Temporal Presence Variation in Immersive Computer Games

Increasingly, the sophistication of modern computer-gaming systems is becoming comparable to that of immersive, virtual reality (VR) environments, and the popular VR research topic of “presence” is now being explored in the context of computer games. The explosion of popularity of networked gameplay and the movement of computing infrastructure on to the Internet and the cloud mean that technical anomalies such as network latency, dropouts, and so on, may increasingly disrupt players' experience of presence. In this article, a study of these “Breaks in Presence” (BIPs), which examines a networked, first-person-shooter game in an immersive virtual environment, is presented. Our study investigates how participants react to BIPs in terms of their impact on participants' levels of presence and in terms of the time needed for participants to recover from BIPs. Four distinct BIP types, which were selected because of their practical significance and because of their relevance to an established model for presence, were tested. The effects of two contrasting game modes (a low-involvement “navigation game” and a high-involvement “combat game”) on the perceptions of these BIPs are analyzed. As part of our experimental procedure a new video-cued-recall slider technique is introduced. Our study shows that participants experience different levels of impact and recovery from BIPs and that the perceptions of impact of BIPs depend on the overall sense of presence as well as being task dependent. The article shows that recovery time seems to be a well-defined concept and that an overall measure of recovery time exhibits believable correlations with overall presence, with the overall number of BIPs (including “spontaneous” BIPs) and with user characteristics. The article also shows that the slider data for recovery time from BIPs provide evidence for a smooth variation of presence during an immersive experience. It is found that perceptions of impact and recovery time behave differently and that, intriguingly, recovery time appears to be much more independent of game mode than impact is. Evidence is found of strong carry-over effects in participants' recollections of the impact of BIPs from one game experience to the next is found. Results from our slider technique appear to show general agreement with results from a postexperiment questionnaire, and our study motivates the usefulness of our slider technique for future experiments.

[1]  Mel Slater,et al.  More Breaks Less Presence , 2003 .

[2]  Gavriel Salvendy,et al.  Aftereffects and Sense of Presence in Virtual Environments: Formulation of a Research and Development Agenda , 1998, Int. J. Hum. Comput. Interact..

[3]  Christine L. Lisetti,et al.  Proceedings of the 13th International Conference on Human Computer Interaction , 2009 .

[4]  Paul A. Cairns,et al.  Investigating computer game immersion and the component real world dissociation , 2009, CHI Extended Abstracts.

[5]  J. Bryant,et al.  Playing video games: Motives, responses, and consequences. , 2012 .

[6]  James D. Ivory,et al.  The Effects of Technological Advancement and Violent Content in Video Games on Players’ Feelings of Presence, Involvement, Physiological Arousal, and Aggression , 2007 .

[7]  Yvonne de Kort,et al.  Influence of social setting on player experience of digital games , 2008, CHI Extended Abstracts.

[8]  A. McMahan.  Immersion, Engagement, and Presence: A Method for Analyzing 3-D Video Games , 2013 .

[9]  Mel Slater,et al.  Depth of Presence in Virtual Environments , 1994, Presence: Teleoperators & Virtual Environments.

[10]  Mel Slater,et al.  Representations Systems, Perceptual Position, and Presence in Immersive Virtual Environments , 1993, Presence: Teleoperators & Virtual Environments.

[11]  F. Nah,et al.  Enhancing%' or paper_id like 'brand equity through flow and telepresence: a comparison of 2D and 3D virtual worlds , 2011 .

[12]  OmniPres project IST-2001-39237 Deliverable 5 Measuring Presence : A Guide to Current Measurement Approaches , 2004 .

[13]  Richard L. Hazlett,et al.  Measuring emotional valence during interactive experiences: boys at video game play , 2006, CHI.

[14]  Michael Meehan,et al.  Physiological measures of presence in stressful virtual environments , 2002, SIGGRAPH.

[15]  Mel Slater,et al.  Physiological Responses to Breaks in Presence: A Pilot Study , 2003 .

[16]  Christine Youngblut.  What a Decade of Experiments Reveals about Factors that Influence the Sense of Presence: Latest Findings , 2006 .

[17]  Matthew Lombard,et al.  At the Heart of It All: The Concept of Presence , 2006 .

[18]  Kristine L. Nowak,et al.  The Causes and Consequences of Presence: Considering the Influence of Violent Video Games on Presence and Aggression , 2008, PRESENCE: Teleoperators and Virtual Environments.

[19]  Jonathan Freeman,et al.  A Cross-Media Presence Questionnaire: The ITC-Sense of Presence Inventory , 2001, Presence: Teleoperators & Virtual Environments.

[20]  Kajal T. Claypool,et al.  On frame rate and player performance in first person shooter games , 2007, Multimedia Systems.

[21]  Anna L. Cox,et al.  Being "in the game" , 2008 .

[22]  Marko Turpeinen,et al.  Spatial Presence and Emotions during Video Game Playing: Does It Matter with Whom You Play? , 2006, PRESENCE: Teleoperators and Virtual Environments.

