is immersion important for you?

[Tehdagah]

I can tolerate it but I don't like it

 

[Eisen]

immersive

 

[gurugeorge]

People here keep confusing the two things again and again.

I'll take another stab at it:-

Concentration isn't immersion. The flow state isn't immersion. These are related to gameplay, i.e. engagement with the game's systems. (Here the great distinction is between puzzle-based challenges - solving pseudo-mathematical or logical problems, from getting one's build right to some actual in-game puzzle - and twitch-based challenges.)

Immersion is the sense of "being there" in a virtual world. Immersion is related to story, to art design and graphics, to interesting in-game characters, to world-building, to choice and consequence. That's how the term has always been used and understood. (And yes, it's related to suspension of disbelief; it's suspension of disbelief in the videogame context.)

Both are necessary components of videogames. Without engagement you'd just have a pretty picture; without immersion you'd just be doing a newspaper puzzle or a reflex test. The best moments in gaming are where the two come together in synergy.

But the problem is that immersion can be cheaply bought for the masses by "AAA" developers simply throwing enough artists and 3-d modelers at a game - and since we can all appreciate that to some extent, since it's the lowest common denominator, that's how developers have been making games for decades, to the neglect of trying to figure out complex, challenging, intriguing game systems.

 

[JDR13]

 

[Gregz]

That's how the term has always been used and understood.

Bullshit

 

[DraQ]

But the problem is that immersion can be cheaply bought for the masses by "AAA" developers simply throwing enough artists and 3-d modelers at a game

To the masses perhaps, but many of us, especially self-proclaimed simulationfags, do notice things being off for various reasons which can irreversibly ruin the immersion. Just looking and sounding the part doesn't cut it.

 

[gurugeorge]

That's how the term has always been used and understood.

Bullshit

Nope, it's always been the sense, with the extreme of it being called by psychologists "presence." (That would be the kind of example I quoted in an earlier post re. an experience I had in Champions Online, where for a moment the virtual space I was in in the game felt like real space.)

Even just recently here, there's a quote from an SJW's RPS article quoting a Noughties Brian Fargo in passing, using the term in exactly that sense. The sense of "being there" in the virtual world is what's meant by "immersion."

The sense of intense concentration and engagement with the game's systems, which some here are calling immersion, is called "flow." And as I said in an earlier post, sometimes there's a fuzzy line separating the two, but generally speaking they're distinct things, and the best thing in gaming is when the two coincide (i.e. when you are both in a flow state, engaged with the game's systems, and at the same time immersed in the virtual world being depicted or simulated).

Perhaps you might be thinking of "immersive sim?" That's a term that's more on the gameplay side of things, but it does utilize the concept of immersion (in the sense that you're using elements of the virtual world as depicted to solve a puzzle, or thinking like someone in that world would think to solve the puzzle).

 

[DalekFlay]

I voted essential, though I was thinking of RPGs at the time. This being in the general gaming section, I'll mention that I find it less essential in genres like FPS and adventure (though still a significant enhancement when it is there).

I'll also say I mostly agree with gurugeorge about what immersion is. To me it's not simply realism, or survival/realism mechanics which I actually tend to hate. It's more about a well designed world with solid lore and characters that feel like they really live there which all combines to make you feel like you are there too. Stuff like NCR soldiers bitching about their lot in life is a lot more important than whether the rocks look like the rocks in my backyard.

 

[DraQ]

That's how the term has always been used and understood.

Bullshit

Nope, it's always been the sense, with the extreme of it being called by psychologists "presence." (That would be the kind of example I quoted in an earlier post re. an experience I had in Champions Online, where for a moment the virtual space I was in in the game felt like real space.)

Even just recently here, there's a quote from an SJW's RPS article quoting a Noughties Brian Fargo in passing, using the term in exactly that sense. The sense of "being there" in the virtual world is what's meant by "immersion."

The sense of intense concentration and engagement with the game's systems, which some here are calling immersion, is called "flow." And as I said in an earlier post, sometimes there's a fuzzy line separating the two, but generally speaking they're distinct things, and the best thing in gaming is when the two coincide.

Perhaps you might be thinking of "immersive sim?" That's a term that's more on the gameplay side of things, but it does utilize the concept of immersion (in the sense that you're using elements of the virtual world as depicted to solve a puzzle, or thinking like someone in that world would think to solve the puzzle).

Immersion is when you stop looking at the game and start looking through it.

 

[TheHeroOfTime]

immershuuuunnnn

 

[Inhabitants of Khorinis]

If you want to read more about what gurugeorge is talking about, google "An Examination of Flow and Immersion in Games" By Procci and Bowers.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Immersion is one of those "I know it when I see it" things, it requires no definition.

 

[Inhabitants of Khorinis]

Immersion is one of those "I know it when I see it" things, it requires no definition.

Rpg is one of those "I know it when I see it" things, it requires no definition. My fav rpg are Borderlands and GTA San Andreas. What's yours?

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Immersion is one of those "I know it when I see it" things, it requires no definition.

Rpg is one of those "I know it when I see it" things, it requires no definition. My fav rpg are Borderlands and GTA San Andreas. What's yours?

borderlands is an rpg though

 

[Momock]

Immersion is one of those "I know it when I see it" things, it requires no definition.

Rpg is one of those "I know it when I see it" things, it requires no definition. My fav rpg are Borderlands and GTA San Andreas. What's yours?

borderlands is an rpg though

But not San Andreas?

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Immersion is one of those "I know it when I see it" things, it requires no definition.

Rpg is one of those "I know it when I see it" things, it requires no definition. My fav rpg are Borderlands and GTA San Andreas. What's yours?

borderlands is an rpg though

But not San Andreas?

only if you're white

 

[curds]

Immersion is when you get absolutely absorbed into a game. Having to make sure you character eats and shits my be immersive to some people, but that's not immersion is. That shit is called LARPing (which, again, some people might find immersive).

But you can get completely immersed in a game like X-Com or KotC or ToEE which has none of that shit.

 

[Nifft Batuff]

When I want to play a game I like to immerse myself
in the Bay.

 

[madhouse]

Yes.

 

[Machocruz]

No I don't care