"Immersion" (like "Role Playing Game") is another term that has been flogged to death by video game critics and developers. This term refers to the user's experience of playing: it means that the user is "totally engrossed" in the medium or experience.
In sports like swimming, this is a given. In a video game, the term is much more floppy (even for the mighty Virtua Boy).
Take Dance Dance Revolution or Guitar Hero, for instance. A particularly challenging level might allow me to do a great "run" of steps or notes, taking me to the limits of my ability to read and react at the same time. This challenge short circuits my brain's ability to process the step between seeing and doing. When I skip the cognitive phase entirely, I experience an odd heightened awareness.
Some users may report tunnel vision, time shortening or lengthening, or other strange mental phenomena.
Still, it's an accident of design. The game Dance Dance Revolution is not "immersive". It merely presents the user with ever increasing difficulties. When the user finds the right challenge, immersion is a probable circumstance. The human and the machine are intended to enter a dialog. If this feedback loop occurs faster than the human can process, the loop breaks. If it is too slow, the human is bored. Either case prevents "immersion". A sophisticated game design attempts tune this interaction.
Flow allows the user to try to create this balance manually by opting into higher difficulty levels.
Left 4 Dead's AI director dynamically adjusts dramatic moments, pacing and difficulty.
Tony Hawk games have a increases difficulty as a trick is maintained.
Games like Go and League of Legends use complex player matching algorithms to match opponents.
All of the above facilitate immersion, but they do not "have" or "create" immersion and they all use very different mechanics to create very different effects.
My plea is that game designers and critics focus on methods and mechanics that a game uses to facilitate an engaging feedback loop rather that labeling a game as "immersive".
Next Term: Risk-Reward.
When I think of immersive games, I usually think of virtual worlds that, if you put on head phones and turn off the lights, they really make you feel like you're there. I felt this way in World of Warcraft. I sometimes felt this way in single player Halo. However, once Halo turned into a linear "shoot whatever's in front of you" system, the immersion was lost, and I became immersed in the flow step-ladder, instead of the world. In WoW, on the other hand, you can spend a lot of time just being in the space, enjoying the trees, looking at shops, and emoting. You really feel present there, whether or not you're involved in any action or not.
ReplyDeleteI think that's what they're talking about when they refer to immersion. I also notice this in good sci-fi or fantasy movies. It's why I like 3D in those genres, because it heightens the immersion. In Avatar, for example, when they Jake first steps into Pandora, you really feel like you're there. Technically, you can get immersed in a game of Bejeweled. I would call that an engaging or addictive game, not an immersive one.
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ReplyDeleteGame Design