About games and "Immersion".

[him over there]

I know some people are going to come in here expecting an immersion is all important or people don't know what Immersion is and throw the word around thread and I'd just like to say first and foremost that this thread is about "Immersion" but not either of these topics.

What I'd just like to say might sound crazy to some people but have any of you ever wanted a game that didn't have great immersion? That you fully understood it was a game that you tried to win? That sometimes you don't want games to be super otherworldly escapism getaways?

Don't get me wrong those things are great but sometimes do you ever feel like there might be something else or missing? After I had finished a playthrough of inFamous I felt myself even though I was invested in the story not really drawn into the world. After I played super mario 3d land and was thoroughly enjoying myself despite the fact I wasn't very good at it or invested in the story or characters or world. What I'm trying to say is I think it would be refreshing to play a game that felt like a stereotypical game. You know the kind of tropes that mainstream shows with no understanding of what modern videogames are use as games in them. Like levels and pixels and power ups and lives. Sometimes I just get- I don't want to say nostalgic because I didn't even really grow up in the nes/snes era but just a sort of different feeling. That kind of feeling that says "this is a videogame go beat the last boss and stay up until midnight with your little brother."

I know it probably is a weird thing to say, especially on The Escapist but sometimes I just feel this way about games and crave to play one like this. What do you think? Also I'm not saying immersion is bad just that we don't have to disregard or condemn games without it.

 

[Vault101]

hmm I think its different

you have imersion in super mario world..yes

but I think the mian argument is imersion being broken when it SHOULDNT be...like oblivion and its zombie inhabitants

obviously it can depends a great deal on the induvidual...

 

[Zhukov]

Uhh... nope.

Not really into those kind of games.

About the closest I come is the occasional session of online FPS every now and again. BF3, TF2, Killing Floor and the like. But I usually get bored of it pretty quickly and go back to something nice and immersive.

 

[Sixcess]

Sometimes I find myself playing the system rather than the game, particularly if the game lets me indulge in some heavy number crunching with my character builds. Like in City of Heroes I might play a particular story arc because I like the story, but I might pick an arc solely to see how my current build performs against a particular enemy group or boss.

 

[JesterRaiin]

What I'd just like to say might sound crazy to some people but have any of you ever wanted a game that didn't have great immersion? That you fully understood it was a game that you tried to win? That sometimes you don't want games to be super otherworldly escapism getaways?

Sure !
It's nice to take a little vacation from massive games from time to time and just play Tekken or some platformer. We, the "Immershun" types aren't idiots focused on single thing, kind sir.
Well, most of us aren't.

 

[RatRace123]

Eh, to me it entirely depends on the game. In some cases, I'm playing a game solely thinking of it as "a game"; with levels, power-ups, and the like. I'm thinking of it in terms of "how can I beat this level".

In other circumstances, primarily RPGs, I think of the game in a more narrative sense. I like to get into the world and inside my character's head, and in that case it's more about the journey and story.

I wholly enjoy either one, it all depends on what I'm interested in that particular day.