Video Games and Immersion

Link:http://gamesronin.blogspot.co.uk/2011/04/video-games-and-immersion.html

Do you remember the "Holodeck" from "Star Trek" or "Quest World" from the animated series "The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest" from 1996? Man those things kicked a**. Growing up I thought those things were something my grandchildren would use, how wrong i was.....

Video Games have always aimed to bee a highly immersible form of entertainment, but few ever succeeded. Early games lacked the tech power we have today to even think about this concept. It's not that developers didn't try it's just that most gamers didn't quite "feel" like 8 bit dots on a small screen.

Remember this? This was the first game i wish it were more immersive because i wanted to eviscerate that little b****.

The Early bytes.

During the years game tech evolved, graphics evolved from the basic 3d graphics of "Interstate 76" to the photo-realistic graphics of today. The sounds changed from those 8 bit midi sounds to high-definition audio. The visual and audio improvements brought realism to games that changed everything. It was no longer all about the game-play, now gamers needed eye-candy and fantastic sounds.

It's difficult to say which was the first truly immersive game in history as this fact depends a lot on the gamer and what connection that person shared with that particular game. We all remember one game we played as young pups in which we lost ourselves in so much that when we saw the sun rising outside we knew we were in trouble.

The first game we may all remember getting ourself's lost into was "Outast" a 1999 release developed by Appeal and published by Infogrames. It followed the story of an ex US Navy S.E.A.L named Cutter Slade on a on an alien world from a parallel universe (kicks "A long time ago in a galaxy far way"'s a**) called Adelpha. After the first minutes of the player is made to believe that he is free to do whatever he choses, an illusion well portrait by the developers. In truth you follow a well written narrative with the occasional conceded option. Although an open world game is more likely to be immersive, the "sand-box" approach does not necessarily make the game so. This game blew my mind, when i started playing it i was Slade riding my Twon-Ha trying to save the Talans. I played this 12 years ago but i would still be fascinated by it today. Until Mass Effect came a long it was my favorite video game of all time, and in some aspects it still is. If you haven't played this game until now i strongly recommend it, unfortunately because the game had a very particular engine it will not run very well on today's computers.

Other games that had a similar hold on me and other gamers soon followed. Games like "Gothic" by Piranha Bytes (2001), "Neverwinter Nights"(2002) and "Knights of the Old Republic"(2003) both by Bioware, Assassin's Creed"(2007) by Ubisoft and many others, culminating (at least for me) with the 2007 release of "Mass Effect" by Bioware, a studio that created the most immersive and numerous universes in which i forgot my fragile human condition, pick up a sword or rifle and felt like a demon hunting, alien killer, relationship guru, tough and handsome S.O.B. :)))).

Current Virtual Possibilities

On November 16, 2006 Nintendo unleashed upon the world the "Wii". Since it was released 84.64 million units were sold (as of December 2010). This consoled change in a radical fashion the way games are played. You wanna' swing a baseball bat, you don't need to know what button on your controller does that, just...do it. The advanced 3d motion controller was and still is the distinguishing characteristic of this, at the time of his launch, impressive tech.

Because of the "Wii"'s controls games suddenly became a easy thing to master and enjoy, and open the doors of the gaming universe to many people that had no previous contact with the medium. From a immersion point of view it narrowed the gap between user and video game. Virtual tennis was starting to make people sweat just like the real thing. Fishing on a virtual lake was boring like the real thing. Boxing matches made us look like monkeys on crack in front of the T.V, but we loved and still love every second of it. This piece of engineering is unique from an immersive point of view because the player's brain know's it's a game but he's body doesn't. It managed to do the opposite of what normal great immersive video games do. And it still does it well.

As expected Nintendo's market competitors, Sony and Microsoft, seeing the huge potential of this new approach, also jumped intro the race.

