View source for Immersion and Involvement

 
==Introduction==
In the course of her research on computer games, German scientist Britta Neitzel has critcally examined the wide-ranging fiels of immersion, interactivity and involvement. Following Neitzel, each one of the three topics can be considered an invitational offer for the player and therefore enables a merging of real world and virtual world and not, as it is often proclaimed, their separation from each other.      

==Main Part==
The so-called strategies of involvement as a research approach are trying to illustrate how the game is binding in terms of making the player play and, maybe even more importantly, of keepingthe player playing. Neitzel identifies nine types of strategies of involvement but points out that they cannot be regarded as completely independent. Very often they are interlocking or a condition of possibility for other strategies. In the following, the nince types (actional-, economic-, temporal-, sensomotoric-, visual-, spatial-, emotional-, social- and narrative-involvement)  shall be summarised in its main points.
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====Actional involvement====
Neitzel sees the computergame as a set of instructions for action. These instructions are demanding the player to execute a certain action: In „Pong“, for example, the instruction for action could be described as „avoid missing the ball“. According to Neitzel, all forms of challenge the player is able to accomplish within in a computergame (e.g. competing, winning, controlling, creating, advancing etc.) cannot happen without activity are therefore necessarily based on action. <ref>cf. Neitzel, Britta: ''Involvierungsstrategien des Computerspiels'', in: Games Coop: ''Theorien des Computerspiels zur Einführung'', Hamburg: Junius, S. 86.</ref> This strategy of involvement can be considered very affective because the player is been given the feeling of being the sovereign: Where is an action there is an (immidiate) effect. In this sense, instructions for action are, within a system of rules of which the player is aware at (mostly) all times, very important in terms of keeping the player playing a game. 
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====Economic involvement====
The economic involvement is described as reward system. A „rewarding effect“ can be generated in various ways: experience points, in-game-currency, the unlocking of new content through progress or purchase in real currency and many more, depending on the game. It is not uncommon that several rewarding systems are co-existent.<ref>cf. ibid., p. 88-89.</ref> An example: In [[Gran Turismo: Sport|''Gran Turismo: Sport'']], a motorsport simulation, the player has to compete in various racing classes. By gaining progress, new content in the form of new racing classes the player was not able to compete in before is unlocked. Notwithstanding the foregoing, the player is given the possibility of gaining in-game-currency which enables the player to purchase items like new cars, helmets or racing suits which are not dependent of the players progress. 
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====Temporal involvement====
The strategy of temporal involvement is often closely linked to the aspect of narration. Following Neitzel, questions like „what will happen next?“/„what can i (as a player) do next?“ are often brought up when it comes to temporal involvement in computer games.<ref>cf. ibid., p. 92.</ref> But similar to the strategy of economic involvement, there is the possibility of implementing various forms of temporality into a computer game. Looking at an open-world game, let‘s say Red Dead Redemption 2, the player is given the oppurtunity to explore the open world without experiencing any time pressure. At the same time, the player can take part in a story-mission which follows another temporal level. Neitzel mentions that the strategy of temporal involvement can also be seen in circular time models which are designed for infinity (e.g. the action of playing a match in the football simulation series FIFA can be repeated over and over again).
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====Sensomotoric involvement====
The sensomotoric involvement is described as a fundamental base for all of the previous aspects, because without a connection between hardware and, as Britta Neitzel writes, „wetware“, playing a computer game would not be possible at all. Therefore it is absolutely necessary to connect the „players senses to the game“ through a device which can be any kind of compatible control unit just like a mouse and a keyboard, a regular controller for gaming concoles or specially designed steering wheels in order to establish a closed-loop dispositive between man and machine. 
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====Visual involvement====
Visual involvement is very much about aspects originating from the field of optics. Especially the central perspective as well as the so-called vanishing point perspective are essential when it comes to creating a 3d-effect like most of the modern computer games do. They both somehow enable the player to extent his naturally given gaze to the virtual world. Neitzel points out that the perceived distance between real world anf virtual world can differ, depending on how closely the so-called point of action and the player‘s point of view are correspond in terms of their positioning. In the event that the point of action is located in the same spot as the player‘s point of view, the game is considered a first-person-game. In case that both point of action and player‘s perspactive don‘t match, the avatar of the players can partially or even fully be seen.  
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====Spatial involvement====
This strategy of involvement is about a merge of actual world and virtual world and, more importantly, their spaces. As Neitzel argues, the evoked virtual space is perceived to be an extention of the space of the real world the player is actually existing in. The spatial involvement also is an illustrative example to demonstrate how different types of strategies of involvement are interacting: The extention just mentioned could never happen without sensomotoric or visual involvement. Britta Neitzel als refers to Marie-Laure Ryan, who is proposing that, regarding the virtual space, a distinction between „lived space“ and the so-called „rational space of the map“ can be made: the former of the two is perceived as the space where the avatar of the can be moved and where he is able to interact with the virtual world. The latter can be described as „a space to be controlled“, the classic „mini-map“ would be an adequate example

==Conclusion==

==Related Links/Research==
[[Category:Research Approaches]]
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