Effects of Presence and Physical Activity on Player Well-being in Augmented Reality Games: A Diary Study

Abstract

In this study, we investigate presence in augmented reality games and how it is related to daily physical activity levels and well-being of players. In a diary study, 49 participants played “Ingress” for 14 days and filled out a questionnaire that consisted of several Likert scales, at the end of every day. Multilevel analyses showed that presence was associated with daily walking duration and daily subjective vitality, and daily walking duration was associated with subjective vitality of players in the same-day level. It was also found that walking duration partially mediated the relationship between presence and daily subjective vitality of players at the same-day level. Lastly, cross-lagged analyses showed that presence predicted next day’s walking duration implying a causal direction from presence to walking duration, whereas walking duration did not predict next day’s presence. The results are discussed and the implications are presented.