I would rather figure it out myself. I don't find any fun in following arrows all over the place and people with punctuation over their heads.
That is just you. Most people do. I don't find any fun have to talk to 100 NPCs to find the 10 that have quests. It is not difficult and just tedious.
For me, having all of the arrows everywhere and those incessant messages popping up on screen essentially asking if my brain is damaged or not is the epitome of tedium. When I play a game I want to use my head and be challenged, I'm not in this to follow the yellow brick road.
"Mr. Rothstein, your people never will understand... the way it works out here. You're all just our guests. But you act like you're at home. Let me tell you something, partner. You ain't home. But that's where we're gonna send you if it harelips the governor." - Pat Webb
None force you to read about them before they're released.
None prevent you from forming a guild (advertising in-game or in forums) of like-minded players interested in role-playing.
...but if you apply zero effort, you're going to have a weaker experience (although personally I dig the atmosphere of Rift, with its cthulu-esque invasions happening across a fairly interesting world.)
I guess I'm saying that immersion is certainly possible if you approach a game with the mindset of letting immersion happen. Whereas if you allow yourself to ruin your own immersion, you'll find it's very easy to do so.
I have hard time being immersed in any mmo or any video game for that matter. I think it especially hard in an mmo due to all of the "noise" that you see or hear (UI, chat, voice chat, etcetera).
Yeh...with in-game maps, fast travel, no risk, quest arrows, exclamation points, sparklies over objetcs...MMORPGs have become nothing but a click fest.
I haven't felt immersed since the EQ/AC days. Vanguard ws close...but then SOE added all the things that made it similar to every other game out there.
You will never be as immersed as you were when you first played [insert MMO that has your personal highest nostalia value.]
Wrong.
Red Dead Redemption, which is not an MMORPG, was more immersive to me than EverQuest (which was my first 3D MMORPG). Red Dead Redemption immersiveness was because of many actual reason, not just nostalgia. Go play Red Dead Redemption and see how an RPG should be played. Too bad it's not an MMORPG. I bet you if an MMORPG plays like RDR it would be the most immersive MMROPG to hit the market.
I'm not saying RDR is a model that should be followed, if I am a designer I would even make a better immersive experience. But Red Dead Redemption is the closest successful example I can give so you'd know that immersion has nothing to do with nostalgia and that it's based on actual game features/mechanics that are long forgotten and ignored.
OP, I would suggest that attempts at creating immersion in MMORPG game settings died when players stopped caring enough to read the story text in favor of just doing the quest objective for loot and XP...
Exploring the world and culture simply isn't what people do when playing the typical MMO. I'd wager they check their combat stats more than the quest dialogue and since it's what's valued it appears more in your face. If enough people cared about immersive quality to keep a game marketable then it would be catered too more.
If i enter a game where people dont take they real life troubles into game and stick to gaming plus a world where im free and as bonus looks nice i could have a immersive feel yes. But ive lately try some games and i see mainly RL chat thats a lvl they should a shamed of my immersion already dropped 80% then i see a world in most games thats to much dictated by devs how they designed it and have not much freedom my immersion when down another 20% and i quit.
Games played:AC1-Darktide'99-2000-AC2-Darktide/dawnsong2003-2005,Lineage2-2005-2006 and now Darkfall-2009..... In between WoW few months AoC few months and some f2p also all very short few weeks.
OP, I would suggest that attempts at creating immersion in MMORPG game settings died when players stopped caring enough to read the story text in favor of just doing the quest objective for loot and XP...
Exploring the world and culture simply isn't what people do when playing the typical MMO. I'd wager they check their combat stats more than the quest dialogue and since it's what's valued it appears more in your face. If enough people cared about immersive quality to keep a game marketable then it would be catered too more.
Thats why im almost dont play mmo's anymore plus game community that i for most part also dont like.
Games played:AC1-Darktide'99-2000-AC2-Darktide/dawnsong2003-2005,Lineage2-2005-2006 and now Darkfall-2009..... In between WoW few months AoC few months and some f2p also all very short few weeks.
I found EverQuest pretty immersive for the year or so I played.
World of Warcraft (WoW) was very nicely immersive for about half an hour. WoW destroyed my sense of immersion because of all the gubbage on the screen. Numbers floating out of characters during combat, punctuation floating over NPC, quest boxes, spell icons, item icons and so on. When I finally got around to raiding, it only got worse, with all the raid UI stuff to allow support characters to track the status of everyone in the raid. It got to be more like air traffic control at O'Hare than playing at being a Tauran Druid.
