Zombies, run! Rethinking immersion in light of nontraditional gaming contexts

The concept of immersion has been central in explorations of video gaming, specifically in understandings of player experience and pleasure. However, definitions of the term have tended towards a simplistic understanding of a deep state of attention that a player either achieves or does not. Such a definition fails to account for the shifts and flows during a gameplay encounter. Recent trends in gaming towards the use of mobile devices offer a case study for exploring an immersive gaming encounter that sits outside traditional definitions of deep engagement. This chapter will demonstrate that game play could be productively characterised as a series of shifts in potential during which attention and conscious awareness are in constant flux. At times the player is concentrating carefully to complete the actions required and other times the movements become mechanical or repetitive, requiring little attention, producing a more shallow form of connection. Focusing on the smart-phone running videogame, Zombies, Run!, it will be argued that game/mobile application hybrids further demonstrate the need for a rethinking of traditional notions of immersion. These new forms produce gaming experiences that exemplify a fluid shifting awareness in the player, which cannot be characterised as deeply connected, but nonetheless involves degrees of immersion. Drawing on trends in thinking emerging from what has been called ‘the affective turn’, primarily associated with the work of philosophers Spinoza and Deleuze, I will explore the way the concept of affect can assist in this reinterpretation of gaming experiences, in light of its focus on the way in which capacities are augmented through interaction. This approach to understanding immersion acknowledges the role of both the technology and the user, considering that, through their connection, potentials for conscious awareness are transformed.