Don’t break the immersion

During my ongoing literature review I often discover interesting facts about things I’ve never thought about. Sometimes I can connect these facts with my own observations: The result is mostly a completely new idea why things are as they are. Maybe these ideas are new to you, too. Therefore I’ll share my new science based knowledge with you!

This week: This time, I think about the advantage of implementing a knowledge database directly in a game. The database could help players to develop a deeper understanding of the facts presented in the game without breaking the immersion of it.

There are several great examples for presenting knowledge directly in a computer game. „Civilization V“ provides the player with a huge database about the history of humanity. The players can look up important facts about certain buildings or units, if they are interested in them. The Mars rover simulation „Take On Mars“ offers an encyclopedia about the exploration of Mars and gives the players the opportunity to develop a better understanding of it. The space agency management game „Buzz Aldrin’s Space Program Manager“ offers additional insights about the celestial bodies of our solar system and all the different spacecrafts used in the early days of spaceflight.

But why are these databases so important? Although the main purpose of these three above-mentioned games is still the entertainment, all of them are also educating the players. The main topic of these games has a direct connection to the real world and the players are automatically learning new facts about this topic just by playing the game. However, not all the important facts about a certain historic building or spacecraft can be presented in the game world, because it would overwhelm the players with too much information. On the other hand, all these information are important in order to develop a deeper understanding of the content presented in the game.

While the players are progressing through the game, they are getting introduced to a new topic. Over time, they might get interested in this particular topic and start to look for some more information about it. This development is described with the so-called tangential learning. Tangential learning describes the process during which a player gets motivated to look for additional information about a certain topic by playing a game or enjoying any other media product. As soon as the players reach this point, they have to leave the game in order to look up some additional information and to gain more specific knowledge. Unfortunately, this would break the immersion of the game.

By implementing a knowledge database directly into the game, the players can look up the desired additional knowledge directly in the game without breaking the immersion. Furthermore, the players can immediately satisfy their needs for additional insights into the topic without the need of searching for good information on the internet. In return, this could result in a better learning outcome, because the players are still within a motivating environment and they can immediately visualize the just learned knowledge by continuing the game.