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Fundamental Components of the Gameplay Experience: Analysing Immersion.

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This paper presents a gameplay experience model, assesses its potential as a tool for research and presents some directions for future work. The presented model was born from observations among game-playing children and their non-player parents, which directed us to have a closer look at the complex nature of gameplay experience. Our research led into a heuristic gameplay experience model that identifies some of the key components and processes that are relevant in the experience of gameplay, with a particular focus on immersion. The model includes three components: sensory, challenge-based and imaginative immersion (SCI-model). The classification was assessed with self-evaluation questionnaires filled in by informants who played different popular games. It was found that the gameplay experiences related to these games did indeed differ as expected in terms of the identified three immersion components.
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... The pilot study is a purposeful tool in research design, garnering further insight into important and meaningful characteristics of significance to the Ux design [47]. Emri and Mäyrä [43] cite the value of understanding Ux, acknowledging it is a foundation for "understanding what a game is" (p. 1). The pilot study provided the opportunity to explore and better understand differences in Ux, recognising variability in experience levels, interests, and game-appeal to provide a meaningful learning environment. ...
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... For example, some studies consider immersion to be a determinant of presence (e.g., Berkman & Akan, 2019, pp. 1-10;Cummings & Bailenson, 2016), while others view presence as a predictor of immersion (e.g., Ermi & Mäyrä, 2005;Zhang, Perkis, & Arndt, 2017). In addition, some studies treat flow as a sub-concept of presence or immersion (e.g., Shin, 2019;Pianzola et al., 2021;Tcha-Tokey et al., 2018), while others separate flow from immersion (e.g., Agrawal et al., 2020;Jennett et al., 2008). ...
... However, the term immersion is also frequently used to describe a psychological and cognitive experience resulting from a technological process, as will be described in detail in the following sections (Ermi & Mäyrä, 2005;Arsenault, 2005;Adams & Rollings, 2007;Agrawal et al., 2020;Witmer & Singer, 1998;Balcerak and Balcerak, 2024). This inconsistency in using the same term causes confusion. ...
... Although there is no universally accepted definition of immersion, there is general consensus in the literature that immersive experience is a multidimensional construct. As summarised in Table 1, researchers have proposed different dimensions of immersion using various descriptive words, e.g., perceptual and psychological immersion (Lombard & Ditton, 1997), sensory, imaginative and challenge-based immersion (Ermi & Mäyrä, 2005), sensory, fictional and systemic immersion (Arsenault, 2005), narrative and ludic immersion (Ryan, 2003), narrative and strategic/tactical immersion (Adams & Rollings, 2007), and system, spatial, social/emphatic and narrative/sequential immersion (Han et al., 2024). ...
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... The pinnacle of engagement is often described as flow, a state of optimal experience where players' skills are wellmatched with the game's challenges [36], [37]. Flow is characterized by clear goals, balanced challenge-skill ratio, and immediate feedback. ...
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