Immersion

[Jintor]

Immersion in gaming, anyway. Is it important? How important? Is their really such thing in videogames, which are more or less a complete fantasy and would never happen in reality? One of my friends refused to play Psychonauts, saying 'I don't like the art style' and 'I like my graphics more immersive'.

OK, first off, I'm annoyed that he didn't want to play Psychonauts purely because of the graphics. That is stupid. I still enjoy Deus Ex, I still enjoy Half-life, even the hurlin' graphics of Grand Theft Auto 1 is ok because of the fun factor.

Secondly, onto immersion. Is the aim of a videogame to get you immersed in a game, so you start to 'care' about characters? And are graphics part of this immersion, are they the most important part? Or is writing, or voice acting, or... what do YOU think is the most important part of immersion?

 

[Steven]

Graphics can play a very big roll in immersion so can physics and sound, but there not nesecarry for immersion. Attention to detail is far, far more important.

 

[B_MAN]

id say that the best games out there(HL2 for example) succeed in completely immersing the player in the game
when you feel yourself getting lost inside a game, i believe the devs have done their job in creating a great game
for me, i NEED immersion.... i mean sure, ill play a game like street fighter and still have a good time but its nothing like playing half life 2 where you enter and become a part of a different reality so to speak

 

[sinkoman]

Immersion in gaming, anyway. Is it important? How important? Is their really such thing in videogames, which are more or less a complete fantasy and would never happen in reality? One of my friends refused to play Psychonauts, saying 'I don't like the art style' and 'I like my graphics more immersive'.

OK, first off, I'm annoyed that he didn't want to play Psychonauts purely because of the graphics. That is stupid. I still enjoy Deus Ex, I still enjoy Half-life, even the hurlin' graphics of Grand Theft Auto 1 is ok because of the fun factor.

Secondly, onto immersion. Is the aim of a videogame to get you immersed in a game, so you start to 'care' about characters? And are graphics part of this immersion, are they the most important part? Or is writing, or voice acting, or... what do YOU think is the most important part of immersion?

I think that the immersion factor is the only thing that makes a game good or bad.

If you're immersed enough into a game, then things like controll issues or minor bugs won't bug you at all. You'll just be pressed to play more into the game, as it's sort of a second world for you to play in.

Immersion, for me, counts on two factors. Graphics, and sound.

For graphics, they don't have to be photorealistic, but they have to have continuity, and the levels have to flow. The biggest mood/immersion killer for me, is having to stop and ask myself, "ok, so where was it i'm supposed to go again?".

A games enviroment, combined with its graphics, should tell you just where to go, just what to do, just who to shoot. If the game has to stop you, and have an NPC tell you "alright, go kill that guy!", then it's not a good game.

For sound, I don't know really. The sounds just have to blend with the enviroment properly, and give you a better sense of position. That's it really (for me). I mean, what's more immersive than standing in a room with a hefty gun, lights go out, and all of a sudden you hear something breathing heavy on the far side of the room, then you hear the sound migrate to your right?

Gameplay is the final deciding factor, although not major, it can make or break a games immersion factor. Chrono Trigger is a very immersive game (for me at least), because of its gameplay and sound. Graphics not having anything to do with it.

Half Life on the other hand, is immersive mainly because of its graphics and sound, with the gameplay just being good enough to not noticably harm the experience.

Half life 2, is graphically and physically immersive (sound and graphics). Graphics aren't realistic, but they're some of the most immersive i've seen in a game (everything flows well, has continuity, textures don't clash, and the images are heavily complimented by the sound).

Sound is a HUGE factor in HL2's immersion factor. I re-played through the first through levels with my shitty iPod headphones, and WOW. I really felt like some guy, in a blue jumpsuit, running through a drainage system, with some cheaply made gun I just happened to pick up. Firing the SMG was a dreadful thing to me, because its harsh and cheap, soft sound was just so frightning.

 

[Raziaar]

You don't like GTA then, Sinkoman?

 

[Laivasse]

Graphics can play a very big roll in immersion so can physics and sound, but there not nesecarry for immersion. Attention to detail is far, far more important.

QFT.

Actually, Jintor I've been thinking about this kind of thing too, ever since someone on a forum started up a debate about the Infinity Engine with regards to Baldur's Gate 3, and I can see where your friend is coming from.

I'd agree with Sinkoman, too, that in many cases, at least where story is a big element, immersion can be THE crucial factor in deciding the quality of a game.

