Immersion: What I Look for In Video Games

Lately I’ve been thinking about why some of the games I love are less popular than other popular titles. A recent bout of retrogaming spurred this, as I consistently found Nes and super nes titles less compelling than reviews would suggest. In particular I think they have less replay value than a classic should.

I realized the problem is that I look at games from a writer’s perspective. Story, atmosphere, immersion, these are driving factors in my gaming experience.  I don’t just want to dudgeon crawl, I want a reason to dungeon crawl: Back story, the hero’s journey, or just moving the plot forward. 

When I plug in an old classic like The Legend of Zelda I am impressed by what I see, the puzzle--like fighting mechanics, the complex map which you can still struggle with today, it can all be very engaging, but I’m still just a guy with a controller. I’m not in it; I don’t feel like I’m part of the world like I do with Ocarina of time. And it the end that’s why I play OOT once a year and a game like Link to the Past every few years, When I play LTTP I’m playing a game. When I play OOT I’m part of the game.  Playing the game is like reading a favorite novel, only every time it’s a little different.

So when I rate a game, I rate my level of immersion and whether parts of the game are boring over things like control scheme and camera issues.  I would much rather deal with a wonky camera than suffer a boring game. That isn’t to say those issues are not important, but they are not what I find most important.

Others will disagree with this. Some feel that game mechanics are everything and story ads little to nothing to a game. They just want the text boxes to go away so they can play. That is certainly a valid feeling. When I was growing up almost all games were straight forward and a good game was defined by good level design and game mechanics. To some extend that is still true,  But I feel that those elements by themselves no longer provide the fullest possible experience. I beat old school games out of a stubborn pride: I would beat the game before it beat me. I play my newer games to continue the immersion, to move on the story and be part of the universe.

To each his own.

-Gedaemon