There has been a larger increase in gaming popularity since the rapid advancements in technology. With these advancements, Skalski and Whitbred have become interested in the effects that formal feature effects, such as image quality and sound quality, have on game enjoyment. They evaluated five components of presence dimension: engagement, spatial presence, social richness, perceptual realism, and social realism.
Engagement: Engagement is the degree to which someone shows interest in the game.
Spatial Presence: Spatial presence is the way the visual and audio create an atmosphere where people feel like they are a part of the environment. For example, this could be the way you feel like you are at a football game when you are actually at home watching it on your couch. In gaming, it is the way the player becomes more “in” the action of the game.
Social Richness: Social richness is the extent to which a medium is perceived as socially intimate and immediate. In gaming, it is the experience of social beings.
Perceptual Realism: Perceptual realism is the sensation of reality. For example, screen size can influence perceptual realism because it can create a more realistic scale while gaming.
Social Realism: Social Realism is the extent to which a media presentation is plausible or “true to life”. It deals with the reality of the content and plausibility of reality.
Skalski and Whitbred conducted an experiment to evaluate the effects of formal features on gaming enjoyment. First, they tested both visual and audio effects separately. They compared gaming enjoyment on an HD screen to gaming on a standard definition screen with a set of people who were randomly selected into two groups to game using either the HD screen or standard definition screen and then answered interview questions after gaming. They concluded that there was no significant difference in the gaming enjoyment between the two different screens. In a separate experiment, they compared gaming enjoyment by audio effects with surround sound compared to normal sound. They used the same methods that were used to test visual effects, except the independent variables were the surround sound with bass and normal sound. They concluded that the surround sound improved gaming enjoyment in every area of presence dimension. They also noted that those with prior game playing experience were associated with having higher social richness. Additionally, they stated that social realism could not be evaluated properly because the content of the game they were playing was a first person shooter war game and many may not have experienced this experience first hand to create social realism for the individuals playing games in this study.
After other experiments they conducted, they concluded that, “…the findings of this study suggest that presence dimensions do not function universally in meditating the relationship between formal features and enjoyment. Specifically, only engagement and social richness served as a mediator between surround sound and enjoyment”(80). They additionally stated that the surround sound had a greater effect on presences because of the inclusion of surround sound.
As gaming continues to thrive and expand with the fast advancements in technology, "gamers" may want to consider investing in a surround sound if they wish to enjoy their games more as opposed to a new HD television. Surround sound helps create an environment where those gaming feel fully engulfed in their surroundings. This study helps act as a launch pad to see what future studies can investigate about the possibilities of having a surrounded visual system as a way to enjoy games more in all components of presence dimension. Perhaps the enjoying of games does not stem from the quality of the sound or visuals, but the immersion of the audio and visuals.
SOURCE:
Psychology Journal: The Other Side of Technology by Skalski, P. and Whitbred, R. (2010) pages 67-84.
