‘Zombies, Run!

’: Rethinking immersion in light of

nontraditional gaming contexts

Clare Southerton

Abstract
The concept of immersion has been central in explorations of video gaming,
specifically in understandings of player experience and pleasure. However,
definitions of the term have tended towards a simplistic understanding of a deep
state of attention that a player either achieves or does not. Such a definition fails to
account for the shifts and flows during a game play encounter. Recent trends in
gaming towards the use of mobile devices offer a case study for exploring an
immersive gaming encounter that sits outside traditional definitions of deep
engagement. This paper will suggest that game play could be productively
characterised as a series of shifts in potential during which attention and conscious
awareness are in constant flux. At times the player is concentrating carefully to
complete the actions required and other times the movements become mechanical
or repetitive, requiring little attention, producing a more shallow form of
connection.

Focusing on the smart-phone running videogame, 'Zombies, Run!', this paper will
suggest that game/mobile application hybrids further demonstrate the need for a
rethinking of traditional notions of immersion. These new forms produce gaming
experiences that exemplify a fluid shifting awareness in the player, which cannot
be characterised as deeply connected, but nonetheless involves degrees of
immersion. Drawing on trends in thinking emerging from what has been called 'the
affective turn', primarily associated with the work of Spinoza and Deleuze, this
paper will explore the way the concept of affect can assist in this reinterpretation of
gaming experiences, in light of its focus on the way in which capacities are
augmented through interaction. This approach to understanding immersion
acknowledges the role of both the technology and the user, considering that,
through their connection, potentials for conscious awareness are transformed.

Key Words: Immersion, videogaming, nontraditional gaming, affect, Deleuze,

Spinoza, smartphone, application.

*****

1. Introduction
Since academics first became interested in studying videogaming, immersion
has been at the centre of discussions about why we play and closely associated
with the pleasures of gaming. Traditionally immersion has been understood as a
state of deep attention associated with enjoyment, often considered to be something
2 ‘Zombies, Run!’: Rethinking immersion in light of non-traditional gaming
contexts
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that a game either achieves, or does not.1 This definition is increasingly
problematic not only because it neglects to account for the enormous diversity in
the kinds of videogaming experiences offered but also fails to account for recent
trends towards the use of mobile devices like smart phones, which offer games and
applications that produce an immersive experience that does not fit this description.
This paper will suggest that immersion could be more productively characterised
as a series of shifts in potential during which attention and conscious awareness are
in constant flux. At times the player is concentrating carefully to complete the
actions required and other times the movements become mechanical or repetitive,
requiring little attention, producing a more shallow form of connection. I explore
this shifting connection to support a conceptualisation of technology that
acknowledges this ongoing process of transformations. The concept of immersion
is central to the relationship between humans and technology, and thus the way we
understand this state will have serious implications.
Focusing on the smart-phone running videogame, 'Zombies, Run!', this paper
will argue that the growth in mobile application/videogame hybrids demonstrates
the need for a more fluid concept of immersion. Apps like ‘Zombies, Run!’
exemplify a form of immersion that is not based on deep engagement with a screen
world but rather a transformation of awareness that fluctuates throughout the
gaming experiences. This paper will draw on in thinking emerging from what has
been called 'the affective turn', primarily associated with the work of Baruch
Spinoza and later Gilles Deleuze, suggesting that the concept of affect can assist in
this reinterpretation of gaming experiences, in light of its focus on the way in
which capacities are augmented through interaction. In this vein of thinking I
would like to propose an examination of video games that considers what games
can tell us about attention and awareness, how we consciously, and unconsciously,
engage with the game. In taking this approach it is necessary to rework existing
understandings of immersion in order to fully appreciate the shifting, flowing
nature of attention during gameplay.

