A Grounded Analysis of Player-Described Board Game Immersion

Abstract

Substantial research has explored the experience of immersion in digital games, but it is unclear whether this phenomenon extends to other game genres such as board games. Immersion is a concept widely discussed in the board game community by both developers and players and yet there is relatively little research in the area. This paper presents a grounded theory analysis of board game players' online discussions of immersion. This data is augmented by interviews with five board game players describing their experiences of immersion. The resultant analysis highlights that board game players discuss immersion in terms of both engrossment in the challenge of the game, and submergence within the game world the board game creates. We also focus on elements of game play which players reported in helping and hindering their immersion; importantly these elements do not always come from the game itself. We conclude that board game immersion shares similarities with the literature on immersion in digital games, despite the lack of multimedia interaction. CCS CONCEPTS• Human-centered computing → Human computer interaction (HCI); • HCI design and evaluation methods → User studies.

The Effects of a Soundtrack on Board Game Player Experience

“…Whilst the above categorisation and thematic classifcation of board games have been driven mostly by game designers and by surveys of games and their characteristics, in our previous study describing board game players' experiences of immersion [23] we found that theme-or world-building-can be a contributing factor to immersion. They classify board game players' experiences of immersion as way-points on a spectrum between "challenge" and "world-building", and defne immersion as a collection of experiences with the player at the centre of the experience, where the experience happens when a player's requirements are met by what is provided by the game and the surrounding gameplay.…”

“…Whilst we have considered to focus on a soundtrack's ability to enhance immersion (a quality often advertised in board game marketing), our previous work into board game players' subjective experiences of immersion [23] found that players defne immersion in a variety of ways which makes measurement of the experience difcult. Further, certain characteristics of board games (i.e., lack of digital display) make it incompatible with standardised video game immersion questionnaires.…”

“…Board game players' motivations are under increasing interest [32,57], including their opinions regarding matters such as the inclusion of technology in analogue games [31,47]. Researchers found that the material nature of board games is of great importance to players [44]; that board game players not just experience immersion, but they experience it in a variety of ways [23]; and that players fnd ways of maintaining their hobby even through hardship-such as the COVID-19 pandemic-with the use of remote collaborative tools and modifcations of games to suit their needs [60]. Work by Kosa and Spronck [31] has studied players' views on technology being integrated into board games.…”

Fast Serious Analogue Games in Planning: The Role of Non-Player Participants

“…We collected at least two answers from each type of NPP: speakers, elected officials, experts, teachers, and citizens. The grounded theory approach (Charmaz, 2014; Farkas et al, 2020) provided the method to organize and interpret the answers to the questionnaires. We compared all the answers, grouping them by ideas and concepts, in a gradual, hierarchic, and coded way.…”

A Data Driven Review of Board Game Design and Interactions of Their Mechanics

“…War themed games such as 'Twilight Imperium', 'Star Wars: Rebellion' and 'Twilight Struggle'; adventure games involving characters following a quest such as 'Gloomhaven' and 'Nemesis'; card games such as '7 Wonders Duel and 'Wingspan'; party games in-cluding 'Codenames' and 'Secret Hitler'; and science fiction related games such as 'Terraforming Mars' and 'Scythe' are popular examples of only a few of the categories of modern board games. With the enhanced design choices that improve immersion, diversity and complexity of themes, there is an increase in engagement in board games as a hobby or a passion [3].…”