Measuring and defining the experience of immersion in games

  • Authors:

  • Charlene Jennett;Anna L. Cox;Paul Cairns;Samira Dhoparee;Andrew Epps;Tim Tijs;Alison Walton

  • Affiliations:

  • UCL Interaction Centre, MPEB 8th floor, University College London, Gower Street, London, WC1E 6BT, UK;UCL Interaction Centre, MPEB 8th floor, University College London, Gower Street, London, WC1E 6BT, UK;Department of Computer Science, University of York, Heslington, York YO10 5DD, UK;Psychology Department, UCL, UK;Psychology Department, UCL, UK;Bunnyfoot Behavioural Research Consultancy, Head Office, Harwell Innovation Centre, 173 Curie Avenue, Harwell, Oxfordshire OX11 0QG, UK;Bunnyfoot Behavioural Research Consultancy, Head Office, Harwell Innovation Centre, 173 Curie Avenue, Harwell, Oxfordshire OX11 0QG, UK

  • Venue:
  • International Journal of Human-Computer Studies
  • Year:
  • 2008

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Abstract

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 experiment investigated the effect of an externally imposed pace of interaction on immersion and affective measures (state anxiety, positive affect, negative affect). Overall the findings suggest that immersion can be measured subjectively (through questionnaires) as well as objectively (task completion time, eye movements). Furthermore, immersion is not only viewed as a positive experience: negative emotions and uneasiness (i.e. anxiety) also run high.