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Leino argues that game emotions should be understood as intentional relationships between players and in-game objects. Extreme emotional moments cannot represent the full range of player experience.
Leino's paper argues that emotions in games should be understood as intentional relationships between players and in-game objects, rather than as isolated psychological reactions that can be measured in the abstract. Extreme emotional moments, on this account, cannot stand in for the full range of player experience. The central thesis is that the key to understanding such emotions lies in how players believe in or deny a game's fiction, a stance shaped by their "lusory attitude" toward its rules. To frame this, the paper introduces a classification of game content as experienced, dividing it into "deniable" meanings, which a player can reject without losing their standing as a player, and "undeniable" meanings, whose acceptance is required in order to keep playing.
The classification is developed through close comparison of two variants of Tetris (1985). In PlayTetris, pornographic material is deniable, so any sexual desire it provokes concerns something the player may freely set aside. In XTET, erotic content is undeniable, since the player must acknowledge it to participate in play. The central claim is that this experiential distinction, rather than objective properties of the game itself, should structure analysis of player emotion. The author explicitly acknowledges that the framework remains theoretical and requires empirical testing, deferring such work to future research.
The paper's scope is conceptual and focused on single-player and digital game experience, drawing its examples primarily from Tetris variants. Its theoretical grounding rests on philosophical accounts of emotion, notably Solomon and Suits, and its supporting references span PC, console, and early home-computer titles, including Civilization IV and Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. The bibliography reinforces the broader argument that emotional engagement with games depends on the player's relationship to the fiction and rules, though the closing reference material offers no independent findings of its own.