2. Redefining Immersion
Though the definition of immersion is highly contested, generally the term has
been considered to be state of attention in which the player becomes caught up in
the game. Many definitions make a direct reference to the awareness of the player,
particularly their ability to pay attention to what is happening outside of the game.
For example Jennet et. al. described an immersive experience as users finding ‘the
game so engaging that they do not notice things around them, such as the amount
of time that has passed, or another person calling their name. At such moments,
almost all of their attention is focused on the game, even to the extent that some
 Clare Southerton 3
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people describe themselves as being “in the game”.’2 Similarly Dovey and
Kennedy describe immersion as ‘a loss of a sense of time, place or self.’3
However, the term is rarely interrogated beyond this point and often, when it is
examined in greater detail, there is little consensus about what constitutes an
immersive experience4. Uses of immersion as a concept in explorations of gaming
experiences tend towards an understanding of immersion associated with pleasure
and enjoyment, but gameplay cannot be characterised in such normative terms.5
Gaming experiences in which the player feels caught up in the game are not
restricted to the enjoyable parts of gameplay, but rather include in-game labour6,
frustration and other aspects of play that, while not necessarily pleasurable, are
central to immersive experiences7. Much scholarship also emphasises the design of
the game and its immersive capacities, suggesting that immersion is an indicator of
the success of the game.8 However, considering videogaming in this way neglects a
fundamental part of gameplay - the player. As Ermi and Mayra have argued, ‘there
is no game without a player’9, and therefore to neglect the player’s role in the
gameplay experience would be to return to a determinist approach to the
technological, in which theorists tended to consider a technology either
fundamentally good or bad for society.10 Instead this paper will make use of
Deleuze and Guattari's approach to technology, which focuses on the connections
and assemblages between organic and technological entities11. To briefly outline
this notion of assemblage I will draw on Anderson and McFarlane’s explanation,
which describes assemblages as ‘composed of heterogeneous elements that may be
human and non-human, organic and inorganic, technical and natural’12, which
become reconstituted to create a singular entity distinct from its formative
elements.
Assemblages are temporary, unstable constructions13 and it is this quality that
makes the assemblage a useful concept for thinking about gaming encounters,
especially considering the kind of definition of immersion I have been suggesting,
which focuses on the constantly shifting nature of conscious awareness. By
conceptualising the relationship between organic beings and technology as an
assemblage, Deleuze and Guattari are able to think more experimentally about the
role of the object, and how it figures in the encounter.14 I suggest an exploration of
video games through this lens to better understand game play as a processual state
between user and machine, arguing for a theoretical approach that is open to the
instability of the assemblage of gameplay and immersion.
This paper will argue that theories of immersion can benefit from an approach
that acknowledges the shifts and flows during game play between deep
concentration and periods of light engagement almost to the point of inattention.
Video games offer insight into the way that our attention is shifting by degrees
constantly, even when it appears to be focused on a task. Videogaming involves a
dynamic assemblage made up of the player, the mechanical elements of the game,
4 ‘Zombies, Run!’: Rethinking immersion in light of non-traditional gaming
contexts
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the virtual world on screen, the surrounding environment and multitude of other
interacting forces.

