Life, The Universe And Gaming: Let’s Talk About Immersion

It’s that time of year again for gamers. Like the last day of exams if you’re in school, or the single week of cold if you’re from Durban. This is the time of year that is as close to Christmas (or other relevant holiday of excessive capitalism giving) as it gets for gamers, with the release schedule for our most anticipated games ramping up once more. Well, usually. This year it’s been a mostly constant flow of game releases across the duration of 2015, and that’s been spectacular.

Especially from a column-writer’s perspective, there has always been something to discuss. But there’s one topic I’ve been meaning to get around to for a while now, and I figure what with the likes of Bethesda’s Nuclear Apocalypse Simulator™ and Ubisoft’s Look We Can Totally Do Girl Assassins Now™ releasing soon, I figured why the hell not. Plus everything else I’m working on is on the backburner until I feel better (I’m very sick right now). So, let’s talk about immersion.

Naturally before we can do that, we have to start by asking ourselves a very simple question: Is this real life? What is immersion, exactly?

It might sound like a silly question to ask ourselves, and honestly I’m at least 90% medicated to the point of silliness anyway, but let’s really think about it here. What do we mean when we say we are immersed in a game?

I was thinking about this recently while playing CD Projekt RED’s That Game I Can No Longer Safely Mention For Fear Of Social Ostracisation™, and I got to wondering just how it was possible for people to block out the rest of their existence while doing things like holding a controller, sitting on a thing, and looking into a screen.

That began a string of thoughts that fed into a series of larger questions about how humans interacted with the games we played. I mean let’s just get something out of the way right now, games are a medium of entertainment, first and foremost, for us. They are also a massively successful driver of profits for larger publishers, in a multi-billion dollar industry. Gaming is huge, and it has caused billions if not far, far more collective man hours to be spent in front of our TVs, PCs or mobiles. We could ask ourselves why it’s such a massive time-suck but in a world where reading and watching sport is also possible, that’s neither here nor there. To me it’s a lot more interesting to question what makes gamers feel immersed in a game, in a way few other consumers of media can legitimately claim to have felt immersed — perhaps save for bookworms.

What is immersion?

What does it mean to be immersed in something? Google defines it as a deep mental involvement, but is that specifically true for all gamers? For example, I play games as a really neat escape from life. This past week while sick, I played dumb shooters such as Halo (seriously) to cope, and it felt great. However in better health, I would likely have played a game heavy in story. Both offer starkly different experiences, and both are suitable for different mindsets (healthy versus under the weather), so would it be fair to say that each offers its own kind of immersion?

Let’s take this one further and, referencing my experience with CD Projekt Red’s Magnus Opus That I Cannot Stop Talking About™, look at the idea of being immersed within the game world, versus being immersed apart from the game world. I’ll elaborate, shall I?

When I was playing the game, I was never not aware of the fact that I had a controller in my hand. I was never not aware that I was in my room, playing a game on my PC. The thing that sucked me in harder than a visit to Crippled Kate’s was the story, and specifically learning more about Geralt. Watching his story progress, exploring Novigrad and Skellige with him, trying my best to find Ciri and to learn about her as well. It was Geralt that made me feel immersed, but that was an out-of-game type of immersion.

Not since perhaps Bethesda’s Other Big RPG Franchise V: Snow And Dragons™ have I felt what many like to call “true immersion” wherein I forgot I had a controller in my hand, forgot where I was, who I was, what my hopes and dreams were, and I simply faded out of existence in the real world, and into the game world that was set out before me. Every second of my time with the game spent burying myself so far into it that at night, I dreamed about the game. I took breaks only to eat, shower, and pee. And even then, I’d try to do all at once so I could just get back to playing.

Also immersion, isn’t it? A purer sense of immersion, certainly. But both very valid concepts for immersion in the context of gaming, yes?

The thing that got me thinking about it as much as I did, was actually the response I typically see with games that delve into humour. I’ve noticed a lot that people adore games that are tongue-in-cheek with just a hint of snark, but games that go completely over-the-top tend to be lukewarm experiences, neither blowing anyone away nor disappointing people a whole lot. Games that regularly break the fourth wall, or have a multitude of easter eggs. You might say, games that break immersion.

And that, for me, was something of a revelation. The more I looked, the more I saw it. People love referential humour, but it nearly always eliminates the immersion factor of these games. Take Deadpool, and the slightly more recent Sunset Overdrive. Both games that I thoroughly enjoyed, and felt got the humour spot-on. Both games which I found myself liking a lot more than the average reviewer did.

And that, for me, was an unexpected knock-on revelation, compounding my original revelation. Perhaps the over-reliance on immersion is actually harmful of game experiences? Perhaps the kind of mindset that comes from having to review games lends itself to a consistent self-awareness when playing games that negates the “true immersion” feel, which might help to explain why it was so easy to immerse myself in Skyrim all those years ago (I was newer to all of this) but not now, yet it means I can enjoy an over-the-top game without feeling it was trying too hard. Does this then mean that all immersion is bad? Of course not, but there’s definitely some part of the equation missing, right?

The original question then takes on a new form, like so: What is immersion to you?

Is it your way of escapism from real life? Is it the feeling of being inside a game, slave to its world and rules? Or is it just enjoying a game so much that you feel stimulated and fulfilled while playing it? From there we could go one further and ask, what breaks your immersion? Phone calls from friends? Messages? Emails? Perhaps in-game references, breaking the fourth wall, other elements of humour that ruin the moment? Could it be microtransactions, or gated DLC?

The concept of immersion is a little trickier when you’re reviewing games. You can never get entirely swept up in a game because you’re constantly critically analysing every possible aspect of the game at all times, even after you’ve taken the necessary notes. Where previously things like badly placed tutorials, explicit instructions from the game, and the occasional sound jitter would break immersion for me, now all I see are badly placed tutorials and the game doing its best to kick me out of the experience. Does it mean I hate the game? No, not at all. Does it mean I cannot fully immerse myself? … Yeah, it kinda does.

We could argue that immersion — certainly one of the biggest and most overused buzzwords in gaming, all things considered — is contextually different for every person, and is at least partially based on your personality. If you are hypercritical of games, you’ll likely have a tougher time immersing yourself in most games, but the consequence of that is when you finally do manage to immerse yourself in something, you’ll praise it all the more for having the ability to do so. Or you could be someone who just needs a half-decent game and you’re hooked, line and sinker into some mystical, magical game that hopefully didn’t come from the moon.

In the end I guess it doesn’t really make that much of a difference what kind of immersion you feel. As long as you come out of it feeling good about your time, what does it really matter?

But hey, since we love discussions, I’d love to read what immersion means to you guys. Tell me in the comments, would you please? Immerse yourselves!

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