elements that seem to exist in the computer game.Perhaps most importantly of all for the aims of this thesis, these needs concern healthy,positive, human growth.While discussed at length in the main body of the thesis, it is worthwhile toprovide a brief summary of Maslow’s work here. Maslow was a psychologist whobegan work in the field in the 1930s. By the 1940s, ideas around human needs hadstarted to germinate and in 1954, Maslow published his first major work on the subject Motivation and Personality. Here, and in further pieces published over the course of hislifetime, Maslow argues that human beings have both basic and higher needs andconstantly seek their satisfaction. Maslow argues that basic needs include the need forphysiological satisfactions such as food, water and shelter, as well as the more abstractones such as emotional safety and a sense of belonging. The higher needs, on the otherhand, include the need for more sophisticated satisfactions such as the need for beauty,justice and playfulness. Maslow argues that higher needs must be satisfied if a person isto be truly content or self-actualised. A self- actualising person, according to Maslow’sdefinition, is someone who has satisfied all basic needs, is constantly seeking out waysto satisfy higher needs and, by doing so, is achieving his or her full potential.The Cultural and Commercial BackgroundWith this theoretical framework in place, work on the thesis began in earnest in 2005, atime when the computer game and its industry were on the cusp of great change. Theconsole market had just begun its regular technological transition into what is termed by the industry and consumers - as the seventh generation9, with the arrival of9The genealogy of the console is traced in much scholarly work, including Aoyama, Y. Izushi, H. (2003)‘Hardware gimmick or cultural innovation? Technological, cultural and social foundations of the Japanesevideo game industry’, in Research Policy 32; Maillet, S. de Meyer, G. (2005) ‘The history of thevideogame’, in Raessens, J. Goldstein, J. (eds) Computer Game Studies Handbook MIT Press and Johns,Jennifer, (2006) ‘Video games production networks: value capture, power relations and embeddedness’.Journal of Economic Geography, Vol. 6, Issue 2, pp. 151-180, 2006. Perhaps most recently, the computergame has been periodised by console by game scholar, Mark Wolf in his book, The VideogameExplosion: a history from Pong to PlayStation and beyond (2008). Discussions of the generations alsoproliferate on the Internet: http://www.informit.com/articles/article.aspx?p 378141&seqNum . It must be13

Microsoft’s Xbox 360, released in November and December in the US and Europerespectively. While the previous generation - in the form of Microsoft’s ownpredecessor to the Xbox 360, the (un-suffixed) Xbox, Sony’s PlayStation 2 andNintendo’s GameCube - offered online connectivity, the Xbox 360 is the first consolefor which online play eventually became a key selling point. It would be some monthsbefore Sony and Nintendo joined this interconnected seventh generation and so, for atime, this period saw a mix of the old and new: traditional single player franchises andexperiences continued while Microsoft’s technology offered more and games withmultiplayer and downloadable content. It also introduced the concept10 of the console asentertainment hub - the playing of DVD and High Definition discs11, as well as thecreation of friends’ networks and downloadable content. In most respects, though, thismove into the next generation mirrored earlier times, which historically saw sometechnical innovation by one console manufacturer mimicked by its competitors. Thesituation would reach some sort of equilibrium before the cycle would begin againseveral years later.At the time of writing however, it is startlingly apparent just how unlike thehistorical precedents this change was. The Xbox 360 was shortly followed by Sony’sPlayStation 3 and Nintendo’s Wii. The former offers much the same as the Xbox 360 interms of online play and overall connectivity, while the latter offers a different, morekinetic, form of play experience.12 As noted in computer game scholar Jesper Juul’sbook, A Casual Revolution (2009) and discussed in chapter two of this thesis, suchchanges in input methods has helped spawn a different demographic of computer gameplayers, and these are known as ‘casual gamers’. The casual gamer demographic hasalso been boosted by games’ presence on social networking sites such as Facebook13noted, however, that this way of referring to games technology (in terms of generations) seems to havepassed and this is touched upon later in the body text.10It could be argued that Sony did this first, albeit in a limited capacity, with their PlayStation 2 offeringDVD playback facilities.11The High Definition system was quickly replaced with, and made obsolete by, the ‘Blu-Ray’ format.12These in turn have, of course, been mimicked by rival console manufacturers.13Computer game scholar, Ian Bogost, whose thoughts on definition of the form are included in thethesis’ concluding comments, created the Facebook game Cow Clicker, a deliberately absurd pieceintended to satirise the shallowness of some social games: ‘One of things that interested me was: ‘Howmany features could I add to the game without adding any gameplay?’’ (#Edge, 227: 76). It has,14