3. Immersion as a shift in capacities

Central to the gameplay assemblage are the transformations that take place
from moment to moment, throughout a gameplay experience. It is these
transformations that most sit at odds with traditional, rigid definitions of immersion
as a state that a player either achieves or does not.
Gilles Deleuze, drawing on the work of Baruch Spinoza, argued that when
bodies encounter each other there is the potential for the capacities of each to be
altered, and that the very existence of a body is determined by, what Deleuze calls,
its capacity to affect and be affected, its capacity for transformation.15
Videogaming can be characterised as an affective encounter during which the
capacities of the player and the capacities of the technology are altered. For
example, a player’s capacity to hold a conversation may be limited, but their
capacity to explore the world on screen will be opened up. And it is with these
transformations, these shifts in potential, that my rethinking of immersion is
concerned.
Deleuze conceptualises social life as in a constant state of becoming and
transformation.16 This theoretical perspective opens up new possibilities in
conceptions of immersion, and videogaming experiences more broadly. Indeed
Patricia Clough suggests that affective approaches to the technological offer insight
into the minute, pre-conscious shifts in potential that occur within a body that is
engaging with a machine.17 Whilst conceptualising gaming in terms of
transformation isn’t a new approach, theorists have tended towards moralistic
discourse about the potential for negative transformations, usually in discussions
around violent games.18 In contrast, I suggest that an affective framework can
assist in a rethinking of immersion as shifts in capacities are unstable and
constantly forming (and reforming) the bodies involved.
If we return momentarily to the simple definition of immersion mentioned
earlier, a state of attention in which the player feels caught up in the game, we can
consider this, through an affective lens, as a shift in capacities in which the players’
attention is augmented. However, when more concrete definitions of immersion are
constructed, attempting to determine the conditions in which immersion will be
achieved or identifying a number of ‘levels’ of immersion19, the shifting nature of
gameplay is lost and immersion comes to be defined quite rigidly, distinct from its
origins in the flows of experience. Whilst suggestions that the current definition of
immersion is vague or undeveloped20 rightly suggest greater interrogation of the
term, a more fixed understanding of immersion is incompatible with the dynamic,
contextual, transformative experience.
 Clare Southerton 5
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4. Nontraditional Hybrid Games and Alternative Gaming Contexts
The proliferation of alternative gaming contexts, especially mobile gaming,
highlights the incompatibility of rigid definitions of immersion. Not only does
mobile gaming transform the platform on which games are played but also where
and how they are played.21 Additionally the development of smartphone
applications continues to produce forms of gaming that fall outside the definition
of traditional video games but make use of game elements, increasingly calling in
to question the very definition of a gaming experience. Applications like
RunKeeper, which uses the GPS on your smartphone to track the distance and
speed of your run or MyPlate which allows you to enter food and drink consumed
to calculate energy intake, are hybrids that make use of gaming elements but take
gameplay in new directions.22
As a social phenomenon these hybrid game/applications indicate a trend
towards games becoming more tied up with the world outside the screen, and
challenges previous suggestions that games are a form of escapism.23 Many of
these new applications are geared towards modifying behaviour and not necessarily
solely concerned with producing pleasure. Indeed the examples of hybrid games
listed earlier blur the boundary between work and play, between the virtual world
and actual experiences. Through an encounter with these technologies, our
capacities may be altered in a way that produces different ways of being, limiting
some actions and opening up others.
Whilst a video game played on a console or computer requires the player to sit
down and maintain eye contact with the screen, generally relying on concentration
for a limited period of time, a mobile application could be used intermittently
throughout the day, becoming entwined with everyday life but requiring a lesser
degree of attention. These applications cannot create a deep form of immersion for
the player, as a traditional game would, but instead produce a more shallow
connection that is sustained for longer over time. Rather than pick up the game and
play for an hour or so, these applications may only be given attention for a few
minutes at a time but could bring the user back multiple times a day. Some
applications, like the calorie counting app, even transform the way its users think
about the food they consume throughout the day and so the application maintains a
residual connection with the user even when not in use.
Nontraditional gaming contexts and hybrid games disrupt the notion of a stable
immersive state, as players’ experience of the game shifts according to the task at
hand and the demands of the specific game. Normative assumptions about
immersion as associated with pleasure, do not account for hybrid game forms that
incorporate elements of labour into the game, which still form an important part of
the experience, just as more varied, enjoyable parts do.