Like theSteven says, immersion is not necessarily about the graphical advancement of a game, but how thorough and consistent it is. The debate about BG3 was that some people wanted to see a game in full glorious 3D with all the latest flashy graphics (especially since the estimated release date of this still-not-being worked-on game is around 2010). But some purists (like me) didn't like that idea - why break a perfect formula? Those enormous 2D bitmaps that make up BG's world might not be the pinnacle of technology, but in their own way they are flawless. There's no reason NOT to believe you are in a mysterious forest miles from civilisation with the rain pattering on your armour, because the trees look like trees, birds are chirping, you hear the wind, you can hear your footsteps on grass, and on cobbled stone, and you can hear the difference. Who cares that you can't rotate around in 360 degree freedom like some drunken arthouse director? Look at FF7 - nice blend of 3D and 2D drawn background there, but surely it's the 2D that does most of the immersive work. Who can forget those cool Midgar backgrounds with soo much depth to them. And then there's the sense of a cohesive plot drawing you in and sweeping you along, which takes over at the points where the graphics fail.

The second you take that environment and render it in 3D you expose the flaws. The second someone spots the join between polygons, the game is exposed as a game, and the person cares less about it. Not much less, but the perfect immersion of a moment can be repeatedly ruined.

HL2 did it magnificently well. It might not have had photorealistic graphics, but everything was so damn slick and consistent that it was easy to believe you were in a separate world that had it's own slightly different aesthetic rules to our own. I wonder if everyone remembers that bit in the apartment corridor after the playground at the beginning, just seeing those awesome hi-res textures - when playing through that bit, I was stunned. I didn't think "wow, what ace textures" - I thought, if just for a microsecond, "wow, I'm in an apartment hallway with crumbling paint and smashed floortiles".

This same principle applies to games and RPGs from ages back as well - there was no reason to expect photorealistic graphics back then, because everyone thought them to be technologically impossible. But by playing a game where everything was relentlessly consistent, despite the badness of the graphics you could eventually come to believe in what you were playing. This is because your mind learns that these crappy blocky fields, towns and funny scrunched-up-looking characters are the rules of how that world works, and so it becomes possible to believe, for a little while, that that world exists and that you are there.

To have that kind of consistency in graphics nowadays you need toooons of attention to detail, and HL2 had it. However, when it got more ambitious and went into big open spaces on Highway 17, the unnatural shape and texture of rocks, tiled oceans, or weirdly flat-looking grass made me realise again that the world I was in wasn't real. But it's okay, because HL2 fell down far less in this manner than most games do.

Basically, immersion pewnzors.

 

[Cole]

Immersion:
All things that add to it are:
+Graphic Quality(Little Significance)
+Art Direction(Extremely Signficiant)
+Controls(Bad controls can easily keep on screwing you up and pissing you off)
+Gameplay(Extremely Signficiant, without this the game will be boring, and wont immerse you)
+Sound(Depends on who you are, for some people having nice 7.1 sorround sound can add everything to the game)

 

[Gray Fox]

For me immersion is very very import, as important as gameplay, if it's a game I have to spend more then 20,- on.
And though Psychonauts is with mgs my all time favoriete, I can understand you're friend reasons. Graphics, and especially the art style play a imense role in immersion, and fast is most people want to play as Jack, the angry gangsta nigga, who plays by his own rules, instead of a freaky bigheaded psychic boy. The concept simply does not appeal to him.

 

[Qonfused]

Immersion plays a huge part in my enjoyment of the game. Games like HL2, Call of Duty, MMORPGs, FEAR, Battlefield 2, and others are great, great games because everything around you is put into such great detail. What makes immersion? For me...

- Graphics
A big issue here for me. Call me what you will, but I'm kind of turned off by crappy graphics, not outdated graphics. I bolded not there because I'll go back and play GTA III because of the immersion factor; but I don't really enjoy SA because of the horrid graphics and, for some reason, I don't feel apart of the game. Today's age is about shocking realism.

- Sound
Probably the biggest of these. Sound plays so much on the immersion factor. Take Call of Duty for example. There's always going on in the background sound-wise. People yelling, dying, warning others and you... always something.

- Special Effects
I put this into a grouping all alone because, when done right, specials effects can add 50% of the immersion factor. Take FEAR for example. Do I really have to say anything? Everything you shoot come out with a big poof of dust, explosion, blood, etc., etc. So many times I've been in a fire-fight I think, "Hmm, I can't see." That's not a bad thing. It adds so much.

