Why Does Immersion Matter?

[bartholen_v1legacy]

I don't think anyone means immersion as actually being the experience of "it's like it's really happening!" That would be crazy. IMO there's a very simple way of determining immersion in a game: Have you forgotten that time even exists while playing [insert game]? If you have, then [insert game] is immersive. When I get immersed in, say, Dawn of War, I don't actually start thinking that I'm some sky god commanding my pesky underlings, I get caught in the gameplay and the tension the minute-to-minute situations bring about.

 

[SmallHatLogan]

It seems to vary from person to person. I've experienced immersion but I still don't know what a lot of people mean when they use the word (including in this very thread. People are explaining it and I'm having trouble wrapping my head around it). But I don't get immersed in game worlds so much as I get immersed in stories.

For me it's about your mindset and how much you think about things in real terms as opposed to as a set of game mechanics.

Telltale's The Walking Dead is one that really drew me in. The game revolves around you making choices and seeing how those consequences play out (disregarding the fact that a lot of choices are more illusions of choice). It reached a point where I'd really be sweating making a difficult decision for fear of angering or disappointing someone I liked. To an outsider, particularly one who doesn't play video games, it would seem ridiculous that I'd get so invested in fictional characters. But the game did such a good job at engaging me and making me buy into the narrative that I can't help it.

Why is immersion good? I don't know, I guess it's just a higher level of engagement. Doesn't mean a game has to be immersive to be good. One of my favourite games is Dark Souls and I don't find it particularly immersive (although I'm sure some people do). I'm always thinking about that game in terms of its mechanics and that's one of the reasons I love it.

 

[meiam]

Well one easy example is control, when you control a character you're just moving your finger on the analogue stick or pressing key on the keyboard, but once you get comfortable with the control you stop thinking of it in terms of moving finger and you just think about what you want to do.

Moving forward goes from "I want to move forward -> push analogue stick forward -> character move forward" to "I want to move forward -> character move forward" pushing the analogue stick still happen but its not something you consciously think about, it happens, it's similar to how when walking you don't really think about moving your leg, you just walk. This is why broken control break the immersion, they force you to constantly focus on the fact that your using a controller.

VR and motion control for the most part actually break immersion since there not perfect and often clash with the game world, so moving the way you move the controller might be impossible to replicate in the game world because there's an object in the way which doesn't exist in the real world. Similarly VR immersion will break the second you try to move forward but can't, or if you walk into a real wall while there's nothing in the game world.

It's the same for story, you stop thinking about the game world as another world were you have to constantly remember detail "oh right short person love to drink and mine" to one where you see a dwarf and know immediately what to expect.

 

[DrownedAmmet]

Well if your talking about HUDs and UIs I think immersion is hugely important. Just look at the most recent Ubisoft sandbox games. Instead of exploring the environment your just watching your minimap and running straight toward the next objective.

Now compare that to a Naughty Dog game that is linear, but because there is no map or way points or anything, it feels more like your making your own way forward instead of blindly following the map.

Not every game needs to be totally, jack-into-the-matrix level immersive, but little touches do help you feel like your making your own decisions

 

[Lufia Erim]

Im usually always immersed i never had this problem. When im playing a horror game and am genuinely afraid for the life of my character or when im playing a FPS, and my character dodging fire, or when i am playing a fighting game and i only see the character and his moves rather than imputs i am pressing. That is all immersion, it feels less like i am playing a game and more as if i am in the game itself.

 

[sageoftruth]

I think it's necessary to a point. Definitely moreso in single player than in multiplayer, since constant interaction with other people is bound to kick you out of whatever illusion is being woven. Still, even there immersion can help. If I were playing Genji in Overwatch and successfully reflected a projectile, immersion is what would make me feel that I swatted away bullets with a blade, instead of just pushing the hotkey at the right moment.

 

[Asita]

The long and short of it is that it's the little details that help to further draw you into the world rather than simply existing or pulling you out of it. For the sake of example, this is an immersive HUD, and this is a non-immersive HUD. The former incorporates itself into the scene, basically taking the form of readouts that you might reasonably expect on a suit of power armor. The latter is just there without justification.

Mods like Frostfall and others in that vein are immersive because they help to convey to the player that the world they're in is cold and that protection from the elements is important. It integrates the gameplay with the setting rather than keeping it as an informed trait to be forgotten about. Immersion is the choice to give characters breathing animations, to make projectiles arc, give guns a sense of recoil, give melee attacks a sense of weight, make the dialogue fit the characters and setting, and fitting the sound to the visuals. It's the little things that you take for granted when they're working properly, but distract you when they're wrong or missing.

