Scampir

interesting. I think... I can understand being super anti-this because "Immersion" has been such an obnoxious, overprized goal of corpo videogames for a long time. But.. I dunno, there've been plenty of movies I've watched where I've purposely turned off my analytical brain for the first watch in order to "just experience it," knowing that I'll probably see the movie again and I can think real hard about it then. (Or even just, after I've finished watching and letting the experience wash over me.)

Like, not every movie, but certain movies I look at as Experiences more than than anything else. Granted, the first ones that spring to mind are like.. Cats and Lion King (2019). Which... I wouldn't necessarily categorize as "Good" experiences, but they were definitely Interesting (aka Fucking Surreal).

Maybe movies are different because they're inherently less "immersive" though? Like, I can see how game immersion would be less pleasant for some people than movie immersion. (Actually, I'm not sure if you'd even call what I just described "immersion"?)

But.. relating it back to the audio clip, it's interesting because "experiencing the movie" to me, in my body, feels like the opposite of "narrowing my focus." My focus is very narrow when I'm trying to actively analyze everything and put it through a critical media-studies-style lens. When I take those glasses off, I feel more relaxed and natural.

But again, movies != games, right? I don't think my brain needs to work super hard to analyze what's happening in a game, because I've lived and breathed game design for so long.

At this point in my life, I think it would actually be really hard for me to feel immersed in a game in the way Michael describes. I'm just way too aware of all the tricks they're using. I know how the sausage gets made and I've made a few myself.

The only thing that does that for me now is certain VR games. And that's at least a very opt-in experience. Like, that's what I want when I put the headset on.