"Flow" and Soldier of Fortune
I have limited experience with first person shooters. That being said, the game that I decided to dig up was an old one that I have not played for several years. That game hails by the name of Soldier of Fortune. My high school friend Jennifer introduced me to this awhile back. As it was multiplayer, we were able to play together. We used to challenge each other to one-on-one matches, one of us hosting the games. This was a nice feature of the game as we didn't have to immediately involve ourselves with the other Soldier of Fortune populus.
One thing about the social aspect of first person shooters worth mentioning is that, in my experiences, unless you're on a team or you know your opponent, there is little reason to talk during the game. You are concentrating on staying alive and any unnecessary chatter would be more likely to get you killed than keep you alive. Unless, perhaps, if you were trying to dig into the psyche of your opponent. That, however, requires that you be able to navigate the map on automatic and devote an excess amount of time to psycho analysis. Not entirely wise. Since your every position in the environment is not known, stealth is a very important skill to learn.
If I recall correctly, neither my friend nor I wanted to try many of the games made by other players. Both fell under the category of "newbie" and were likely to get ourselves in over our heads. The learning curve for first person shooters is, in my opinion, somewhat steep. Tthe people who generally hung around the game were either very hardcore or newbie. I did not notice very many people who were only slightly interested in the game play or those who were "moderately" good at the game. They were either genious or not.
Generally speaking, the general mechanism behind most first person shooters falls under the same cateogory. You direct your character through a 3-D environment, pointing your gun or other choice of weapon at your opponent. Accuracy counts, and if you miss, you risk a game over. Though there are games which involve some forms of strategy or tactics, most are just focused on one thing - survival. If your life bar drops to zero, you die. In order to survive, you must, in essence, have eyes on all sides, and be able to think quickly, react relying on instinct, and be able find out where your opponent might be hiding. If you don't, you'll end up dead.
That being said, I always found it difficult to enjoy first person shooters. This is because I get too involved with the game and become somewhat paranoid (this happens in other similar pvp environments). First person shooters require more player-based skill than other types. Your character does not improve over time. You may gain more powerful weapons, but generally speaking, how you use the weapons and tactics is what matters. In this way, there is no cheap way to become extremely powerful. You are forced to rely on your skills at gaming and only that, maybe a little bit of luck. For this reason, I find first person shooters somewhat frustrating. It was fun for what it was worth though.
If I were to draw a Flow diagram of my experience of first person shooters, I'd likely end up in the Anxiety spectrum. Boredom is not part of the picture. The first person shooters I've played have generally been fun. Sometimes an adrenaline rush is a good feeling. I don't know if what I experienced was Flow, or anything similar to that. I understand how first person shooters can get addcicting, especially if you get good at the game. If you have the skill that I probably lacked, then it would likely be more fun and less nerve-wracking. If I were more skillfull at first person shooters, I'd likely be able to move from the anxiety spectrum to the flow spectrum.
On a slightly different tangent, unlike some of the games that were described in the Flow article, first person shooters are not necessarily cooperative. Not unless you play on teams. In teams, there is more of a challenge. The game is not over when one of your opponents has been wiped out. Instead, you must wipe out the entire team. This also includes the topic of teamwork versus self-preservation. Both are needed in order to survive. The social mechanice would likely improve greatly were this the case.
If you are simply going one-on-one, or free for all, then there is no cooperation except that all players attempt to eliminate the other. If all players are equally matched in terms of skill, then the game may become more interesting. Otherwise, it is likely to be over very quickly. One good snipe and your opponent has been eliminated. Either that or you find yourself staring at the screen... Game over.