Recently I've been thinking about the ability to lose yourself in a game and its world. Specifically, how hard it has become for me. When playing a game I am always aware of the fact that's exactly what I'm doing. Because of this I find it much harder to actually believe the world I'm in, and when I do it's almost always to a lesser extent than I used to.
The last time I can remember actually completely losing myself in a game world and forgetting that it was just a game was probably with Oblivion. That was the last time I genuinely stopped thinking about things like the graphics, the mechanics, contrivances like quests and levelling, and all that stuff.
I didn't feel like Cyrodil was just a collection of polygons arranged by an environment artist, it felt like it was a real place that actually existed. It was another world I could actually visit if I somehow had the means.
Characters didn't feel like quest-giver NPCs with lines of recorded dialogue. They felt like real people that actually existed. They had their own lives and their own motivations. They had real problems I was helping them with, I wasn't just activating some pre-scripted sequence of events.
Locations felt like they were actually places built for a purpose. They weren't just levels created to give me a challenge. Going in to an ancient ruin really felt like that, and I felt like the inhabitants were really trying to protect their home, rather than simply being aggressive mobs who are programmed to automatically attack me as soon as I came near.
All the lore surrounding the game felt real too. The Nine Divines felt like a real pantheon that people could and would dedicate their lives to. All the things I read in books and all the things I heard NPCs say felt like it was all part of a full and rich world. The history of Tamriel was real, it wasn't just a bunch of made up names that someone pulled out of their arse.
I was able to forget for 300 hours or so that I was holding a controller and looking at a TV. I was actually in this other world. I was actually a part of it and its events. I wasn't completing the "Defense of Bruma" quest, I was actually a part of the great siege of Bruma. Doing my part to break it and saving the world. The world actually depended on me.
When I go back to the game now I find the flaws hard to ignore. I usually can't see past the "it wasn't justs". The game still does a far better job of being a believable world than most other games (as TES usually does) but I can't quite recapture that feeling I used to have. I miss it. I still enjoy games a lot and love exploring the worlds they present me with, but I miss the times when I used to be able to completely lose myself like that.
I think the reason is a combination of simply getting older and gaining more knowledge about games and how they work. I don't wish that I didn't know all that stuff and that I could go back to how things were, but I do miss it sometimes.
So my question is, what about you? Do you find it hard to get lost as well? When was the last time it happened? Do you miss it?
The last time I can remember actually completely losing myself in a game world and forgetting that it was just a game was probably with Oblivion. That was the last time I genuinely stopped thinking about things like the graphics, the mechanics, contrivances like quests and levelling, and all that stuff.
I didn't feel like Cyrodil was just a collection of polygons arranged by an environment artist, it felt like it was a real place that actually existed. It was another world I could actually visit if I somehow had the means.
Characters didn't feel like quest-giver NPCs with lines of recorded dialogue. They felt like real people that actually existed. They had their own lives and their own motivations. They had real problems I was helping them with, I wasn't just activating some pre-scripted sequence of events.
Locations felt like they were actually places built for a purpose. They weren't just levels created to give me a challenge. Going in to an ancient ruin really felt like that, and I felt like the inhabitants were really trying to protect their home, rather than simply being aggressive mobs who are programmed to automatically attack me as soon as I came near.
All the lore surrounding the game felt real too. The Nine Divines felt like a real pantheon that people could and would dedicate their lives to. All the things I read in books and all the things I heard NPCs say felt like it was all part of a full and rich world. The history of Tamriel was real, it wasn't just a bunch of made up names that someone pulled out of their arse.
I was able to forget for 300 hours or so that I was holding a controller and looking at a TV. I was actually in this other world. I was actually a part of it and its events. I wasn't completing the "Defense of Bruma" quest, I was actually a part of the great siege of Bruma. Doing my part to break it and saving the world. The world actually depended on me.
When I go back to the game now I find the flaws hard to ignore. I usually can't see past the "it wasn't justs". The game still does a far better job of being a believable world than most other games (as TES usually does) but I can't quite recapture that feeling I used to have. I miss it. I still enjoy games a lot and love exploring the worlds they present me with, but I miss the times when I used to be able to completely lose myself like that.
I think the reason is a combination of simply getting older and gaining more knowledge about games and how they work. I don't wish that I didn't know all that stuff and that I could go back to how things were, but I do miss it sometimes.
So my question is, what about you? Do you find it hard to get lost as well? When was the last time it happened? Do you miss it?
