Research - Defining the term immersion

Defining the term 'Immersion' in a gaming context

Some research into the definition of immersion is key to this project in allowing for a more direct approach of both research and practice.

Janet Murray (1997) describes immersion as;

“Immersion is a metaphorical term derived from the physical experience of being submerged in water. We seek the same feeling from a psychologically immersive experience that we do from a plunge in the ocean or swimming pool: the sensation of being surrounded by a completely other reality, as different as water is from air, that takes over all of our attention, our whole perceptual apparatus” (Murray, 1997, p. 98)

Dovey and Kennedy describe immersion in a similar fashion by adding that it is “the experience of losing a sense of embodiment in the present whilst connecting on a meditated environment” (Dovey & Kennedy, 2006, p. 146). It is worth noting that immersion can also be related to other forms of entertainment such as books, or film but the difference here is that these are static or linear as opposed to an interactive game. Brown & Cairns (2004) highlight that the term immersion or immersive is used frequently to describe games throughout the gaming community but add that the term is also used without a coherent explanation (Brown & Cairns. 2004, p.1). Other terms have also been used to describe the immersive state such as ‘Incorporation’ (Calleja, 2007) and ‘Presence’ (McMahan, 2003). Jennett et al (2008) also mention ‘Presence’ as well as other concepts such as ‘Flow’ and ‘Cognitive absorption’. However they argue that “immersion is clearly distinct from these established concepts and a better understanding of immersion would be crucial in understanding the relationship between people and videogames” (Jennett et al, 2008, p. 642).

It appears that the term 'immersion' is somewhat disputed however enough has been found to apply a broad definition. Further reading will try to establish the connection between audio and immersion.

References:
Brown, E. and Cairns, P. (2004). A Grounded Investigation of Game Immersion. Extended Abstracts of the 2004 Conference on Human Factors and Computing Systems, Vienna April 24-29 2004. New York: ACM. pp. 1297-1300. [online]. Available from: http://www-users.cs.york.ac.uk/~pcairns/papers/Immersion.pdf [Accessed 1st November 2014]

Calleja, G. (2007). Revising Immersion: A Conceptual Model for the Analysis of Digital Game Involvement. Digital Games Research Association (DiGRA). Situated Play, Proceedings of DiGRA 2007 Conference. [online]. Available from: http://www.digra.org/wp-content/uploads/digital-library/07312.10496.pdf [Accessed 3rd November 2014]

Dovey, J. And Kennedy, H.W. (2006). Game Cultures: Computer games as new Media. Berkshire: Open University Press.

Jennett et al. (2008). Measuring and defining the experience of immersion in games. Int. J. Human-Computer Studies. 66(May): pp. 641-661.

McMahan, A. (2003). The Video Game Theory Reader. Chapter 3 - Immersion, Engagement, and Presence. New York: Toylor & Francis Books, Inc.

Taylor, L. 2002. VIDEO GAMES: PERSPECTIVE, POINT-OF-VIEW, AND IMMERSION. [online]. Available from: http://etd.fcla.edu/UF/UFE1000166/taylor_l.pdf [Accessed 25 October 2014]

Game audio immersion - Objectives, Tasks & Devilerables

This is a first draft of what the honours project aim, objectives, tasks & deliverables will look like. Next, will be to refine these and map them out over a timeline for the research proposal.

Game Level Concept - Game Review List

Games which have personally been found to be immersive from a sound design perspective have influenced the type of 
game scenario that will be aimed for. 

From past experience games that have really caught the attention from both an immersive and sound perspective have been of the survival horror genre. Games such as ‘Resident Evil series’, ‘Silent Hill series’, ‘Amnesia - The Dark Descent’ or more recently ‘The Last of Us’ have all been very impressive in these areas. Sound appears to be more effective in these types of games, perhaps this is due to their physically darkened visual style which forces the player to rely on aural information. This is a convenient consequence for this project and will help to direct the players’ attention to audio elements by reducing focus on visual information.

The games listed above will reviewed and analysed to try and gain an insight into what is going on from a design perspective in these games. What can be learned from some of the processes involved in these games to help construct an immersive audio experience in the honours project?

Research - Role of audio for game immersion

Here I tried to search for materials which were were more related to audio within the immersive process as this is the focus of my project.