EverQuest stayed immersive because the game interface was so crude. All the information was jammed into a lttle box in the corner of my screen. That meant that I spent the majority of my time looking at the uncluttered game world. If the game had been usable without the floating name tags, I'd have enjoyed myself that much more.
Until MMOs can go back to a streamlined interface while keeping the game playable, I'm fairly certain I won't be able to get immersed. Making advancement less frenetic would help quite a bit as well. With so much change in the character, it's hard for me to think of my character as much more than a place to hang gear. A slower pace of advancement would also give players an opportunity to learn the game world instead of racing through quests and zones using all sorts of builtin aids to guide them.
One of the things that WoW did really well to promote immersion (for me) was all the little details. The boxes stacked next to a barn with hay in them and a mouse running around were realistic even though they looked like a cartoon. The world felt alive. Well, more alive than I was used to in EQ. Theres lots of little details in almost every part of WoW (at least there was at release) I remember being quite anxious to discover every nook and cranny of that world.
Vault-Tec analysts have concluded that the odds of worldwide nuclear armaggeddon this decade are 17,143,762... to 1.
I can still get pretty immersed in DDO (PvE is very immersive) and could get immersed in WAR (While PvPing) DAoC (in both PvP and PvE) when I played them. But could never get immersed in WoW or Rift
It realy just depends on what breaks the immerssion to you. Having the feeling that what you're doing is more than just filling a grocery list can be enough most of the time.
Yeah most MMORPGs are marred with unrealistic graphics and situations, but the times I walked away from my computer while AFK-swimming, AFK-gathering, or AFK-crafting were some of the most immersive, realistic experiences I've ever had while playing a MMORPG! It was like I really was cooking stir fry, or buying groceries, or reading a book!
"What is truly revealing is his implication that believing something to be true is the same as it being true. [continue]" -John Oliver
I can still get pretty immersed in DDO (PvE is very immersive) and could get immersed in WAR (While PvPing) DAoC (in both PvP and PvE) when I played them. But could never get immersed in WoW or Rift
It realy just depends on what breaks the immerssion to you. Having the feeling that what you're doing is more than just filling a grocery list can be enough most of the time.
DDO works for me somewhat. Graphically they capture the dark dank dungeon feel pretty well. The combat keeps my mind on the fight rather than the hotbar. The AI can do enough interesting things to keep me engaged rather than repeating the same rotation. The dungeon mechanics such as locks, secrets, keys, traps, and puzzles offer enough variety to keep things fresh even when I already know the dungeon. On the other hand, once I step outside the dungeon its clear I am just going on rides in the theme park. Good rides though.
Spellborn was very immersive to me. No quick travel. No quest markers. Loads of interesting lore. NPC's that actually keep in touch with you as time goes on. The AI responded with some self preservation. The world was somewhat consistent with farms and homes making it feel lived in. It took a bit of effort to handle the slower pacing of the game, but it was well worth it up to a point. So much potential if only they could have filled in the obvious flaws in the game's design.
We really need an Arx Fatalis, Ultima Underworld, Risen, or Gothic inspired MMOG with enough attention to detail that it feels like a real world.
At this point, I would say no....The issue isn't graphics. It's because Dev's simply don't know how to make a proper MMO. I shouldn't say all Dev's, just most.
WoW and most others = Grind fest (once you hit max lvl, then what - thats right - grind for better rep, grind for better armor, grind for something and why - so you'll be better than the guy next to you. Don't get me wrong, WoW was my first mmo and played it for 4 year (but only because I didn't know any better...hehe)
VG= I didn;t play it at release because I was into WoW (Heard it was brokex20000 at release). I did try it a few month ago and was vary nice...open world, crafting better that most, Housing better than most, though I think because of release issue, they lost most subs.
EVE=ok crafting system and great occon, but lets face it, I can't stay in a ship forever. Travel-OMG.
FE=again, crafting ok and thats it, besides some quests, there is nothing to do.
EQ=never played.
EQ2=Crafting is similar to WoW and many other which is laim, Houseing was ok byt let face it-instanced...really?
WURM=Crafting rocks but graphics from the 50's I think. Lots to do but it takes to long to do anything.
