Immersion and Players' Time Perception in Digital Games
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Immersion And Players' Time Perception in Digital Games Aliimran Bin Nordin Doctor of Philosophy University of York Computer Science July 2014 ABSTRACT Immersion is a commonly used term by players, designers and reviewers of digital games to describe their experience of playing digital games. It represents the cognitive sense of \being in the games". One of its consequences is players are losing track of time. How- ever, little has been done to further investigate the effect of immersion on players' time perception whilst playing digital games. This thesis describes a series of experimental investigations to discover the relationship between immersion on players' time perception during a gaming session. The first five experimental studies are focused on manipulating immersion to test its effect on players' time perception. The next six experiments are focused on manipulating players' time perception to test its effect on immersion whilst gaming. The results from these experiments are rather inconsistent. Immersion in some experiments was successfully manipulated it but there were no significant effects on play- ers' time perception. Similarly, in the other experiments players' time perception was manipulated but there were no significant effects on their immersion experience. To further consolidate these findings, a meta-analysis was conducted to produce the single estimate effect on players' time perception during the experimental investigations. The result suggests that participants either overestimate or underestimate time whilst play- ing. Further, there is substantial heterogeneity across experiments suggesting that the experimental manipulations affect players' time perception differently depending on the experiments. Together, the evidence suggests both immersion and players' time percep- tion are rather sensitive. The manipulation of either one of them could also affect the other but not in a consistent manner. Moreover, there are clear challenges in studying this phenomenon in the lab context. Furthermore, considering the literature on time in digital games environment, the final qualitative study is conducted using grounded theory to understand how players perceive time whilst playing digital games. The theory suggests that players are aware of time but they give themselves a \self-consent" to ignore it during the gaming session. However, when they evaluate about their playing time they realise that they have spent a lot of time and they use statements such as losing track of time to justify why they have been playing for so long. Many research opportunities open from here. Measuring players' time perception whilst being immersed in digital games in the lab settings is complicated. However, other techniques available in the area of HCI can be applied to measure players' time perception specifically in the context of digital games. This is essential because time is needed for gaming and by understanding how digital games players perceive time allows game designers to better understand player experience. CONTENTS Abstract ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: 2 List of Figures ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: 8 List of Tables :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: 10 Acknowledgements ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: 12 Declaration ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: 13 1. Introduction ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: 14 1.1 Motivation and Research Question . 16 1.2 Research Approach . 17 1.3 Research Scope and Contributions . 19 2. Literature Review ::::::::::::::::::::::::::: 22 2.1 Digital Games . 23 2.1.1 Definitions . 24 2.1.2 Some Type of Games . 