Towards a concept on measuring the flow state during gameplay of serious games

The flow is a state of thorough concentration, in which the subjective perception of one's own performance reaches an optimum and the intrinsic motivation is maximized. So far there is no reliable method to underpin the flow with physiological characteristics, which would allow to detect it objectively. This paper presents a concept on determining flow while playing computer games, in combination with a massive measurement of physiological characteristics to ultimately find correlations with the flow. The described method results in a chronological sequence of the test persons' eventual flow experience, assessed with established questionnaires, which can be compared with the physiological data. Future findings could be used to improve the effectiveness of knowledge acquisition by serious games, since the flow state is a key element for sustainable learning results and thus a key evaluation criterion for serious games