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Remember Tetris? The most immersive hand-held game in history probably. It didn't matter where you were, if you had Tetris going then you were oblivious to your surroundings for however long it took to rack up a hi-score. I can't begin to count the number of times I couldn't get out of the school bogs because of lack of circulation in my legs due to Tetris sessions.
Many years later, and many games later, that immersiveness is starting to elude me more and more. Sure, titles in the past like Metal Gear Solid, Final Fantasy VII and more recently Gran Turismo 3 and Vice City have all managed to draw me into their detailed environments for a while, but the effect isn't quite the same. In the old days, I'd flick on a console, fire up a game and that would be it for 8-12 hours, nothing could intrude and my sole interaction with the world was my fingers on a joypad and my eyes fixed to a screen. Today though, things are different.
There's literally hundreds of games out there now calling me to join them in the 3rd place, but hardly any of them cut the mustard. They'll grab my attention for maybe 20 minutes tops, then I'll get an itch in the back of my mind that all is not quite as it should be, this isn't as immersive as I want it to be. Then I'll take a break, feed the cat and come back to a game of Frequency instead, because Frequency is the modern day Tetris in terms of drawing you into that hypnotic state unique to gaming.
Both Tetris and Frequency have a few things in common, the major factor being that they're SIMPLE, just a couple of button presses, no thought required, just fast reflexes. The gameworlds that both games depict have no sense of reality, they are simple symbolic representations helping you complete the task at hand. It's hypnotic gaming in its purest form.
Today's games, however, are more and more based on depicting realities, but very few of these games manage to pull this feat off allowing you to immerse yourself into their worlds without, from time to time, a little niggle here and there, like cardboard cut-out scenery, pop-up, slippy feet, collision detection and so on. Metal Gear Solid: Sons of Liberty came very close, but there was always a niggle during the 'crawling around in a cardboard box' sections. That ain't real. Gran Turismo 3 comes very close as well; if it weren't for the fact that the gameplay alternates between race > menu > race > menu it could be very absorbing indeed.
So for me, getting to the 3rd place involves playing a game that is so believable that it just sucks you in. RPGs in the past have managed this, particularly story driven titles like Final Fantasy VII. The graphics were done in such a way that you 'knew' they weren't meant to be real, but the whole package, taking the gameplay into consideration as well, was able to absorb me for hours on end, despite the random battles. Rhythm-action games have the same effect, what you're doing has no basis with reality, but the synchronicity of sounds, light and button depressions still manage to draw you in.
Today's games? Well, I think they've lost the plot a little. They try to depict reality, and fail miserably by slipping up in one small area that jolts you back to your bedroom again. Or they make up for graphical inadequacies with a gripping storyline that sucks you in, but one hitch in the plot that doesn't ring true in terms of continuity and you're back to normality. Either that or they take a few weeks of gaming just to get proficient with their complex control systems, and a badly designed control system just isn't worth getting to grips with.
That immersiveness just isn't there at present, although I do have high hopes for some of the future titles. So roll-on .Hack and Suikoden III, DownForce and Driver 3, even ChessMaster 9000 and Gitaroo Man 2, all have potential to take me where I want to be.
Many years later, and many games later, that immersiveness is starting to elude me more and more. Sure, titles in the past like Metal Gear Solid, Final Fantasy VII and more recently Gran Turismo 3 and Vice City have all managed to draw me into their detailed environments for a while, but the effect isn't quite the same. In the old days, I'd flick on a console, fire up a game and that would be it for 8-12 hours, nothing could intrude and my sole interaction with the world was my fingers on a joypad and my eyes fixed to a screen. Today though, things are different.
There's literally hundreds of games out there now calling me to join them in the 3rd place, but hardly any of them cut the mustard. They'll grab my attention for maybe 20 minutes tops, then I'll get an itch in the back of my mind that all is not quite as it should be, this isn't as immersive as I want it to be. Then I'll take a break, feed the cat and come back to a game of Frequency instead, because Frequency is the modern day Tetris in terms of drawing you into that hypnotic state unique to gaming.
Both Tetris and Frequency have a few things in common, the major factor being that they're SIMPLE, just a couple of button presses, no thought required, just fast reflexes. The gameworlds that both games depict have no sense of reality, they are simple symbolic representations helping you complete the task at hand. It's hypnotic gaming in its purest form.
