Defining and Measuring Player Immersion
In the
video game industry, the word “immersion” is constantly tossed around when
describing how “realistic”, or “engaging” a game is. It’s easy to tell when you
become “immersed” in a video game, as “the hours fly by” and suddenly your
decision to “only play an hour” can quickly turn into several hours. Despite
players “knowing” when they are immersed in a game, there is little clarity on
exactly how players become immersed in a video game. In this article, I will be
presenting a condensed version of my master’s thesis literature review where I
explored this topic and developed a set of 8 characteristics in games that lead
to player immersion. If you would like to view the full master's thesis version, click here.
What is Immersion?
There are
numerous terms and concepts related to immersion like flow, spatial
presence, cognitive absorption, cognitive engagement just to name a few.
However, for the sake of brevity, I will not be describing what each of these
are in detail as they are so interrelated that these concepts can all be
simultaneously experienced while playing a video game.
The best
definition (in my opinion) for immersion comes from Janet Murray in her book Hamlet
on the Holodeck, where she states that it is “the sensation of being surrounded
by a completely other reality […] that takes over all our attention” (Murray,
2007, p. 98). So now that we know what it is, how does this sensation of being
completely surrounded by another reality come about?
Researchers Rollings and Adams (2003)
state it is partly in due to “suspending one’s disbelief”, or believing
(consciously or subconsciously) that a world is reality and not fictional.
Researchers Sweetser and Wyeth (2005) state it occurs through experiencing
“GameFlow”, in which a player becomes totally engaged in the environment as a
result of being rewarded (intrinsically and extrinsically) for completing “sufficiently
difficult” and “interesting” tasks suited to their skill level.
Wirth, et al. (2007) believe it comes
about through the Spatial Situation Model (SSM), in which players’ Primary Ego Reference Frame, or where
the player perceives their actual “body” to be, changes from the real world to
the game world via becoming increasingly engaged from stimuli, and becoming
“interested” in the game through involuntary
and controlled attention allocation, respectively.
While these researchers provide
different explanations for why or how someone becomes completely engaged in a game,
I believe they are all measuring the overall construct of immersion.
Why should we care about making games
immersive?
While some may think that making
games immersive is only relevant for big open world RPGs or horror games, it is
however relevant and important for every game to be as immersive as possible. Various
studies have concluded that players who played games that elicited higher
feelings of immersion, presence, and flow (to name a few) led to higher levels
of desired emotional responses, enjoyment, engagement, and satisfaction while
playing that game.
Ensuring that players enjoy your game
should be obvious enough for any developer as enjoyment leads to more people
playing your game, longer player engagement, and therefore higher sales numbers.While I will not go into the
specifics of these aforementioned studies in this article, the characteristics
which I will now identify are the kinds of immersive features in games that led
to higher engagement, and satisfaction in players.
Comprehension
The
extent to which players understand what they are doing, how they can do it, if
they can do it, and why they are performing actions to accomplish goals and
ultimately progress through the game.
The first, and perhaps the most
important aspect for enabling player immersion in games is Comprehension, or ensuring that players have a clear understanding
of the game’s goals, how to achieve these goals, and providing feedback on
their progress towards these goals. Without this, players can become confused,
and ultimately discouraged from playing the game any further. While this may be
an obvious characteristic for games to include, it can often be overlooked. The
inclusion of “nudges” telling players where to go or what to do after periods
of “inactivity”, wayfinding techniques, and providing feedback on a player’s
progress via text and audio dialog can all be useful in increasing goal
clarity, reducing any possible frustration that could be experienced by the
player.
Intuitive Controls
and Systems
The extent to which players have a
sense of control over their actions in-game. Are the mechanics, systems and
physical controls intuitive and naturally mapped?
Similar to Comprehension in its “obviousness”, providing players with a good sense
of control over their character is imperative to ensuring a player can become
immersed in a game. If a player wants to jump off of a ladder but instead continues
climbing up the ladder, this will obviously lead to frustration. Ensuring that
the game’s controls tap into players’ pre-existing notions of how they should interact with a game due to
previous gameplay in similar titles can go a long way in increasing a player’s
sense of control.
 |
Figure 1
Resident Evil: Revelations 2 uses motion tracking with the Joycon to aim your weapon in-game.
|
The extent to which a game motivates,
challenges, and provides feedback to players. Is the game fun and rewarding to
play? Do
players find the game interesting?
Video games that reward, motivate, and
challenge, can have significant effects on a player’s level of immersion. Traditionally,
we like to think of rewards as something players earn for completing tasks but
research shows that intrinsic rewards, or rewards that are self-gratifying, are
a much better method of motivating players in a game (Deci & Ryan, 1991).
Providing players with the opportunity to “show their skill” through
competitive play and challenges, as well as the opportunity to take ownership
over their play through branching storylines or group play can aid in enhancing
player immersion as well.
