Research - Video Game Journalism

Google search: "immersion + [video game journalism site]"

http://www.gameinformer.com/blogs/members/b/shotgun65_blog/archive/2012/07/16/immersion-in-gaming-how-to-know-a-player-is-immersed.aspx

http://www.gameinformer.com/blogs/members/b/thegodofwine7_blog/archive/2013/02/15/4-things-that-totally-destroy-the-immersion.aspx

http://techtv.mit.edu/videos/4413-lecture-clint-hocking-the-territory-is-not-the-map-hyper-realism-and-the-new-immersion-paradigm

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2012/09/11/dishonored-devs-try-to-pin-down-immersion/

http://kotaku.com/tag/immersion

http://kotaku.com/5716027/do-video-games-really-need-to-be-immersive?comment=34528157#comments

http://kotaku.com/5603786/against-immersion

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012-03-09-bastion-dev-dlc-can-compromise-atmosphere-and-immersion

So i found all these articles in my search for immersion on various video game journalism sites but what i found contradicted my belief that immersion is a very thinly spread concept.

What i found is that while it still means slightly different things to different people, the basic definitions people cite mostly revolve around narrative immersion, and while i believe that there is more to immersion than that, immersion into a story is probably the most fundamental form in which that term can be used, not just for video games but for all mediums.

I will be making appropriate amendments to my essay to reflect this finding.

Plan

Here is the quick plan i've written up for my paper, note that the Intro and Summary are not titles, i merely underlined them to distinguish the opening and closing of this work:

Intro

Player

-          Expectations

o   Source: SWG

-          Social

o   Multiplayer

-          Psychological

o   Escapism

o   Thrill

o   Identification with character

Game

-          Narrative

o   Universal Medium

-          Artistic

o   Graphics

o   Art Style

o   Quality

-          Environment

o   Narrative Spaces

o   Level Design

o   Lighting

-          Technical

o   Physics

o   Animation

o   Sound

o   Coding

Summary

Chosen subject of written piece

I have finally come to the decision as to what my study of immersion will consist of and it is a simple one. I will not be challenging the various theories put forth as to what immersion is, i will simply be breaking down the immersive aspects of a Video Game and writing about them all. My conclusion will simply be a summary of these aspects and how they differ from the immersive aspects of other mediums.

Idea Generation: Word Circles

Word Circles are a useful tool for helping narrow your field of research, or just to find something to research in the first place. They allow us to take our subject area and look within them to find interesting questions for our research projects.

There are four simple steps to creating a word circle, and they are as follows:


Step 1:

Write a number of words related to your subject area on to a page, then take the words that most prominently relate to your subject area and arrange them in a circle on another page

Step 2:

Pick a few words in your circle and use them to create a question. It doesn't matter if the words don't quite relate or if the question sounds strange.

Step 3:

Take these question and attempt to answer them briefly.

Step 4:

Use these answers to create new questions, then repeat steps 3 and 4 until you have what you need to create your essay.

Source: "Worlds in Play: International Perspectives on Digital Games Research"

I stumbled across this book or at least a particular section of it, after googling the term "immersion in video games". Up until now i have been trying the physical books available from my college library, unsuccessfully. Now with this simple search i believe I've found something useful. Watch this space.

Before i start i will say that it seems that i have no means of accessing the entire book without purchasing the thing myself, and unfortunately google has cut out some pages which may have proved useful, still I've taken what i can. Here are my notes:

Here's a link to this source.

[UPDATE]:

I have found whilst searching for other sources something that probably would have been apparent had i read a brief summary of this books contents. It turns out this book is a collaboration of different articles that can be found around the web in their entirety, including the immersion study i was interested in reading about which i found HERE.

Research

"Presence" as an equal term for Immersion?
Presence refers to the feeling of inhabiting a distant location while physically being in another.


- 'Digital Games as Designed Experience" by Gordon Calleja (pg. 83)

True definitions for presence and immersion are, like that of games themselves, non existent due to conflicting theories and ideas.

What's been happening up until now?

Today we had the first session after coming back from Christmas break. This module has been running since we first started back in September, so whats been happening since then? Well i decided to take everything i had posted so far and summarise everything we've done up until now given that this is the turning point in our course.

The past few months have seen my classmates and i watching and discussing various movies and texts and the thought provoking themes they cover. The overlying theme for all of these discussions seemed to be lack of individuality in people and in the work they create.

- Simulacra

A discussion of how the real and the simulation no longer exist because nothing is based on anything original, meaning that everything is based on something that is based on something else.

- Narrative Spaces

A highly interesting piece that delves into various ways the environment, both in and out of games can be used to influence a participants emotional state, evoke memories of familiar narratives and generally influence their immersive experience.

- Videodrome

At it's most basic, a film about a man whose desire for ratings leads him to the discovery of a weaponized television broadcast that aims to purge america of the 'low-lifes' who enjoy sexual violence. At it's most complex the meaning is, i'm afraid to say, lost on me.

- Existenz

A film that takes the idea of a photorealistic video game and uses it to challenges the viewers beliefs of what is real, and what is simulation.

- 2001: A Space Odyssey

An often bewildering film whose meaning has been discussed and contested endlessly since its release.

- Barthes, Foucault and the death of the author.

"The birth of the reader must be at the cost of the death of the Author"

Grand Narratives "One single fixed way of seeing the world"
- Culturally constructed narratives which explain the way things are
  (e.g. Religion, Science, Philosophy, etc)

Quote:
- A piece of work is normally linked with the author (e.g. Tarantino films)
- The author is used to find meaning in the work


NOTHING IS ENTIRELY ORIGINAL