That is a wrong assumption.

I don't post on /r/gamedesign much but I talk to plenty of people in the game industry (both in schools and in businesses) about game design. When people are talking about Cognitive Flow (The process being described bey everyone here as the one and only definition of "Flow") they refer to it as such.

They don't put their fingers in their ears and decry "Flow doesn't mean anything else". I don't know you and I would never assume your knowledge or experience so don't go degrading my experiences you know nothing about because you want to belittle my opinions.

I'm more than happy to admit when I'm wrong, I do so frequently, but everything said in this thread is opinion based and so no one person is right or wrong. I never attack anyone's integrity for any opinion they hold let alone my uninformed opinion about them and the fact that you do speaks volumes.

It's not like we only use "Experience" as a term for the points you gain before leveling up. It's not like "Aesthetics" only referse to a games look and feel. The fact that people say "Using flow like that is wrong" when it doesn't mean one of its multiple definitions.

When I say "I've never heard it used like that" It's because I always hear that type of flow described as Cognitive Flow. It's a term on its own. But when people say "This game flows" they are not talking about Cognitive Flow.