Immersion

Following the discussion on immersion in last lecture, I found the comments about structural incoherence took me back to my earlier days of gaming. I remember as a kid being so frustrated by the fact that Bart Simpson wouldn’t be able to sneak into certain (easily accessible) backyards, or that “Dangerous Dave” would refuse to jump to a platform which was for some unknown reason invisibly blocked off. Despite these issues, as a child I still loved these ‘side scrolling’ games, and would often play for so long that I would be at the stage of having to remind myself to blink. I do not think however that I was entirely immersed in these games as such, or perhaps diegetic immersion did take place, but it wasn’t until playing ‘third person trailing games’ that I began thinking of the game in a more subconscious manner. Personally I find that side scrolling games such as Mario provide a fun way to spend the time, but don’t offer that deeper experience found in third person games. For myself at least, I find the concept of relating to a character in a 2d space rather difficult. Even with techniques such as parallax I find myself being frustrated by the limited movement and interaction with the environment. This situation does not mimic the spatial rules of my life making it feel restricting. Situated immersion has only occurred to me during playing such games as Tomb Raider, Forbidden Siren, or even Crash Bandicoot. It just seems like a more believable world (and character), which I find is easier to become immersed in.