„Extended“ 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’ll present my own observations of the blurring between virtuality and reality evoked by an intense gameplay in combination with the use of realistic sounds.

This article is mostly based on my own observations and was supported by some let’s plays[1] I’ve seen[2]. During gameplay of certain computer games I experienced a certain degree of increased or extended immersion: the real world sometimes influenced my gameplay and intruded in it.

Typically because total immersion is very hard to achieve or even impossible[3], immersion starts to collapse if there’s an external distraction. Even if the immersion doesn’t collapse, the real world events are still recognized. Immersed gamers identify these external events as real world events and do have a clear distinction between game world and real world. Additionally players can be immersed into their game but as soon as they get a little bit distracted or lose their focus from the screen, the immersion can disappear.

However, certain games have in some point a very close and realistic connection to the real world. These „realistic“ games can to a certain degree swallow an external event. This leaves the player confused if something just has happened in the game or in the real world. The absorbtion of external events however has an important constraint: the event has to be off screen. This constraint makes clear that the absorbtion is based on realistic sounds. As soon as the event is visual, the effect doesn’t apprear.

A game has its setting in an urban environment and is thus simulating traffic. The recognition between game event and real world event can blur, if the sounds of the cars are made very realistic. Players can hear a car driving near by and conclude that there’s a car somewhere around them. However players can hear the sound of a real world car passing by and in case of a deep immersion start thinking that there’s a car in the game. As soon as the player has a visual on the event, the blurring between the two worlds will immediately collapse.

One very good example is the ARMA 2[4] mod „Day Z„[5]. ARMA 2 is a very realistic military simulation and thus has a lot of realistic connections to the real world. The zombie-survival modification „Day Z“ benefits a lot from this realism. It’s a very intense gameplay of staying alive in a post-apocalyptic world. One reason for that is the very good simulation of different sounds. Players are dependent on the sounds to identify potential dangers. Was someone shooting in this town? Is a vehicle approaching my position? Has a zombie seen me?

Normally, sounds of shots or zombies aren’t a part of our daily life. Passing vehicles however are pretty normal. One of the biggest dangers in Day Z are helicopters that are luckily audible from far away. Now things can start to blur. A player who’s deeply immersed by the intense gameplay is moving carefully through the wilderness. Suddenly the sound of a helicopter starts comming closer. The player starts to scan the sky to get a visual on the helicopter. After a short time of confusion, the player realizes that it was a real world helicopter just passing by.

If the gameplay is very intense, players can get deeply immersed into the game. In combination with realistic sounds, off screen events can start to blur the gap between reality and virtuality. However the „extended“ immersion will immediately collapse if the player has a clear visual on the event.

References

[3] Schweinitz, Jörg (2006): Totale Immersion und die Utopie von der virtuellen Realität, in: Neitzel, Britta; Nohr, Rolf F. (Eds.), Das Spiel mit dem Medium – Partizipation – Immersion – Interaktion, Marburg.