Xsyon=Haven't play'd...yet
The bottom line is, no-one has made a mmo with everything in it yet. Someone need to develope a mmo in modern day times (The secret world), with progression systems like (FE, EVEt), Few quests for specific roles, Mainly quest made by players), Craftng as indepth as WURM, EVE, FE, Drops should in no way be better than crafted items (if anything, drops should be special items like mounts, special ingrediant for crafted items, etc), Yes player housing (again indepth crafting to get it down), Players should be able to change the world, Player should be able to leave the world (maybe something like once you get crafting to a certain point, you craft a ship and are able to go to another planet), Good combat. you get the point...All this and good graphics and you might find everyone in the world playing it.
A few things contribute to the "immersion" of an MMO I have found:
1. Perspective. Those who played EQ, Mortal Online Darkfall, even games like Oblivion or Morrowind would agree that there is a certain amount of immersion caused by forced first person perspectives. 3rd person games can have immersion, but I think its much more difficult to pull off and needs to rely more heavily on the other points here.
2. Amount of time in-game. It's an old chicken or the egg riddle. Spending lots of times in a game causes you to become much more immersed, greying the line between reality and the game-world, but people might not spend more time in-game unless they become immersed. Some of the older games people talk about what made them so "great" such as no instant-travel, grouping-only combat, and very difficult leveling. All these are timesinks which cause you to get attached to your character and the game. It's harder to get attached to newer games that are made for 30 minute play-time and pushes players away by breaking immersion with real life. Just look at UO's numbers and the way people viewed the game after the introduction of "power hour", no time sink, no immersion.
3. The world is alive. Someone already mentioned this, but WoW does a good job of creating a world that does not feel empty. Even if server populations are low, NPCs are walking around, critters are abound and monsters might even fight with eachother. The game world needs to feel alive even if no one else is there! Some single player games did this very well such as Freelancer.
4. Emotional Ties. If you are emotionally de-tached from the game, then you will never feel immersed and more connected to your character. This is often explained by "fanbois" as things like perma-death, corpse recovery, epic quest lines (taking weeks if not months to complete), full-loot PvP, open PvP ,etc. Basically anything that causes you to react emotionally to a situation. I do not limit this to social interactions, but they can be included here as well. Feeling hurt after being scammed out of items, or feeling scared running through a high level zone to finish a quest.
**edit**
I also forgot the biggest one!!! Windowed mode... being able to switch between your AIM window and your game breaks immersion every single time you do it.
tl;dr
1. Forced Perspective
2. Time spent in-game
3. World feels alive
4. Emotional ties to the game
5. Forced full-screen mode
"They essentially want to say 'Correlation proves Causation' when it's just not true." - Sovrath
I can still get pretty immersed in DDO (PvE is very immersive) and could get immersed in WAR (While PvPing) DAoC (in both PvP and PvE) when I played them. But could never get immersed in WoW or Rift
It realy just depends on what breaks the immerssion to you. Having the feeling that what you're doing is more than just filling a grocery list can be enough most of the time.
DDO works for me somewhat. Graphically they capture the dark dank dungeon feel pretty well. The combat keeps my mind on the fight rather than the hotbar. The AI can do enough interesting things to keep me engaged rather than repeating the same rotation. The dungeon mechanics such as locks, secrets, keys, traps, and puzzles offer enough variety to keep things fresh even when I already know the dungeon. On the other hand, once I step outside the dungeon its clear I am just going on rides in the theme park. Good rides though.
Spellborn was very immersive to me. No quick travel. No quest markers. Loads of interesting lore. NPC's that actually keep in touch with you as time goes on. The AI responded with some self preservation. The world was somewhat consistent with farms and homes making it feel lived in. It took a bit of effort to handle the slower pacing of the game, but it was well worth it up to a point. So much potential if only they could have filled in the obvious flaws in the game's design.
We really need an Arx Fatalis, Ultima Underworld, Risen, or Gothic inspired MMOG with enough attention to detail that it feels like a real world.
I like DDO too. To me, the best selling point is the scripting sequence inside dungeons. It feels more dynamic (not truly so since it is the SAME sequence if you replay it) than WOW because there events happening inside the dungeon, not just boss fights.
DDO also has better difficulty control and you do NOT need a party of 5 (1, 3 or any number) to go through a dungeon.
Originally posted by Meltdown tl;dr 1. Forced Perspective 2. Time spent in-game 3. World feels alive 4. Emotional ties to the game 5. Forced full-screen mode
First person was not forced in Oblivion. It does help with immersion a little but the freedom to use either mode is a must. Cave diving was better in 1st person but open world fights were better as 3rd because you could see your flanks, each one has it's own tactical advantage.
