Immersion is not always ideal. Sometimes you want to make an effect that is anti-immersive. Sometimes you want gamers to not feel like the world is believable because that immersion into the game world would get in the way of something happening off screen.
Will Wright uses Guitar Hero as an example. He believes immersion is not a good thing for that game to have because it would distract players from enjoying each others' maladroit plastic guitar heroics.
But of games by which we make virtual things do virtual things in a virtual world, like an avatar in an RPG or units in a strategy game, immersion is typically effective, desirable. A world that seems real leaves a powerful impression on gamers. This is not to say that a game world should mirror the real world to the point where the fun feelings from a game are negated; although there are gamers who connect electrodes to their nipples.
I can't think of anything else to say. Your thoughts?
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3 comments:
Brechtian videogames?
As long as the focus of the game is the game, I think that immersion is important. If you're playing Guitar Hero to watch your friends do silly things on a fake guitar, you don't want immersion, but then, why are do you even have the game plugged in at all? Just sit around air-guitaring to your favorite tracks on itunes.
Also, one should not confuse immersion and realism. As long as the game is internally consistent, it doesn't matter how far it deviates from the real world. In the Elder Scrolls universe, sleep is mostly unnecessary and nobody ever has to use the restroom. That didn't make the game any less immersive, at least as far as I'm concerned.
The real interesting cases are games like Metal Gear Solid 4, which were both immersive and, at points, extraordinary Brechtian or self-referential. Then it becomes a sort of mind game: just when you are fully invested in the game world, you're brutally ripped out if it and reminded you're playing a game. It seems to me that this could be a really interesting effect to write about.
I had the hardest time separating "realism" from "immersion" while writing this. Internally consistent does map nicely in my mind. Thanks Sam.
I remember when playing Half-Life 2: Episode 2, I was so immersed! I couldn't believe how....believable the game was.
Then, all of a sudden, I was defending a few vortigants and Alyx's limp body from increasing waves of ant lions while lights were flashing green and turrets were being carried maniacally by me to tunnel X,Y, or Z.
That part slapped me in the face and screamed, "YOU'RE IN A VIDEO GAME!" And it was awesome.
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