What kills your immersion?

[JustTriMee]

Achievements and trophies ruin the immersion experience for me. Way too distracting.

 

[GrinningManiac]

An argument going on in the house

I just KNOW that at some point they'll call me down and try and drag me into it because noone's owning up to doing such-and-such

I sometimes feel that my parents only give me 'responsibility' when it means I have to do things for them, and the rest of the time they lump me in with my kid brother and kid sister. I hate being shouted at because one of THEM has done something wrong.

 

[clipped crow]

In-game: Linear moral choices.

Basically when a game without choices tries to make you see things from a certain perspective so that they don't need to make it a choice. In far cry 2 I don't care how many words the jackal spews, I want to put a bullet in each of his eyes. Also, in splinter cell Chaos Theory, I saw the villain as my hero. lastly, BioShock 1's ending...

Spoiler

Blood or no blood, Atlas was the man that raised me and game me purpose. I want him to live!

Out-game: My cat and friends.

 

[Plastic Muscles]

Bleep Bloop - achievment unlocked

Always happens at the wrong moments when i'm really getting immersed in the game, brings me back down to boring reality.

 

[Glademaster_v1legacy]

Loading Screens, Referencing controls outside of a tutorial(that is why we have them), Invisible walls and distractions from the real world. Also a unrealistic hud. As much as I loved seeing my Ammo and how many clips I have left in CoD I would never know that in real life unless I counted it myself.

 

[Vitor Goncalves]

In-game, pop-in or serious clipping. Once I see it, I can't un-see it.

Out-of-game, definitely phone calls or knocks at the door.

Solution: headphones and ignore door and phone, works wonders for me.

 

[Yarpie]

Whenever the game has a technical hiccup of some description.

Example: I'm playing Outcast (it's about ten years old, but still awesome!) and I'm told by some dude that he wants me to replace a crystal at the top of a tower, thus fixing their boat light. So I head off to a set of platforms (supposedly a set of stairs that have been disassembled) and start jumping. All is fine and good until I reach the last platform. All of a sudden, my character refuses to grab the ledge, even though my jump was spot on.

 

[Naheal]

Whenever anyone in the game refers to the control scheme. It totally breaks the 4th wall.

"Soldier, to get over that wall, you're going to have to tap the A button".

It's even worse if they actually say it, not just in text.

Also, when my family hoovers. Difficult to get in the zone.

Once again, Furburt has beat me to the punch. Anything that breaks the fourth wall generally will break my immersion.

 

[Broady Brio]

When my mum interrupts me when I am playing to remind me of revision.

[Sarcasm. Initate!]

Really? What will education do for me?

 

[Red-Link]

I don't really get immersed. It's always in my head that I'm playing a game, that a controller is in my hand, and thus must be used. This, however, feeds into my extreme strength of suspension of disbelief. Whatever they say goes because this is a world separate from my own, and thus has its own laws of the universe. People can get stuck on a wall? Fine, that's how shit works here.

 

[UBERfionn]

It's like in Oblivion or Fallout 3, when you reach the end of the map and it says, "You cannot go any further, turn around". In Oblivion it's a little worse cause you can see that there's no more map.

How can you see theres no more map?

On the PC version I turned off the borders and walked for ages outside the map. There is more map it's just empty.

 

[Beryl77]

My friends have the ability to come at worst possible moment while I'm gaming.

 

[hardcharger]

Working Designs was terrible about this. Right in the middle of a game, there would be some pop culture reference. It would take me right out of the game.

 

[JourneyThroughHell]

Needless fourth wall breaking.
For example, MGS 1 - good fourth wall breaking.
Eternal Darkness - good fourth wall breaking.
MGS 4 and the Blu-Ray codec dialogue - horrible, horrible fourh wall breaking.

 

[Tattaglia]

Clipping. I know, I know, its a dumb gripe, but in super-important-plot-critical cutscenes (often using the in-game engine) they couldn't polish it up a bit to make everything not look like a fusion of metal and body parts?

Generally, stupid AI.

"Hey this is great, me and my squad is kicking ass, we're saving the world. OK, let's just check on how everyone's doing, and... he's stuck behind a tree. Oh, I'm not saving the world, I'm playing a game, in my room, in the dark... alone. Damn"

Yeah. That.

 

[AyrSuppli]

Graphical glitches or oversights mainly.

i.e. The Witcher, in the first cutscene where BLADES OF GRASS STICK THROUGH A CART
or in, well, just about any game where there are walls...if you run into the wall YOU JUST KEEP RUNNING

See, Mirror's Edge is really careful about that. Because, you know, it's a FREERUNNING game. I just realized that that game is one of the most immersible games I've ever played. It's got to be something with the first-person view throughout the game, even in cutscenes.

 

[Zetsubou-Sama]

When the scenery is repetitive, when dialogue is godawfully delivered and it doesn't fit what's happening, when something that shouldn't apply to the establsihed laws of the universe the game is in happens, shitty dialogue and shitty script if the game is story/character-driven AND when the game goes out of the way to show off an aspect it's known for.


And seeing that "Meat Tenderizer" or whatever little screen showing up with a cup while I'm playing.

 

[Miffmoff]

My fault really, I text people whilst playing; it gets me killed quite a bit

 

[Sephychu]

Control or strategy prompts. Even over halfway through the game.#

"You are hurt! Get to cover!"
-Modern Warfare 2, Veteran Mode

Angersome.

 

[Offworlder_v1legacy]

My brother get so worked up about the the computer controlled teammates in NHL 09 and I guess that kills it for him. As for me I get immersed in nearly every game I play so it's really no problem for me.