Flow and immersion in first-person shooters

Abstract

Researching experiential phenomena is a challenging undertaking, given the sheer variety of experiences that are described by gamers and missing a formal taxonomy: flow, immersion, boredom, excitement, challenge, and fun. These informal terms require scientific explanation, which amounts to providing measurable criteria for different experiential states. This paper reports the results of an experimental psychophysiological study investigating different traits of gameplay experience using subjective and objective measures. Participants played three HalfLife 2 game modifications while being measured with electroencephalography, electrocardiography, electromyography, galvanic skin response and eye tracking equipment. In addition, questionnaire responses were collected after each play session. A level designed for combat-oriented flow experience demonstrated measurable high-arousal positive affect emotions. The positive correlation between subjective and objective indicators of gameplay experience shows the great potential of the method presented here for providing real-time emotional profiles of gameplay that may be correlated with self-reported subjective descriptions.

Effects of game‐product congruity on in‐app interstitial advertising and the moderation of media‐context factors

“…Immersion is used to describe video gaming experiences that lead to persistent willingness to play. As immersion is the sensation of being surrounded by a completely other reality that can take over all of one’s attention and whole perceptual apparatus (Murray, ), it is often used interchangeably with the concept of presence, a state facilitated by feelings of empathy and atmosphere (Nacke & Lindley, ). The sense of presence as immersion at the perceptual level emphasizes the extent to which a virtual environment submerges the perceptual system of the user, whereas presence at the psychological level includes the degree to which the user is engaged, involved, absorbed, and engrossed (Lombard & Ditton, ).…”

Enhancing User Engagement in Immersive Games through Multisensory Cues

“…To gain a better insight, it will be preferential to add other methods of addressing emotional responses, i.e., by correlating other, more objective methods with the user provided subjective ratings. Methods like galvanic skin response, heart rate, and electromyography have been previously used to identify arousal in users [67], [68]. While these methods will not provide an absolute value, indications of arousal will be useful for analytical purposes, and have been shown to be useful in correlation with the measure of presence (M2, [28]).…”

Co-creating embodied sketches playing as a method to design with children

“…Loads of research has dealt with the concept of flow [6,36], and how to balance challenge and skills so that games are engaging for certain target groups [5,11,12,24,32]. This research typically involves technology implementation, controlled studies experiments, and algorithm tweaking to get to the desired effect.…”