OASIS Lunch Time Talks - Zen Mode: on Buddhism, McMindfulness, and orientalism in games

Since the casual revolution, “Zen modes” have become a staple of gaming culture. In parallel, games described as “Zen gaming”, from Flower to Tetris Effect, have made contemplation, minimalism, and slowness mainstream. With mindfulness turned into a neoliberal tool and positive psychology widely used in games (“flow”), this talk asks: what’s Zen about Zen games? How do they participate in McMindfulness? What role does orientalism play in all this? And can we really use Zen thought to study videogames?

Víctor Navarro-Remesal is a game scholar and a specialist in East Asia. He teaches Videogames, Interactive Narrative, and Animated Cinema at CESAG (Comillas Pontifical University) in Palma (Spain). His research interests are player freedom, Zen-inspired games, gêmu, and game preservation.

OASIS Lunch Time Talks is a series of lectures on current research by fascinating scholars from near and far.