and Twitter. Online connectivity has also changed the technological shape of the market,with consoles now no longer being shipped at the peak of their power: they are easilyupgradable via software rather than hardware alterations and receive regular‘firmware’14 updates to keep them current. Significantly, the only major console whichis receiving a hardware update - Nintendo’s Wii, in the shape of the Wii -U - is evolvingits current console rather than completely reinventing it15. Games too, have also evolvedas a consequence of connectivity, with almost all major releases having an onlinecomponent. Perhaps the biggest innovation, however, is how the computer game isdelivered to its audience: while games are still currently available in boxed form, manyare delivered direct to the console via downloading. This has revolutionised gaming onhandheld consoles also, with the arrival of the smartphone, perhaps first fully realisedand then popularised by Apple’s iPhone16. Such innovations, along with a generallowering of pricing for digitally distributed pieces, have pushed the computer gamefurther into the mainstream than ever before and it seems likely to become ever more‘part of the cultural furniture’(Poole, 2000: 2). Understanding the people who playcomputer games is, therefore, more necessary than ever, as is redressing the bias of thepsychological literature, a body of work which has, historically, focused on the negative.Indeed, in the words of Craig Anderson, a psychologist who has spent many yearssurveying such literature, ‘Unfortunately, there has been relatively little research onpurely prosocial game effects.’ (2010: 171).somewhat ironically perhaps, become incredibly popular: ‘the game has generated as many as 50,000players a month’ (227: 76). A full discussion of the game’s development can be found at Bogost’swebsite: http://www.bogost.com/blog/cow clicker 1.shtml14Firmware is a piece of software essential in controlling a piece of hardware. It is, effectively, its brain.15The main evolution of the Wii U is its controller, which has some properties of a tablet PC. Thiscontroller will allow some games to be played on both the television and its own screen.16In speaking about the mobile phone game market, one game developer, Neil Young, notes thefollowing: ‘ at the centre of everything is the iPhone. Before that, everything was pretty lame’. This ispart of his keynote speech from the 2009 Game Developers Conference. Transcriptions of his speech canbe found at various Internet locations, including here: just-changed-everything15

The Method: The Legend of Zelda and its PlayersThis thesis, then, is an attempt to redress the balance by undertaking research on socialpsychological benefits and ‘prosocial game effects’17, and determining whether playersof computer games do experience anything positive through their play. On a theoreticallevel, I argue that such benefits and effects can be explored in relation to the concept ofhuman psychological ‘needs’ and the extent to which the computer game is able tosatisfy them. I suggest that Maslow’s theory of needs - a theory which allows forpositive human behaviours to be identified - is a valuable basic framework in thisrespect, and provides useful tools with which to explore social psychological benefitsand prosocial effects. It is clear however that the concept of ‘needs’ is a complex one,and so is the task of determining whether or not they are satisfied through computergame play. Maslow’s theoretical framework - while appearing immediately useful needs to be subjected to empirical scrutiny. Consequently, a qualitative research strategyis employed, which involves speaking to the players themselves via in-depth semistructured interviews. Through analysing gamers’ narratives, the thesis explores theextent to which the ‘basic’ and ‘higher’ needs of human beings can be said to besatisfied through computer game play. In the process, the thesis is also able to provide acritical appreciation of the role that Maslow’s theory might play as a framework withinComputer Game Studies for research on the prosocial and positive psychological effectsof gaming.Maslow’s theory has never been used before in any examination of computergame effects or in computer game studies generally. Such an oversight may explain thecomparative lack of positive effects found thus far. This research, then, being the first toinvestigate it, will determine if and how useful Maslow’s theory is for both socialpsychological studies of games and players generally, and for the growing discipline ofComputer Game Studies specifically.17In this thesis, ‘prosocial game effects’ means anything socially positive that may be attributed to theplaying of computer games. This ranges from simply spending time with friends to allowing game contentto directly (and positively) influence social behavior.16

