Abstract
Increasingly, immersive digital spaces are being developed that have the potential to combine rich visualization with high computational power and access to information. Despite billions of dollars of investments in immersive digital spaces, companies have yet to realize the full benefits of using these environments, and thus far only a few online video games have retained long-term popularity. The difficulty lies in the novelty of these environments. Immersive digital spaces are different from non-immersive digital spaces (such as online forums, mailing lists, and social media) because they are characterized by spatiality, i.e., participants experience space in three dimensions, yet they are different from physical reality. Participants engage with immersive digital spaces differently from how they engage with non-immersive digital spaces, but we know little how they navigate them and how they derive meaning or value from their experiences. To fill this knowledge gap, we conducted a three-year qualitative study of the online science-fiction multiplayer game EVE Online. Our findings suggest that immersive digital spaces become sites of interest that participants regularly navigate and create meaning and value within when they can make sense of space, manipulate the visibility of space, and manipulate the components of space. We also provide theoretical insights about behavior in immersive digital spaces.