thread: 2005-06-02 : Immersion
On 2005-06-02, John Laviolette wrote:
ho, Vincent. good essay, and provoking a lot of thought on how to design an immersive game... although I'd like to note that I believer there are at least two forms of immersion: character immersion and setting immersion.
almost everything I have heard people say about immersion seems to be about immersing in a character. I have never immersed in a character and don't plan on it; the way it's been described by people who enjoy it doesn't sound appealing to me at all.
but I have many times felt immersed in a setting, vividly imagining what the world would look like. setting immersion may even be a very common Simulationist feature. I'm thinking I'm not the only one who immerses in setting, since many of the flame wars over immersion vaguely suggest that the "anti-immersionists" really just don't find *character* immersion that appealing.
the reason I raise this distinction is because your suggestions on how to facillitate immersion seem to apply to both, but you're definitely emphasizing character immersion in your description. I think what you are saying may have a broader appeal than you realize...
the other comment that interested me was Brand's distinction between levels of detail and their effects on immersion. I was thinking about this (although not calling it immersion) when I designed IceRunner: I specifically chose an abstract, "light" version of the middle agea to try to emphasize the medieval feel without getting bogged down in actual historical details. I was thinking of it mainly in terms of "not having to look stuff up", but my subconscious desire, I think, was to avoid interrupting setting immersion. I think it would work well for character immersion, too.
