Chapter 13 of Bogost’s How to Do Things with Videogames talks about “Relaxation.” Bogost concludes the chapter by asserting that for relaxation, “designers and players… must reject the principle of engagement,” and that “Relaxation and reflection arise from constrained environments in which the senses are de-emphasized and focused rather than escalated and expanded.”
While I agree that a kind of “constrained environment” is required for a game to actually be relaxing, I don’t think it’s necessary to “reject the principle of engagement,” or even to “de-emphasize” the senses.
For me, walking outdoors is probably, aside from sleeping, the single most relaxing act I can commit. But —aside from the element of exercise— it relaxes me not because my environment is not engaging, but largely because it is a “constrained environment” in that the scene is familiar and seems safe. I don’t normally have to expect an enemy to jump out at me (and if I did I certainly wouldn’t be relaxed). I have not played Bogost’s Meditation Guru, but it seems to me that the only reason the Atari platform might be more conducive to relaxation than another platform in this instance is simply because the player is aware of the extreme limits of the technology and would not expect a major curveball in terms of what they will have to do. I don’t think the lack of graphical sensuality has much to do with it at all.
It seems to me, then, that the greatest obstacle to creating a relaxing game is not an sensually engaging diegetic environment, but an unpredictable one. Simply doing nothing does not produce calm; it is freedom from uncertainty that allows a player to truly relax.
I wonder if part of the tension between your idea of a relaxing game and Bogost’s is that he is (as he does in all of the chapters) using a very broad definition of the chapter’s core concept. In fact, it’s so broad that some of the games he identifies as supporting this or that practice could easily be seen as supporting practices that are entirely antithetical to that original practice.
Also, you’ve identified a central problem that arises when generalizing about videogames: different players will play the same game differently. So, while Meditation Guru may be peaceful for one player, it may provoke spasms of frustrations for another. (I’ll bring the game to class, so we can talk about it.)