"Well, well, well, what do we have here?" You may be asking, as you browse the abandoned sections of the escapist forums, and happen upon this thread.
Well let me explain something that happened to myself the other day.
You see, I had happened upon this game called Dishonoured three or so weeks ago, in which I dumped in excess of 17 hours in one week - ludicrous amounts of playing time considering the amount of uni work I had to do (if you haven't played dishonoured, please get it - there is a reason it is so highly praised).
However as I played the game I happened upon a situation which has permanently changed my perspective on how I view games, or how I am influenced when I play games. I made myself making a decision which I would not normally make in reality; I made a decision that had no positive practical outcome for me within the game, but rather was done out of a sense of duty/justice/mercy - and the realisation of how the game had manipulated me blew my mind.
Let me explain. For those of you who haven't played Dishonoured, you get an item fairly early on in the game called "The Heart". An item that is essentially useless or incredibly useful on how you play the game. If you choose to use supernatural powers, it helps you look for upgrades for them.
The item itself has an "alternate fire" right-click ability, that is, the heart will communicate things about your environment, or NPC's that you are highlighting with your crosshairs giving you extra optional expository/cryptic/harrowing dialogue about a situation or person. I found myself caring, empathising, sympathising, respecting and fearing more with these characters the more I found out about them.
I had been playing a low violence playthrough, avoiding killing people as much as possible, so if I had the opportunity to use a non violent means I would. I was on the either on mission 6 or 9 when it happened, but I decided to use the heart on a lone City Watch NPC. The heart told me "He will kill two more if he survives the night".
5 seconds later I had slit his throat and dumped his body into the ocean - and Dishonored had become one of my favourite games of all time. This is perhaps the first time where my predetermined goals for a game had been affected or changed because of the game itself, and because of how the game had immersed me in its world, amongst its characters and into the mind of Corvo Attano himself. Arkane studios, you have won me over.
So this makes me ask you guys, have you ever expereince a moment in your videogaming "careers" like this, where you were completely immersed?
Well let me explain something that happened to myself the other day.
You see, I had happened upon this game called Dishonoured three or so weeks ago, in which I dumped in excess of 17 hours in one week - ludicrous amounts of playing time considering the amount of uni work I had to do (if you haven't played dishonoured, please get it - there is a reason it is so highly praised).
However as I played the game I happened upon a situation which has permanently changed my perspective on how I view games, or how I am influenced when I play games. I made myself making a decision which I would not normally make in reality; I made a decision that had no positive practical outcome for me within the game, but rather was done out of a sense of duty/justice/mercy - and the realisation of how the game had manipulated me blew my mind.
Let me explain. For those of you who haven't played Dishonoured, you get an item fairly early on in the game called "The Heart". An item that is essentially useless or incredibly useful on how you play the game. If you choose to use supernatural powers, it helps you look for upgrades for them.
The item itself has an "alternate fire" right-click ability, that is, the heart will communicate things about your environment, or NPC's that you are highlighting with your crosshairs giving you extra optional expository/cryptic/harrowing dialogue about a situation or person. I found myself caring, empathising, sympathising, respecting and fearing more with these characters the more I found out about them.
I had been playing a low violence playthrough, avoiding killing people as much as possible, so if I had the opportunity to use a non violent means I would. I was on the either on mission 6 or 9 when it happened, but I decided to use the heart on a lone City Watch NPC. The heart told me "He will kill two more if he survives the night".
5 seconds later I had slit his throat and dumped his body into the ocean - and Dishonored had become one of my favourite games of all time. This is perhaps the first time where my predetermined goals for a game had been affected or changed because of the game itself, and because of how the game had immersed me in its world, amongst its characters and into the mind of Corvo Attano himself. Arkane studios, you have won me over.
So this makes me ask you guys, have you ever expereince a moment in your videogaming "careers" like this, where you were completely immersed?
