Welcome to the info page for my current project on immersion and play in theme parks. I’ve been a long time park attendee myself (mostly Disney) and originally became interested in what the experience of parks are when you attend them regularly. After interviewing a bunch of folks who fit that criteria I realized there was a ton more to explore. As someone who has spent a lot of time studying games and virtual worlds my eye, perhaps unsurprisingly, turned to themes of immersion and play.
I’ve almost wrapped up all the research (which has involved everything from interviewing park guests and designers to attending industry conventions and tons of participant observation in the parks and at fan events). Building on fieldwork undertaken over the last several years in Disney parks around the world, as well as interviews with both designers and attendees, I’m working on a new book (will be a fellow at Stanford’s CASBS next year for that!) that examines theme parks at the analytically rich intersection of design and experience. Leveraging three lenses – theme park as world, as infrastructure, and as playground – I’m exploring not only how Disney parks have been experimenting with new forms of immersion, games, and play, but how these have been taken up by guests.
Ranging from a consideration of app-based mini-games or in-park paper-based artifacts to ambitious projects like the world-building of Galaxies Edge or the live-action experience of the Galactic Starcruiser, I’m looking at the designed structures, everyday practices, and guest experiences of these initiatives. Woven through the research is an attention to the various forms of infrastructure (from technological to social) that facilitate, or at times hinder, experimentation.
Alongside an attention to formally designed experiences is a consideration of more emergent practices of playfulness in the parks that arise directly from guest/fan communities, from gifting to (unauthorized) endeavors that use the theme park as a playground for fan-led projects. As one might imagine, interesting critical cases arise around governance and operations when guests reimagine a theme park in ambitious ways. More mundane moments of pain or failure in Disney park fandom is also explored in the hopes of revealing a more complex story of guest engagement than is typically thought of.
I’ve given a number of talks over the last few years and you can find various abstracts for those here. I’m also working up a bibliography to share out (like I have in my previous projects) since I’m getting a sense this is a growing area of interest for games folks. You can find the current version here.