This thing called "immersion"
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Immersion is when you're actively engaged in your role in a game to the point where you don't think you're just shooting arbitrary numbers represented by targets for no reason. I'd say a good example of an "immersive" game is FreeSpace 2, where I felt like I was actually a space pilot in the middle of a grand galactic confrontation. Even when I took down the same enemy fighter for the 200th time, I never said, "Oh, those guys again. Weeee," because the situation was always different and engrossing. Thief II also comes to mind, where I actually felt like I was a snarky master thief. Every blow Garrett took I took, every bit of food Garrett ate I tasted.
Immersion for me is when you start playing a game at 3 in the afternoon, and some hours later you look at the clock and find it's already past midnight. it's when I connected to the events happening in the game so well that I lose interest in all things around me.
Suspension of disbelief is not the same as immersion. It's needed for immersion, but accepting game logic does not mean you're immersed.Littlee300 said:
I mean, you can suspend your disbelief and accept that a fireball only hurts the enemy, but immersion can be broken by the same game mechanic.
You're probably gonna get a lot of differing views on this term, and I'm gonna add another (if a little samey). 
Immersion for me is being pulled into either the landscape (i.e. Oblivion or Fallout 3) or the character you're controlling (Mass Effect, or, say, Prototype) - you get this strange ethereal feeling that you're physically standing in the game, or, on a more personal scale, in the characters shoes (or boots, or sandals or whatever). I can "feel" myself wandering the Wastelands of DC (especially since I live here; such a wondrous site it was, everything being all decrepit and barren). I can "feel" my character's heart racing as I carefully stepped onto a massive airship on the brink of falling over a cliff.
It's strange, I know, but all the good stuff in life is.
Immersion for me is being pulled into either the landscape (i.e. Oblivion or Fallout 3) or the character you're controlling (Mass Effect, or, say, Prototype) - you get this strange ethereal feeling that you're physically standing in the game, or, on a more personal scale, in the characters shoes (or boots, or sandals or whatever). I can "feel" myself wandering the Wastelands of DC (especially since I live here; such a wondrous site it was, everything being all decrepit and barren). I can "feel" my character's heart racing as I carefully stepped onto a massive airship on the brink of falling over a cliff.
It's strange, I know, but all the good stuff in life is.
There is a difrence between what immersion is, and what the reviewers say it is.
I dont think most RPGs actually do well with it because while playing you are constantly looking at health bars and stats and other things.
however some games hit it right on with a combination of good enviroments ,setting music ,and proper animation/voice acting.
two good examples are Bioshock, and Deadspace (allthough some will fight me on that one).
both have incredible inverements, music that chills you at the right times and enthralls you at others, and both have voice acting and animation of the highest grade.
Im sure there are some other examples and I would love if someone would tell me some...CAUSE I LOVE THE FEEL OF SUCH GAMES!
as for the feeling of immersion, Its when you forget that your sitting with a controller/keyboard in your hands and all you are thinking about is the charecters problems and his/hers prespective. you dont care about how your boss was a dick at work today, you only care about escaping alive without losing your mind.
P.S. I know I should spell/grammer check this but Im lazy tonight
EDIT: I also found Heavy rain to be immersive for the same reasons mentioned above, I felt so many emotions while playing through it, And each ending brought me to feel in ways I had forgotten.
I dont think most RPGs actually do well with it because while playing you are constantly looking at health bars and stats and other things.
however some games hit it right on with a combination of good enviroments ,setting music ,and proper animation/voice acting.
two good examples are Bioshock, and Deadspace (allthough some will fight me on that one).
both have incredible inverements, music that chills you at the right times and enthralls you at others, and both have voice acting and animation of the highest grade.
Im sure there are some other examples and I would love if someone would tell me some...CAUSE I LOVE THE FEEL OF SUCH GAMES!
as for the feeling of immersion, Its when you forget that your sitting with a controller/keyboard in your hands and all you are thinking about is the charecters problems and his/hers prespective. you dont care about how your boss was a dick at work today, you only care about escaping alive without losing your mind.