Two papers were added to my research list from the search:
Fundamental Components of the Gameplay Experience: Analysing Immersion. Ermi, L. & Mäyrä, F. (2005) 
[Can be accessed here: http://www.digra.org/wp-content/uploads/digital-library/06276.41516.pdf]

CAPTIVATING SOUND, THE ROLE OF AUDIO FOR IMMERSION IN COMPUTER GAMES. Huiberts, S. (2010).  
[Can be accessed here: http://download.captivatingsound.com/Sander_Huiberts_CaptivatingSound.pdf]

Research - Defining Game Immersion

The first thing that must be identified is; what is immersion in the context of games. Initial searches were to try and pin down the definition of immersion in the study of games. 
The following paper was added to my research list from the search:
A Grounded Investigation of Game Immersion, Brown. E, Cairns. P, (2004). 
[Can be accessed here: http://www-users.cs.york.ac.uk/~pcairns/papers/Immersion.pdf ]

An analysis of this paper will follow which will include any supporting/related papers. 

Project Aim update (Audio Immersion)

After a lot of thought a final direction for the honours project has been identified. This is a rough statement of intent.

An investigation into immersive game audio.

What role does audio play in the immersive quality of 'First Person Shooter' games? 

This project aims to identify the relationship between audio and immersion in games. The project will include research and critical analysis of theories and techniques involved with creating and implementing immersive game audio. Using this acquired knowledge I hope to be able to quantify the immersive quality of audio in a test level produced in UDK.

Using known theories and techniques I hope to create a gaming environment which is focused on using aural feedback to produce an immersive experience which can be measured in some way.​

Next to do:

• List the objectives and tasks surrounding such a project
• Begin to search for relevant literature

Game Audio Tutorial - Book - Chapter 3 Part 3

Exercise Set 3 Continued:

304a_03 Footloose 2 : Bigger, Cornier, and more Callous

In this exercise there was 4 custom floor materials which all had to go through the same coding process as the previous task. Custom sound cues with appropriate footstep sounds also had to be generated and attached to each material.

    

304b_00 Bang ! Physics impacts for dummies

This exercise involved converting various 'Static Mesh' objects within the game to become movable object This was done by converting them into a 'K_Actor'. The 'K_Actor' allows an object to be movable and is governed by the game physics, which can be tailored to each object with regards to its estimated size and weight.

Sound cues had to be created for each of the objects then linked via the Kismet to play back when the object was impacted. This was done by linking the 'K_Actor' collision event to the sound cue. Information from the collision event (Rigid Body Collision) includes details of impact velocity, so this information was then linked to the 'Volume Multiplier' variable of the 'Play Sound' action. As the number outputted by the impact velocity was quite large, a 'Divide Float' had to be included in the chain. This divided the large number from the impact velocity into a smaller number that the 'Volume Multiplier could work with.

305_00 Moving sounds Wooded area

Here the 'Matinee' editor was introduced which is a sequence editor, where in this exercise it was used to move a sound around the level. A path was mapped out over an area which was then linked to a timeline within the Matinee editor window. This movement circuit was linked to the starting of the level so that it moved the sound around the defined path at level start up. In this case a sound cue containing randomised bird sounds was used and the final effect was that it sounded as if the birds were flying around the player, adding some movement to the sound as opposed to a static sound.

305a_00 Matinee Doors

Here, a 'Matinee' sequence was created to trigger the movement of a door opening. In order for this to work the static mesh door had to be converted to an ‘InterpActor’ which allows it to be controlled by the 'Matinee'. The parameters of the 'InterpActor' include options to add sound cues for each of the movement sounds, custom sound cues were built for each door in the exercise and door movements were synchronised to move in time with the length of each sound via the 'Matinee' editor.

305b_00 Pawn Attached Mover

This was similar to the previous exercise only this time the moving object was a horizontal moving platform. This platforms movement had to be activated when the player (Pawn) stepped on it. This was done in the Kismet window using the ‘Mover’ node linked to the platform which defines what happens to the platform as the player steps on and off. This was then linked to the Matinee sequence via a switch.

306_00 Lights, Camera, Action
This exercise deals with how cut scenes are dealt with in games. When the exercise level starts there is a cut scene containing dialogue between two robots, the problem is as the camera pans between different angles the sound also pans in relation to which way the camera is facing. This creates an off putting mix of both dialogue and environmental sounds.
The idea was to create a separate mix of both dialogue and environment sounds which would be played back via the 'Matinee'. All original sound cues had to be duplicated and defined as as belonging to the 'Cinematic Sound Class' in order for them to be played back in the 'Matinee' sequence. These were then placed on the timeline within the 'Matinee' (with dialogue synced to key markers associated with camera movement). Within the Kismet a 'Set Sound Mode' action was added which was triggered when the cut scene begins, this toggles the game sound off and the cinematic mix that was created to play instead.