 

[FalloutJack]

Immersion matters where there is story and atmosphere. A good one will be able to wash away any small and niggling little issues, but big ones cause big problems.

 

[hermes]

I think most people talk about immersion the same way they talk about how "the game feels like". Take some element of your favorite game (for the sake of an example, lets say combat in Arkham Asylum), and compare it with some other game that tried it but didn't quite nailed it (like Prince of Persia 2010 or TMNT 2014, for example). Did you notice the differences? Does one of them feel sluggish, unresponsive or just not satisfying? That is what most people talk about with immersion. Sure, there is no technologically viable way to make you believe you are actually Batman or a space commander, but the truer the characters react to your inputs, the least hops you have to jump in your head in order to make the game do what you want, the better it feels doing it, the more immerse you are.

Of course, your familiarity with the genre helps, but also a well designed UI, a stable framerate and good sound design. Make a pretty big gun sound like a pebble gun, force the player to press 3 or 4 buttons to change a weapon, or stutter during an intense action sequence, and the immersion is broken...

Of course, that is subjective, so that some people may be more tolerant to these things than others, and some never got that invested to begin with.

 

[Igor-Rowan]

I never actually thought about that, because let's face it, the only way we know we were immerse if it the immersion breaks. I think of immersion in the vein we forget we are in a room holding a controller and we are actually experiencing a character to reach his/her/their objective. I'll put some examples:

The Mario series: Yeah, Mario faces the stereotype that his games are always rehashes from the previous ones with nothing added, but Mario lacks in plot he makes up for gameplay, sure a plumper who jumps 5 times high is unreal, but the way we control is quick and responsive, most if not all of his games, Mario's movement and flow is set to perfection, since he's jumpman and jumping is his main ability. Even NSMB Wii and NSMBU, the two most similar games in the series do feel different if you play them back to back.

Silent Hill 2: This example had to come, because unlike above the controls are bad, yet the game's atmosphere, soundtrack an general sense of dread keep you on your toes, so the controls actually enhance the immersion and would actually break if you could properly fight and defeat the monsters, the fact the controls are bad makes you want to run away, or to avoid altogether, because repetition would kill the immersion too.

And now my two cents in Motion Controls and VR. Motion controls and VR must somehow contribute to the feeling of immersion, and motion controls had their highest points with Nintendo games and their definite low points with Sega games. In games like Mario Galaxy 2 and Metroid Prime Trilogy, you had to use the cursor to point at things on the screen and depending where the sensor is, this could be bad for reaching the feeling, but they succeeded, the pointer was precise and worked.

Now compare that to Sonic and the Secret rings, a game where you use the motion control to make Sonic go left or right, and that is really bad, considering using the arrows would have resulted in a superior experience, this use of motion control was the definiton of 'tacked on', something we would see in a lot of SEGA games for the Wii. I think VR is still needs to fail a little more before people feel like it's uncanny immersion like the Kinect, where you had to move your body to play, but since your body would feel that there's something wrong, you get the feeling that keeps driving you out of the game.

 

[Saetha]

I don't know if there's just something wrong with my head, but I don't think I've felt "immersed" in a game, to the point where I magically forget it is, in fact, a game and I am, in fact, a pudgy twenty-something staring at a computer screen.

Nobody does. That's not what immersion means.

Although I can forgive your confusion given that the term has become an overused buzzword.

I never actually thought about that, because let's face it, the only way we know we were immerse if it the immersion breaks. I think of immersion in the vein we forget we are in a room holding a controller and we are actually experiencing a character to reach his/her/their objective. I'll put some examples:

Okay, now you two fight each other. Because I feel like this what causes a lot of my confusion, someone saying "That's not what immersion is" only for someone else to turn around and go "That's exactly what immersion is."

 

[Igor-Rowan]

snip

snip

Okay, now you two fight each other. Because I feel like this what causes a lot of my confusion, someone saying "That's not what immersion is" only for someone else to turn around and go "That's exactly what immersion is."[/quote]
How am I going to describe? You know that feeling that you are in the middle of playing your game, then you see a clock and it's way later than you thought and you get momentarely shocked asking "Where did time go?", that is a sign that it worked, you were immersed into an experiencem, whether being books, a movie or playing a video game.

