Paralysis by Analysis: Choking, Clutching, and Reinvestment in Competitive Gameplay

Abstract

Video games frequently invoke high-pressure circumstances in which player performance is crucial. These high-pressure circumstances are incubators for ‘choking’ and ‘clutching’—phenomena that broadly address critical failures and successes in performance, respectively. The eruption of esports into the mainstream has vitalized the need to understand performance in video games, and particularly in competitive games spaces. In this short workshop paper, we present a selection of findings and insights from a full paper (submitted for review) exploring potential mechanisms behind choking and clutching. We find that propensity to choke is positively predicted by trait reinvestment—a predisposition to ‘focus inwards’ in high pressure contexts, reverting to slower ‘declarative’ processing in lieu of more automated ‘procedural’ processing. We also find that propensity to clutch is positively predicted by player experience with competitive gaming. We propose that such findings can be utilized to scaffold and support performance in high-pressure gaming spaces, such as esports.