Question about Immersion... Options

[McBadgere]

I'm not entirely sure where to put this topic, but it's something that I've been wondering for a while...

This word, immersion...I get it...I really do...I've lost hours playing Oblivion...Looked up and two hours have gone...

But then I've switched it off and gone and done the washing up...

I keep seeing this complaint about loading times...It's usually no more than 10 seconds on my PS3...And from what I've seen, the PC version is waaay faster than that...So why is it a problem?...

You're not in Cyrodil...In the rain...Facing a smelly Ogre on the road to Bruma...Shooting lightning out of your fingers...Wearing skimpy furs...You're at home (or someone's home)...In front of a screen...Maybe with headphones...And you've probably had to press something on a Mod somewhere...It's warm, maybe the fire/radiators/insert-heating-type-here's on...You may have had some tea/coffee/7up etc...This may cause you to go to the loo?...

That's a question for you "Total Immersion" people actuall...Do you make your character spend time...Going to the loo?...Not a piss-take question...Well it is...Technically...Not a...Mockery question...It's a genuine ask...

Indeed you may even be called away to cook tea for the family...

See what I mean?...

How does a few seconds of loading...Or a suddenly appearing tree/dodgy mountain or lack of limbs flying off, really matter in the context of a game?...

And before anyone accuses me of not being able to immerse myself...I am trying to write something with the characters I've created and the backstories I've come up with as I've played them...Just before I've had to deal with an airlock in the plumbing...

See what I mean?...

This post has been edited by McBadgere: Oct 30 2011, 01:26 PM

[Lady Saga]

Oh yeah, point 5 is where it's at. Where do you live, McB? Do you also get crickets and night insects singing during the summer? In Maryland, they usually start sometime in July, and by mid-August they get quite loud. This goes on until October, too, although as weather gets colder there will be less and less of them.

Oblivion has a lot of crickets at night too, depending where you're at in Cyrodiil. This is where it really gets the full-effect: playing Oblivion on a summer night....crickets in the game, crickets and katydids and even owls behind my house. LIke I said, it's sometimes hard to know where the game's noise ends and the actual forest begins.