Walking into any dark and cramped LAN party, you’re certain to notice one eerie element: utter silence. Save for the sound of rattling, abused keyboards, you’ll probably observe that—for a convention hall packed by teenagers—the silence is uncharacteristic. This was my experience at last year’s Electronic Sports World Cup (ESWC) held in Paris’ esteemed Grand Palais. The Quake Live matches in progress seemed more like an exercise in group meditation than a feud between 15-year-old competitors. Each player was consumed, mind and body, by the delicate activity before them. As a lifelong Quaker myself, I wasn’t surprised by the silence, but by the meditative state which the silence indicated.
These players were in a Flow state, and maps like Campgrounds and Dredwerkz were their transcendental destinations.
Flow occurs when an individual is overcome by a feeling of “complete and energized focus in an activity,” explains Hungarian psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. In the context of video games, designers work tirelessly to evoke that feeling of immersion, but it’s a delicate balance. If the activity is too challenging, players feel hopeless and anxious. And when a game level isn’t challenging enough, players become bored. But right in the middle, when the avatar’s abilities are comparable to the challenges of the environment, the player’s consciousness is temporarily subsumed by the virtual world.
The concept of Flow accounts for the bizarre silence I observed, but not for my comments about transcendence. To explain that, allow me to brief you on Zen Buddhism and some of the practices associated with it.
The word Zen is the Japanese transliteration of Dyzhen, which in turn is Middle Chinese derivation of the Sanskrit word Dhyāna, which itself can be understood to mean “absorption.”
Core to the teachings of Zen Buddhism, and indeed the most common subject of Japanese calligraphy, is the concept of ensō. This principle is among the most prolific in Eastern philosophies and refers to a state of Flow wherein the meditator is absorbed by and at one with another thing. One's Flow can be directed to address almost any activity—for thousands of years, understanding when and how to act through ensō has helped us perfect the arts of Aikido, bonsai and Ikebana. In 2012, ensō is helping us perfect the arts of strafe-jumping and the Railgun.
Recent neurological research shows the striking similarities between in-game and in-meditation brain activity. A joint study between Harvard and Massachusetts General revealed that the amygdala—responsible for regulating emotions like anger, anxiety and boredom—became noticeably less active during observation. The prefrontal cortex, a relatively new structure in evolutionary terms, takes the wheel during immersive sessions of meditation and gameplay. The PFC is responsible for attention and the processing of sensory input, which certainly figures.
Place of Many Deaths and other similar maps force the neuro-chemical composition of elite Quakers to change completely. Genuflecting above your keyboard, your mind is geared toward scoring a headshot in the same way that a Jainist monk seeks buddhahood. With only an illusory experience practicing Zen meditation, I’ll have to delegate to the scientific results. I can say, however, that my experiences during intense bouts of Quake Live seem very meditative to me.
The National Center for Alternative Medicine defines meditation as a state in which “a person focuses his attention and suspends the stream of thoughts that normally occupy the mind”. It may be a loose description, but it comfortably describes almost every competitive moment in my storied history with Counter-Strike, Quake and Unreal 2K4. In the past, I've used these games as a kind of therapy—floating around maps like scoutz_knivez gives me a peace of mind I can scarcely find elsewhere. Whether or not competitive shooters have the same pain-reducing and therapeutic effects as mindful meditation, however, is another question altogether.
The next time you find yourself in a deathmatch, surrounded on all sides by pursuant enemies, ease your mind and breathe. Frantic clicking won't help you survive another second, so instead try to relax and become one with your environment. Burning some incense might help, too.