The Next Generation

How do you know you're a gamer? Answer: When you can 'clock' King Kong at the age of 3.

After only a couple of months learning the game, my 3-year old cousin was teaching me how to play. "Nooo, go dat way." "Press dat one." "Change it to da other gun." By following these intense instructions, I made it further than anyone (even he) expected, but evenatually 'died.' His turn.

I watched as he gripped the control, eyes focused, engaged inside the game almost instantly. He already knew where to go, which weapon to switch to at which time and what detour was up ahead next. I, personally couldn't wrap my head around the confusion of first-person perspective and was suprised at how this child just "got it." It was second nature. I suppose it has to be natural when you've grown up with these games since birth however my suprise wasn't focused on how he knew the game, but how he played it. When I tried talking to him he would either totally ignore me or talk to himself. It was only after he said "I can't go there" that I realised what immersion was. He reffered to the protagonist as himself!

From memory, Kevin defined immersion as "...where the image appears to surround the player." That is exactly what I saw in my little cousin. He was so engrossed in the game that he thought he was actually inside it. The first-person perspective were his eyes and the capacity to explore the world within the game gave him a freedom that would otherwise be impossible for a boy his age. As the tension builded and the levels got higher and harder, his fragile body would occasionly jolt to one side as if his physical movements could affect the outcome of the game or more significantly, as if the protagonist inside the game would move in that same direction.

I left him to play after I realised I wouldn't get another turn. Three hours later he came and said "I won." I didn't realise he had clocked the game until the older ones had started shouting in disbelief!