P.S. I know I should spell/grammer check this but Im lazy tonight
EDIT: I also found Heavy rain to be immersive for the same reasons mentioned above, I felt so many emotions while playing through it, And each ending brought me to feel in ways I had forgotten.
So because something is subjective, it's therefore meaningless and should be cast aside? Like your opinion, perhaps?the antithesis said:
OT: I think the "immersion" of a game only becomes an issue when it's broken, like when visuals clip or pop, or the voice-acting is terrbly delivered, or when I have to wave my arms like an idiot to get a character to swing a sword. Yes, different people find different things to be "immersive" so it's a hard term to nail down, but again I find the only time it's ever addressed is when we perceive it to be ruined.
Immersion is when you don't realize you've been playing the mother fucker for 6 hours because you are so drawn into the plot and the objectives are so important to you.
I know a game is immersive when I feel like I've become a part of the world, at least temporarily. I think the closest any game has ever come to toal immersion was Myst. Heck, I started dreaming I was in the worlds the books described at one point. Some of the best dreams I've ever had, in fact.
Its hard to be immersed in games these days. Especially on consoles.
You feel all immersed, then BLOOP!: ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED - YOUR PLAYING A GAME DUMBASS!
And if its not that its quick-time events.
The only game where I felt like I was actually in it was the first Mass Effect.
I wasn't in Mass Effect 2 due to the weaker story. And regenerating health. And the many loading screens.
Sure ME1 had long-ass elevators, but at least they didn't rip you out of the experience.
You feel all immersed, then BLOOP!: ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED - YOUR PLAYING A GAME DUMBASS!
And if its not that its quick-time events.
The only game where I felt like I was actually in it was the first Mass Effect.
I wasn't in Mass Effect 2 due to the weaker story. And regenerating health. And the many loading screens.
Sure ME1 had long-ass elevators, but at least they didn't rip you out of the experience.
I think a game is immersive when you are actually angry that a character dies, or what happens to a character. If a major character dies, and all you think is whatever, then it's failed to draw you. An immersive game should make you care about the story and characters.
i think immersion really depends on person to person, the game style/mechanics/characters/story/level of hardness..all that comes into factors
for me personally, if i like the characters and the story, then you can almost garuntee i will be hook instantly...almost.
there have been times though..i swear i looked at the clock and it was 8 p.m., thinking i had an hour to scrape before headin to bed for an early morning..id turn again and itd be 2 a.m....which then i proceed to use the word "fuck" immensely
for me personally, if i like the characters and the story, then you can almost garuntee i will be hook instantly...almost.
there have been times though..i swear i looked at the clock and it was 8 p.m., thinking i had an hour to scrape before headin to bed for an early morning..id turn again and itd be 2 a.m....which then i proceed to use the word "fuck" immensely
It is the most important thing for me in games and without it I don't think I would bother playing them anymore. Sadly most games don't achieve it. It's basically just getting 'sucked into' a game, and it can happen from a number of different things really - great graphics, atmospheric music/sounds, involving and interesting storylines with great characters... The gameplay being fun, rewarding with a good sense of progression is basically the foundation and is equally important, but I can't have immersion with only fun gameplay and nothing else. When you lose yourself in the experience you are immersed.
I can't be bothered with these old simplistic platformers and basic arcade games because back then immersion couldn't really be achieved. I need to lose myself in a world of some such and feel one with my character, otherwise I am not going to bother playing.
Don't get me wrong, I occasionally love something simple and shallow as long as it is exceptionally fun. But I can't play a game like that for hours on end and I certainly am not a gamer for those type of games.
I can't be bothered with these old simplistic platformers and basic arcade games because back then immersion couldn't really be achieved. I need to lose myself in a world of some such and feel one with my character, otherwise I am not going to bother playing.
Don't get me wrong, I occasionally love something simple and shallow as long as it is exceptionally fun. But I can't play a game like that for hours on end and I certainly am not a gamer for those type of games.
To me, being immersed into a game is shutting out all of your surroundings and just focussing on the game. Hell, if you're being extremely immersed, you just might go "OW" when you get badly damaged. I know I have.
