What's the big deal with "immersion"?

[Onyx Oblivion]

I just don't get it.

I always hear stuff about "immersion" on the forums here.

Like being "immersed in the storyline and world".

Why does it matter so much?

There are a surprising number of people out there who dislike achievements/trophies because they "ruin the immersion".

Then there are game design choices...

Spoiler: /rant

Games are using HUDs less and less, and those that keep them have the annoying "Fade Away" HUDs that make you draw your weapon every time you want to check your health, ammo, or anything else. And even then, the HUD is tiny, cramped in the corner of the screen, only showing one weapon at a time. I remember the HUD from Doom. You could see all of your ammo, for all of your weapons, equipped or not.

Then there is the fad of getting rid of cutscenes. And placing everything in-game. What's wrong with cutscenes? Giving the player freedom of movement during important events means that they could miss important information. It lets the developers show us what they want to show, and not have to jump through hoops to get us to focus our attention on important objects with things like of glowing audiologs...And with many games these days being designed around surround sound, you can't hear people you aren't directly facing, unless you have surround sound. For example, if there are two characters standing a decent distance away from each other, talking back and forth, I have to keep switching my reticule back and forth between them as they exchange dialog, a cutscene would remove this annoyance. These cutscenes don't have to be Metal Gear Solid levels of ridiculous length and frequency, either.

And finally:

THE REMOVAL OF SUBTITLES

Halo 3 says it has them, but I never saw them as I gunned through hordes of brutes. Even when I switched them on! Not a big deal, as it had cutscenes.

Assassin's Creed 1 was REALLY big on this. I had to do the "turn to face" thing I described above to an annoying degree, as Lucy and Vidic talked to each other from across the freaking room and I'd miss snippets of dialogue frequently. With no subtitles, I had no clue what I missed in this plot heavy game.

In closing:

Why is it bad to be reminded that a game is just a game?

Also, there is a nice little rant in the box. Please click on it and read it.

Spellcheck doesn't think that "spellcheck", "cutscenes", or "immersive" are words.

Edit:

It might just be me, because I prefer gameplay over story. I love a nice, deep battle system in my RPGs, rather than an immersive story. I can guarantee you that I didn't play Star Ocean 4 for 60 hours for it's damn plot.

So, since I focused on the combat and character building in RPGs, rather than the world, story, and characters (not that I ignored them or anything, just that they're not the big draw)...this does explain a lot. The type of gamer drawn in by story would appreciate immersion, whereas people like me...who play games for the gameplay instead of the story, might look at the steps taken to increase immersion as negatives.

This also explains why I liked Oblivion more than Fallout 3...due to it's immense variety of ways to tackle combat. And I mean immense. I made a character who NEVER directly attacked anything, relying on mind control and summoned creatures.

This also explains my lack of desire to replay Bioware games.

And why I don't like to watch many movies...

If you'll excuse me, I have to go meditate on these shocking revelations about myself.

 

[TimeLord]

Why is it bad to be reminded that a game is just a game?

Because the person you play as in the game is always better than the person controlling him/her. So games try to make you feel like you are that better person.

 

[Johnnyallstar]

One of the big issues is that currently, the idea in gaming is to show that games can be more than a game. When we become immersed, you can show that it's more than just simply a game, and accept it as more of an art.

It's not always the best thing, though. Some games are better off without being dedicated to the immersion idea. Especially when humor is involved. In Marvel vs Capcom 3, we can see Deadpool yelling at the player for pushing the wrong button, or taking his life bar and beating down his opponent with it. I think it improves the game as a game, but detracts immersion. For the better.

 

[bookboy]

I find it rather Ironic that the answer to your question can be in the name of this website.

"The Escapist"
the answer is that people play games to escape from real life, we want to be immersed in the land of being a master assassin, or fighting off an alien invasion, or doing other things that we are completely unable to do in real life.

as my history teacher once said, "the sign of a great movie is that when you walk out of the theater after it finishes, you cannot remember where you are, or what time it is, because that means that the movie was so good that it sucked you in and you were unable to focus on anything else."

so a good game should do the same thing. it should be so good that you feel like you really are inside the game, rather than an outside observer controlling the people within it.

 

[Proverbial Jon]

I think it all depends what you want from your games.

Games such as Alan Wake, Silent Hill, Bioshock etc are atmospheric games and the world is just as important than what's going on in it. People generally play them for the story and the experience.

However, games such as Modern Warfare are generally not played for their amazing atmosphere or storyline and people just want to shoot guys and have fun, so immersion is not an issue.

