Immersion as Miku Hinasaki

After considering the subsequent lectures on immersion I began to refer back to games I had played in my past that had engrossed me so far into the experience that I lost any sense of myself outside of the screen, whether it be to feed myself or to sleep. One game in particular that immersed me so far to the point of fear was Fatal Frame (a.k.a. Project Zero).

During my play through of the game I was taking part in both diegetic and situated immersion. The game uses several supporting factors, including audio, visual, plot, perspective, agency and others to build up an eerie atmosphere somewhat similar to Resident Evil or Silent Hill. Andrew Darley related the experience to that of a roller coaster ride and I strongly support this. The sound effect and music within the game alone were enough to frighten me to the point of refusing to play the game in total darkness. Unsettling demon children voices would whisper around my character along with a disconcerting soundboard of string music and there would be no agency, no power, to control this. To add to the effect of this horror game, the audio spikes just as the ghosts, which you are required to defeat with only a camera as your weapon, lunge at you randomly from the darkness. As soon as the camera is drawn the perspective changes from third-person to first-person further entrapping me within the experience. I recall being so situatedly immersed within the game that as soon as I would be attacked I would automatically start tapping buttons without any thought as to what I were doing.

The game had engrossed me so much that I was diegetically immersed in the plot enough to feel the same fear I would attribute my character to feel. I had lost any sense of who I was, or what my body needed (food/sleep) to be Miku Hinasaki (the main character) in this constructed illusionary world. Throughout the whole course of my experience within this constructed world my emotions and reactions would work along a “roller coaster” being at ease for one minute then panicking the next second when I could hear unsettling voices and feel the rumble of their presence. The game had little agency in the sense of how you could defend yourself, which accordingly left me feeling vulnerable and even further afraid.

In retrospect, the game had excellent structural coherence in my opinion as all factors unified together to create this supernatural atmosphere, but at the time I was unaware, or oblivious in my own dimension as to the details of the game. I was simply immersed to the point where the game was played mostly through reflexes of fear rather than any independent, meaningful, decision-making ability.