5. ‘Zombies, Run!’: A Case Study

6 ‘Zombies, Run!’: Rethinking immersion in light of non-traditional gaming
contexts
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‘Zombies, Run!’, a smartphone application that mixes exercise with video
gaming, provides a fascinating example of a hybrid game form that brings together
these elements of labour and leisure that were mentioned. The game takes the
player into a post-zombie-apocalypse world in which they play the role of 'Runner
5', responsible for going on runs out into zombie territory to retrieve supplies and
rescue stranded survivors. To play the game you must plug headphones into your
smartphone, select a mission in the application and go for a run outside. Using GPS
to track your speed and distance, the story unfolds via audio-clips played through
your headphones as you run. The missions can take 30 minutes or 1 hour and in
between the audio-clips you will hear songs of your own selection. What makes
this application most unique is that at any time during a run the player can be
attacked by zombies and will have to increase your speed by 20% during the attack
to survive. Zombie attacks are simulated with a warning message and then the
groaning sounds of Zombies getting closer and closer until the player either evades
them or is consumed. Fortunately for players, being caught by zombies isn’t the
end of the world, but will result in a loss of potentially valuable supplies. Supplies
collected are then allocated by the player to various buildings of ‘Able Township’,
the fictional survivor’s camp, in order to level up the facilities. The game currently
has more than 300 000 players worldwide24, a surprisingly substantial following
considering that the app sells for around AUD8.00, which is substantially higher
that the average app price of around AUD2.80.25
The application currently has over 30 missions, additionally there are several
extra race missions available for purchase. Players also have the option of choosing
to run in ‘Radio Mode’, during which the central story clips are replaced with
fictional radio broadcasters who offer information and personal stories in between
the player’s own songs. 26As the game uses GPS to track speed and distance,
players can go at their own pace, even walk or ride a bike. The app can also be
used on a treadmill, as the accelerometer in smartphones, like the iPhone, can
function to measure speed. The game involves minimal onscreen elements, as most
of the time attention is focused on where the player is running and this is makes the
game quite unusual compared to most applications and games that rely heavily on
visual realism. Instead, ‘Zombies, Run!’ offers some impressive voice acting and
sound effects. The groans of the zombies are certainly enough to put you on edge
during your evening jog.
For the past few months I have been conducting an autoethnography of
‘Zombie’s Run!’, playing (or running) through the levels of the application and
writing down my experiences. This autoethnography is specifically focused on the
experience of playing with a hybrid game and the ways in which my awareness is
augmented through play. This approach, though grounded in human experience, is
open to exploring the emergent potential of the technology. Throughout my
autoethnography I have attempted to remain attentive to the minute shifts in
 Clare Southerton 7
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potential, the interaction of affective forces throughout the gameplay experience in
an effort to understand the kind of immersion I experience. For example, whilst
playing ‘Zombies, Run!’ I noticed that the sound of my own heartbeat could be
heard through the headphones while I ran and this sound worked with the narrative
to create a sense of urgency and fear, but when a song was playing instead of the
narrative clips, I was much less aware of my heartbeat. My experience of
immersion was by no means sustained at the same level throughout the run.
Conducting the autoethnography has also highlighted the role of the landscape in
the gameplay experience. I noticed that not only did the game transform my
awareness of the landscape but also the landscape worked to create a sense of
‘being in the game’.

6. Conclusion
As this paper has demonstrated, exploring games through an affective lens is
especially relevant when considering the capacities of mobile
application/videogame hybrids, like ‘Zombies, Run!’ to transform the way we
experience the world. The diversity of in-game experiences cannot be encapsulated
in the term ‘immersion’, at least in the way the term has been traditionally
understood. Though there have been calls for a more concrete definition of
immersion, it is evident from the growing number of hybrid games and smartphone
applications that theories of immersion need to accept the unstable and contextual
nature of gaming experiences. ‘Zombies, Run!’ is a particularly useful example of
the way newly emerging hybrid gaming forms highlight the need for a shift in
thinking within game studies to explore the way that immersion is constantly
changing. The trend towards gaming applications geared towards productivity and
motivation also demonstrates that immersion cannot be bound up with normative
ideas of pleasure. By embracing the fluidity of immersion, videogame studies can
better understand the rapidly changing contemporary gaming experience and gain
greater insight into the potential of immersive experiences to transform our
awareness of the world.

Notes
1
See T.L. Taylor, ‘Living Digitally: Embodiment in Virtual Worlds’, in The Social
Life of Avatars: Presence and Interaction in Shared Virtual Environments
(London: Spring-Verlag, 2002), 40 – 62; Charlene Jennet, Anna L. Cox, Paul
Cairns, Samira Dhoparee, Andrew Epps, Tim Tijs and Alison
Walton, ‘Measuring and defining the experience of immersion’ International
Journal of Human-Computer Studies. (2008) Vol. 66, 641 - 661
2
Charlene Jennet et. al., ‘Measuring and defining the experience of immersion’,
641
8 ‘Zombies, Run!’: Rethinking immersion in light of non-traditional gaming
contexts
__________________________________________________________________