I'm going to quote Yahtzee on his Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion review, because that's the most reliable source I've got on this matter (for video games at least):
"[...] Let me tell you about immersion: Immersion is when you go for a midnight walk after a weekend marathon of Thief II and catch yourself looking for your visibility gem [an in-game meter that tells you if you're visible]. Immersion is when you're playing Condemned and your cat suddenly jumps onto your lap, only to be immediately launched off by a reflexive cannon-like blast of terrified piss. If a game can truly draw you in, it can make up for a lot of flaws. Take something like Assassin's Creed - so stuffed with bad design choices they were leaking out of its pores, but I didn't despise it because Assassin's Creed presents itself so well; and if you go into it with the right mindset, it'll suck you in like a thousand-dollar wh*re. Immersion can save the life of a bad game, and inversely, a lack of immersion can be a dog-sh*t bullet right between the eyes.[...]

I think my point still stands we cannot know if we are immersed in something, if I'm playing through a segment of the game and I'm focused enough to not be aware of my surrondings, if I try to ask myself "Am I immerse?" it instantly will break it and you'll realize the controller on your lap and the TV in front of you. And it comes from many different places, you can be trying to accomplish a challenge like in a platformer, getting to know the plot and the characters through a cutscene or conversation or just having fun and hearing the background music.

 

[Ragsnstitches]

http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/immersion

immersion
noun
2.
deep mental involvement in something.
"a week's immersion in the culinary heritage of Puglia"

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/immersion

complete involvement in some activity or interest

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/immersion

the act of immersing or state of being immersed

Immersed:

To engage wholly or deeply; absorb: scholars who immerse themselves in their subjects.

For example, it's the difference between planning out your battle strategems / pulling off precise maneuvers in an action game / exploring every nook and cranny of a virtual space / engaging with characters and lore in regards to the narrative

i.e being engaged in what you are doing.

vs.

Grinding something by taping down a button while you watch something on youtube / waiting for something to load / idly mashing buttons or running on autopilot while you think about what better things you could be doing.

i.e not being engaged in what you are doing.

One thing you can be sure of, when marketing peeps start talking about immersion, they are talking pure asspull. It's a buzzword that means literally nothing without context.

*edited for brevity and clarity.*

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

With some of these threads it's as simple as a trip to the dictionary.

What even is immersion?

IMMERSION (noun) im?mer?sion: complete involvement in some activity or interest.

 

[Saetha]

Snip

Not me, him! Fight with him! Dammit man, get with the program!

 

[ZeD [taken 0]]

It's basically RP'ing your experience.

 

[PurplePonyArcade]

Immersion is one of the most incredible things in all of gaming that gaming honestly does better than anything else.
As Yahtzee said immersion saves the life of what might be an otherwise bad game and saves it, maybe even makes it good to you.
Funny thing is despite him claiming to not like Oblivion's lack of immersion I found the opposite that for all its painful flaws immersion is one of the reasons why I really enjoy it.

 

[Dalisclock]

As much as I hate using the cliche, Immersion is one of those things you don't really notice until it's not there. When you start noticing all the flaws because the story, characters, gameplay, atmosphere, etc just aren't doing it for you, or because the gameplay mechanics become too obvious.

One can overlook the gameplay conventions of an FPS easily. It's when you walk into a room and literally see enemies soldiers spawn out of thin air in front of you where the immersion is broken, or notice how the incoming artillery strikes always hit the same 5 spots over and over again. Things like that which pull you out of the experience.

 

[aegix drakan_v1legacy]

I don't know if there's just something wrong with my head, but I don't think I've felt "immersed" in a game, to the point where I magically forget it is, in fact, a game and I am, in fact, a pudgy twenty-something staring at a computer screen.

Some people are just incapable of it. It happens. I have an IRL friend like that.

Anyway, immersion really does improve the experience a hundredfold. It becomes more than just a game on a screen at that point, and it can become a deeply personal experience.

While it doesn't "make or break" a game, it's basically the magic ingredient that can make something truly incredible.

To me, Immersion is the point in which the controller/keyboard falls away and I feel "in sync" with the game and characters and my actions and thoughts feel like they run directly in to the game. I've had some great experiences that have hit me on a personal emotional level as a result (Spec Ops the line for example. That hit me HARD. Undertale is another good example). Hell, if I couldn't get immersed, the Cthulu LARP I'm part of would be just "A bunch of pals bumbling around an old manor we're renting" instead of the incredibly tense and complex mystery of intertwining conspiracies that it is.