Serious Games as Positive Technologies for Individual and Group Flourishing

By fostering continuous learning experiences blended with entertaining affordances, serious games have been able to shape new virtual contexts for human psychological growth and well-being. Thus, they can be considered as Positive Technologies. Positive Technology is an emergent field based on both theoretical and applied research, whose goal is to investigate how Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) can be used to empower the quality of personal experience. In particular, serious games can influence both individual and interpersonal experiences by nurturing positive emotions, and promoting engagement, as well as enhancing social integration and connectedness. An in-depth analysis of each of these aspects will be presented in the chapter, with the support of concrete examples. Networked flow, a specific state where social well-being is associated with group flourishing and peak creative states, will eventually be considered along with game design practices that can support its emergence.