Immersion's a bit difficult to define, but it's basically reaching the point where you start to really care about what happens in the plot and you start to feel like you've actually done something cool when your character does something cool onscreen.
I agree with this definition. I believe 'immersion' is the factor of a game/book/movie that sucks you in to the world, makes you care for the character and lets you believe in the fantasy world for a period of time.GodotIsWaiting4U said:
The most immersive (Is that a word?) game i have played would have to be Mass Effect 2. Not because i forgot it was a game, but because after playing it i realized it caused me to care about my character and his companions, and actually feel for them all.
I know this has already been said a handful of times, but I still wanted to thank you for repeating this. That's one of the reasons I actually preferred elevators to loading screens, it was still all one seamless experience.Irridium said:
It's sad, but it's at the point where whenever I walk back to my ship in ME2 I actually say to myself:
"Decontamination in progress. Decontamination in progress. Logged: The Commanding Officer is aboard. XO Presley stands relieved."
Immersion is exactly the opposite of what Arc Rise Fantasia does.
Elaborating on that, it doesn't take that much to be engrossed in a game if you're a fan of the gameplay and style that the game is in. I don't think something has to be amazingly good looking to be immersive, seeing as you can become totally immersed in Farmville or Bejeweled. If you enjoy playing the game and don't want to pull away, I would say that immersive (and/or addictive). It's so hard to break immersion, but these are my top ways to destroy immersion:
-Poor use of graphics: No, this isn't poking at bad graphics for taking away from immersion. It's obvious graphical glitches and poor choice of camera angles or blatent animation reuse that takes away from how much I can get engrossed into a game. I don't care if the graphics are bland or dated, I just care that they don't do something stupid and glitch out.
-Poor use of sound: Even moreso than graphics, sound is incredibly immersive. Sound effects and music build atmosphere even if they are merely bleeps and bloops. But some games employ horrifically bad voice actors ala Arc Rise Fantasia and Shadow Hearts: Chaos Wars, or they just assign the same voice actors to a whole race of people ala Oblivion. I don't want to hear characters who sound like they barely know english. I also don't want to hear the town hobo suddenly assuming a voice of a noble when he talks to some other wandering NPC. In fact, bad voice acting personally is one of the worst offenses a game can make. I'd rather have no voice acting at all if the alternative is to hear some horribly stilted english or hear the same voice over and over and over.
-QTEs: Situational. But nobody really wants a game with storytelling cinematics were all of a sudden a QTE pops up and because you left to go grab a soda or something, or set down your controller to stretch a little bit, you come back to find you got a non-standard game over.
Elaborating on that, it doesn't take that much to be engrossed in a game if you're a fan of the gameplay and style that the game is in. I don't think something has to be amazingly good looking to be immersive, seeing as you can become totally immersed in Farmville or Bejeweled. If you enjoy playing the game and don't want to pull away, I would say that immersive (and/or addictive). It's so hard to break immersion, but these are my top ways to destroy immersion:
-Poor use of graphics: No, this isn't poking at bad graphics for taking away from immersion. It's obvious graphical glitches and poor choice of camera angles or blatent animation reuse that takes away from how much I can get engrossed into a game. I don't care if the graphics are bland or dated, I just care that they don't do something stupid and glitch out.
-Poor use of sound: Even moreso than graphics, sound is incredibly immersive. Sound effects and music build atmosphere even if they are merely bleeps and bloops. But some games employ horrifically bad voice actors ala Arc Rise Fantasia and Shadow Hearts: Chaos Wars, or they just assign the same voice actors to a whole race of people ala Oblivion. I don't want to hear characters who sound like they barely know english. I also don't want to hear the town hobo suddenly assuming a voice of a noble when he talks to some other wandering NPC. In fact, bad voice acting personally is one of the worst offenses a game can make. I'd rather have no voice acting at all if the alternative is to hear some horribly stilted english or hear the same voice over and over and over.
-QTEs: Situational. But nobody really wants a game with storytelling cinematics were all of a sudden a QTE pops up and because you left to go grab a soda or something, or set down your controller to stretch a little bit, you come back to find you got a non-standard game over.