Poll of the Day > What quality gives you the most immersion in games?

(+) Yeah! (+)

I guess...
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Fishing

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when the characters speak with extremely excessive ellipses

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Intuitive controls and the absence of overbearing guidance and tutorials.

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Horse_ebooks posted...

Fishing

I can see that...

DirtBasedSoap posted...

when the characters speak with extremely excessive ellipses

Flattering will get you everywhere... Except a few places...

el_cheato posted...

Intuitive controls and the absence of overbearing guidance and tutorials.

There are some games with pretty good tutorials. I think I recently played one...
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good writing and dialogue

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Mead posted...

good writing and dialogue

It is good when the writing/dialogue actually feels... Real, I guess...
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I like a good world. Built up by lore and all. Hearing of some old conflict from 600 years ago and someone saying how it shaped the modern empire or whatever makes me feel more immersed.

Stuff like GTAV and Spider-Man kinda put me off a lil cause it draws directly from our world.

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Kiseki-quality writing.
I generally don't play games for "immersion".

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Extreme_light posted...

I like a good world. Built up by lore and all. Hearing of some old conflict from 600 years ago and someone saying how it shaped the modern empire or whatever makes me feel more immersed.

Stuff like GTAV and Spider-Man kinda put me off a lil cause it draws directly from our world.

So, real world is less immersive, but a world with a lot of lore is more for you? I can understand that...

Judgmenl posted...

Kiseki-quality writing.
I generally don't play games for "immersion".

Makes sense. Immersion isnt for everyone...
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LinkPizza posted...

Makes sense. Immersion isnt for everyone...

Video games are way too shallow and are way too short to have any serious level of immersion.
For rerference a 26 episode anime (which is two seasons) has around 10 hours of dialog. How many modern games do you know with 10 hours of dialog, let alone something like Kiseki which at its worse (Sky 3rd & Sky FC) have 40-50 total hours of content with minimal grinding (in a series known to punish grinding)?

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Extreme_light posted...

I like a good world. Built up by lore and all. Hearing of some old conflict from 600 years ago and someone saying how it shaped the modern empire or whatever makes me feel more immersed.

yeah this too

its fun to play something like elder scrolls and read or hear about old historic conflicts and factions

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Judgmenl posted...

Video games are way too shallow and are way too short to have any serious level of immersion.

If anything, I'd say length actually works against immersion, since the longer a game is, the more likely it becomes that you're going to have to take breaks from it for things like eating and pooping. No matter how well-crafted a game is, real life will always break whatever immersion it can create because you can't remain immersed in something if you stop doing it. To that end, shorter games are arguably more immersive, since you're less likely to be interrupted.

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LinkPizza posted...

So, real world is less immersive, but a world with a lot of lore is more for you? I can understand that...

Yup. That's not to say real world based games are bad or anything. It can be interesting but it also means the there's less creativity going around into making the game feel more like... itself. There are some decent subversion to this though, like the Saints Row games.

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When the screen sucks me in and transfers me into the game world...

...but seriously, only you can choose your immersion level. It's similar to your ability to suspend disbelief in order to enjoy movies.

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Sound. It is far easier to fool the eye than it is the ear due to the sheer sampling speed difference between the two. 16-32 fps is enough to convince the eye that still images are moving. The ear can pickup differences in the 10's of thousands of Hertz.

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Judgmenl posted...

Video games are way too shallow and are way too short to have any serious level of immersion.

I wouldnt say too short. Depends on the game. If you rush the game and skip the story, itll be short. But if you watch the story and complete all side quest, some games can be pretty long...

Judgmenl posted...

For rerference a 26 episode anime (which is two seasons) has around 10 hours of dialog. How many modern games do you know with 10 hours of dialog, let alone something like Kiseki which at its worse (Sky 3rd & Sky FC) have 40-50 total hours of content with minimal grinding (in a series known to punish grinding)?

Not many games would have that much dialog. But with so many people that want less dialog, its would be rare for that to happen. Visual Novels have a lot, though. That being said, games are meant to be played. Not watched. And theyll have usually more than 10 hours of gameplay... So, that.s what you would compare...

Mead posted...

yeah this too

its fun to play something like elder scrolls and read or hear about old historic conflicts and factions

Its fun because youre learning about a whole new world...

adjl posted...

If anything, I'd say length actually works against immersion, since the longer a game is, the more likely it becomes that you're going to have to take breaks from it for things like eating and pooping. No matter how well-crafted a game is, real life will always break whatever immersion it can create because you can't remain immersed in something if you stop doing it. To that end, shorter games are arguably more immersive, since you're less likely to be interrupted.

What if you play on the toilet with a mini fridge?

Extreme_light posted...

Yup. That's not to say real world based games are bad or anything. It can be interesting but it also means the there's less creativity going around into making the game feel more like... itself. There are some decent subversion to this though, like the Saints Row games.

Ah. So, its more based on the creativity? I like that...

SunWuKung420 posted...

When the screen sucks me in and transfers me into the game world...

...but seriously, only you can choose your immersion level. It's similar to your ability to suspend disbelief in order to enjoy movies.

But which quality helps you the most?

WhiskeyDisk posted...

Sound. It is far easier to fool the eye than it is the ear due to the sheer sampling speed difference between the two. 16-32 fps is enough to convince the eye that still images are moving. The ear can pickup differences in the 10's of thousands of Hertz.

Ah. Sound. Thats a good one, as well... When I played Resident Evil 2 remake, I had headphones on. And when I was walking with the licker behind me, I could really hear it behind me. Almost felt it, too...
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DirtBasedSoap posted...

when the characters speak with extremely excessive ellipses

...lol...

...

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Character creation.

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RDRtwo.

uppercase

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LinkPizza posted...

What if you play on the toilet with a mini fridge?

You're still going to have to break the immersion to a certain extent to reach into the fridge for food (and to a lesser extent just feeling the fact that you're pooping). Broadly, immersion is a state of not being consciously aware of anything but the game. By their simple nature of being outside of the game, basic physical needs are going to break that immersion regardless of how well the game tries to maintain it.

This is why I scoff at the people who suggest that adding a pause option to Dark Souls would interfere with how immersive the game is. Yes, pausing the game breaks immersion, but if you're deciding to pause, your immersion is already broken because you're making a conscious decision to focus on something else (whether it's a phone call, somebody else talking, your inevitable need to poop, or just feeling like taking a break for a couple minutes). Hamstringing the game's functionality in the name of maintaining immersion that's already been broken is therefore foolish.

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The detail in games always helps my immersion. Witcher 3 for example had a lot of that.

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Things thats not not gonna happen just because the game mentions it.

I been playing Elite Dangerous for a bit now and one of my favorite things is theres some missions that you are carrying something/someone that some one else wants. The mission give may say "people my come for you while you have them/it" but that by no means says you'll run into anyone. Its makes the game seem more life like.

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I'm definitely a sound guy. A good soundtrack and effects will suck me in. I can play a shitty game for hours if it has a bunch of ear candy.

Intuitive controls with smooth game play. When I'm just lost controlling the character but nothing else matters is when I'm most immersed.
It can be old, new, 2d or 3d

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