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Prosper Cinematics & popamole break immersion

nomask7

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They remove you from the character's POV and put you into the POV of yourself as an observer/viewer: break in immersion. When you suddenly can't control your character due to a cut-scene - break in immersion. When he suddenly says something that is outside of your power to choose or even expect - break in immersion. When the camera angle is changed automatically to further a cinematic experience or platforming or gun battle - break in immersion (this is why people tend to consider first-person games like Morrowind and Doom more immersive, although games like Dark Souls where you at least always control the camera yourself - whether in dialogue or whenever - are still better than stuff like Uncharted).

Actual immersion means you have the POV of the character you're playing - you don't feel like you're observing the character or guiding him through cinematic experiences. The more consistent the POV, the more there is immersion - combination of cinematic and game-like is actually worse than just cinematic (a movie).

The only reason 'immersion' has become a dirty word on the codex is its association with what is actually IMMERSION BREAKING, due to retarded game journalists consistently misapplying the term to mean 'cinematic'.

The best retort to their bullshit is the truth: yes, immersion matters, but cut-scenes (among other things like too obvious hand-holding and tutorials) break immersion.

Pretty much everything bad you can think of is actually immersion breaking: level-scaling, cut-scenes as mentioned, compulsory tutorials, quest compass, constant corridor-like environments regardless of milieu, railroading, lack of choices, lack of consequences for choices. They all feel forced or tacked on and make you aware you're just playing some retarded game, not adventuring in Hyrule or whatever.

The new generations raised on popamole don't even know what true immersion is. If they get even a little bit immersed into a game momentarily they think it's the height of game design artistry. Fact be, even ADOM (hardcore ASCII-graphics rogue-like) is a lot more immersive than stuff like Uncharted (PS3 hit series praised for its "immersion" - full of cinematics and hand-holding and corridors in places where there should be no corridors, no hand-holding, and no cinematics).

I suggest people should stop disparaging immersion and start disparaging incorrect usage of the word.
 

JarlFrank

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Too many cutscenes make me just give up on the game, if they're unskippable. If they're skippable I just click through them because oh man, I can't be bothered with this shit I WANT TO PLAY

Between-mission briefings like in Thief are cool.
Short cutscenes that show what pressing a button did are okay in Tomb Raider because sometimes they're needed in large levels with complex puzzles.
A cutscene at the very beginning or end of a level is acceptable, if it doesn't lead to obvious PLAYER CHARACTER DOES SOMETHING OBVIOUSLY DUMB AND ENDS UP IN A BAD SITUATION BECAUSE OF IT cutscene retardation.

But cutscenes that break the flow of gameplay because they trigger RIGHT WHEN YOU'RE WALKING ALONG THAT PATH, EXPLORING, AND HIT A CUTSCENE TRIGGER? FUCK THIS SHIT. FUCK IT TO DEATH.
 

nomask7

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Short cutscenes that show what pressing a button did are okay in Tomb Raider because sometimes they're needed in large levels with complex puzzles.

'Okay' is the word. I think these may have something to do with why the new Zeldas feel so bleh. Every time you do something in a dungeon there's a zoom-out and zoom-in to another room or something. There must be a better way...
 

pippin

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Short cutscenes that show what pressing a button did are okay in Tomb Raider because sometimes they're needed in large levels with complex puzzles.

Hexen did it better :smug:

However, cutscenes have always been, in my opinion, an excuse to showcase software and hardware stuff instead of being something 100% useful. I wouldn't consider something like Thief's in-between videos to be cutscenes, though, since Thief is a game designed around stages, not an entire world.
Cutscenes are indeed annoying in the modern gaming world. There was one particularly obnoxious instance in Dragon Age Origins, in which you're supposed to fight a group of mages in a forest. I try to position my party in order to fight them in a more effective manner, but a cutscene happens and brings my party back together, shitting on my plan.
 

Baron Dupek

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That would be ironic if random QTE in cutscenes was short gameplay to keep it under "games" label.
 

DraQ

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Cinematics & popamole break immersion
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The only reason 'immersion' has become a dirty word on the codex is its association with what is actually IMMERSION BREAKING, due to retarded game journalists consistently misapplying the term to mean 'cinematic'.
Nope. The main reason why it became a dirty word was emphasis on mostly inconsequential immersion helpers like FPP/OTS TPP, full VOs or next gen GFX to the detriment of everything else.

Pretty much everything bad you can think of is actually immersion breaking: level-scaling, cut-scenes as mentioned, compulsory tutorials, quest compass, constant corridor-like environments regardless of milieu, railroading, lack of choices, lack of consequences for choices. They all feel forced or tacked on and make you aware you're just playing some retarded game, not adventuring in Hyrule or whatever.
Yes.
The new generations raised on popamole don't even know what true immersion is. If they get even a little bit immersed into a game momentarily they think it's the height of game design artistry. Fact be, even ADOM (hardcore ASCII-graphics rogue-like) is a lot more immersive than stuff like Uncharted (PS3 hit series praised for its "immersion" - full of cinematics and hand-holding and corridors in places where there should be no corridors, no hand-holding, and no cinematics).
See above. If your definition of immersion is narrowed down to the most basic tier of game looking and sounding mostly realistic then you miss out on subtler but more important part of immersion - the game may be more immersive if it's FPP and has nice graphics and all dialogue is actually spoken by characters, but it doesn't mean a damn if you're constantly taken out of the experience by cutscenes, moronic design or inability to ask what the fuck is a foyada.
 

taxalot

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Cinematics breaking immersion ? Now there's a novel idea. I hope this thread does around sixty pages, because really, the idea is quite difficult to understand.
 

nomask7

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See above. If your definition of immersion is narrowed down to the most basic tier of game looking and sounding mostly realistic then you miss out on subtler but more important part of immersion - the game may be more immersive if it's FPP and has nice graphics and all dialogue is actually spoken by characters, but it doesn't mean a damn if you're constantly taken out of the experience by cutscenes, moronic design or inability to ask what the fuck is a foyada.

Realistic graphics aren't good for immersion either. The reason for that is that you start expecting them to be realistic because that's what they strive for, and you start noticing issues or expecting the game itself to be more realistic than it can be. With unrealistic graphics as in ADOM, all you need is consistency and unbroken style for immersion to work in terms of graphics. The graphics create their own world rather than competing with the real world (which they can never do well).
 

nomask7

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Apr 30, 2008
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In other news: water is wet.

If what I said is such an obvious thing - and I'm not saying it's not - but why haven't I ever heard it said outloud?

I'm afraid fact is, codexers are manboons when it comes to promoting their point of view. When game journalists describe popamole as immersive, codexers start decrying immersion. Instead of saying water is wet, they say Sure, water is dry but only faggots care about water.

That's codexer strategy for you. Basically, circle-jerking 'tards who aren't even circle-jerking in a manner that would make sense to anyone but their in-group.

But thanks for the support. If any business insiders are paying attention, they may even be able to glean from your message that you actually agree with me despite the heavy level of sarcasm.
 
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nah, we're just making fun of immersion because it has become such a meaningless buzzword. The fact that 'real' immersion is important and adds a lot to a game is a generally accepted and often repeated truth here.

Well except maybe for the mondblutmodian ilk who just play games for the combat and mechanics, but nobody knows why these guys bother with computer games anyway
 

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