Immersion and structural incoherence

I have had some experiences in the past where structural incoherence has been completely obvious.

One instance is in a basketball game on ps2. There is a game mode where you can play a pick-up game on a beachside basketball court, which I imagine is trying to simulate a venice beach feel. The informal nature of the game mode means that there are no referees and rules are only loosely followed. Thus, there is nothing stopping players from going for a wander to the water and actually stepping on the water without the player submerging or anything. This is similar to what Kevin was talking about in the lecture with the rock and the river example. With a lot of games - especially those that are driven by a (linear) narrative - I understand that this would cause a great deal of frustration and mess with immersion. However, in this game, and especially this game mode, the structural incoherence is unimportant. In fact, for a while it was amusing. I'd hypothesise that this is precisely because it doesn't interrupt any narrative progression. Once we were done shooting hail mary type 3 pointers while standing on top of the sea, we simply returned to the court and resumed our game.

A game my friend convinced me to play on the ps3 was one of the time crisis games. He worked at a video rental store so thankfully trying it out was free. We used the gun controller and everything. The structural incoherence here was that if ya were to shoot a wall, there would be bullet holes for all of one and a half seconds. Then they would simply disappear. My friend added this to his long list of problems with the game while I, who didn't care much for the game to begin with didn't mind the incoherence. I'm not one to pick apart the aesthetics of a game, but I understand how this could've irked my friend.

Finally, when I would play any of the Tony Hawk Pro Skater games, most of my points (and enjoyment) came from long combos consisting of grinds and kickflips. I'm not a follower of extreme sports and know little about skateboarding, but I'm pretty sure the game rejects the conventional laws of physics that even Tony Hawk himself couldn't defy. There is even a game setting that allows the character to experience "moon gravity". These 200m grind combos and the ease with which characters ollie over planes demonstrate the games' insistence on using structural incoherence. The game relies on it. It would be rather average without it.

So, my experience with structural incoherence, while limited and shallow, shows it to be rather unimportant. Yes, it hinders and interrupts immersion in that the aesthetics are worse. However, as it doesn't hinder any narrative progression such as in the games I've described, I haven't really been bothered by it.