3
Jon Dovey and Helen W. Kennedy, Game Cultures: Computer Games as New
Media (New York: Open University Press, 2006), 8
4
Charlene Jennet et. al., ‘Measuring and defining the experience of immersion’,
641 - 661
5
Alison McMahan, ‘Immersion, Engagement and Presence: A Method for
Analyzing 3-D Video Games’ in The Video Game Theory Reader, Eds Mark J.
P. Wolf and Bernard Perron (London and New York: Routledge 2003), 67 – 87
6
Nick Yee, ‘The Labor of Fun: How Video Games Blur the Boundaries of Work
and Play’, Games and Culture 1, no. 1 (2006), 68 - 71
7
Laura Ermi and Frans Mayra, ‘Fundamental Components of the Gameplay
Experience: Analysing Immersion.’ In Proceedings of DiGRA 2005 Conference:
Changing Views–Worlds in Play. (2005), Eds. Suzanne de Castell and Jennifer
Jenson, 15 - 27
8
Alison McMahan, ‘Immersion, Engagement and Presence’: 67 – 87; Alasdair G.
Thin, Lisa Hansen and Danny McEachen, ‘Flow Experience and Mood States
While Playing Body Movement-Controlled Videogames’ in Games and Culture
6 (2011), 414 - 424
9
Laura Ermi and Frans Mayra, ‘Fundamental Components of the Gameplay
Experience’, 15
10
Andrew Murphie and John Potts, Culture and Technology (Hampshire and New
York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003), 11 - 38
11
Ibid, 31
12
Ben Anderson and Colin McFarlane, ‘Assemblage and Geography’, Area 43.2
(2011), 124.
13
Phillip Mar and Kay Anderson, ‘The Creative Assemblage’, Journal of Cultural
Economy 3, no. 1 (2010): 37
14
J.D. Dewsbury, ‘The Deleuze-Guattarian assemblage: plastic habits’, Area 43.2
(2011), 148 - 153
15
Gilles Deleuze, Spinoza: Practical Philosophy Translated by Robert Hurley (San
Francisco, CA: City Lights Books, 1988), 17 - 29
16
Claire Colebrook, Gilles Deleuze, (London and New York: Routledge 2002), 29
- 55
17
Patricia Ticineto Clough, Introduction to The Affective Turn, Eds. Patricia
Ticineto Clough and Jean Halley, (Durham, NC: Duke University Press 2007), 1
- 34
18
Nick Dyer-Witheford and Greig De Peuter, Games of Empire: Global
Capitalism and Video Games, (Minneapolis, MA: University Of Minnesota
Press 2009), xi – xxxv
 Clare Southerton 9
__________________________________________________________________

19
Lennart Nacke, and Craig A. Lindley. ‘Flow and immersion in first-person
shooters: measuring the player's gameplay experience.’ In Proceedings of the
2008 Conference on Future Play: Research, Play, Share, ACM, 2008, 81-88.
20
Alison McMahan, ‘Immersion, Engagement and Presence’, 67 – 87; Charlene
Jennet et al, ‘Measuring and defining the experience of immersion’, 641 – 661
21
Dean Chan, ‘Convergence, Connectivity, and the Case of Japanese Mobile
Gaming’, Games and Culture 3: 1 (2008), 13 - 25
22
Christian Christensen and Patrick Prax, ‘Assemblage, adaptation and apps:
Smartphones and mobile gaming’, Continuum: Journal of Media & Cultural
Studies 26:5 (2012), 731 – 739
23
Ibid.
24
Zombies, Run!’, Zombies, Run! Game, https://www.zombiesrungame.com, 2012
25
Rip Empson, ‘Report: Market For Paid Apps Hits $8B In 2012, While Average
Revenue Per App Drops 27%’, Techcrunch,
http://techcrunch.com/2013/01/22/report-market-for-paid-apps-hits-8b-in-2012-
while-average-revenue-per-app-drops-27, 2013
26
Zombies, Run!’, Zombies, Run! Game, https://www.zombiesrungame.com, 2012
10 ‘Zombies, Run!’: Rethinking immersion in light of non-traditional gaming
contexts
__________________________________________________________________