I agree with the rest though, except for forced fullscreen, that seems kind of unnecessary.
A few things contribute to the "immersion" of an MMO I have found:
1. Perspective. Those who played EQ, Mortal Online Darkfall, even games like Oblivion or Morrowind would agree that there is a certain amount of immersion caused by forced first person perspectives. 3rd person games can have immersion, but I think its much more difficult to pull off and needs to rely more heavily on the other points here.
2. Amount of time in-game. It's an old chicken or the egg riddle. Spending lots of times in a game causes you to become much more immersed, greying the line between reality and the game-world, but people might not spend more time in-game unless they become immersed. Some of the older games people talk about what made them so "great" such as no instant-travel, grouping-only combat, and very difficult leveling. All these are timesinks which cause you to get attached to your character and the game. It's harder to get attached to newer games that are made for 30 minute play-time and pushes players away by breaking immersion with real life. Just look at UO's numbers and the way people viewed the game after the introduction of "power hour", no time sink, no immersion.
3. The world is alive. Someone already mentioned this, but WoW does a good job of creating a world that does not feel empty. Even if server populations are low, NPCs are walking around, critters are abound and monsters might even fight with eachother. The game world needs to feel alive even if no one else is there! Some single player games did this very well such as Freelancer.
4. Emotional Ties. If you are emotionally de-tached from the game, then you will never feel immersed and more connected to your character. This is often explained by "fanbois" as things like perma-death, corpse recovery, epic quest lines (taking weeks if not months to complete), full-loot PvP, open PvP ,etc. Basically anything that causes you to react emotionally to a situation. I do not limit this to social interactions, but they can be included here as well. Feeling hurt after being scammed out of items, or feeling scared running through a high level zone to finish a quest.
I have to disagree with your interpretation of points 2 and 4.
Time sinks can be both immersive and massive immersion breakers. Any time sink that results in me wanting to alt-tab and read this site is goign to seriously break immersion. Pretty much any involuntary, grindy time sink is going to kill immersion for me. If the time sink is fun or challenging I will spend hours immersed in the game. Make me spend tiem killing the same boring mobs over and over and I will start counting the specks of dust on the wall.
The emotional reaction thing can backfire on you. It the emotional response is aimed at the in-game universe than you gain immersion (eg that evil troll tricked me into killing the wrong person but I will get my revenge on him in the next zone). However, if the emotions are directed at other players and/or the devs you lose immersion since you are now thinking about out-of-game stuff while playing.
Comments
For me, having all of the arrows everywhere and those incessant messages popping up on screen essentially asking if my brain is damaged or not is the epitome of tedium. When I play a game I want to use my head and be challenged, I'm not in this to follow the yellow brick road.
"Mr. Rothstein, your people never will understand... the way it works out here. You're all just our guests. But you act like you're at home. Let me tell you something, partner. You ain't home. But that's where we're gonna send you if it harelips the governor." - Pat Webb
Sometimes when doing a book quest in Lotro I feel immersed,
I have hard time being immersed in any mmo or any video game for that matter. I think it especially hard in an mmo due to all of the "noise" that you see or hear (UI, chat, voice chat, etcetera).
I was completely immersed in LotRO from Open Beta to Book 8. Then, for me, it became "just another game", one which I still play.
Hedonismbot: Your latest performance was as delectable as dipping my bottom over and over into a bath of the silkiest oils and creams.
Yeh...with in-game maps, fast travel, no risk, quest arrows, exclamation points, sparklies over objetcs...MMORPGs have become nothing but a click fest.
I haven't felt immersed since the EQ/AC days. Vanguard ws close...but then SOE added all the things that made it similar to every other game out there.
So that I can take uncluttered screenshots or video captures. In practice, playing without the UI bits would be an exercise in futility.
not possible. Wait for GW2 and SWTOR.
Guild Wars 2's 50 minutes game play video:
http://n4g.com/news/592585/guild-wars-2-50-minutes-of-pure-gameplay
Everything We Know about GW2:
http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/thread/287180/page/1
Wrong.
Red Dead Redemption, which is not an MMORPG, was more immersive to me than EverQuest (which was my first 3D MMORPG). Red Dead Redemption immersiveness was because of many actual reason, not just nostalgia. Go play Red Dead Redemption and see how an RPG should be played. Too bad it's not an MMORPG. I bet you if an MMORPG plays like RDR it would be the most immersive MMROPG to hit the market.
