Engagement and the Moderating Role of Presence within a Video Game Experience

Abstract This study looks to explore the role presence plays in the link between narrative comprehension and engagement. To explore these relationships we will first present an overview of presence research to date, followed by an exploration of narrative engagement with an emphasis on narrative comprehension. We then test these relationships within the context of a video game experience and present results and implications for researchers. In order to test these relationships we devised an experiment using a popular computer game. The above research questions were tested by running a moderated regression where the degree of narrative comprehension was regressed onto experienced affective appeal and moderated by the level of experienced presence. Results indicate a robust regression model returning significant values for all variables in the model, including a significant interaction effect. Implications of these results are discussed with a proposal for more work to be done in this area