Immersion? How do I do that?

[Goldeh]

Please take a moment to get immersed in this thread. You are Thag, a blacksmith from Hnglesmug on a journey to find the answer to lifes long question.

"What is immersion and why it's a silly notion"

Along your journey you come across an old widow named Calin who's wisdom beseeches your question

"Because Thag, when a person runs around with the name XxpWnFacexX and then you read the chat bubble that also reads "lol pwn'd u". Let's not forget, odd glitches, clipping, the fact that lag does exist, so that your epic shot of truth, justice and virtue, did just make the other dude rubberband everywhere makes the idea of immersion quite a fallacy indeed. Not only that, but when some dude plays some horrible music in the background of your headset takes you out quite well, not to mention his squeeky immature voice saying "lol pwn'd you". So thag, does that answer your question as to why immersion is a silly notion?"

As Thag, Do you:

A. Look for Calin's beta key, then steal it.

B. Kill Calin

C. Question Calin on his answer

D. Flirt with Calin

E. Leave Calin

[sylphaen]

Lounge forum ?

[Death2All]

What color are Calin's eyes and I'd like to roll again.

[Sephirex]

Ooh, trick question.

It's B, A, D, E in that order.

[EisenKreutzer]

Someone does not know what immersion means.

[IgloGlass]

Well there's a difference in immersion.

You can like you described it, picture yourself as somepony else. Sure that's possible.
But immersion in gaming pretty much means that "you have your head in the game", for example I might be really in to a game, it's super fun right now, and then a wild cut-scene appears so that I no longer can focus at the game nor play it.

So yeah, there is a difference. Though the way people talk about immersion here sometimes clearly points at your example. E.g when they want vehicle enter/exit animations for the sole purpose of realism and immersion.

[OnexBigxHebrew]

Yeah, this is really planetside 2 discussion. Nothing about PS2 in the title or body. Way to go.

[Sephirex]

Yeah, this is really planetside 2 discussion. Nothing about PS2 in the title or body. Way to go.

Going to have to agree with my favorite Son of Abraham.
Post is rather vague, and badly worded as well.

[Atheosim]

He's clearly trying to form an argument against those who would deem immersion more important that gameplay. He failed.

[Death2All]

Immersion in games for me is just having so much fun in a game that I forget about the troubles of the world (emo). I don't need to be tricked into believing that I'm a really super duper army man and I'm actually in a battle to have fun. I know fun is sort of subjective thing, what one person views as fun isn't necessarily what another will view as fun. I'm just saying, this game doesn't need to be super realistic and a perfect representation of reality where all the guns and vehicles behave like they would in real life in order for it to be fun (as much some people would like it to be.) I say this a lot, but Planetside 2 isn't trying to be a simulation.

On a separate tangent, I don't understand why realism is viewed as fun for so many people. The whole point of video games is to play them to have fun for a few hours and distract yourself from reality. Why on earth would you want to play a game that is exactly like real life. That's completely contradictory to whole point of playing video games in the first place.

I'm definitely biased. Maybe it's because I just despise most modern shooters. I don't think that just because something behaves like it would in real life that it's suddenly inherently more entertaining. As I said before, I find that to be quite the opposite. I'm tired of seeing the argument "well that's not realistic" or "it would ruin my immersion" pop up so much on these forums. Let go your delusions and grandeur of your preconceived notions that you honestly believe that realism = fun. Wake up and realize that what makes a game fun isn't is authenticity to the real word, but how entertaining the game proves to be, no matter how absurd or improbable it may be. We're a bunch of invincible space soldiers from the future fighting over territory on an alien world for Christ's sake.



"BUT REALISM IS FUN TO MEEEEEEEEE". Then there is no hope for you, my child. God speed.

[Atheosim]

Immersion in games for me is just having so much fun in a game that I forget about the troubles of the world (emo). I don't need to be tricked into believing that I'm a really super duper army man and I'm actually in a battle to have fun. I know fun is sort of subjective thing, what one person views as fun isn't necessarily what another will view as fun. I'm just saying, this game doesn't need to be super realistic and a perfect representation of reality where all the guns and vehicles behave like they would in real life in order for it to be fun (as much some people would like it to be.) I say this a lot, but Planetside 2 isn't trying to be a simulation.

On a separate tangent, I don't understand why realism is viewed as fun for so many people. The whole point of video games is to play them to have fun for a few hours and distract yourself from reality. Why on earth would you want to play a game that is exactly like real life. That's completely contradictory to whole point of playing video games in the first place.

I'm definitely biased. Maybe it's because I just despise most modern shooters. I don't think that just because something behaves like it would in real life that it's suddenly inherently more entertaining. As I said before, I find that to be quite the opposite. I'm tired of seeing the argument "well that's not realistic" or "it would ruin my immersion" pop up so much on these forums. Let go your delusions and grandeur of your preconceived notions that you honestly believe that realism = fun. Wake up and realize that what makes a game fun isn't is authenticity to the real word, but how entertaining the game proves to be, no matter how absurd or improbable it may be. We're a bunch of invincible space soldiers from the future fighting over territory on an alien world for Christ's sake.



"BUT REALISM IS FUN TO MEEEEEEEEE". Then there is no hope for you, my child. God speed.

I don't think many are arguing for realism. I think most are arguing for the immersion provided by certain game mechanics. For instance, actually seeing 12 people load up into a Galaxy is badass. Realistic? Yeah. But in a sci-fi universe, so is somebody's body deconstructing and then reconstructing in the cockpit/gunnerseat/passengerseat of a vehicle instantly.

[QuantumMechanic]

lol Calin isn't a girl's name.