I'm not saying RDR is a model that should be followed, if I am a designer I would even make a better immersive experience. But Red Dead Redemption is the closest successful example I can give so you'd know that immersion has nothing to do with nostalgia and that it's based on actual game features/mechanics that are long forgotten and ignored.
OP, I would suggest that attempts at creating immersion in MMORPG game settings died when players stopped caring enough to read the story text in favor of just doing the quest objective for loot and XP...
Exploring the world and culture simply isn't what people do when playing the typical MMO. I'd wager they check their combat stats more than the quest dialogue and since it's what's valued it appears more in your face. If enough people cared about immersive quality to keep a game marketable then it would be catered too more.
If i enter a game where people dont take they real life troubles into game and stick to gaming plus a world where im free and as bonus looks nice i could have a immersive feel yes. But ive lately try some games and i see mainly RL chat thats a lvl they should a shamed of my immersion already dropped 80% then i see a world in most games thats to much dictated by devs how they designed it and have not much freedom my immersion when down another 20% and i quit.
Games played:AC1-Darktide'99-2000-AC2-Darktide/dawnsong2003-2005,Lineage2-2005-2006 and now Darkfall-2009.....
In between WoW few months AoC few months and some f2p also all very short few weeks.
Thats why im almost dont play mmo's anymore plus game community that i for most part also dont like.
Games played:AC1-Darktide'99-2000-AC2-Darktide/dawnsong2003-2005,Lineage2-2005-2006 and now Darkfall-2009.....
In between WoW few months AoC few months and some f2p also all very short few weeks.
One of the things that WoW did really well to promote immersion (for me) was all the little details. The boxes stacked next to a barn with hay in them and a mouse running around were realistic even though they looked like a cartoon. The world felt alive. Well, more alive than I was used to in EQ. Theres lots of little details in almost every part of WoW (at least there was at release) I remember being quite anxious to discover every nook and cranny of that world.
Vault-Tec analysts have concluded that the odds of worldwide nuclear armaggeddon this decade are 17,143,762... to 1.
I can still get pretty immersed in DDO (PvE is very immersive) and could get immersed in WAR (While PvPing) DAoC (in both PvP and PvE) when I played them. But could never get immersed in WoW or Rift
It realy just depends on what breaks the immerssion to you. Having the feeling that what you're doing is more than just filling a grocery list can be enough most of the time.
Darkfall = immersion.
Yeah most MMORPGs are marred with unrealistic graphics and situations, but the times I walked away from my computer while AFK-swimming, AFK-gathering, or AFK-crafting were some of the most immersive, realistic experiences I've ever had while playing a MMORPG! It was like I really was cooking stir fry, or buying groceries, or reading a book!
"What is truly revealing is his implication that believing something to be true is the same as it being true. [continue]" -John Oliver
DDO works for me somewhat. Graphically they capture the dark dank dungeon feel pretty well. The combat keeps my mind on the fight rather than the hotbar. The AI can do enough interesting things to keep me engaged rather than repeating the same rotation. The dungeon mechanics such as locks, secrets, keys, traps, and puzzles offer enough variety to keep things fresh even when I already know the dungeon. On the other hand, once I step outside the dungeon its clear I am just going on rides in the theme park. Good rides though.
Spellborn was very immersive to me. No quick travel. No quest markers. Loads of interesting lore. NPC's that actually keep in touch with you as time goes on. The AI responded with some self preservation. The world was somewhat consistent with farms and homes making it feel lived in. It took a bit of effort to handle the slower pacing of the game, but it was well worth it up to a point. So much potential if only they could have filled in the obvious flaws in the game's design.
We really need an Arx Fatalis, Ultima Underworld, Risen, or Gothic inspired MMOG with enough attention to detail that it feels like a real world.
At this point, I would say no....The issue isn't graphics. It's because Dev's simply don't know how to make a proper MMO. I shouldn't say all Dev's, just most.
WoW and most others = Grind fest (once you hit max lvl, then what - thats right - grind for better rep, grind for better armor, grind for something and why - so you'll be better than the guy next to you. Don't get me wrong, WoW was my first mmo and played it for 4 year (but only because I didn't know any better...hehe)
VG= I didn;t play it at release because I was into WoW (Heard it was brokex20000 at release). I did try it a few month ago and was vary nice...open world, crafting better that most, Housing better than most, though I think because of release issue, they lost most subs.
EVE=ok crafting system and great occon, but lets face it, I can't stay in a ship forever. Travel-OMG.
