From the Eudaimonic to the Demonic in Gameplay Narratives

This paper examines the tension between eudaimonic and demonic framings of digital gameplay, using close readings of two texts: Michael W. Clune's memoir Gamelife (2015) and psychotherapist Alexander Kriss' The Gaming Mind (2019). Its central argument is that the recurring figure of the demon in accounts of play offers a productive way to acknowledge pleasures and experiences that resist the humanistic terms through which eudaimonic game research has typically justified the medium's cultural value. The author situates this discussion within broader efforts to determine how videogames gain legitimacy as culturally valuable.

The paper traces the etymology of "demon," which has historically described ambiguous supernatural beings and, more recently, struggles with addiction and mental health, and contrasts it with "eudaimonia," the concept of well-being and meaning-seeking that media psychologists apply to engagements that transcend hedonic pleasure. Eudaimonic gameplay research, the paper notes, generally argues that games enrich self-understanding and insight into the human condition.

Kriss' book shares this humanistic aim, seeking to counter the view that games are dangerously addictive. Yet, in a notable turn, Kriss' own encounter with the punishing Demon's Souls leads him to describe the experience in gothic and Sisyphean terms, prompting him to question why he continues to play something that feels more demonic than eudaimonic. Clune's memoir, read by critics as both a story of gaming's life lessons and a book about the incompatibility of game life and human life, similarly invokes demonic language, particularly in recounting his mother's efforts to ban occult-themed games. The paper concludes that these demonic motifs expose the limits of humanist frameworks for cultural value.