Empirical validation of the involvement component of the pervasive GameFlow model

This paper presents an empirical investigation into the question of involvement in pervasive games. The study is motivated by the Pervasive GameFlow model and its involvement component. The main research question is whether aspects of involvement in desktop computer games are also valid for the immersion and enjoyment of players of pervasive games. In order to address this question, two empirical studies were performed: the first explored the possible correlations between several aspects of involvement and the enjoyment and immersion of players. The second compared two versions of an outdoor game, one with and the other without digital augmentations, in order to explore which version provided a higher degree of involvement and enjoyment. The results of these studies suggest that becoming less aware of everyday life is not a relevant aspect of the immersion and enjoyment of players of pervasive games and that there is no significant difference in these elements of the gaming experience (immersion and enjoyment) when comparing the digitally and non-digitally augmented versions of the outdoor game. These results suggest that the involvement experienced by players of pervasive games is not characterised by a sense of being transported into the virtual world of the game; instead, in these types of games the virtual world of the digital application is the one which is drawn out into the physical world. The paper proposes that an embodied view of game-play can explain these results in a coherent manner.