Personally I don't really like the word immersion, it's the PR department's word of choice to show off how amazing their game is. I'm a world/atmosphere/storyline person so I like to be drawn into a game.

I don't have a problem with cutscenes and I equally like games that don't use them, but they have to be done right. The only game that has made me really feel like I'm part of the conversation was Half Life 2 and the episodes. Singularity and Metro 2033 tried it but they just didn't seem to work as well.

Subtitles (or lack of) REALLY annoy me. Despite wanting to be immersed in my game, I also want to be able to have text displayed on the screen because sometimes I miss something that someone is saying. Too many games just don't have subtiles, at least give us the option!

The jury is still out on HUDs. I prefer new and inventive ways of displaying information, such as Dead Space's RIG, which stops the use of any sort of screen furniture. But small inobtrusive HUDs are ok with me too. Alan Wake's HUD was a good example of the way NOT to do it. I don't want to see my objective perpetually stamped on the screen, my attention span and memory are both longer than 10 seconds you know!

In summary, immersion is what you want it to be. If you don't need it, then fine. But if you really do need it, then that is when it is important that it is done right.

 

[DaMullet]

Because games are suppost to be fun. When you're playing, let's say, football, do you stop and look at your watch to see when your TV show is on? Stop and look at the birdies? Take out your phone and text in the middle of a game after telling everyone to pause it for a moment?

Its the idea of keeping the attention on the game and it being so good that you don't want to do anything else. The more immersive it is, the more you loose your self in it and the richer the experience becomes.

It also helps tell the story. Its more sad when a character dies that you're immersive with then some polygons go bye bye.

p.s. About the hole lack of HUD thing. I think my favorite HUD was that game where your were some chick shooting dinosaurs and your health gauge was a heart tatoo on your left breast.

I have no problems with THAT kind of immersion.

 

[SimuLord]

I don't like to be hit over the head with the "hey, you're playing a game!" immersion breakers unless I'm playing a game that profits from giving the player total access---and by that I mean strategy games, real-time and turn-based. I want a surfeit of information (case in point: Napoleon: Total War's active morale bars over every unit---some people say that's too "gamey" but I think it's a very nice innovation.) As Johan Andersson put it about Paradox games, "we didn't want to make the player have to crack open the text files to see the crunchies under the hood so we improved the interface."

HOWEVER...that's strategy games (and city-builders, and trade games, and everything else that puts the first four letters in my username.) If I'm playing an RPG or an FPS (or a game like Fallout 3 that doesn't seem to know which of those two genres it's in), immersion is everything. I am playing a character---becoming the person I'm controlling on-screen. Cutscenes (and their demonic spawn the quick-time event), oversized HUDs, and other immersion breakers kill the experience for those kinds of games.

 

[Onyx Oblivion]

I think my favorite HUD was that game where your were some chick shooting dinosaurs and your health gauge was a heart tatoo on your left breast.

Dino Crisis?

 

[Altorin]

Both Schools of Thought have Merit, but I totally agree about the subtitles thing. I've never really had an issue with the 3d sound, even just using a stereo TV (EXCEPT in Prince of Persia Sands of Time - was I the only one who couldn't hear a word they were saying at all? No Subtitles to boot).

No Subtitles is really a crime against gaming.. It should be punishable by time in the pillories, publicly flogged with rotten fruits and vegetables.

As for whether Immersion is good, I say, as long as the gameplay doesn't suffer from any immersion boosts you choose to do to it (lack of subtitles will ALWAYS cause suffering), then I love to be immersed. But if it's going to make the game worse.. show me it's a game, I can suspend my disbelief a bit further if I have to.

 

[Onyx Oblivion]

Reading through all the posts...I can see that my tastes are just different, I suppose.

It might just be me, because I prefer gameplay over story. I love a nice, deep battle system in my RPGs, rather than an immersive story. I can guarantee you that I didn't play Star Ocean 4 for 60 hours for it's damn plot.

So, since I focused on the combat and character building in RPGs, rather than the world, story, and characters (not that I ignored them or anything, just that they're not the big draw)...this does explain a lot. The type of gamer drawn in by story would appreciate immersion, whereas people like me...who play games for the gameplay instead of the story, might look at the steps taken to increase immersion as negatives.

This also explains why I liked Oblivion more than Fallout 3...due to it's immense variety of ways to tackle combat. And I mean immense. I made a character who NEVER directly attacked anything, relying on mind control and summoned creatures.

This also explains my lack of desire to replay Bioware games.

And why I don't like to watch many movies...

If you'll excuse me, I have to go meditate on these shocking revelations about myself.

