Scooby-Doo, Affect and Immersion

After Friday’s lecture on agency and affect in gaming, I was reminded of a time (way back when I was in year7/8), during those days when the internet was operated on dial-up speed, me and one of my siblings were attempting to play this Scooby-Doo adventure game on the net. This particular game was a third person game in which one took on the role of the gang (Shaggy, Daphne, Velma, Fred and Scooby). The goal was basically to trail a group of bad guys around town without being seen and catch them at their crimes. This was not, in anyway what-so-ever, a hi-tech game (that is, according to today’s standards): it had very plain 2-D graphics and one’s agency within game relied on the mouse and the arrow buttons. However despite such standards, I still remember to this day that I was completely discomposed/scared to death (literally) of being caught by the group of baddies as I attempted to secretly photograph their misdeeds. I do not think I ever got past that final level of crime exposure however, but the memory of being so affected by the game’s immersive play ultimately lingers. Thus despite being so low-tech, such a game demonstrates that diegetic and situated immersion can happen in any type of game from any era.
Perhaps one of the reasons for such a reaction might be reflective of age and in turn one’s gaming literacy as one comes to understand technological shifts and also the differences of belief in reality/fantasy when on is a child/adult. Is there even a difference in the degree of immersion/affect according to age? Also, another reason for such a lasting impression of particular games might also link back to game audio, rather than perhaps the visuals. Because of the fact that audio is so important to the gaming experience (perhaps more so than to other media forms such as film, TV etc.), I think that a lot of what pulls one into a game world is heavily reliant on audio factors. For instance I still remember the eerie music from the Scooby-Doo game and the click of the shutter, immediately followed by a gut-wrenching feeling as I heard some creepy sounds from the crooks, thus signalling my defeat. This notion was further emphasised in Friday’s lecture when Kevin played us audio examples from System Shock (?) – although that might have been more in relation to direct address, I think it is still relevant in highlighting the immersive experience via solely audio. It is of course true that visuals and audio must work alongside one another for full immersion, but I believe audio plays a massive role in immersing the player, a factor which I think was not discussed in the Laurie N. Taylor reading. Or maybe such an element is irrelevant due to its obviousness? Thoughts?