- Multi-player/AI
Multiple AIs or other real-life people around you in-game adds about 60% of immersion for me. If other people/AI are around, I feel very immersed. I feel like I'm just another soldier. For example, Call of Duty. You always have 5-8 people around you.

 

[sinkoman]

You don't like GTA then, Sinkoman?

Fun game to play, but in hindsight, it's like watching a cartoon real.

GTAIII Was the most immersive though. Not much, but the most.

the GTA series isn't very immersive, just very addicting.

 

[AmishSlayer]

For me immersion is based mainly on Story and the way you interact with the world. If there are NPC's all over the place and it really feels like you're a part of it and they don't just give you canned responses. I also think scripted events that go beyond the normal scope of gameplay (example, a pipe breaking, you slide down it and you land on a table crushing a headcrab), buildings being destroyed, air strikes, and just overal atmpsphere.

If it's not the world that gets me it's gotta be the story. RPG's with good stories just grab me and pull me in. So do MGS games.

That being said certain games don't require great immersion to be enjoyable. Metroid games aren't really immersive to me because each game follows a general formula with the same kind of items/weapons but I still like the gameplay a lot.

HL2 didn't grab me with the broad, slow story with very little interaction and tedius LONG tasks (like 50% of the game is just travelling to a lab or to nova prospekt) so I got bored.

 

[Flyingdebris]

immersion is kinda of abstract but I feel that a game achieves this when the little bit that you experience in the game alludes to toher stuff going on that you never see. Like if the game itself is part of a broader picture.

Games like system shock 2, Fallout 1 & 2, hl2, and the neotokyo mod.

These games have a solid art direction as well as story direction that makes you feel like there is more to this that what you see.

Immersion can be achieved by other means other than story. A game that adds "the little things" that most other companies neglect can add a solid feel of immersion.

Other times crafting an interesting gameplay mechanic can also do it.
For example. The urbanterror mod for quake3. They had a system for injury,bleeding, stamina, and health recovery. If it wasn't for the fact that the community is very small and composed of almost all hardcore skilled players i'd play again. Having to bandage your bleeding hand before you slowly bleed to death during a firefight was pretty darn immersive.

another good example was total annihilation. Yes its story was compacted into 2 videos and a few paragraphs within the manual, but its gameplay was immersive. You had jets that would bank, barrelroll, and flip while in combat completely independent of the player. Unit detection played a huge factor in battles. Radar vs Radar Jammer vs visual detection vs cloaking vs high energy consumption due to cloaking and sonar vs sonar jammer.

 

[JNightshade]

Immersion is ENORMOUS for me. See:

Half-Life 1/2
Shadow of the Colossus
Metroid Prime 1/2
the Zelda games
and so on.

 

[Solver]

Immersion is a great thing, but immersion isn't just about graphics. Immersion consists of many things, one is graphics, another is sound, attention to detail, writing, voice acting... creating an environment that is somehow believable. HL2 was great in the way of having the people in it behave and talk like people... the whole Black Mesa East and Red Letter Day chapters are a great example, the NPCs behave naturally above everything else.

Just like in movies, direction is of extreme importance in games. Having scripted events exactly right, showing you the right things at the right time, direction's important.

Then there's the story, of course. Again, a great story isn't enough for immersion but it certainly helps. Many good stories will give you background info on stuff you see in the game (most noticeable in RPGs), so that also helps the immersion factor.

Now that I think of it, graphics are one of the least important things for creating immersion. The important part is WHAT is shown, not at what graphic quality. I mean, Half-Life is still an extremely immersive game for all of its very outdated graphics, but it shows realistic environments that make sense for the most part. Sure, graphic limitations can break that immersion a little, such as when every guard you meet has the same face and every third scientist looks exactly the same, but it actually becomes a minor point when the other things are done right.

 

[JNightshade]

TBH, I think Shadows is the most immersive game I have ever played.

 

[Solaris]

Most immersive game I've played is Op flash point. I've never had that much adrenaline in my life.

 

[ríomhaire]

I am far more immersed playing Deus Ex than Doom3. More in GTA1 than Quake 4. Graphics don't nessisarily decide immersion. It is not the most important thing but it surely adds to the experience. Silent Hill would be nothing without immersion.

 

[Atomi]

Deus Ex for the win. HL was also great back in the day.

 

[Jintor]

Ah, just finished Psychonauts. Such a brilliant game. Although, now that I think about it, not so immersive.