Maslow’s work is used in conjunction with one particular game and its players.This game is Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (1998), an entry in The Legend of Zeldaseries of computer games, developed and published by Nintendo (a Japanese companyestablished in 1889). The first Legend of Zelda game was released in 1986 and the serieshas received semi-regular installments ever since; the latest - Skyward Sword - wasreleased worldwide in November 2011. The Legend of Zelda is an action adventuregame (or AAG) in which the player controls a character, named Link, tasked with theobjective of overcoming all obstacles (in the form of enemies and puzzles) to rescue thekidnapped princess Zelda. All games in the series share common elements of characters,gameplay devices, and variations of the above objective and the series remainsextremely popular series both critically and commercially. The high number of Internetsites dedicated to it – which will be discussed in chapter three - is but one indicator of itshuge audience.Ocarina of Time, the fifth Legend of Zelda game, has long been held as thepinnacle of the series, receiving glowing reviews at the time of its release andmaintaining a place in numerous ‘best ever’ lists since. As will be discussed in the mainbody of the thesis itself, this game is the right choice as the focus for a study on playersatisfactions not only because of its standing, but also because of: 1. its ludic properties(it has everything that a computer game needs to have if is to properly qualify as a‘computer game’); 2. its violence (allowing it to be considered on an equal footing tocomputer games studied in the negative effects literature18); 3. its large fanbase(allowing for a diverse population from which to draw interviewees). Finally, the use ofa specific game, rather than a genre, is the best way to maintain a focused and detaileddiscussion throughout the thesis. Ocarina of Time thus acts a case study which is able toanchor both theoretical concerns and empirical reflections.18On this point, it is worthwhile to note the following comment on the subject of what exactly constitutesa violent computer game: ‘The first of popular games to be considered violent was Pac Man. This gameconsisted of a small circle with a mouth that tried to eat pills and destroy ghosts. Although this hardlyseems violent by today's standards, it was one of the first games to involve destruction of any /kooijmans.html) While this is taken from an undergraduatepaper and whether Pac-Man was the first popular game to be considered violent is debatable (Death Raceappeared several years earlier, for instance) it nonetheless makes an interesting point regarding thedefinition of violence in games.17

Overview of ChaptersChapter one will provide background to Maslow and his theories. In particular, I willdiscuss Maslow’s hierarchy of needs which charts the need for the basic levelsatisfactions of love, belonging and esteem as well as the more abstract, higher level,satisfactions of truth, beauty and justice. At this point, I will suggest Maslow’s hierarchyof needs as a useful basic framework for exploring the psychologically beneficial andprosocial effects of gaming, although what those effects are and the ultimate criticalvalue of Maslow’s work is to be ascertained through the analysis of the empirical data.In order to aid this critical application of Maslow, this chapter will also discuss andevaluate criticisms of Maslow’s work. I suggest that the common criticism of Maslow’swork – its individualism – is not a problem for this research which attempts to determineindividual, psychological level satisfactions. I also address his individualism bypositioning the computer game and its players, and the benefits of play, in specificsocial contexts. The solution to overcoming the other commonly cited shortcoming ofMaslow’s theory - its lack of empirical work to back up the concepts - will also bepresented in this chapter by noting my intent to use first-hand research. It will be alsobe stated in chapter one that this thesis differs from the majority of other psychologicalstudies in its intent. It takes a positive approach: attempting to determine if there arebenefits19 to be gained from playing computer games and if so, what these might be.This study, then, is, from the outset, purposely directed towards identifying the positiveimpact of computer games. This is because it aims to fill the gap in the literature thatignores social psychological benefits and prosocial effects. That is certainly not to say,however, that my analysis of the data will be blinkered to negative effects, but inchoosing Maslow’s theory, I employ a framework that makes positive effectsidentifiable. Finally, chapter one will also consider a number of other useful theories,from the field of developmental psychology.Chapter two will provide a consideration of the theories which are necessary toforming a definition of the computer game, something important when attempting to19Not only behaviours, however, the preferred focus of traditional effects studies.18

discover its effects. It will open with a discussion of traditional games and play throughthe work of those who have analysed them most thoroughly: Johan Huizinga and RogerCaillios, thinkers who heavily influence computer game scholars with their analyses andcategorisations. The chapter will draw attention to how these scholars identify theinherent benefits of play and games and note how these inherent benefits make the useof Maslow’s theory - so far overlooked by Computer Game Studies - so fitting aframework within which to further explore them in the digital age. The chapter will thenconsider how computer games are both similar to and different from these traditionalgames. It will highlight their differences by turning to computer game scholars (inparticular Barry Atkins) who note that computer ga

5: Ocarina of Time and Abraham Maslow 167 Conclusion 173 Conclusion: The Legend of Zelda and Abraham Maslow’s Theory of Needs Reconsidered Introduction 176 1. The Computer Game 176