Video games, functioning as both simulation and narrative, can evoke both side of immersion but, because they often can contradict each other, I am currently trying to understand how they relate/interact during video game play. That’s one of the main reasons why ‘immersive’ storytelling (well, storytelling is immersive per se) can be challenging as two opposing cognitive states interfere with each other.

Overall, immersion in video games is dynamic. Sometimes we can feel only sensory immersion, or presence, e.g., when we put a lot of effort into something, or only mental immersion, or narrative engagement, when we do not want associate some actions with ourselves (aka “it is not me”). Sometimes, we can feel both immersions (Kukshinov, 2024).

Another project (with Dr. Adrienne Shaw) is about how and why privileged (and marginalized) groups choose player-characters in video games. It is out in Psychology of Popular Media. We basicallly asked participants to choose player-characters and explain why they did, i.e., whether it is due to the representation need or something else. White male players usually did not care about representative avatars and representation per se.

Among other potential projects I am interested in:

– Positive effect of low realism in video games

– Decoupling avatar and character relationships in video games (as in embodiment vs identification)

– Narrative engagement in simulators (which should be minimal, right?)

– How disruptive are un/skippable cutscenes?

And so on.