Are Realistic Games Actually More Immersive?

[@bellidrael7457]

People mistake the meaning of 'Immersion' for meaning 'You forget it's a game'. I think that certainly can be a form of immersion, but it's just one instance of immersion because if a game has such realistic mechanics and graphics and all that that you lose yourself in it and forget it's a game, well then that means it's holding all of your attention, thus you are immersed. But I think there are different forms of immersion in games, all of which are brought about by different things. Realism creates one form of immersion, while just having a heavily involved, good game has a different form of immersion. Immersion to me is anything that gets me invested in the game. I was super invested in Kingdom Hearts 3. But when I reached the final world, it broke my immersion because I suddenly realized, what I had played was it. There were no more worlds, there were going to be no more moments of 'Awesome, I love that movie!' from unlocking say, Toy Story's world. The immersion of constantly guessing what was going to happen next was gone, because I had unlocked it all. But that didn't kill the immersion of being invested in the story. So while one immersion was broken, another continued, and I wasn't drawn out of the game at any point. At the same time, a game like Final Fantasy 15, a lot of people would skip every car ride they can, or never go to sleep to try and maximize their xp. But I found myself sitting through every car ride, giving myself a sense of how big the world was. I found myself trying to have the characters go to sleep every night, as if they needed the sleep. That's what got me invested, but other people might just find it annoying. So the answer to your video title is, yes, being more realistic does make games more immersive. But it is not the sole form of making a game immersive, nor is it required for a game to be immersive.

[@tikermothyn9393]

This is how I felt about cyberpunk 2077. I rarely use fast travel or time skipping because it simply feels better to drive around or fill the time until the next mission by doing other things. The characters and writing really help you to care about what’s happening and let you slip into BEING V. I wasn’t playing as V, V was a version of me that lived in night city.

[@koolkiller35]

I’ve always hated the push to make games more “realistic” because often times you should be focusing on what makes the game more fun. If it happens to be more realistic, then cool. But forcing realism in your games often times takes me out of the game. I’m playing a game to game, not to live a second life online

[@MillerKronil]

just found your channel. I really liked the in-depth analysis of realism/immersion and you just gained yourself a subscriber. I would prefer if u upgraded your microphone tho, its kind of hard to hear what you are saying sometimes, and it bums me out because your commentary is very good and well written. I believe that a better microphone could really boost your retention rate and viewer numbers because the rest is already pretty freaking good. A "Shure SM7B" or something like that should do the job. U have GREAT potential. keep it up dude :)

[@nogame81]

Hey, I appreciate the encouragement and the feedback! I’ve definitely heard people mention the mic before, but this is the first recommendation I’ve gotten so I’ll definitely look into it!

[@Berzins69]

RDR2 was fantastic to me in terms of leaving an effect on the world and feeling like the world progresses with you. But the fact that picking up items and looting was so ridiculously bad and annoying kept taking me out. Loved the story, but my experience was significantly ruined by the fact that sometimes you had to find some mystical precise spot where an action like tying your horse, or robbing someone took me 3times walking away a few steps and coming back. The long trips with the horse I didn't mind, those were my smoke breaks with pretty things in front of me, or - outside of missions, just kept getting distracted with npc's and other stuff which I loved. Still wondering about what is the reason behind such shitty mechanics of such a basic thing as picking stuff up and looting.

[@C4Golfs]

This guy wants Tetris to change after 30 years

[@alechall4763]

Fast travel is the devil