Hi everyone. For my Senior Project at college/university, I'm researching how player immersion can be maintained while playing a video game. My goal is to find a solution that can improve the immersion quality of games as a whole.
I would like to ask for participation in a short 4-question survey that should take 5 minutes or less to answer. If you want to participate, please respond in a post below, through PM or by using this Google Form (does not require signing in).
Besides aiding my research, your participation might help you consider your own immersion quality and how you can be better immersed when gaming.
Here are the questions:
1. In general, how immersed do you feel when playing a video game?
2. What factors or events break immersion from the game for you?
3. Which distractions, if any, are caused by the game itself?
4. Which distractions, if any, are caused by the environment around you while you play?
And here are a couple more terms regarding the survey. If you agree to these, please include "Yes" or "I accept" in your response:
Confidentiality
All research reports will only present aggregate data, or quotations without any context that makes it possible to identify the source. The project results will be disseminated in student reports and presentations. The project’s research records may be reviewed by departments responsible for regulatory and research oversight upon request.
Voluntary Nature of Participation
You do not have to participate in this research project. If you agree to participate, you can withdraw your participation at any time.
Thank you in advance, and let me know if there's anything I can clarify or explain!
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CoolKirby wrote:
I would like to ask for participation in a short 4-question survey that should take 5 minutes or less to answer. ~snip~
Here are the questions:
1. In general, how immersed do you feel when playing a video game?
~snip~
Thank you in advance, and let me know if there's anything I can clarify or explain!
I responded via the Google form - good survey, but you may want to change or clarify the first question to help the survey respondent gauge whether you are looking for a numerical response on a scale or their own verbose words in their own language. I was probably a bit too wordy in my response. :)
Best of luck with your project!
I responded via the Google form - good survey, but you may want to change or clarify the first question to help the survey respondent gauge whether you are looking for a numerical response on a scale or their own verbose words in their own language. I was probably a bit too wordy in my response. :)
Best of luck with your project!
Thank you very much! I took your advice and changed the first question to a multiple-choice answer (not at all - a little - somewhat - very - totally immersed). I hope this is clearer for future participants.
I think you should also add some guidelines for what is meant by each of those categories. What does it feel like when you are totally immersed? And when you are only moderately immersed? And so on. I did not know how to rate my level of immersion, because I have nothing to compare it with.
That's a good point. I did quite a bit of thinking on what each option meant and I've added descriptive guidelines to each one. Let me know if the current descriptions are not clear enough. Also, if you want, you may answer just that question and I should be able to add it back into your earlier response (I may have to PM you to find which one is yours though).
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I don't have an answer to any of the questions because my gaming experience is extremely narrow, but it likely has to do with immersion and what makes it appear in those rare cases when I finally enjoy playing.
First of all, I'm not a hardcore gamer at all, and therefore a whole lot of common tricks in games to make you suffer and overcome simply hurt me, like the game hates me. I can't enjoy playing something that was created to hate me, lol. So even if the game isn't easy, it must be wisely designed to not do some stupid of unpredictable crap, and that'd still make it interesting.
Then, the game must have interesting (but not hardcore) puzzles to solve, preferably as an action, otherwise it all becomes just bruteforcing something unappealing like sudoku. Not quite what video games should represent. Bonus points for novel gameplay mechanics, it's not common at all that games introduce that.
Finally, the game must contain some design and atmosphere that would appeal to one's taste, and possibilities for that are endless. But still this atmosphere, and design concepts should look high quality, carefully developed, and preferably also appear as something unique and new (at least to the player, if not universally new).
All of these I found in the game Eversion. It was easy to play, contained interesting puzzles, novel gameplay, and amazing atmosphere where something cartoony gradually evolves into something Lovecraftian.
Warning: When making decisions, I try to collect as much data as possible before actually deciding. I try to abstract away and see the principles behind real world events and people's opinions. I try to generalize them and turn into something clear and reusable. I hate depending on unpredictable and having to make lottery guesses. Any problem can be solved by systems thinking and acting.
Thank you to everyone who answered here or through the anonymous Google Form for your detailed and insightful responses!
While the responses I have so far will be reviewed tomorrow, if anyone still wants to respond now or in the future, I'm sure it would help me in my continued work on this project (and might be fun for you, too).
CoolKirby do you or have you ever watched Extra Credits? I'm sure they'd have plenty to say on the subject.
Anyway I responded via the Google Doc. Good luck with the project and I would love to look at the results :)
