Not All Those Who (Mind-)Wander Are Lost: Exploring Game-Unrelated Thoughts

© 2024 Copyright held by the owner/author(s). Publication rights licensed to ACM. This is the author’s version of the work. It is posted here for your personal use. Not for redistribution. The definitive Version of Record was published in Designing Interactive Systems Conference (DIS ’24), July 1–5, 2024, IT University of Copenhagen, Denmark, https://doi.org/10.1145/3643834.3661590. Task-unrelated thoughts (TUTs), colloquially referred to as mind-wandering or daydreaming, are phenomena that can interfere with attention and focus, but are also associated with mental health, creativity, and learning. In digital games, it is unclear how players experience game-unrelated thoughts (GUTs), whether GUTs should be encouraged by game designers, or how it may impact player experience. We ran an initial study to confirm whether GUTs are common (50 of 100 participants reported experiencing them). We then collected 840 minutes of gameplay data from 12 participants playing games they: (1) found relaxing, (2) lost track of time in, and (3) spent most hours playing. Eye-tracking data and experience sampling were used to contextualize a phenomenological analysis of gameplay data. We identified four themes encompassing gameplay, GUTs, and gaze behaviour: these provide a foundation for future research and game design incorporating GUTs. NSERC, Discovery Grant 2016-04422 || NSERC, Discovery Grant 2024-05124 || NSERC, CREATE Saskatchewan-Waterloo Games User Research (SWaGUR) Grant 479724-2016 || Ontario Ministry of Colleges and Universities, Ontario Early Researcher Award ER15-11-184.