Immersion or the lack thereof
by Amanda Rivera 
Oct 24th 2007 at 11:04AM
Jane over at Game Girl Advance recently had a fascinating debate with herself on the level of immersion experienced by WoW players. While on the one hand she says that she often does other things while playing WoW (checking her email, instant messaging her friends) she also says that about 10 percent of the game requires most of her attention. Perhaps, she asks, the non-immersive nature of the game is what makes it so popular?
But then she counters he own argument, stating that WoW is extremely immersive, sucking you in for blocks of hours at a time without you ever realizing it. I suppose I would have to agree with her, err both of her really. While I spend a lot of time alt-tabbing to check email for work while I game, I also find that WoW is the sort of game that draws you in. Not the same way a movie in a dark theater does. I wouldn't exactly say that I tend to forget the world around me, unless I'm in an intense instance group or perhaps a raid.
I think that the variety of gameplay is one of WoW's keys to success. You can dive in as deep as you like when you log in. You can log in, head to the nearest dungeon, and play for hours on end, or you can quest for 30 minutes to an hour and then go do something else. The nature of an MMO means that you will spend a lot of time playing it, but WoW doesn't require you to spend all your attention on it while you play.
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Virtual selves
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
dpoyesac Oct 24th 2007 11:14AM
Usually if you're bored playing videogames you go do something else -- you watch TV, read a book, go to a movie, wash the dishes...
But when you are bored grinding or farming or questing in WoW you go do something else -- IN THE GAME. You go level your fishing, you organize gnome raids on Hogger, beg strangers to let you enchant their bracers for free...
It's not that WoW is immersive the way books or movies are. WoW is a replacement for real life, including the boring bits.
Jeroboam Oct 24th 2007 11:15AM
I will say that most of the time I am doing other things while playing wow, watching TV, having a conversation, sometimes even reading or chatting online. But there are also sometimes when I'll come out of an instance or Kara and its like actually exiting that place. I feel like I have been inside of it and am coming back to my house. It's moments like that that keep me playing after so long.
theremover Oct 24th 2007 11:32AM
When I think of "immersion", I think of how one's mind is engaged, beyond the desire to continue and participate.
A game that immerses oneself I believe is one that engages the parts of our brain that enjoy the art behind it all. The environments, the sound, the story... all that stuff. WoW scores some points with some of it's environments and design and so forth. However, it's method of story telling is kind of weak. I don't feel particularly engaged and taking away from it even more is that the way the game is designed, players can run around doing quests and levelling their characters in a mechanical like faction without knowing even a shread about WHY they are doing these things or knowing anything about the story WoW is telling. This is my single biggest complaint about the game and it's players. You could strip away all the story, remove all the quest text from quests and frankly, only a few people would notice. People don't care because they don't have to and most of them are ignorant as to what's going on and why 90% of the time.
hpavc Oct 24th 2007 11:55AM
WoW has a lot of immersion compared to other MMO's. The graphical consistency and lack of scripting really helps.
Take LOTRO for example, every building you walk into (and out of) you get a loading screen to zone into it. You cannot see into buildings. Many scripts that take over the game. The game has awesome graphics it also has some of the most horrid graphics. Alot of the graphics blend poorly
In WoW you have to get over the cartoon-like graphics, but the graphics are consistent (Maybe a few inconsistencies like the level 40 warlock mount which is the only photorealistic model I can think of) and by this you can walk from undercity to booty bay and not see a load screen.
Also the UI is insanely customizable. I likely would be playing another game or two, but the lack of addons and customization just made me virtually laugh at the game.
Sure the game is very 'arcade response' and at times cna seem to have a slot of twitch for some classes, but have you see how the other games do close combat? In LOTRO/EQ2 close combat is a joke compared to WoW. I mean its like all the classes are paladins (turn on auto attack ... engage buffed auto attack ... wheee, 2 minutes laster the mob dies)
One thing WoW lacks is a big world. Many other games are quite larger. In wow you zoom across areas quite quickly and the synthetic border of areas is very apparent.
When I play another game and see the regions of bulk terrain in various areas I often think it might be nice for some of that in a few spots in the wow zones. Places like stv are so synthetic with the mobs so packed in there for every quest.
Especially if the bulk regions were unlikely to be quest related and were just 'vast'. Though the map doesn't allow for this.
Todd Oct 24th 2007 11:57AM
I often watch TV and play WoW at the same time. Not that difficult. If I'm involved in a high paced instance, however, I have noticed how the hours fly. Circumstances play a big part in the day to day game experience.
Francisco Saavedra Oct 24th 2007 11:58AM
the thing is, there is a lot of dead time in between the intense parts of the game. Flying or running to places, eating/drinking/bandaging, crafting... all of it doesn't need much attention, so you have time to do other stuff in between. I have a dual monitor setup, and check email or read blogs on this dead times.
Genoce Oct 24th 2007 12:20PM
@1: QFT
Karl Oct 24th 2007 1:22PM
10% of her attention, huh? I think I was in a PUG with her last night...
Gwyndra Oct 25th 2007 10:38AM
I actually find I am often TOO immersed in WoW. My friends hardly seem me on instant messenger anymore because I am so busy playing WoW and don't want to miss anything if I alt+tab out.
I am certain this girl must not be a healer, because I notice if I am grouping/raiding and I look away for 5 seconds my tank has low hp. 10%...?