Many games include “progress
trackers” like quest completion, experience level bars, and “Battle Passes”,
enabling players to easily track their progress towards whatever predetermined
goal the game has set for them, or goal they have set for themselves. “Battle
Passes” are especially good at motivating players as they provide various
quests or challenges that can be completed for exclusive rewards like cosmetic
items for their characters and items, adding an additional motivational force
behind their reasoning to play the game.
 |
| Figure 2. The Fortnite Battle Royale premium battle pass showing rewards that have been unlocked so far, as well as upcoming rewards. |
As was stated previously, the SSM
states that individuals become motivated to direct their attention to a medium
because they find that experience interesting and enjoyable in and of itself.
So, creating an interesting narrative, plot, or story can keep players immersed
and engaged in gameplay during duller moments.
Emotional Engagement
The extent to which a game’s
narrative or music causes a player to empathize with the game world and/or
characters, and/or causes an emotional reaction in the player.
Creating an interesting, and
emotionally engaging narrative and world is as daunting and complicated as
understanding “What makes a game immersive”, and as such I will not be going
into detail about this topic as that is better suited for a different article
from a different author.
What I will state though is that the
usage of various plot devices and features such as: dramatic cut scenes,
branching storylines with player choice, the
utilization of the “Hero’s Journey”, and plot-based or character-based
narratives can be used to form a strong, and interesting narrative. All of
which have been shown to enhance immersion, player empathy towards characters,
and increased overall enjoyment when playing a game (Brown & Cairns, 2004;
Schneider, Lang, Shin, Bradley, 2004).
 |
| Figure 3. An image of the The Dragon Age Keep, showing players all their choices they've made in the game so far, allowing them to take ownership over the story. |
For games that don’t have a
“narrative”, Jesse Schell mentions the use of what he calls a “Story Machine”,
in which a game is able to generate a story from a sequence of events that was
not intentionally created by the designer or developer. This allows players of games
like Europa Universalis IV or The Sims to create their own “stories”
as they play through gameplay allowing them to “connect” with the game like a
player does with a character in a story-driven game.
Just
like in film, music or lack thereof, in
video games can cause a variety of physiological and psychological changes in
listeners and therefore alter emotional states in individuals, especially as
they relate to specific events and characters in media (Scherer & Zentner,
2001; Scherer, 2004).
Ensuring that games, especially story driven ones, have good backing tracks
that sync with gameplay can play a significant role in heightening a player’s
sense of immersion.
Multiple Channels
of Sensory Information
Including stimuli that allow for
multiple senses to be activated allows for those senses to work together and
give a player a better formed SSM, and therefore a heightened level of
immersion.
Creating
“rich” environments through numerous spatial cues and design choices is another
way to increase player immersion. Madigan
(2010) identifies the notion of Multiple
channels of sensory information as an integral component of “environmental richness”
He describes this as the utilization of multiple senses
in a game allowing for those senses to work together and give the player a
heightened sense of immersion. For example, seeing, hearing, and feeling
(through the rumble feature in controllers) a plane crash in a video game
allows for players to feel more immersed when all three of these senses are
being triggered, compared to only one or two of these senses being triggered.
Cognitively Demanding Environments
The extent to which a game occupies
a player’s mental resources. Do players have to focus their attention on the
game to be successful?
Madigan (2010) also identifies Cognitively Demanding Environments,
those that completely occupy a player’s mental resources, as another
characteristic related to creating a “rich” environment. As stated previously, if
a player finds the game enjoyable, the player is more likely to involuntarily
direct their attention towards that environment and therefore create a “richer”
SSM (Wirth et al., 2007).
This importance of attention
allocation is exemplified in the Dark Souls
franchise as the player must constantly pay attention, lest they fall off of a
cliff, get ambushed by a hidden skeleton warrior, or be crushed by a falling
boulder. While not every game needs to be as punishing as Dark Souls is, designing games in which the player is rewarded for
paying attention to the environment and remembering where traps and enemies are
can cause players to feel more immersed in the environment, and distract them
from any game related issues (like bugs) that could remind them that they are
playing a game (Madigan, 2010).
 |
| Figure 4. The infamous boss duo from Dark Souls, Ornstein and Smough known for being one of the most challenging encounters in the game. |
Believability of Objects and Environment in the Game World
The extent to which the
environment, characters, objects, and other creatures in the game world look,
behave, interact, and are placed in ways that are consistent with the player’s
conceptions of the real world and/or with the rules that the game has defined
as true. This can be broken up into Physics, Graphical Fidelity, Audio Effects,
and Atmosphere.
Creating consistency between objects
in a game environment with players’ mental models for how things work in the
real world can also increase a player’s sense of immersion. Madigan identifies
the notion of Believable behavior from
things in the game world and Interactivity
with items in the game world as ways games can achieve this.
 |
| Figure 5. An image of the flying "Sea Shanty" you can collect in Assassin's Creed: Black Flag. |
Interactivity
with items in the game world can be described as giving a player
feedback for their actions as well as providing consistency with the game
environment related to what they expect a person would be able to do in
real-life. Using tools,
talking to NPCs, picking up or moving objects and seeing other in-game
characters interact with the environment in realistic ways can lead to a higher
sense of immersion.
