We chat about videogames and videogame accessories.

When fighting games were the rage, we had our own boondoggles that at best seem like a good idea for however long it takes you to get exhausted, or realize how your reaction time is no longer as good as it was on a controller, or suddenly find that you need a new coffee table, your friend’s leg isn’t bending the right way, and your arm is broken in seven places.

Not everything has to be immersive anyway! Some genres and games are just less suited for it. Immersion is probably the least of my concerns in pretty much any game but I guess what do I know, what with my desire for silly outdated concepts like gameplay. Then again, I tend to find devices intended to enhance my immersion (e.g. Silent Protagonists) only distract me, so maybe I'm a bad example.

It’s been called “the immersive fallacy” in one of the standard texts since at least 2003, so you have some bigwig academics on your side? As academic as video games get, anyhow.

Robert Yang recently put it well: “The game industry argues that games ‘immerse’, but immersion theory confuses realism for presence, and production value for realism.” Ouch!