Bibliography
Anderson, Ben and Colin McFarlane, ‘Assemblage and Geography’, Area 43.2
(2011), 124.
Chan, Dean ‘Convergence, Connectivity, and the Case of Japanese Mobile
Gaming’, Games and Culture 3: 1 (2008), 13 - 25
Christensen, Christian and Patrick Prax, ‘Assemblage, adaptation and apps:
Smartphones and mobile gaming’, Continuum: Journal of Media & Cultural
Studies 26:5 (2012), 731 – 739
Clough, Patricia Ticineto, Introduction to The Affective Turn, Eds. Patricia Ticineto
Clough and Jean Halley, (Durham, NC: Duke University Press 2007), 1 - 34
Colebrook, Claire, Gilles Deleuze, (London and New York: Routledge 2002), 29 -
55
Deleuze, Gilles, Spinoza: Practical Philosophy Translated by Robert Hurley (San
Francisco, CA: City Lights Books, 1988), 17 - 29
Dewsbury, J.D., ‘The Deleuze-Guattarian assemblage: plastic habits’, Area 43.2
(2011), 148 - 153
Dovey, Jon and Helen W. Kennedy, Game Cultures: Computer Games as New
Media (New York: Open University Press, 2006), 8
Dyer-Witheford, Nick and Greig De Peuter, Games of Empire: Global Capitalism
and Video Games, (Minneapolis, MA: University Of Minnesota Press 2009), xi
– xxxv
Empson, Rip, ‘Report: Market For Paid Apps Hits $8B In 2012, While Average
Revenue Per App Drops 27%’, Techcrunch,
http://techcrunch.com/2013/01/22/report-market-for-paid-apps-hits-8b-in-2012-
while-average-revenue-per-app-drops-27, 2013
Ermi, Laura and Frans Mayra, ‘Fundamental Components of the Gameplay
Experience: Analysing Immersion.’ In Proceedings of DiGRA 2005 Conference:
Changing Views–Worlds in Play. (2005), Eds. Suzanne de Castell and Jennifer
Jenson, 15 - 27
Jennet, Charlene, Anna L. Cox, Paul Cairns, Samira Dhoparee, Andrew Epps, Tim
Tijs and Alison Walton, ‘Measuring and defining the experience of immersion’
International Journal of Human-Computer Studies. (2008) Vol. 66, 641 - 661
Mar, Phillip and Kay Anderson, ‘The Creative Assemblage’, Journal of Cultural
Economy 3, no. 1 (2010): 37
McMahan, Alison, ‘Immersion, Engagement and Presence: A Method for
Analyzing 3-D Video Games’ in The Video Game Theory Reader, Eds Mark J.
P. Wolf and Bernard Perron (London and New York: Routledge 2003), 67 – 87
 Clare Southerton 11
__________________________________________________________________

Murphie, Andrew and John Potts, Culture and Technology (Hampshire and New
York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003), 11 - 38
Nacke, Lennart and Craig A. Lindley. ‘Flow and immersion in first-person
shooters: measuring the player's gameplay experience.’ In Proceedings of the
2008 Conference on Future Play: Research, Play, Share, ACM, 2008, 81-88.
Taylor, T.L. ‘Living Digitally: Embodiment in Virtual Worlds’, in The Social Life
of Avatars: Presence and Interaction in Shared Virtual Environments (London:
Spring-Verlag, 2002), 40 – 62
Thin, Alasdair G., Lisa Hansen and Danny McEachen, ‘Flow Experience and
Mood States While Playing Body Movement-Controlled Videogames’ in Games
and Culture 6 (2011), 414 - 424
Yee, Nick, ‘The Labor of Fun: How Video Games Blur the Boundaries of Work
and Play’, Games and Culture 1, no. 1 (2006), 68 - 71
Zombies, Run!’, Zombies, Run! Game, https://www.zombiesrungame.com, 2012

Clare Southerton is a PhD candidate in the School of Sociology at the Australian

National University. With a general interest in the relationship between the
technological and the social, her doctoral research explores the experience of
immersion during videogame play with a specific interest in non-traditional
videogames.