Today's games, however, are more and more based on depicting realities, but very few of these games manage to pull this feat off allowing you to immerse yourself into their worlds without, from time to time, a little niggle here and there, like cardboard cut-out scenery, pop-up, slippy feet, collision detection and so on. Metal Gear Solid: Sons of Liberty came very close, but there was always a niggle during the 'crawling around in a cardboard box' sections. That ain't real. Gran Turismo 3 comes very close as well; if it weren't for the fact that the gameplay alternates between race > menu > race > menu it could be very absorbing indeed.
So for me, getting to the 3rd place involves playing a game that is so believable that it just sucks you in. RPGs in the past have managed this, particularly story driven titles like Final Fantasy VII. The graphics were done in such a way that you 'knew' they weren't meant to be real, but the whole package, taking the gameplay into consideration as well, was able to absorb me for hours on end, despite the random battles. Rhythm-action games have the same effect, what you're doing has no basis with reality, but the synchronicity of sounds, light and button depressions still manage to draw you in.
Today's games? Well, I think they've lost the plot a little. They try to depict reality, and fail miserably by slipping up in one small area that jolts you back to your bedroom again. Or they make up for graphical inadequacies with a gripping storyline that sucks you in, but one hitch in the plot that doesn't ring true in terms of continuity and you're back to normality. Either that or they take a few weeks of gaming just to get proficient with their complex control systems, and a badly designed control system just isn't worth getting to grips with.
That immersiveness just isn't there at present, although I do have high hopes for some of the future titles. So roll-on .Hack and Suikoden III, DownForce and Driver 3, even ChessMaster 9000 and Gitaroo Man 2, all have potential to take me where I want to be.
Nice post but id have to disagree with you at:
FantasyMeister wrote:
> Both Tetris and Frequency have a few things in common, the major
> factor being that they're SIMPLE, just a couple of button presses, no
> thought required, just fast reflexes.
i thought tetris was great game of thinking you had to THINK and build up a good strategy of fitting lots of differnet block together to get rid of the blocks, i would'nt really just call it a button presser.
FantasyMeister wrote:
> Both Tetris and Frequency have a few things in common, the major
> factor being that they're SIMPLE, just a couple of button presses, no
> thought required, just fast reflexes.
i thought tetris was great game of thinking you had to THINK and build up a good strategy of fitting lots of differnet block together to get rid of the blocks, i would'nt really just call it a button presser.
I'm sure drink copious anounts of alcohol would help :P
Good post FM.
Good post FM.
The real way to get to the 'third place' is to keep hitting your head against the Playstation 2.
Then, go to your nearest lake and the ducks will talk to you!
Honest! I've tried it!
Then, go to your nearest lake and the ducks will talk to you!
Honest! I've tried it!
Remember Tetris? The most immersive hand-held game in history probably. It didn't matter where you were, if you had Tetris going then you were oblivious to your surroundings for however long it took to rack up a hi-score. I can't begin to count the number of times I couldn't get out of the school bogs because of lack of circulation in my legs due to Tetris sessions.
Many years later, and many games later, that immersiveness is starting to elude me more and more. Sure, titles in the past like Metal Gear Solid, Final Fantasy VII and more recently Gran Turismo 3 and Vice City have all managed to draw me into their detailed environments for a while, but the effect isn't quite the same. In the old days, I'd flick on a console, fire up a game and that would be it for 8-12 hours, nothing could intrude and my sole interaction with the world was my fingers on a joypad and my eyes fixed to a screen. Today though, things are different.
There's literally hundreds of games out there now calling me to join them in the 3rd place, but hardly any of them cut the mustard. They'll grab my attention for maybe 20 minutes tops, then I'll get an itch in the back of my mind that all is not quite as it should be, this isn't as immersive as I want it to be. Then I'll take a break, feed the cat and come back to a game of Frequency instead, because Frequency is the modern day Tetris in terms of drawing you into that hypnotic state unique to gaming.
Both Tetris and Frequency have a few things in common, the major factor being that they're SIMPLE, just a couple of button presses, no thought required, just fast reflexes. The gameworlds that both games depict have no sense of reality, they are simple symbolic representations helping you complete the task at hand. It's hypnotic gaming in its purest form.
