Measuring and defining the experience of immersion in games

Some features of the site may not work correctly. DOI: Jennett , A. Despite the word's common usage by gamers and reviewers alike, it is still not clear what immersion means. This paper explores immersion further by investigating whether immersion can be defined quantitatively, describing three experiments in total. The first experiment investigated participants' abilities to switch from an immersive to a non-immersive task.

The second experiment investigated whether there were changes in participants' eye movements during an immersive task. The third… Expand. View via Publisher.

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Results Citations. Other research has also investigated how heart rate variability HRV is altered by immersion within a VR environment as compared to watching a 3D movie [9]. The VR environment appeared to induce more feelings of immersion and was associated with an increase in HRV — suggesting that the participants were experiencing an increase in physiological arousal as they completed the cognitively demanding task. Learn how to gather real-time reactions during gameplay. A study by Jennett et al [10] used a similar approach, measuring feelings of immersion with a questionnaire while also using eye tracking.

The researchers found that immersion could be objectively determined through visual behavior, with a reduced number of fixations being indicative of increased immersion. This suggests that the more a participant feels immersed, the longer they stare at the game without changing their gaze. This data, if proven to be reliable, could provide robust and detailed feedback about how the participants respond to the games.

There are many factors that come into play to determine the flow state, but it essentially boils down to the combined feelings of mastery and absorption while completing a task. One study used a flow state eliciting game component that was also assessed with the GEQ , and measured facial EMG fEMG activity from the zygomaticus major, the orbicularis oculi, and the corrugator supercilii [5].

The first two of these muscles are broadly related to positive emotions, while the final is associated with negative emotions [12]. They found that the flow game component caused a significant difference in zygomaticus major and orbicularis oculi activity, as compared to a game component intended to create feelings of boredom. This suggests that flow states are experienced as relatively positive, an important factor for an enjoyable gameplay experience.

The study also used GSR activity to measure levels of physiological arousal, finding a significant increase for the flow level in relation to the boredom level. These studies suggest that flow is an important part of an enjoyable gameplay experience, that can be both detected and measured to improve how video games are made. Presence, while having similarities to feelings of immersion, is defined as the feeling of existing at least momentarily within the game.

This exists on a continuum, with complete separation at one end, and strong feelings of physical existence within the game at the other end. The results show a significant association between zygomaticus major activity as mentioned above, the activity of which is associated with positive emotions , feelings of presence, and the successful completion of the game.

This was taken as evidence that the more present a player feels within the game, the more joyful their experience will be.

The researchers also found a positive association between GSR activity and feelings of presence within the game, yet no significant association was found from the ECG recordings. The participants who experienced higher levels of presence within the game showed a smaller reduction in GSR activity following the task completion as compared to participants who experienced low levels of presence , suggesting that their physiological state remained more constant at the end of the task.

Usability testing using biosensors. Another study compared the feelings of presence in both 1st and 3rd person views in video games, using eye tracking and fEMG [16]. These are not editable so you will need to download them and save them to your machine if you want to edit them. This will be necessary if you want to use the spreadsheet to calculate the scores for your questionnaire:. Jacob M. Rigby, Duncan P. Brumby, Anna L.

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