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    Zen and Slow Games

    Part of Playful Thinking

    Author Victor Navarro-Remesal
    Ebook
    The MIT Press
    On sale Feb 10, 2026 | 224 Pages | 9780262385022
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    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.
    Introduction
    Chapter 1. What is slow? On the reflective style in games
    Chapter 2. Early reflective games
    Chapter 3. Zen modes and Zen games
    Chapter 4. Slow Games
    Outro. Too many labels and one ideal
    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.
    Victor Navarro-Remesal View titles by Victor Navarro-Remesal

    About

    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.

    Table of Contents

    Introduction
    Chapter 1. What is slow? On the reflective style in games
    Chapter 2. Early reflective games
    Chapter 3. Zen modes and Zen games
    Chapter 4. Slow Games
    Outro. Too many labels and one ideal

    Author

    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.
    Victor Navarro-Remesal View titles by Victor Navarro-Remesal

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