Sometimes I find it hard to pull myself out of these digital lands we gamers visit so often. Either it's a casual game that I can't stop thinking about or a triple A title that's world entrances me so well, reality starts to blur. With this in mind, here's some more exposition for ya.
Gaming tech has come so far in just my life time. I remember playing my brand new N64 as a child, Mario World if memory serves. Not my first game ever but the jump in tech from SNES blew me away. Now, with things like Microsoft's Hololense and the various VR units, the same thoughts occur 'How can they make gaming better than that? Whats next?' yet I am always surprised with the next steps in immersion.
To better my point, lets break down immersion a little. First, there are different levels to it. Every game has something in mind to make the player feel it out, to create the illusion that you are the character or that consequences matter. Case in point, take Final Fantasy (really any of them from 7 on, minus 10-2 in my opinion). I am a huge fan of the series, which as any fan could tell you, is not for the action but the story and development of characters. This is one way of drawing players in, and various games have found balance between story and action. However this would only stand true to a sliver of the gaming world.
We all know how popular Shooters are i.e. CoD, Destiny, ect., and many fans of these games never touch the single player, striving for that sweet pvp action. Nothing gets you pumped quite like hunting your enemies on a chaotic battlefield while also running for your life. For this section I will use the Halo series to demonstrate how immersion in shooters has evolved.
In Halo 1, they put most of their efforts into the story, which really showed. The campaign was co-op, which was awesome, but making the story of it the main driving force didn't really work. To this day I couldn't tell you the names of the levels or how the story progresses, but I can instantly remember the entire level as soon as first contact. When Halo 2 came out, story drive and multiplayer were closer in balance, with a bit more in favor of multiplayer. The added weapon features like variety of grenades, weapons, vehicles and graphics made this game a bigger draw than the first which was a huge success on its own. The immersion was evolving all around the gaming world at this time, reaching higher and higher for more 'realistic' worlds and it was working. Halo 3 was obviously a huge leap in immersion, as new tech it could reach even higher. Furthering player influence by making different 'power ups' i.e. Bubble Shield, Jet Pack, ect., and keeping gear and weapons looking and acting fresh. Adding new content and remastering the most popular older content made things new with a touch of familiarity that players loved. So to sum up Halo's history, With each game ( and this I find true about almost all games that came out at each of the Halo's releases ) The features have always evolved and adjusted to allow the frantic mayhem we see today, while bringing 'realism' to the world i.e. sound, weather, physics, content.
Speaking on realism, games like The Division, Dark Souls, Fallout and Farcry all have their own aspects of 'realism'. The Divison is almost building for building Manhattan, with an epidemic that has sent the island into quarantine. Society collapsed quickly without law enforcement or regulation of supplies, which is probably pretty accurate as well. However most games are not based off an actual place. Dark Souls is based in a dark, ruined world. These games are famous for not caring about the player, totally up to your skill and luck alone. The draw of Dark Souls was to me the realism of being dropped in this world, told your here to fix it, and the actual challenge behind almost any action or attempt to explore with little to no direction. Your character would behave differently depending on your equipment, and with this restriction in mind, you must keep your tactics ever changing to keep using the best gear you find. Moreover in all of the Fallout games, you are left in a world after nuclear war. Having to deal with everything from mutants and zombies, to running errands and saving the 'world', this is an almost alien open world for you to experience. Lastly, Farcry has an amazing engine in it which enables the game to create a random experience each time you play. Random encounters of enemies or events can happen almost anywhere at any time. To top that off, Farcry Primal has such an alive world with such beautiful design and detail that it left me almost speechless for days. Also like a few of my older favorite games, you cannot understand the language in the game, you must read subtitles and hear the beauty of the pseudo language of the Wenja tribe.
To wrap this up, immersion, like all of gaming, will always be ever changing. I for one think that with the coming VR and various other devices that gaming will forever change. Imagine actually walking around Whiterun or visiting the Traveler at the Tower in person. How about actually piloting your own spaceship? Riding a dragon? Slaying hundreds of orcs? Free running on roofs to avoid detection? It makes me shiver with anticipation thinking about the possibilities. Looking forward at the gaming future, it looks awesome, like always.
P.S. If you don't know about the HoloLense, look it up on Microsoft's site. It's still way too much money but the tech is awesome!
