Immersion and Addiction

  In recent years the gaming industry has received some serious slack from the age restraint system known as PEGI (Pan European Game Information) and also from the public (mainly parents) about what their kids are actually playing and simulating. As the graphics and gameplay technology have escalated massively in a very short period the realism is becoming blurred to what's real and what isn't; this along with a solid story and relatable characters gives you an immersive game. But...

...is Immersion similar to Addiction?

   The reason why someone is sitting on World of Warcraft day-in day-out, forgetting he/she has a job, family and the ability to walk is because the gameplay is so immersive, and because it is so immersive it become addictive...so, there's my point.

Surrogates

   Another idea to think about is how immersive an experience can get to, therefore becoming so addictive that the user will never want to get away from it. Ok, that may sound a tad drastic but there are plenty of examples in the film world and many ideas of technology have come from films. A good example could be Surrogates (click here to see the trailer), whereby people in the world can connect themselves to an avatar (a character that is created to look like or represent its creator and controller) that walks around in the real world. This type of interactivity is so immersive it may make the participants forget which world they are in and may not want to return because they can be whoever they want to be, i.e. a handy-capable person not being able to walk, then as a surrogate can run, walk and jump. Another example - Inception, a world where dreams can be accessed and feel as real as anything. There is a scene in the film where people are almost always in a dream state and actually return to the real world to wake up, their dreams have become their reality as they are able to create what is experienced in the dream. They become so immersed in their dreams that they are addicted.

   Immersion can also be seen in games, the player can feel like he is 'in the game' and sometimes brings the game into the 'real world'. An example here would be Grand Theft Auto, a game for notorious criticism from the press. You take control of a character (like Niko on the left) involved in drugs and mafia work and are able to kill random pedestrians anywhere, any time.

 Have you ever moved with the character in real life as if you were dodging bullets or turning a corner in a car? If yes then that means that you have been immersed in a game. Imagine if, for example, how you drive a car in Grand Theft Auto was brought into the real world:

*Strong language

  That driving video and this next one exploring how a game character carries all of the equiptment shows how difficult brining a game into the real world would be:

*Strong language

  With immersion there are three types, according to Ernest Adams, there is:

1) Narrative Immersion
             -this type relates to the characters of the story, it makes us feel like the characters are real due to                       their personality. We want to know how the characters evolve within the story.

2) Strategic Immersion
              -this kind of immersion can be seen in games where studying the game and then acting upon what has been observed is key. An example could be chess, or Sim City. The player (acting as the mayor) studies where the best place to build new houses, shops and roads to maximise their effectiveness. The players looks multiple steps ahead of what is actually happening.

3) Tactical Immersion
            -when your playing a fast-paced game where one wrong move can make you loose the game you are tactically immersed. Games such as Tetris or Guitar Hero make you so immersed that you are not thinking at all, your eyes are basically telling what your fingers are to do. See below for a video from Guitar Hero:

  In a game such as Guitar Hero the player is tactically immersed and wants to perfect his score on every song  and on every difficulty, therefore he becomes addicted. A scoring system on a game can introduce an addictiveness to the player, games on the iPads and iPhones recently have magnified this. Games such as Angry Birds and Cut the Rope are examples, the players want to get three stars on every level and with the highest score. 

Cut the Rope

Angry Birds