However, creating video game
environments that include believable objects, characters, and creatures is not
all that is necessary to create a believable environment. Game worlds that do
not abide by the physical and natural laws of the universe increase the
potential for players to be taken aback by the implausibility of the
environment (unless they are specifically stated to the player). Creating a
realistic and believable environment can be broken up into four separate areas:
Realistic Physics, High Graphical Fidelity, Realistic Audio Effects, and
Compelling Atmosphere.
The
more a game keeps spatial cues consistent, and simulates the perspective and
perceptions of the player’s avatar, the more likely they will achieve higher
levels of immersion.
First-person perspective games are
often hailed as being “the most immersive” kind of game as it puts players
directly in the perspective of the character that they are playing as. However,
HUD elements like health indicators, tutorial messages, and pop-up
notifications remind players that they are playing a video game, and can reduce
player immersion (Madigan, 2010; Wilson, 2006). However, through the usage of diegetic interfaces and meta representations
designers can reduce the number of HUD elements on screen and enhance immersion
during gameplay. For example, in Dead
Space, opening your inventory displays a holographic menu system in front
of your character, keeping the game world presented to the player without
“pausing” gameplay to go to a new screen.
 |
| Figure 6. The inventory menu in Dead Space, allowing the player to still see their character and the game world around them despite "being inside the menu". |
Additionally, meta perceptions, or elements which link the player to the sense of
his/her game avatar, like “blood splatter on the screen” and the reddening of
the edges of the screen can also aid in enhancing player immersion. (Fagerholt
& Lorentzon, 2009).
Madigan also notes that an unbroken presentation of the game world
can also aid in providing players with a heightened sense of immersion. This
characteristic is described as having consistent spatial cues in the game world
that do not disappear during gameplay. Things like loading screens, opening
menus, and entering tutorial instances which cause the game world to disappear,
wholly or partially, take the player out of the overall experience and can
reduce their sense of immersion. While this is not always in the scope of
possibility, some games cleverly circumvent loading times through “loading
sequences” such as taking the elevator in Mass
Effect.
Testing the 8 Characteristics
Having identified the 8 characteristics
in games that lead to higher player immersion, I proceeded to create a
questionnaire aimed at testing whether or not these aspects actually do lead to higher levels of
immersion. After conducting the research, it was found that the most important
aspects to increasing a player’s sense of immersion were whether or not they
found the game “interesting”, “fun”, “visually engaging” and felt that they had
a “a sense of control” over the actions in the game. This however doesn’t mean
that adding in aspects like “diegetic interfaces” or “believable environments”
in games don’t have any impact over a
player’s sense of immersion, rather that these features come secondary.
Hopefully this article was able to
shed some light on immersion in video games, and how you too can create more
immersive games. If you like to read a more in-depth analysis of each of the characteristics
and how these aid immersion (with more sources!), as well as the results and
discussion of the questionnaire that was created, please follow the link below to my master’s thesis.
Master's Thesis Link
Master's Thesis Link
References
Brown,
E., & Cairns, P. (2004). A grounded investigation of game immersion.
Extended abstracts of the 2004 conference on Human factors and computing
systems - CHI 04. doi:10.1145/985921.986048
Deci,
E. L., & Ryan, R. M. (1991). A motivational approach to self: Integration
in personality. In R. Dienstbier (Ed.), Nebraska
Symposium on Motivation: Vol. 38. Perspectives on motivation (pp. 237-288).
Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.
Fagerholt,
E. & Lorentzon M., (2009). Beyond the
HUD User Interfaces for Increased Player Immersion in FPS Games. Chalmers
University of Technology, Göteborg, Sweden.
Murray,
J. (2007). Hamlet on the holodeck: The
future of narrative in cyberspace (Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 98–99.
Schell,
J. (2015). The art of game design: a book of lenses. Boca Raton, Fla.: CRC
Press.
Scherer,
K. R. (2004). Which Emotions Can be Induced by Music? What Are the Underlying Mechanisms?
And How Can We Measure Them? Journal of New Music Research, 33(3), 239-251.
doi:10.1080/0929821042000317822
Scherer,
K. N., & Zentner, M. A. (2001). Emotional effects of music: Production
rules. In Juslin, P. N. & Sloboda, J.A. (ed.) Music and emotion: theory and research. Oxford; New York: Oxford
University Press.
Schneider,
E. F., Lang, A., Shin, M., & Bradley, S. D. (2004). Death with a story: How
story impacts emotional, motivational, and physiological responses to
first-person shooter games. Human Communication Research, 30, 361–375.
Steuer,
J. (1992). Defining virtual reality: Dimensions determining telepresence.
Journal of Communication, 42(4), 73-93.
Sweetser,
P., & Wyeth, P. (2005). GameFlow: A Model for Evaluating Player Enjoyment
in Games. Computers in Entertainment, 3(3), 24. doi:10.1145/1077246.1077253
Wirth,
W., Hartmann, T., Böcking, S., Vorderer, P., Klimmt, C., Schramm, H., . . .
Jäncke, P. (2007). A Process Model of the Formation of Spatial Presence
Experiences. Media Psychology, 9(3), 493-525. doi:10.1080/15213260701283079
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