[EisenKreutzer]

Immersion is just another word for flow.
Flow is the state of mind you enter when you are performing a task which is easy enough that it does not require intense effort, but complex enough that you need to keep absolutely focused. This happens often when we read books or watch movies, but it is particularly common in games and gaming. It's what people call being "in the zone," and it is a powerful thing for a game to invoke and deliver. During flow, you perform consistently better than you do during normal play (or whatever the activity is), and everything feels like it "clicks."

Thats immersion.
It has nothing to do with pretending you are a dude, or the level of realism in that dudes environment, though both realism and pretending to be a dude can assist in reaching a flow state.

I come from a background of tabletop roleplaying, and in those communities the subjects of immersion and flow come up often. I am aware that in computer gaming the term is slightly derogatory, but understanding what immersion really is can help reaching that state, which is a cool place to be.

[Goldeh]

Just a silly thread. Not much going on in PS2 in terms of discussion, baited breath for beta. So I made a thread at involves all of gaming.

The argument is that the idea of immersion in a game is odd. Immersion in the sense where you get sucked into the world, is more for books and T.V where it's consistant. In games; multiplayer only games especially. Immersion can't really exist due to inconistancy for example: Lag, glitches, oddities, naming, uncanny-valley etc.

Also, in response in IgloGlass, It's kind of confusing giving a term like immersion, two meanings. :<

[Death2All]

I don't think many are arguing for realism. I think most are arguing for the immersion provided by certain game mechanics. For instance, actually seeing 12 people load up into a Galaxy is badass. Realistic? Yeah. But in a sci-fi universe, so is somebody's body deconstructing and then reconstructing in the cockpit/gunnerseat/passengerseat of a vehicle instantly.

I see it a lot on these forums.

"X feature shouldn't be in the game because it's not realistic or would break my immersion". It's a stupid reason to completely dismiss a game feature that could prove to be very entertaining because some poor child in an adult's body won't believe he's a real army man "sargant sand3rz first class".

I think the OP was poking fun at people who cry for realism and immersion amidst a game where there's no possible way to experience that unless you were off role playing in a corner.

[Sephirex]

I see it a lot on these forums.

"X feature shouldn't be in the game because it's not realistic or would break my immersion". It's a stupid reason to completely dismiss a game feature that could prove to be very entertaining because some poor child in an adult's body won't believe he's a real army man "sargant sand3rz first class".

I think the OP was poking fun at people who cry for realism and immersion amidst a game where there's no possible way to experience that unless you were off role playing in a corner.

Someone mentioned being able to make your own custom radio station out of your music and blare it out your vehicle speakers to everyone in the area. Maybe I'm just a "poor child in an adult's body" but I get annoyed enough having to hear everyone's music over their headset mics, I certainly wouldn't want it officially supported.

[Death2All]

Someone mentioned being able to make your own custom radio station out of your music and blare it out your vehicle speakers to everyone in the area. Maybe I'm just a "poor child in an adult's body" but I get annoyed enough having to hear everyone's music over their headset mics, I certainly wouldn't want it officially supported.

That's a fine reason. The game needs to have some amount of seriousness and realism to it to the point where you can still take it seriously. But it shouldn't be some absurd mic spam fest where 14 years olds vent their teenage angst in regards to being denied an iPod for Christmas.


My gripes are more directed to the people who are against the inclusion of mechanics for the sole purpose of them not being realistic...Like putting a scope on a shot gun (bad example, I know but I couldn't think of any threads off the top of my head).

Don't get me wrong though, I'm all for realism to a certain degree. I was against instant revives from medics, infinite ammo packs and instant seat switching. I didn't practice what I preach and busted out the "it's not realistic" for the instant seat switching. So maybe I just contradicted everything I just said and left the impression that "it's only right if I say it is!". Hopefully not.

When things are considered to be implemented in the game, people should look at how inherently balanced it is from a gameplay perspective and how much fun it would really be, instead of how realistic it is.

[MrBloodworth]

He's clearly trying to form an argument against those who would deem immersion more important that gameplay. He failed.

No one deems Immersion more important than game play. They should both be achievable in any good title.

[GuyFawkes]

You go into battle, get shot at, kill someone, someone else kills you. That's maxxed out immersion if ever there was one.

[Dloan]

Immersion is about making the unbelievable, believeable.

[Xeller]

Well, I could be wrong, but I believe "immersion" is an old, old wooden ship that was used during the Civil War era.

[Brusi]

Thanks for the post OP. You're pretty special.

Immersion ≠ Role Play
Realism ≠ Immersion

However Role-Play, Realism and Continuity do provide immersion. The idea of complete immersion makes Role-Play pointless!

BF3 is extremely immersive, however it doesn't have entry/exit anims. It's immersive due to the range of visual effects that mimic realism and realistic comm chatter and battle sounds.

If you could add even more realism and continuity to the game without detracting from core game-play mechanics, it would imo, only become more immersive and hence more memorable and exciting.

There is nothing fucking wrong with immersion and continuity and getting the right balance with enjoyable gameplay mechanics is the holy... fucking... grail.

So shatap with that roleplay bullshit, you want us all to sit around play fucking quake software mode?!

[OnexBigxHebrew]

You don't have to be roleplaying to be immersed, I think op is confused. If immersion weren't important, we wouldn't need to upgrade the visuals, textures, etc. Immersion is just a word for having just a bit of believability in the moment. Yes, in retrospect, nothing we do in video games is all that realistic. However, we wouldn't have played all these games if we didnt feel like a bit like we were the ones trudging around tamriel in the elder scrolls, or scoring a headshot in a shooter at the moment it happened.

[Pyreal]

Immersion in games is like suspended disbelief in novels, though less important.
If you novel doesn't move a person to suspend disbelief, you need to work on your craft.
The best way to make someone suspend disbelief if through specific sensory detail, which if done right transports the readers mind.