Previously submitted to: JMIR Serious Games (no longer under consideration since Dec 22, 2025)
Date Submitted: Dec 18, 2025
Open Peer Review Period: Dec 22, 2025 - Dec 22, 2025
(closed for review but you can still tweet)
NOTE: This is an unreviewed Preprint
Warning: This is a unreviewed preprint (What is a preprint?). Readers are warned that the document has not been peer-reviewed by expert/patient reviewers or an academic editor, may contain misleading claims, and is likely to undergo changes before final publication, if accepted, or may have been rejected/withdrawn (a note "no longer under consideration" will appear above).
Peer review me: Readers with interest and expertise are encouraged to sign up as peer-reviewer, if the paper is within an open peer-review period (in this case, a "Peer Review Me" button to sign up as reviewer is displayed above). All preprints currently open for review are listed here. Outside of the formal open peer-review period we encourage you to tweet about the preprint.
Citation: Please cite this preprint only for review purposes or for grant applications and CVs (if you are the author).
Final version: If our system detects a final peer-reviewed "version of record" (VoR) published in any journal, a link to that VoR will appear below. Readers are then encourage to cite the VoR instead of this preprint.
Settings: If you are the author, you can login and change the preprint display settings, but the preprint URL/DOI is supposed to be stable and citable, so it should not be removed once posted.
Submit: To post your own preprint, simply submit to any JMIR journal, and choose the appropriate settings to expose your submitted version as preprint.
Warning: This is an author submission that is not peer-reviewed or edited. Preprints - unless they show as "accepted" - should not be relied on to guide clinical practice or health-related behavior and should not be reported in news media as established information.
Personality factors determine the experience of deep immersion in problem computer gamers : pilot study
ABSTRACT
Background:
Problematic gaming has been associated with excessive immersion, which may impair awareness of reality and contribute to behavioral addiction and physical strain. Previous research suggests that specific personality traits may predispose gamers to deeper immersion, potentially increasing the risk of loss of control during gameplay.
Objective:
The objective of this study was to examine differences in immersion and personality traits between gaming addicts and non-addicted gamers, as well as to explore relationships between personality factors and immersion within these groups.
Methods:
The study included two groups: gaming addicts (N = 27; mean age = 21.84 ± 0.87 years) and a control group of non-addicted gamers (N = 27; mean age = 21.48 ± 1.07 years). All participants were male and aged between 19 and 25 years. Personality traits were assessed using the NEO Five-Factor Inventory (NEO-FFI), and immersion was measured with the Immersiveness of Games Questionnaire (ING). Group differences across questionnaire dimensions were analyzed, and correlation analyses were conducted separately for each group.
Results:
Compared to non-addicted gamers, gaming addicts experienced significantly greater interaction with the virtual environment (t = -3.03, P = .004) and a stronger sense of control during gameplay (t = -2,48, P = .016). Gaming addicts also demonstrated higher levels of agreeableness (Z = -2.69, P = .007) and openness to experience (t = -2.49, P = .016). In contrast, problem gamers reported significantly lower awareness of the real world while playing compared to the control group (Z = 3.06, P = .002).
Conclusions:
Higher levels of openness to experience and agreeableness appear to be associated with deeper immersion in gaming, which may contribute to the development of problem gaming behaviors. These personality traits may act as direct determinants of immersion, increasing susceptibility to excessive gaming and related negative consequences.
Citation
Request queued. Please wait while the file is being generated. It may take some time.
Copyright
© The authors. All rights reserved. This is a privileged document currently under peer-review/community review (or an accepted/rejected manuscript). Authors have provided JMIR Publications with an exclusive license to publish this preprint on it's website for review and ahead-of-print citation purposes only. While the final peer-reviewed paper may be licensed under a cc-by license on publication, at this stage authors and publisher expressively prohibit redistribution of this draft paper other than for review purposes.