Comparing Actual and Virtual Movement in a Play Anywhere Mobile AR Location-Based Story

A study of Map Story 3, a mobile augmented reality murder mystery, examines how physical movement affects player immersion by comparing a walking version, in which participants travel between real-world locations, with a stationary version, in which a virtual agent moves between locations while the user stays in place. The walking version scored significantly higher than the stationary version on five of nine immersion and engagement measures, including engagement and engrossment on the ARI questionnaire. Total immersion, which combines presence and flow, did not reach significance, and participants consistently rated the higher immersion levels lower than the levels preceding them in both conditions, indicating that the app achieved basic engagement but not the deepest level of immersion.

The findings point to a clear conclusion: virtual objects overlaid on congruous real-world surroundings drive immersion more effectively than the objects alone, so the stationary version currently faces substantial barriers to immersion. Participants preferred interactive tasks over imagination-based ones, with the crime scene and the suspect's car the most popular activities, and the walking version sustained a stronger desire to continue through the middle chapters, where the stationary version lost momentum. Gender produced no significant effects, while the participants' tendency to maintain focus, measured by the ITQ questionnaire, correlated with engrossment and total immersion in both conditions.

The study's scope is limited to a single app, a small and demographically skewed sample, a linear narrative, and constraints imposed by the pandemic, and small subgroups of older and AR-experienced participants restricted other comparisons. The authors conclude that the ITQ questionnaire shows promise for personalizing AR immersion but requires further validation before it can be relied upon. The work draws on established research in location-based games, AR storytelling, narrative engagement, and presence measurement.