In 2010 Sony launched the "PlayStation Move", a accessory that improved on the original concept of the "Wii'"s controller. By using the "PlayStation Eye" camera, the "Move" as it's known enables the player to perform complex movements during games. A series of accessories for the "Move" ("Navigation Controller", "Sharpshooter" etc.) were launched to further close the gap between the player and the virtual world. To bad it looks like something from one of those stores that have painted windows. :)

Microsoft's approach was more extreme when in the same year as Sony's "Move" launched the "Kinect". An accessory for the "Xbox 360", it represented another important leap forward in immersion as this technology totally eliminated the need of a controller. The players body, more or less, is the controller. Seeing someone play a game with "Kinect" is a funny thing to see, and it can be quite dangerous if you're near them, but when you play it's a hell of a lot of fun. The "Kinect" is considered part of the future of video games, but for many hardcore gamers, including myself, the lack of a controller doesn't emerge me more in the game, in fact quite the opposite happens. Just like the "Wii" before it, this technology tricks only my body. Why it doesn't capture my mind? Well maybe it's because i don't see myself doing karate moves in my living room and thinking i'm in the "living forest" of "Mortal Kombat".

One concept that manages to fool the mind of the gamer (and i don't mean w**d......at least not now) is 3d imaging or Stereoscopy as it's also known. Every grade school brat know what 3d is today so i'm not going to bother you with technical information. All there is to know is that this imaging technology originally used in cinema, made it's way to the gaming scene. Still in it's early stages it does add an extra layer of immersion ("Killzone 3" on a 3d TV and a "Sharpshooter" is as immersive as it gets today on a console). What it basically does it give profoundity to a normal image, in such a way that people in cinemas feel the need to raise their hand and touch something they think it's there, it's not, so stop doing it please. As i said earlier this technology is young and countless improvements are being made in the field.

Perhaps the biggest immersion evolution in video games are not motion controllers or 3d, it's not just our bodies we have to fool, first we have to fool our brains and as equally important our current social being. In comes the MMO.

During the years many games of the genre came and went but only one of them takes the crown, and 12 million lives from the real world. Yes it's "WoW"

"World of Warcraft" was released in 2004 and was claimed as many awards as it did countless hours of many of our lives. We all heard the stories about the raids, quests, weddings of players, about the neglectful parents and even more neglectful kids. The worst part is, they're true. This game is the absolute grand daddy of immersion games. Not only it substitutes you as an individual, it substitutes your entire social life. This epic creation not only convinces you believe it's true, it can also make you believe all the rest is fake if you're not careful. "Blizzard Entertainment" also known as the true god by "WoW" players made a killing with this game, from a financial and critic point of view and showed everybody what immersion in a video game means. The good and the bad. It can be described as "Facebook" meats "A good RPG" and this combination is addictive as it's massive fan base can testify. The "WoW" formula is a key element in the future on immersion games because of it excellent integration of the social element into the formula.

Ye Old Crystal Ball

What of the future then, looking at the current generation of consoles it's clear that if we fool our brain, our a***s will follow. So where and what will we play on in the near future? And how immersive will it be?

Virtual reality it's been here for some time now but due to technical and physiologic limitations it did not made it into the mainstream. Sony made some progress with the "Headman" a futuristic looking 3d head mounted display that was showcased during this year's CES. It's implementation into video games is possible but it's not quite there it (unfortunately).

The visual aspect is getting closer to the goal but it does not suffice, what about the way we interact with the game? In 2007 Emotiv Systems launched "Project Epoc", a headset that looks much like a bicycle helmet that, instead of protecting your noggin, detects brainwaves. The concept is amazing and the device is somewhat precise from what was reported, but does not have the mass appeal the developers have hoped for. Maybe because a brain scanner is not something that we like having in our living rooms, at leas not now anyway.

So, it would seam that we're almost there, make a game like "Mass Effect" that you can play with your VR 3d headset and interact with it via the "Epoc" helmet, add the social element of a good MMO and you will probably never feel the need to log off. This reminds me of a joke i heard about a gamer that dies and God sends him to hell for his sins. After a few days the devil goes up to God and asks him, why did he do this to him? When God asks what's wrong the devil says that the gamer killed all his minions and now he running around hell yelling "where in hell is the entrance to Level 2" :D

That may be the level of immersion we all as gamers aspire to, it's not yet ready but soon will be so much so that in your next house you will buy or rent you'll probably ask "Does it comes with a Holodeck?"