Laura Ermi and Frans Mäyrä, "Fundamental Components of the Gameplay Experience"

(In Worlds in Play)

- Complement game definition/ontology with the player/act of gameplay
- Experience emerges in the "unique interaction process between the game and the player"
- Player and context, take part in the construction of the experience
- Elusive concept of "gameplay"
- Different games, different experiences
- Playing a game as a goal in itself
- Active vs passive (participation), absorption vs immersion (connection)
- Digital games as active, immersive (escapism)
- Immersion as one of the key components of the gameplay experience (is it really? Or is it just desirable?)
- Important aspects for interviewed children: audiovisual quality/style, level of challenge, imaginary world/fantasy
- Gameplay experience/immersion as a multidimensional phenomenon (well, yeah.)
- Sensory immersion, challenge-based immersion, and imaginative immersion (some games combine all three)
- Meaning-making contexts
- Survey to determine levels of immersion, all quite high (people choose favourite games, which tend to be more immersive?)
- Is immersion being confused/conflated with enjoyment, appreciation or aesthetic value? Ermi and Mäyrä say no, but in spite of their efforts to divest it of that value it seems like those connotations remain
- Modality of gameplay experience?