Why playing augmented reality games feels meaningful to players? The roles of imagination and social experience

Augmented reality (AR) games such as location-based games add virtual content on top of the real world. We investigate why playing these games feels meaningful to players by focusing on the dimensions of imagination and sociality. We theorise a structural model that we test with data collected from a global sample of players of the popular AR game Poke ' mon GO (N = 515). Our findings show that nostalgic feelings about Poke ' mon increased imagining AR content in the real world. Surprisingly, using imagination in this way was a much stronger predictor of affection towards the fictional poke ' mon creatures than nostalgia. The affection towards the fictional creatures, in turn, increased the meaningfulness of playing. Regarding the social factors, community identification and social self-efficacy increased players' sense of meaningfulness of playing. As our study's main design implications, we highlight the importance of socially shared narratives and harnessing the players' imagination to support a sense of meaningfulness of playing.

Automated summary

Playing augmented reality games like Pokémon GO feels meaningful to players due to the nostalgic feelings towards Pokémon increasing imagination of AR content in the real world. Surprisingly, using imagination was a stronger predictor of affection towards fictional Pokémon creatures than nostalgia. Community identification and social self-efficacy further enhance players' sense of meaningfulness in playing.