A main reason to play computer games is the pleasure of being immersed in a mediated world. Spatial presence and flow are considered key concepts to explain such immersive experiences. However, little attention has been paid to the connection between the two concepts. Thus, we empirically examined the relationship between presence and flow in the context of a computer role-playing game ( ), a racing game ( ), and a jump and run game ( ). In all three studies, factor analysis revealed that presence and flow are distinct constructs, which do hardly share common variance. We conclude that presence refers to the sensation of being there in the mediated world, whereas flow rather refers to the sensation of being involved in the gaming action. Further analyses showed that flow and presence depend on motivation and immersive tendency. In addition, flow and presence enhanced performance as well as enjoyment. 1. Introduction In a broad survey, Yee [1] assessed motivations and experiences of 30,000 game users. He found that many users play computer games because they like to be immersed in a fantasy world. Immersion into mediated environments in general and computer games in particular has previously been explained through (spatial) presence (e.g., [2, 3]) and flow (e.g., [4–6]). Flow and presence share conceptual similarities such as an immersive component and intense feelings of involvement (cf. [7, 8]), but there are clear differences (cf. [6, 9]) whereas flow can be defined as immersion or involvement in an activity (i.e., the gaming action), presence rather refers to a sense of spatial immersion in a mediated environment. In the last decades, a plethora of studies have been conducted to investigate presence and flow in various media contexts. Surprisingly, however, there is not one single comprehensive empirical study that investigates the relationship between the two concepts. Within the study in hand, we therefore aim to empirically analyse the relationship between flow and (spatial) presence. In order to validate differences and similarities, we accomplished three large-scale experiments using three different computer games. Since presence as well as flow can be described as immersive experiences, Draper et al. [7] suggest that presence is a particular type of flow experience that occurs during teleoperations. This is in line with Bystrom et al. [10] who assume that presence—just like flow—occurs due to a feedback loop between task characteristics and attention allocation. Alike, Hoffman and Novak [8] propose that attention and involvement are essential
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