Fundamental Components of the Gameplay Experience: Analysing Immersion

This study examines immersion as a central component of the gameplay experience, proposing the Sensory, Challenge-based, and Imaginative (SCI) model as a way to distinguish qualitatively different forms of immersion. Grounded in interviews with children and parents about what keeps players engaged, the work draws on flow theory, Klimmt's enjoyment model, and Pine and Gilmore's experience realms. Its central argument is that gameplay experience arises from the interaction between player and game, and that existing immersion research has lacked the qualitative distinctions needed to explain why different games absorb players in different ways.

The empirical core of the research is a survey of 234 self-reported gameplay experiences spanning 13 popular titles, with a sample that was predominantly male and aged 12 to 40. Overall immersion levels were reported as high across the sample. Half-Life 2 recorded the highest combined immersion score, while The Sims 2 recorded the lowest. The dimensions diverged in predictable ways: sensory immersion was strongest in modern 3D titles, challenge-based immersion peaked in Nethack and strategy games, and imaginative immersion was most pronounced in role-playing and plot-driven adventure games.

The authors acknowledge that the findings are preliminary. Their concluding discussion identifies several open questions, including whether the evaluation model and questionnaire can be extended beyond PC and console games to pervasive gameplay, how emotion, social and cultural context, and player expectations shape immersion, and how the model's components relate to one another and carry differing weights. The reference list draws on roughly 27 sources in game immersion, flow, presence, and game design, situating the work within an interdisciplinary literature on player experience.