A Matter of Perspective : A Qualitative study of Player-presence in First-person Video Games

Abstract: In this study we aimed to investigate the process through which players of video games situate, and form an understanding of their presence within the virtual game environment. This study specifically investigates this process in games played through a first person perspective with the intention of minimising the amount of visual information provided the participants. For this purpose we created two scenarios within a videogame environment specifically design for the study. A total of thirteen participants took part in the study, and after each season a semi structured interview was performed. In a qualitative content analysis we identified patterns and commonalities ascertaining to our line of questioning, and conclude that while the player-presence relationship would appear to be largely dependent on the individual’s type of play, the varying focus on either narratology or ludology in our two scenarios did indeed influence the participants to approach this relationship similarly within the separate groups. Finally we defined four types of player-presence relationship, and how they can be said to relate to the varying ludonarrative dynamics within the two specified genres, as well as the varying types of play observed amongst the participants in our study.