Affective involvement in digital games

Abstract

The chapter takes as its main object of study (Calleja’s (2011) In-game: from immersion to incorporation. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA) Player Involvement Model, an analytical framework designed to understand player experience developed through qualitative research. The model identifies six dimensions of involvement in digital games, namely kinesthetic involvement, spatial involvement, shared involvement, narrative involvement, ludic involvement and affective involvement. The goal of the chapter was to develop the model further by testing it in an experimental context. Consequently, three experiments were conducted in order to examine how different components of digital gameplay (i.e. the story that is written into a game, the social setting in which a game is played, and the player’s control in a game environment) can affect the player’s involvement on the six proposed dimensions. Special attention is paid to affective involvement, and how this dimension of player involvement relates to the other dimensions. The findings of the experiments provide initial support for (Calleja’s (2011) In-game: from immersion to incorporation. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA) Player Involvement Model in a quantitative setting.