This thing called "immersion"

[Hairetos]

I often hear in reviews, mostly of RPG's, the importance of immersion. From what I understand, it's the feeling that you're "in the game".

What does this feel like? I'm not sure if I've experienced it, but I'm pretty sure I'm always aware that it's just a video game. I find it hard to believe I've been affected too much by it since it's never been an aspect that I look for in a game.

Am I missing something important here? What games have you played with excellent immersion factors?

EDIT: I'm not saying I don't enjoy these games. I look for things such as fluidity of gameplay, breathtaking environments, and a nice story. From what I can tell, immersion fits somewhere in environments, but I just check to make sure they're not ugly or poorly pixelated.

 

[Littlee300]

a good suspension of disbelief for the win?

 

[delet]

Half Life 2 Episode 2. That had a terrific part at the very end where you have to protect a missle silo in one final attack. My first run through it, I was killing everything that came, but building after building was beind destroyed, and I was running very low on ammo. When it got the the final wave and the music kicked in, I felt quite the adrenaline rush. I was getting to the point where I had to kill Hunters (I think that's what they were called... the mini striders) with the regular pistol and the crossbow!

Once I finally killed the last strider, I felt complete joy. I had done it, against all odds, I had one! Along with all the other NPC's, I fired my remaining ammo into the sky in joy.

I guess that's immersion.

 

[Super Toast]

Immersion is hugely important to me. If I don't get immersed, my opinion of whatever I'm playing significantly drops. That's why I love Psychonauts so much; it sucks you in and you can't get out.

 

[Crowghast]

Fallout 3. It's very easy to get pulled into the world they've created. One feels the need for survival, to find things that in reality you would consider junk have become very important to continue playing just to complete quests or to acquire skills that you feel necessary to continue.

The characters are often very sympathetic. You can find people you pity and feel the need to help (Or brutally murder for fun), or people you abolsutely hate and wish to destroy utterly (Or change them for the better.) Anyway, that might be an example of immersion.

I count how many times i've wondered how an apocalyptic scenario would go in my own town...

 

[RatRace123]

Immersion is when everything lines up perfectly, the action on the screen, the sounds you hear.

It's when you forget that you're living in the boring real world and you're sucked into the game world.

 

[tunderball]

I find it very hard to get drawn into a game, I'm studying game design at University so while all the epic stuff is going on I have to cast a critical eye over everything and think about how the enviroment has been created or why the level designer has set up the level like this. I guess this mean I'm always thinking about the fact that this is a game, and someone, sonewhere has created this.
But on the odd occassion I do get fully sucked into the story I think its fantastic, its like you've become a part of this other world and you actually care about the characters that inhabit it.

 

[The Madman]

It's when the environments and gameplay are crafted specifically in such as way as to try and lure the player into paying full attention to the game, thus 'immersing' themselves in the experience. Not just in a twitchy sense either, but rather done in such a way as to try and better convey the mood and style of the games setting.

Best recent example I can think of is the STALKER series, although my personal pick for 'most immersive' would have to go to Thief: The Dark Project and its sequel Thief 2: The Metal Age.

When a game successfully sucks you in enough you're subconsciously holding your breath as the guards search for you, yeah, you're immersed.

Sound methinks is more the key than visuals actually. Unfortunately many new games actually neglect sound effects beyond the typical pew pews and explosions. Hasn't really been any improvements since, well, the Thief series I mentioned above. Hell, those games are over ten years old now and they still sound better than many newer games. Look like crap, but damn to the sound realistic.

 

[L3m0n_L1m3]

The most immersion in a game I've ever had was in Heavy Rain. I legitimately felt emotions for the characters, and when I was in combat, I was shifting back and forth to avoid punches and retaliate.

 

[Midnight Crossroads]

Immersion is what makes a scary game frightening. Silent Hill 2 is only scary if you allow yourself to be pulled into it. Otherwise all you see is some mediocre gameplay.

 

[Hairetos]

Fallout 3. It's very easy to get pulled into the world they've created. One feels the need for survival, to find things that in reality you would consider junk have become very important to continue playing just to complete quests or to acquire skills that you feel necessary to continue.

The characters are often very sympathetic. You can find people you pity and feel the need to help (Or brutally murder for fun), or people you abolsutely hate and wish to destroy utterly (Or change them for the better.) Anyway, that might be an example of immersion.

I count how many times i've wondered how an apocalyptic scenario would go in my own town...

I played the crap out of that game, and I gotta say I enjoyed it.

Is that what immersion is? Any amount of personal investment? Because I do that for all games; maybe that's why I don't notice it. I put a little of myself into every character I create (though I'm not a hardcore role-player) and I form personal judgments of all of the NPC's.

If that's all it is, I don't get what all the hype is about.

 

[Haunted Serenity]

When you grunt to make your guy jump or turn your head or body when turning a car or plane or something thats immersion.

