Kvell, Parenting, and Pokemon

In preparation for today's game design class, my students read Level 8 of Ian Schreiber's Game Design Concepts. This reading includes four kinds of "fun" that are often discussed in game design: fiero, schadenfreude, naches, and kvell. After a quick reminder about each of them, I had the students get into small groups and identify examples of each of these from common games. Each table shared their findings, and we had a good albeit brief discussion about them. 

The first table struggled to come up with an example of kvell. I reminded them that where naches is about pride in any kind of mentee, kvell is more particularly about your children. The students at the next table eagerly flung up their hands to share their example: Pokemon. Another group chimed in and said that was their example, too. To the students' credit, one of them very quickly framed this not as an assertion but as a question: can my relationship with my Pokemon be similar enough to a parent-child relationship, since I raise them and can feel joy in bragging (kvelling) about their achievement?

I reminded myself that these are 19-22 year-olds, and my best guess is that none of them have children. Indeed, when I said as much, no one contradicted me, which lets me know that none of them have children. I suspect that if they did have children, they would have told me, because that is in fact the nature of kvell. I mentioned to them that I see games differently now, as a father, than I did when I was their age, but that I couldn't bottle that idea in any way that they could drink it. 

I suggested to them that, rather than try to analytically answer the question, "Is training a Pokemon enough like raising a child to simulate kvell?" that they recognize this as a research question. A social-scientific approach could be used to determine who might believe this. That is, are their characteristics that correlate with responses to that question? My hypothesis would be that parents and non-parents would answer it differently, but I would not take it as a fait accompli. I suggested that this could be a good honors thesis or even a masters thesis, noting that I'd be happy to advise such a project.

I don't know that any of them will take me up on this, but at least the question is out there. Also, I hope that this models for them a scholarly approach, one that is not only framed in an understanding of the research but one that keeps an eye open for assumptions and unknowns.