A Study on Player Immersion in Text-Based Simulation Games Using Generative AI

This study aims to empirically investigate the impact of Generative AI on player immersion and overall experience by developing a text-based simulation game in which AI automatically generated narratives and NPC dialogues.Four key evaluation indicators, 'immersion, NPC dialogue quality, user experience, and enjoyment' were established.To this end, an online survey was conducted, and the collected data were analyzed using SPSS through reliability analysis, one-sample and paired-sample Ttests, and correlation analysis.The game was developed with the Unity engine and built on AI-generated stories and dialogues.The results indicated that immersion and NPC dialogue quality received high satisfaction scores, while user experience and enjoyment were relatively lower.This suggests that players' sense of fun was not sufficiently fulfilled due to individual differences, highlighting the need for more diverse narrative branches and unpredictable elements.Furthermore, strong positive correlations were found among immersion, dialogue quality, and user experience, demonstrating that player experiences are not independent but are interdependently shaped.Overall, this study provides empirical evidence that generative AI can enhance not only the efficiency of game development but also the quality of immersion and interaction.It emphasizes the need for further studies across diverse game genres and user groups.However, the research is limited by its relatively small sample, which constrains generalizability, thereby calling for expanded experiments and comparative studies across different genres.