I'm very guilty of this.

 

[MoNKeyYy]

If you're ever playing a game and all of a sudden you look up and see tht five hours have passed since you last payed attention to anything other than the game, that's immersion.

 

[Sinclair Solutions]

Immersion for me is relatively easy, assuming my view of it is the way everyone else thinks of it.

Have you ever been playing a game, and didn't feel the controller in your hands anymore? You're so interested in the gameplay and/or the story, so sucked into the game world that everything around you is just a blur? That is immersion. I feel that with all the games I beat. If I don't feel it, I most likely won't finish the game. I felt that with games like Bioshock 1 and 2, Modern Warfare 1, Batman: Arkham Asylum, Condemned 2, among others.

Also, I consider immersion how much you are interested in the game after you stop playing it. Have you ever been playing a game like Half-Life (I did not enjoy it, it's just example) and then after need to twirl something like a crow bar around in your hands? That's also a feeling of immersion. I felt this with Condemned 2. I was almost afraid to go outside at night.

If you have not had this feeling, you are probably not playing games that truly interest you, or you're not truly paying attention to the environment

 

[Deacon Cole]

Immersion is an idiotic buzzword that needs to die an unlamented death.

All it really means is that you're focused on what you're doing. That's pretty much it. "Immersed " in the experience of play so you miss your favorite TV show because you've been playing for hours but you have a DVR so it doesn't matter.

Different people find different things immersive. Which is why the term is meaningless. It's subjective.

Does the game model something you like or not? If you hate giant robots, you will not find Giant Robot Slugfest 8 immersive, bnut someone who loves giant robots is cannot help but find it immersive.

Does the game model its activities 'correctly?' Does the game work the way you think it should? Is you opinion even informed on the matter?

And probably hundreds of other nuanced factors. There is some overlap, but not all people will find the same game "immersive." But people keep saying the term like it means something.

 

[Savagezion]

I would say immersion is the ability to make you forget you have peripheral vision and ignore it. Not to make you feel as if you were in the game. I don't believe that is possible. You have nerve endings to tell you this is true, biological functions, etc. No game is so good as to make you unaware it is not virtual reality. To me a game with good "total immersion" means that I can get so "into" the game that I zone alot of other things around me out. This usually happens alot in suspenseful movies. If you are watching a movie you are always aware you are not in it. Immersion is more about how likely you are to have to have someone repeat what they just said, or not hear them at all even.

I have some games that I don't have to worry about immersion and some that I do.

 

[Thaius]

Bioshock is definitely one, as is Fatal Frame (also known as "the most terrifying experience of your existence").

Immersion is the culmination of all those things you mentioned. It's all the artistic aspects of a video game combining to create one smooth interactive experience. It is the true beauty of the medium.

 

[PissOffRoth]

To me, immersion is when a game makes me feel like I'm not playing a game at all. Immersion is when my character's best friend dies a tragic death and I feel a sense of loss. Immersion is when my character is in cover, a bullet whizzes past his head, and I flinch out of the way of it. Immersion doesn't make me want to kill the game's boss for betraying my character. It makes me want to kill him because he left me in a ditch to slowly bleed out from the magazine of bullets he pumped into my back when we were fleeing the scene of a crime.

That is immersion. It makes a game good.

 

[The Procrastinated End]

Immersion is just feeling attached to the game and concerned about what happens next at every moment.

 

[Savagezion]

Immersion is an idiotic buzzword that needs to die an unlamented death.

All it really means is that you're focused on what you're doing. That's pretty much it. "Immersed " in the experience of play so you miss your favorite TV show because you've been playing for hours but you have a DVR so it doesn't matter.

Different people find different things immersive. Which is why the term is meaningless. It's subjective.

Does the game model something you like or not? If you hate giant robots, you will not find Giant Robot Slugfest 8 immersive, bnut someone who loves giant robots is cannot help but find it immersive.

Does the game model its activities 'correctly?' Does the game work the way you think it should? Is you opinion even informed on the matter?

And probably hundreds of other nuanced factors. There is some overlap, but not all people will find the same game "immersive." But people keep saying the term like it means something.

I would say it is slightly more than just being focused. Immersion isn't a counter measure to ADD. I can be focused on a game of chess while I hold a conversation with 3 or 4 people. Paying attention to what you are doing alone does not mean one is immersed in it.

Additionally, Giant Robot Slugfest 8 could be immersive for someone who doesn't like giant robots if they do enjoy fighting games or one of the many particular faucets of the game itself. Content material is the least important factor for an immersive game. Intuitive controls, the ability to throw suspense at the player, and the ability tell a compelling story are probably in the top 5.

When a reviewer uses the word immersive, it is more than a buzzword. A good reviewer anyways that reviews more than just 1 or 2 genre's. Or only their most favorite/most hated games on the market. An unbiased reviewer has a use for the word immersive.