Founding of the GI

The Legacy of the IMMERSe Network

The Interactive and Multi-Modal Experience Research Syndicate (IMMERSe) network was Waterloo’s first SSHRC Partnership Grant (2012-2020) and includes 28 faculty contributors and close to 100 students from the University of Waterloo, Carleton University, Concordia University, McMaster University, Ontario Tech University, and University of California-Davis.
IMMERSe researchers conceptualized the "world of games" through a series of six “themes”: a lens through which researchers focus on specific aspects of games research. The network reflects the comprehensive nature of the games world, which encompasses everything from story, to character, to
cultural studies, all the way to art, user analysis, technology design, psychology, and health studies.

The corpus of innovative interdisciplinary research published throughout the eight-year span of the network includes over 2,000 entries. IMMERSe contributors completed research in the areas of mobile games, virtual worlds, gambling games, simulation games, augmented reality games, and the full rich panoply of entertainment gaming. Results of the network have ranged from published work in journals, anthologies, and books; to physical game development; to the exploration of research findings in presentations, workshops and conferences.

To learn more about the full scope of IMMERSe project and what it achieved, explore the website to discover for yourself.

Check out the different core research themes below

IMMERSe was made possible by a SSHRC Partnership Grant, awarded to Dr. Neil Randall, Principal Investigator of IMMERSe and Executive Director of the Games Institute, and Dr. Karen Collins, Associate Professor and Canadian Research Chair in Interactive Audio, in May 2012. The grant went towards supporting the development of a long-term, formal partnership to advance research and knowledge mobilization in the social sciences and humanities ("Partnerships"). In addition to the University of Waterloo, the academic partners included Carleton University, Concordia University Montreal, McMaster University, University of Ontario Institute of Technology, and the University of California Davis. IMMERSe researchers conceptualize the "world of games" through a series of six “themes”: a lens through which researchers focus on specific aspects of games research.

On May 25, 2012, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) announced the awarding of a SSHRC Partnership Grant to the Games Institute to establish a research network for the study of games. As covered by the Kitchener Record, this network joins together six universities and six industry partners to conduct a wide range of studies in player immersion and behaviour in games.

Receiving the grant was a watershed moment for Games Research. IMMERSe was a student research funding system, with the money going towards students across institutions, disciplines, and years of study that were interested in the world of games. The network was able to reflect the whole comprehensive nature of the games world, which encompasses everything from story, to character, to cultural studies, all the way to art, user analysis, psychology, and even health studies.

In a field that is ever evolving a question of academic output is raised: “How do researchers study something as amorphous as games and when they do, what does it look like?” For a research syndicate such as IMMERSe there was no one answer.

This is due in part to the vast varieties of games capable of being studied. Over its eight year run, IMMERSe contributors completed research in the areas of mobile games, virtual worlds, gambling games, simulation games, augmented reality games, and the full rich panoply of entertainment gaming.  Each game brought with it various unique components and technologies for study, guiding research and encouraging the embrace of different focuses and interpretations of the media.  Results of the network have ranged from published work in journals, anthologies, and books; to physical game development; to the exploration of research findings in presentations or conferences.

The IMMERSe Network

The network was a partnership between six academic institutions and associated labs.