The Joys of Absence: Emotion, Emotion Display, and Interaction Tension in Video Game Play

Few theories of gaming enjoyment have focused what is absent in gameplay. One exception is Erving Goffman’s sociological theory of “euphoric ease”. Because spontaneous and socially demanded emotional involvement often align in gameplay, Goffman holds, it lacks the effortful self-monitoring and self-regulation of conduct and emotion typical for everyday life. This paper presents an empirical grounding of Goffman’s theory, drawing on a qualitative interview study on social norms of emotion regulation in video game play. Data suggests that the absence of emotional selfcontrol may indeed be a hygiene factor of game enjoyment most strongly found in solitary gameplay, afforded by a socio-material setting that licenses gaming-typical emotions and shields from potentially disapproving onlookers.