Zen and Slow Games

A deep dive into the reflective modes of playfulness in video games.

Slowness and reflectiveness have always been part of the video game medium, though they have been used very differently throughout its history. In Zen and Slow Games, Víctor Navarro-Remesal challenges the dominant discourse of action and quick reflexes in video games to offer an analysis of reflectiveness as a style in games, tracing its evolution from its origins to the present time. Two labels are of particular importance: the Zen modes (and later, Zen games) of the 2000s, especially during the Casual Revolution, and the slow games or slow gaming movement, which started in the 2010s and is ongoing today. The term ＂reflective games＂ is offered as an umbrella to bring together these and other labels to raise awareness and discussion of slow gaming.

Víctor Navarro-Remesal is a media scholar specializing in games working at TecnoCampus, Universitat Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona, Spain. He is the editor of the book series Ludografías (Shangrila) and the current president and one of the founding members of DIGRA Spain, as well as the copresident of the History of Games conference and the coeditor of Perspectives on the European Videogame.