[23]  A. Fiore,et al.  Telepresence and fantasy in online apparel shopping experience , 2007 .

[24]  Hunter G. Hoffman,et al.  Virtual Chess: Meaning Enhances Users' Sense of Presence in Virtual Environments , 1998, Int. J. Hum. Comput. Interact..

[25]  Christoph Klimmt,et al.  A Process Model of the Formation of Spatial Presence Experiences , 2007 .

[26]  Ann Morrison,et al.  Proceedings of OZCHI , 2008 .

[27]  Thomas B. Sheridan,et al.  Musings on Telepresence and Virtual Presence , 1992, Presence: Teleoperators & Virtual Environments.

[28]  Mel Slater,et al.  Temporal and Spatial Variations in Presence: Qualitative Analysis of Interviews from an Experiment on Breaks in Presence , 2008, PRESENCE: Teleoperators and Virtual Environments.

[29]  Fiona Fui-Hoon Nah,et al.  Enhancing Brand Equity Through Flow and Telepresence: A Comparison of 2D and 3D Virtual Worlds , 2011, MIS Q..

[30]  Mel Slater,et al.  Presence in response to dynamic visual realism: a preliminary report of an experiment study , 2006, VRST '06.

[31]  Craig D. Murray,et al.  Presence Accompanying Induced Hearing Loss: Implications for Immersive Virtual Environments , 2000, Presence: Teleoperators & Virtual Environments.

[32]  Kenneth A. Lachlan,et al.  Liberating American Communications: Foreign Ownership Regulations from the Radio Act of 1912 to the Radio Act of 1927 , 2004 .

[33]  Fiona Fui-Hoon Nah,et al.  Virtual World Affordances: Enhancing Brand Value , 1970 .

[34]  Tohru Ifukube,et al.  GAME , 2020, Proceedings of the ACM on Interactive, Mobile, Wearable and Ubiquitous Technologies.

[35]  RavajaNiklas,et al.  Spatial Presence and Emotions during Video Game Playing: Does It Matter with Whom You Play? , 2006 .

[36]  Hsiang Chen,et al.  Flow on the net-detecting Web users' positive affects and their flow states , 2006, Comput. Hum. Behav..

[37]  Darryl Charles,et al.  Toward an understanding of flow in video games , 2008, CIE.

[38]  Xavier Rétaux,et al.  Presence in the environment: theories, methodologies and applications to video games , 2003, PsychNology J..

[39]  Taku Komura,et al.  Computing inverse kinematics with linear programming , 2005, VRST '05.

[40]  Jonathan Freeman,et al.  Focus group exploration of presence through advanced broadcast services , 2000, Electronic Imaging.

[41]  Amy Bass,et al.  In the Game , 2005 .

[42]  Mel Slater,et al.  The Influence of Body Movement on Subjective Presence in Virtual Environments , 1998, Hum. Factors.

[43]  Bob G. Witmer,et al.  Judging Perceived and Traversed Distance in Virtual Environments , 1998, Presence.

[44]  M. Csíkszentmihályi.  Flow. The Psychology of Optimal Experience. New York (HarperPerennial) 1990. , 1990 .

[45]  Wijnand A. IJsselsteijn,et al.  Effects of Sensory Information and Prior Experience on Direct Subjective Ratings of Presence , 1999, Presence: Teleoperators & Virtual Environments.

[46]  Taejoon Park,et al.  Design and Implementation of an Online 3D Game Engine , 2004, ICCSA.

[47]  David W. Schloerb,et al.  A Quantitative Measure of Telepresence , 1995, Presence: Teleoperators & Virtual Environments.

[48]  Giuseppe Riva,et al.  Being there : the experience of presence in mediated environments , 2003 .

[49]  Gm Wilson,et al.  Investigating the impact of audio degradations on users: subjective vs objective assessment methods , 2000 .

[50]  Holger Regenbrecht,et al.  Measuring the Sense of Presence and its Relations to Fear of Heights in Virtual Environments , 1998, Int. J. Hum. Comput. Interact..

[51]  Thomas W. Schubert.  A New Conception of Spatial Presence: Once Again, with Feeling , 2009 .

[52]  Gert Pfurtscheller,et al.  Analysis of Physiological Responses to a Social Situation in an Immersive Virtual Environment , 2006, PRESENCE: Teleoperators and Virtual Environments.

[53]  Michael J. Singer,et al.  Measuring Presence in Virtual Environments: A Presence Questionnaire , 1998, Presence.

[54]  Mel Slater,et al.  A Virtual Presence Counter , 2000, Presence: Teleoperators & Virtual Environments.

[55]  D. Bouwhuis,et al.  Perceived depth and the feeling of presence in 3DTV , 1998 .

[56]  SungBok Park,et al.  Understanding Online Game Addiction: Connection between Presence and Flow , 2009, HCI.

[57]  Tong Liu,et al.  Evaluating the effects of real world distraction on user performance in virtual environments , 2006, VRST '06.

[58]  Luciano Gamberini,et al.  IMMERSION/EMERSION: Presence in hybrid environments , 2006 .