Can multiplayer games be immersive?

[ultimateownage]

[Immersion is] Not, as some might tell you, a game that feels like you're actually playing it for real like you're totes on the Holodeck, man. My own definition of immersion is the point when you have stopped noticing the actual nuts and bolts of the game and can enjoy the experience as intended. Basically anything that makes you think "Hmm, the developers kind of dropped the ball there" breaks immersion, such as glitches, clipping errors, pop-in, dodgy art or animation and people talking in broad Valley girl accents in 13th century Denmark.

This got me thinking, can multiplayer games be immersive?
When you play alone, you can get absorbed into the game much more easily, but when playing with friends I find that I never really get into the game in the same way. Whether it's Co Op with a friend at my house, or a Multiplayer Game like TF2, it always seems like other humans make the experience much less immersive for me.
So, I ask, do you think multiplayer games can be as immersive as single player ones, or immersive at all?

 

[Kpt._Rob]

I think I really feel the opposite actually, I generally find multiplayer games (at least when well executed) to be more immersive. They have something that simply can't yet be created in a single player game, enemies with human intelligence. Having the need to compensate for enemies that have a level of intelligence that is much closer to my own makes me much more involved in a game.

 

[Korten12]

I think I really feel the opposite actually, I generally find multiplayer games (at least when well executed) to be more immersive. They have something that simply can't yet be created in a single player game, enemies with human intelligence. Having the need to compensate for enemies that have a level of intelligence that is much closer to my own makes me much more involved in a game.

This, though I think both give equal immersion.

 

[JBGigas]

Yes they can, for example Battlefield Bad Company 2 with it's excellent soundscape is very, very immersive.

 

[Vrach]

In general, people make the experience less immersive (particularly when playing online as I can't think of many games set in the age of omgwtfbbqspeek), but it's not necessarily doomed. With friends, if you're all into it, it can definitely be fantastic.

That said, not even online multiplayer is necessarily doomed. If you ignore the chatbox, you're already halfway there. One of my most enjoyable multiplayer experiences was in Battlefield: Vietnam. I was in a cybercafe, big one and there was a match going, not sure if it was 16/16 or 32/32, either way pretty massive, especially in those times.

Anyway, the place was pretty full so my mate and I had to separate, I took a PC in a room upstairs while he headed down to the first floor. Since we had no means of communication (place didn't have microphones and typing in an FPS kinda sucks), we actually started using the extended radio commands. I really can't tell ya how much more enjoyable they made the experience - calling for aerial support when we needed it, announcing/spotting tanks and enemy infantry etc. - it felt like a proper warfare game experience and it wasn't something you could really do with a singleplayer game because it was all improvised and therefore a lot more engaging than a scripted scenario.

I think games could benefit and learn a lot from WoW's RolePlaying servers. While I'm personally not into them for WoW, the basic idea is good. In most FPSs you already have a "Hardcore" mode, so you could either connect it onto that (as it effectively makes the experience that much more real/hardcore) or simply add another checked option for people who enjoy that kind of thing. I think a lot of people would go for the experience.

 

[EmzOLV]

I find it completely depends on the game itself. If it entertains me and fills my boxes, then I will become really easily immersed. And I know when I'm immersed when a few hours later I realise that I've shut down and have no peripheral vision outside of the screen...

I can't describe what it is, but I think it works regardless of type of game as long as the game that I'm playing connects with me. For example, I know I'm not any good at games like MW2, and I have absolutely no focus playing that game or any interest in doing so, so immediately I'm not immersed in it. I'm too bored with boosters, and people who are just far too good for some lame person like me to keep up with.

I know if I was playing something like World of Warcraft I would have NO life because I know it would just fill so many boxes and that would be it. I'd be immersed until I'd stopped eating.

 

[twistedheat15]

They can me if you aren't playing with retards that make you constantly yell at the screen "wtf are you doing?!" But even in those cases it'll feel like your with that retarded member of the team you gotta keep kicking in the ass to do anything, just so long as you don't have a mic/speakers. When you can hear and talk to the retards you're playing with then forget immersion.

 

[shootthebandit]

oxford english dictionaries defines immersion (in this sense of the word) as "deep meaning full involvement"

i think you get more involved in a multiplayer game as there is more of a competitive side, it doesnt make you feel as if you are playing a character but you feel as if you are playing yourself against other people who think and know all the hiding places. they use tactics which arent scripted and know how to abuse the options given by the developer.

 

[razelas]

Yes they can, for example Battlefield Bad Company 2 with it's excellent soundscape is very, very immersive.

Yeah, Bad Company 2 brings out the best (and sometimes worst) in players. I'd have to say that it's the quality of the players that determines how immersed you get into a multiplayer game, more than the gameplay itself.

 

[Moonmover]

I have been very immersed in roleplaying servers before.

I doubt I could get "immersed" in the sense that you are talking about in a deathmatch-type game. However, that is not what deathmatches are for, so that is just fine. I do not expect an escapicistic experience in what is basically a souped-up board game.

 

[MrShowerHead]

Some MMOs are pretty immersive. Like EVE Online. Or maybe that's just me.....

Or.... [sub]time to release my inner fanboy......[/sub]

RPG servers. Like in OFP and ArmA II.