Immersion

In tutorial this week, an idea was brought forth with how more experienced and skilled gamers fail to perform well, or to their normal level when playing on consols such as Wii or Kinect. This is something that I can agree with and also use as a starting point when explaining how Skill plays a vital role in gamers personal experiences of immersion.

 As a casual gamer, physical and mental immersion in video games is something that is quite new to me. I usually experience random moments of Beginners luck where I usually hit random buttons or try to hit them all at once until I knock out someone out in a game of Fight Night. Or, on the other hand I can also experience incredibly dreadful moments where I am usually seen running in circles with my character facing the sky when attempting to play Black Ops. My lack of skill when playing these games fall down to the fact that I just can’t get the hang of controllers and the millions of functions it can have when playing a game.

Skill is such an important factor when it comes to how you experience and immerse yourself in a game. In both the Taylor and Calleja readings, Calleja talks about spatial involvement- the different ways where the player navigates him/herself in a gaming environment. This is an aspect of immersion that stands out to me. For me personally, having the lack of skill to use a controller makes immersing myself into a video game more difficult. This then makes navigation within a space more difficult also. The importance of being able to navigate around a space various ways makes the gaming experience unique and without having this skill to navigate then places huge restriction on player satisfaction.

This however totally changes when it comes to experiencing games through the Wii or Kinect consols. The opposite happens for me as I usually have more skill and can advance to more harder levels than some more experienced gamers. Games such as Dance Central heavily rely on physical body co-ordination, immersing and experiencing these games become more diegetic and situated- as Taylor describes. As games on these consols rely on your body movement and interaction are more physically related, this becomes more easier for me to navigate around. Also, relationships between myself and characters then illustrate more of a situated immersion as my actions dictate characters actions. The need for skill is not as important which makes the experience more enjoyable.

For skilled players, this becomes more hard as their skill and use of the controller becomes non existant. Performance is relied on just the physical interaction and new gaming technology gives everybody a chance to enjoy video games. In concluding, having been able to experience moments of immersion in Wii and Kinect games, the importance of skill contributes to this. Without the ability to navigate and use controllers- this does impact the overall performance, however when skill is present, immersion is embodied.