FE=again, crafting ok and thats it, besides some quests, there is nothing to do.
EQ=never played.
EQ2=Crafting is similar to WoW and many other which is laim, Houseing was ok byt let face it-instanced...really?
WURM=Crafting rocks but graphics from the 50's I think. Lots to do but it takes to long to do anything.
Xsyon=Haven't play'd...yet
The bottom line is, no-one has made a mmo with everything in it yet. Someone need to develope a mmo in modern day times (The secret world), with progression systems like (FE, EVEt), Few quests for specific roles, Mainly quest made by players), Craftng as indepth as WURM, EVE, FE, Drops should in no way be better than crafted items (if anything, drops should be special items like mounts, special ingrediant for crafted items, etc), Yes player housing (again indepth crafting to get it down), Players should be able to change the world, Player should be able to leave the world (maybe something like once you get crafting to a certain point, you craft a ship and are able to go to another planet), Good combat. you get the point...All this and good graphics and you might find everyone in the world playing it.
A few things contribute to the "immersion" of an MMO I have found:
1. Perspective. Those who played EQ, Mortal Online Darkfall, even games like Oblivion or Morrowind would agree that there is a certain amount of immersion caused by forced first person perspectives. 3rd person games can have immersion, but I think its much more difficult to pull off and needs to rely more heavily on the other points here.
2. Amount of time in-game. It's an old chicken or the egg riddle. Spending lots of times in a game causes you to become much more immersed, greying the line between reality and the game-world, but people might not spend more time in-game unless they become immersed. Some of the older games people talk about what made them so "great" such as no instant-travel, grouping-only combat, and very difficult leveling. All these are timesinks which cause you to get attached to your character and the game. It's harder to get attached to newer games that are made for 30 minute play-time and pushes players away by breaking immersion with real life. Just look at UO's numbers and the way people viewed the game after the introduction of "power hour", no time sink, no immersion.
3. The world is alive. Someone already mentioned this, but WoW does a good job of creating a world that does not feel empty. Even if server populations are low, NPCs are walking around, critters are abound and monsters might even fight with eachother. The game world needs to feel alive even if no one else is there! Some single player games did this very well such as Freelancer.
4. Emotional Ties. If you are emotionally de-tached from the game, then you will never feel immersed and more connected to your character. This is often explained by "fanbois" as things like perma-death, corpse recovery, epic quest lines (taking weeks if not months to complete), full-loot PvP, open PvP ,etc. Basically anything that causes you to react emotionally to a situation. I do not limit this to social interactions, but they can be included here as well. Feeling hurt after being scammed out of items, or feeling scared running through a high level zone to finish a quest.
**edit**
I also forgot the biggest one!!! Windowed mode... being able to switch between your AIM window and your game breaks immersion every single time you do it.
tl;dr
1. Forced Perspective
2. Time spent in-game
3. World feels alive
4. Emotional ties to the game
5. Forced full-screen mode
"They essentially want to say 'Correlation proves Causation' when it's just not true." - Sovrath
I like DDO too. To me, the best selling point is the scripting sequence inside dungeons. It feels more dynamic (not truly so since it is the SAME sequence if you replay it) than WOW because there events happening inside the dungeon, not just boss fights.
DDO also has better difficulty control and you do NOT need a party of 5 (1, 3 or any number) to go through a dungeon.
I agree with the rest though, except for forced fullscreen, that seems kind of unnecessary.
Yes this is it.
Low population i know but Vanguard hits all the right spots.
Of course it's possible to be immersed, but some of that is just as dependent on the individual's taste as it is on the game.
Mortal Online is a very immersive experience to me. Xsyon is as well.
Everyone's mileage will vary.
Hell hath no fury like an MMORPG player scorned.
I have to disagree with your interpretation of points 2 and 4.
Time sinks can be both immersive and massive immersion breakers. Any time sink that results in me wanting to alt-tab and read this site is goign to seriously break immersion. Pretty much any involuntary, grindy time sink is going to kill immersion for me. If the time sink is fun or challenging I will spend hours immersed in the game. Make me spend tiem killing the same boring mobs over and over and I will start counting the specks of dust on the wall.
The emotional reaction thing can backfire on you. It the emotional response is aimed at the in-game universe than you gain immersion (eg that evil troll tricked me into killing the wrong person but I will get my revenge on him in the next zone). However, if the emotions are directed at other players and/or the devs you lose immersion since you are now thinking about out-of-game stuff while playing.
Well said.