Examining Game Transfer Phenomena in the Hybrid Reality Game, Ingress

ABSTRACT

Game Transfer Phenomena (GTP) is a common video gaming experience in which extended gameplay causes game-related automatic thoughts, involuntary behaviors and perceptions. Currently, there is little research examining GTP in location-based, augmented/hybrid reality (HR) gaming. Based on prior GTP research, HR gamers were predicted to experience all types of GTP while also experiencing GTP specific to HR gaming. 867 Ingress players responded to a survey examining the degree to which they experienced the types of GTP. 31 % of the sample was female and the average age was 36. Ingress players exhibited all types of GTP and were most likely to experience automatic thought process related to the game. Female Ingress players were significantly more likely to experience GTP than males and increases in age were associated with decreases in GTP. 18 % of respondents experienced HR-specific phenomena in which players unintentionally use physical actions in the real world to interact with virtual aspects of the game. Future augmented/HR research should examine the cognitive and physical components underlying HR-specific GTP and how gender and age are associated with experiencing this and GTP related to different platforms and media.

Notes

1. There is currently a debate as to whether “hybrid reality” or “augmented reality” should be used to refer to digital objects superimposed on a view of the physical world. In the current article, the term “hybrid reality’ is used to refer to the conceptual blending of digital and physical game elements. “Augmented reality” refers to games in which digital objects are overlaid on the view of the physical environment.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Cynthia M. Sifonis

Cynthia Sifonis is a cognitive psychologist who received her PhD at Texas A&M followed by a post-doc at the Beckman Institute at the University of Illinois—Champaign-Urbana. She is currently a professor at Oakland University in Rochester Michigan studying the cognitive, social and environmental effects of playing hybrid reality games.