Today's games, however, are more and more based on depicting realities, but very few of these games manage to pull this feat off allowing you to immerse yourself into their worlds without, from time to time, a little niggle here and there, like cardboard cut-out scenery, pop-up, slippy feet, collision detection and so on. Metal Gear Solid: Sons of Liberty came very close, but there was always a niggle during the 'crawling around in a cardboard box' sections. That ain't real. Gran Turismo 3 comes very close as well; if it weren't for the fact that the gameplay alternates between race > menu > race > menu it could be very absorbing indeed.
So for me, getting to the 3rd place involves playing a game that is so believable that it just sucks you in. RPGs in the past have managed this, particularly story driven titles like Final Fantasy VII. The graphics were done in such a way that you 'knew' they weren't meant to be real, but the whole package, taking the gameplay into consideration as well, was able to absorb me for hours on end, despite the random battles. Rhythm-action games have the same effect, what you're doing has no basis with reality, but the synchronicity of sounds, light and button depressions still manage to draw you in.
Today's games? Well, I think they've lost the plot a little. They try to depict reality, and fail miserably by slipping up in one small area that jolts you back to your bedroom again. Or they make up for graphical inadequacies with a gripping storyline that sucks you in, but one hitch in the plot that doesn't ring true in terms of continuity and you're back to normality. Either that or they take a few weeks of gaming just to get proficient with their complex control systems, and a badly designed control system just isn't worth getting to grips with.
That immersiveness just isn't there at present, although I do have high hopes for some of the future titles. So roll-on .Hack and Suikoden III, DownForce and Driver 3, even ChessMaster 9000 and Gitaroo Man 2, all have potential to take me where I want to be.
Many years later, and many games later, that immersiveness is starting to elude me more and more. Sure, titles in the past like Metal Gear Solid, Final Fantasy VII and more recently Gran Turismo 3 and Vice City have all managed to draw me into their detailed environments for a while, but the effect isn't quite the same. In the old days, I'd flick on a console, fire up a game and that would be it for 8-12 hours, nothing could intrude and my sole interaction with the world was my fingers on a joypad and my eyes fixed to a screen. Today though, things are different.
There's literally hundreds of games out there now calling me to join them in the 3rd place, but hardly any of them cut the mustard. They'll grab my attention for maybe 20 minutes tops, then I'll get an itch in the back of my mind that all is not quite as it should be, this isn't as immersive as I want it to be. Then I'll take a break, feed the cat and come back to a game of Frequency instead, because Frequency is the modern day Tetris in terms of drawing you into that hypnotic state unique to gaming.
Both Tetris and Frequency have a few things in common, the major factor being that they're SIMPLE, just a couple of button presses, no thought required, just fast reflexes. The gameworlds that both games depict have no sense of reality, they are simple symbolic representations helping you complete the task at hand. It's hypnotic gaming in its purest form.
Today's games, however, are more and more based on depicting realities, but very few of these games manage to pull this feat off allowing you to immerse yourself into their worlds without, from time to time, a little niggle here and there, like cardboard cut-out scenery, pop-up, slippy feet, collision detection and so on. Metal Gear Solid: Sons of Liberty came very close, but there was always a niggle during the 'crawling around in a cardboard box' sections. That ain't real. Gran Turismo 3 comes very close as well; if it weren't for the fact that the gameplay alternates between race > menu > race > menu it could be very absorbing indeed.
So for me, getting to the 3rd place involves playing a game that is so believable that it just sucks you in. RPGs in the past have managed this, particularly story driven titles like Final Fantasy VII. The graphics were done in such a way that you 'knew' they weren't meant to be real, but the whole package, taking the gameplay into consideration as well, was able to absorb me for hours on end, despite the random battles. Rhythm-action games have the same effect, what you're doing has no basis with reality, but the synchronicity of sounds, light and button depressions still manage to draw you in.
Today's games? Well, I think they've lost the plot a little. They try to depict reality, and fail miserably by slipping up in one small area that jolts you back to your bedroom again. Or they make up for graphical inadequacies with a gripping storyline that sucks you in, but one hitch in the plot that doesn't ring true in terms of continuity and you're back to normality. Either that or they take a few weeks of gaming just to get proficient with their complex control systems, and a badly designed control system just isn't worth getting to grips with.
That immersiveness just isn't there at present, although I do have high hopes for some of the future titles. So roll-on .Hack and Suikoden III, DownForce and Driver 3, even ChessMaster 9000 and Gitaroo Man 2, all have potential to take me where I want to be.