Shaffer discusses in chapter one the fact that video games may be more of a thing that isn’t supposed to be fun and rather that of repeating certain characteristics of the game in order to come to a level of complete contentment. He also recognizes that we as gamers enjoy the overall time spent playing video games rather than the “fun” level that is initially thought of when referring to video games.

I recently viewed a video on youtube (regrettably I’ve been unable to find it again) of 10 twelve year old students in Japan using video games in the classroom as a tool for learning by their instructor. The instructor kept strict data on these students and their emotions that came while playing these games. While watching this five minute youtube video that time-lined a week of gaming, I was able to not only view the students’ emotions while playing the games, but also their emotions when they were not. The video documented the students at lunch, recess, in the hall, and coming/leaving the classroom. What were interesting to see were the constant negative emotions that resulted from game play, yet the longing and anticipation that came when the students were not at their gaming stations in the classroom. It almost seemed like an addiction. Although they were angry, irritated and at times fed-up with the game they were playing, none of that ever trumped the eagerness to get back to gaming.

Shaffer talks about “hard fun” which is the kind of fun that you have when you’re working on something hard, something that means something until you finally get to the point of contentment (completion). The students from that youtube video were enjoying this “hard fun”. These students did enjoy playing (as was referred to in the reading), and not only because it got them out of their typical daily classroom lessons. It was a release that was irritating, hard, yet fun at the same time.