 

[Woodsey]

Games are for escapism 9 times out of 10.

If they don't immerse me at all then they've failed their purpose.

 

[Dexiro]

Immersion is probably the most important aspect of a game. If you think it isn't important then you just don't realise it's there, which is perfectly normal.

 

[FinalHeart95]

When you forget you are playing a game you tend to just focus more on playing the game itself, if that makes any sense. Like, if you know you're playing the game, the stuff on screen feels less important because it IS just a game, so your mind wanders. Otherwise, the stuff on screen really feels important, so you tend to focus on it more, and you get more out of the game.

There are games that are very immersive even with a Doom-style HUD or with cutscenes, but sometimes it's easier to be immersive without them.

 

[the_pleasure_is_mine]

I think you are missing the point of immersion.

A game doesn't have to have a good story to immerse you into it.

It doesn't have to have a story at all.

I see immersion as something that pulls you in similar to 'zoning out'.

Now if we go by my definition then Doom and Doom 2 definitely immersed me. I would play those religiously and get sucked in and feel like I was Doom Guy and blocking out everything else around me.

This has also happened with Gears Of War, Halo, etc etc.

Now the big deal with it is that it's fun.

I love losing myself into a game, whether it's just be because of the gamplay drawing me in or because the story is interesting and driving me forward. If I'm painfully aware that I'm playing a game the whole time then it subtracts from the overall experience as it separates us from what's going on.

That's the point of using very small movements that translate to larger ones, so we feel more immersed in the game and enjoy it more.

Or maybe I've completely misunderstood immersion... you decide... I'm going to go eat an ice-cream.

 

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

snip.

well immersed is a bit subjective..i get immersed from different things.

the people that know me, know that i fucking love subtitles, i always have them on on anything, its not that i can't hear, because i can, but because i just love having them on, especially when i have numerous ppl walking in and out of the room talking then i can just read them and still be just as immersed in the movie/game. ESPECIALLY GAMES. fuck jacob on gta4, i give you props for attempting accents but please make it possible to understand or have subtitles.


i personally love cutscenes, thats one thing that does irk me, and is why i didnt' care for assassins creed when they did that or in half life, its annoying as heck and i prefer cutscenes and even quick times to that stuff. i know im in a minority just saying that thats what i prefer.

now i am opposite on the story thing, and that is why i have played just about every bioware game multiple times (some of them 30-40 times already)

if i have a good story, with good characters, you can send me to hell and back 100 times with them and i'd still play that damn game over and over.

however, there are alot of "immersive" games that dont have much for a story, such as gears of war or halo, i can play straight through those campaigns without a blink because they are just fun (a.k.a. immersive for me)

so i think it depends really.. although normally i hate the word "immersive", i prefer to use the word "fun".

 

[Uncreation]

Reading through all the posts...I can see that my tastes are just different, I suppose.

It might just be me, because I prefer gameplay over story. I love a nice, deep battle system in my RPGs, rather than an immersive story. I can guarantee you that I didn't play Star Ocean 4 for 60 hours for it's damn plot.

So, since I focused on the combat and character building in RPGs, rather than the world, story, and characters (not that I ignored them or anything, just that they're not the big draw)...this does explain a lot. The type of gamer drawn in by story would appreciate immersion, whereas people like me...who play games for the gameplay instead of the story, might look at the steps taken to increase immersion as negatives.

This also explains why I liked Oblivion more than Fallout 3...due to it's immense variety of ways to tackle combat. And I mean immense. I made a character who NEVER directly attacked anything, relying on mind control and summoned creatures.

This also explains my lack of desire to replay Bioware games.

And why I don't like to watch many movies...

If you'll excuse me, I have to go meditate on these shocking revelations about myself.

Was this such a big surprise really? Other people play games for other reasons than you do, so it should be obvious that they will find consider other parts of a game more important. I think i am the exact opposite of you, for example. It's not that i completely disregard gameplay, it's just that, to me, it is of secondaryy importance. As long as it doesn't make me want to kill myself, then it is good enough. Of course, if it's better than that, then all the better. But stuff like rpg and adventures i play for the story, first and foremost.

 

[SyphonX]

I just came out of a thread where you, Onyx Oblivion, claimed you have played over FOUR THOUSAND hours in Oblivion alone. Yet you somehow have a problem with those who enjoy immersion. Simply maddening. Are you confusing immersion with something else, because how is it even possible you could play over four thousand hours in a game without being fully drawn into the world?

Also, you're asking this question on a site dedicated to escapism. "Hah", says the frog.