Has anyone else experienced real pain upon seeing that Half Life 2 is ranked only 9th?

Just having The Sims in there is pain enough. I stopped reading it after that.

Cheers

The Sims is a respectable game series that is played by a lot of women.

Oh man, I was at an Electronic Arts game studio the other day and my girlfriend met another girl there and they were talking about The Sims the entire time we were there.

Good point. With all this talk about immersion being the gold standard of gaming, there seems to be an excessive number of third person titles on the list.

FPS aren't the only games that can immersive.

MMORPGs would be the easiest example to name.

I didn't mean to suggest the same. I do, however, think that the first-person format (a shooter or otherwise), wherein the player views the world through the eyes of a key character, triggers a greater investment in the storyline than other formats. I'd also add that addictiveness and immersion are two distinct qualities.

Not everyone that plays WoW is an addict (you just suggested otherwise with your last comment ), they just like the story and atmosphere -- immersion into a virtual world.

I agree with you on that FPS are perhaps a good visual way of immersion, but you keep supporting only that view so your opinion is biased.

The Sims is probably the best immersive game out there without having a first person aspect. It's not my cup of tea but if you read my post earlier in this thread, I know from other players who can talk about it for hours on end about how they build their dream house, get a job, make babies, buy clothes, etc.... Not to mention it's an 'open world' whereas FPS games have boundaries in storyline since it's all linear... thus the The Sims is the best example of immersion.

With that in mind, FPS are probably the worst example of immersion. I took a game design strategies class and immersion is defined as doing: "All forms of entertainment strive to create suspension of disbelief, a state in which the player's mind forgets that it is being subjected to entertainment and instead accepts what it perceives as reality."
--Katie Salen and Eric Zimmerman, Rules of Play: Game Design Fundamentals (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2004), Chapter 27.

But that's just your opinion I guess, totally out there compared to the fact of what immersion is.

edited on Mar. 18, 2007 01:51 pm by [FR]Sparks

So, because I have an opinion, I'm biased ... and my opinion is an opinion, and your opinion is a fact. Also, because some people really, really like The Sims, it's the best example of immersion. And finally, Katie Salen and Eric Zimmerman have offered a definition of immersion, therefore "FPS are probably the worst example of immersion."

I'll take non sequiturs for $200, Alex.

You keep quoting me out of context, you're giving me the underhand to make yourself look good.

I said your opinion is biased since you're not taking into account FPS, MMORPGs, RPGs, RTS, Arcade, Puzzles, Sports, etc... I haven't even stated my opinion except when I said I agreed with you on the FPS being a visually good way to be immersive.

And I never said The Sims is the best example of immersion because "some people really, really like [it]". My point is because people are immersed into the game taking it to be in context of real life not only with themselves but with others.

Re-read what I wrote and learn to comprehend.

Two other good examples of immersion are "Second Life" and "World of Warcraft". It isn't out yet, but "Bioshock" seems to be the only FPS that comes to mind that'll influence immersion a lot for the FPS genre.

edited on Mar. 18, 2007 02:23 pm by [FR]Sparks