25 2.2 The Experiences of Playing Digital Games . 26 2.2.1 Flow . 28 2.2.2 Presence . 29 2.2.3 Immersion . 31 2.3 Other Tools to Measure Engagement in Games . 35 2.4 Operationalising Immersion . 37 2.5 Measuring Immersion . 38 2.6 Factors That Influencing Immersion . 38 2.7 Immersion and Time Perception . 39 2.8 Time Perception Paradigms . 41 2.8.1 Retrospective Paradigm . 41 2.8.2 Prospective Paradigm . 42 2.9 Factors That Influence Time Perception . 43 2.9.1 Factors That Influence Retrospective Time Perception Paradigm . 43 Contents 4 2.9.2 Factors That Influence Prospective Time Perception Paradigm . 43 2.10 Methods to Measure Time Perception . 44 2.11 Measuring Time Perception whilst Immersed in Digital Games 47 2.12 Conclusion . 48 3. Chapter Three: Manipulating Immersion :::::::::::::: 49 3.1 Study One: Want to Play (WTP) vs. Have to Play (HTP) (Retrospective Paradigm) . 52 3.1.1 Aim and Hypothesis . 53 3.1.2 Design . 54 3.1.3 Participants . 54 3.1.4 Materials . 55 3.1.5 Procedure . 57 3.1.6 Results . 58 3.1.7 Discussion . 60 3.2 Study Two: Suppress Thoughts (Retrospective Paradigm) . 63 3.2.1 Aims and Hypothesis . 64 3.2.2 Design . 64 3.2.3 Participants . 65 3.2.4 Materials . 65 3.2.5 Procedure . 65 3.2.6 Results . 66 3.2.7 Discussion . 68 3.3 Study Three: Mixed Reality Game vs. Desktop Game (Ret- rospective Paradigm) . 70 3.3.1 Aim and Hypothesis . 72 3.3.2 Design . 72 3.3.3 Participants . 72 3.3.4 Materials . 72 3.3.5 Procedure . 74 3.3.6 Results . 74 3.3.7 Discussion . 77 3.4 Study Four: Surrounding Lighting (Retrospective Paradigm) 79 3.4.1 Aims and Hypothesis . 80 3.4.2 Design . 81 3.4.3 Participants . 81 3.4.4 Materials . 81 3.4.5 Procedure . 82 3.4.6 Results . 83 3.4.7 Discussion . 85 3.5 Study Five: Visual Stimuli (Retrospective Paradigm) . 87 3.5.1 Aim and Hypothesis . 88 3.5.2 Design . 88 Contents 5 3.5.3 Participants . 88 3.5.4 Materials . 89 3.5.5 Procedure . 90 3.5.6 Results . 90 3.5.7 Discussion . 92 3.6 General Discussion . 94 3.6.1 Manipulation of Immersion . 94 3.6.2 Methodological Challenges of Studying Immersion and Time Perception . 94 3.6.3 Dissociation between Immersion and Time Perception 96 4. Chapter Four :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: 97 4.1 Study Six: Visual Stimuli (Prospective Paradigm) . 100 4.1.1 Aim and Hypothesis . 100 4.1.2 Design . 100 4.1.3 Participants . 100 4.1.4 Materials . 101 4.1.5 Procedure . 101 4.1.6 Results . 102 4.1.7 Discussion . 103 4.2 Study Seven: Game Speed (Prospective Paradigm) . 105 4.2.1 Aim and Hypothesis . 105 4.2.2 Design . 106 4.2.3 Participants . 106 4.2.4 Materials . 106 4.2.5 Procedure . 107 4.2.6 Results . 108 4.2.7 Discussion . 109 4.3 Study Eight: Game Pace (Prospective Paradigm) . 113 4.3.1 Aim and Hypothesis . 114 4.3.2 Design . 114 4.3.3 Participants . 114 4.3.4 Materials . 114 4.3.5 Procedure . 116 4.3.6 Results . 116 4.3.7 Discussion . 118 4.4 Study Nine: Multitasks (Prospective Paradigm) . 121 4.4.1 Aim and Hypothesis . 122 4.4.2 Design . 122 4.4.3 Participants . 122 4.4.4 Materials . 122 4.4.5 Procedure . 123 4.4.6 Results . 124 4.4.7 Discussion . 126 Contents 6 4.5 Study Ten: Cognitive Loads 3N-Back Test (Prospective Paradigm)128 4.5.1 Aim and Hypothesis . 129 4.5.2 Design . 129 4.5.3 Participants . 129 4.5.4 Materials . 129 4.5.5 Procedures . 130 4.5.6 Results . 131 4.5.7 Discussion . 134 4.6 Study Eleven: Memory Load (Prospective Paradigm) . 136 4.6.1 Aim and Hypothesis . 136 4.6.2 Design . 137 4.6.3 Participants . 137 4.6.4 Materials . 137 4.6.5 Procedure . 138 4.6.6 Results . 138 4.6.7 Discussion . 142 4.7 General Discussion . 144 4.7.1 Manipulation of Time Perception . 144 4.7.2 Prospective Time Perception Paradigm in Digital Games Research . 145 4.7.3 Dissociation between Immersion and Time Perception 145 5. Further Analysis :::::::::::::::::::::::::::: 147 5.1 Meta-Analysis . ..