Sure the game is pretty immersive when you first start playing, everything is a brand new experience lots of sights and places to see. Though the shine wears off once you start leveling alts as it just becomes nothing but a grind. In my honest opinion there's only one place that does immersion pretty well and thats Undercity. Others will have varying opinions. I will say, the very first time I ever set foot into Undercity I spent the next hour picking my jaw up off the floor.
I think this definitely holds true past the 2nd or 3rd alt you level. Time spent doing the same quests over and over is definitely an immersion breaker. It's one of the major reasons why leveling is so frowned upon by many old timers.Though the shine wears off once you start leveling alts
It is immersive for the following reasons:
1. Player decides what and how he plays and sets out complete different goals for himself.
2. Azeroth is an open ended world. Enjoy it while it lasts, because the new MMO's will only let you jump from once closed zone to another one (to save costs).
Some examples:
Play hardcore with white gear from NPC's. You'll see the world through a complete other kind of glasses.
Azeroth is certainly the most immersive background world ever created. The fact it is open to roam with (flying) mounts without much borders (within continents) is such a beautiful piece of Art, we should defend it at all costs, because I am quite convinced we will not have this in future projects.
No matter what the hype will say.
That....that image of the night elf on the video before it loads is so wrong.......
OT: I believe it still is. Not as much on my main, raiding character though. But every once in a while, i log one of my middle-leveled alts in a RP realm, put the view distance right over the shoulder of the character and go explore or simply engage in some casual RP, and it feels like im a new player again when WoW was in beta and everything was new and amazing.... *tears of nostalgy*
Edit: 1500 posts, yay!
Honestly i haven't really found wow immersive since vanilla and its mostly to do with the power creep.
At lvl 20 on my original dwarf main a quest sent me on the tram to sw, i decided to go explore the forests outside, leading me to duskwood. The trees darkened, giant spiders, werewolves and an endless sea of graves stretched out before me and i thought "holy shit im not ready for this" and sure its just a game, but my character felt unprepared since it was my first time there and it hadnt been nerfed to the ground yet for ease of leveling.
But that was 8 years ago, since them my guys killed all manner of gods and demons that all end up feeling like dissatisfying loot pinatas on a treadmill that constantly keeps you aware that its a videogame and your guy will always win everything forever.
Clicking on LFD/LFR button, teleporting and spamming and running along a groups of silent 24 strangers is NOT immersive. There is no world on world of warcraft and there is no war in world of warcraft. It's about purchasing cute pets and sitting in city, clicking LFD/LFR and repeating. It is not even a shadow of what it once was.
I think this would definitely ramp up the difficulty of leveling substantially. Iron man challenge comes to mind. Never actually tried it tbh.Play hardcore with white gear from NPC's. You'll see the world through a complete other kind of glasses.
I have to agree with your point about not feeling ready for a zone back in the day. If you weren't of level for a zone you wouldn't step near it.At lvl 20 on my original dwarf main a quest sent me on the tram to sw, i decided to go explore the forests outside, leading me to duskwood. The trees darkened, giant spiders, werewolves and an endless sea of graves stretched out before me and i thought "holy shit im not ready for this" and sure its just a game, but my character felt unprepared since it was my first time there and it hadnt been nerfed to the ground yet for ease of leveling.
But that was 8 years ago, since them my guys killed all manner of gods and demons that all end up feeling like dissatisfying loot pinatas on a treadmill that constantly keeps you aware that its a videogame and your guy will always win everything forever.
The thing is that no-one needs to go into that higher level zone anymore - they can just run a dungeon and gain a level or two before going into it.
My personal list:
Immersion Makers
- Quest chains with cliff-hanger transitions -- While you were out slaying Monster A, NPC B was kidnapped! Please save them!
- Music that matches the mood -- The static, endlessly looping music in most areas is only nice for a couple of minutes. After that I usually shut it off.
- Long-term goals -- WotLK was fun because killing the Lich King was always in the back of my mind. Every dungeon and raid seemed to tie into that goal in one way or another. Contrast that with Cataclysm and MoP, in which there is no direct connection between the raids and the long-term goal of defeating Garrosh. Heck, that goal wasn't even announced until half way through the expansion!
- Surprises -- I love finding random chests and/or hidden areas. That makes me want to explore more
Immersion Breakers
- Long commutes -- If I have to hop on a taxi and wait for more than 30 seconds to be taken to my next area I usually go do something else for a while. Typically I won't come back to the game for another twenty minutes. By that time I will have forgotten what was going on before I left.
- Dead space
- Trade chat -- No one even trades on it anymore. When people even try they're mocked by trolls.
- Non-PvP quests that require me to compete with other players for resources -- I shouldn't even have to stop what I'm doing to form a group and/or share quests. If I'm actively working on the same goal that another player in the area is, our progress should be shared. That should just automatically happen. If I'm tasked with killing 20 bears and a high level player from my faction swoops into the area and one-shots 15 of them while I'm busy engaging my first, I should be 16/20 of the way done. The way it works now only causes me to harbor resentment against that player and discourages me from engaging them in a sympathetic manner. I shouldn't be thinking, "Crap, here comes another player to 'steal' my kills." I should be thinking, "Nice! The cavalry has arrived!" Blizzard often expresses concern over "splash" experience, but I honestly feel there's nothing to be concerned about. A "the more the merrier" attitude is far more conducive to socialization than the current competitive atmosphere.
I think the word immersive has lost all meaning since it has become a buzz word. This is a video game and it is always going to play like one. You can be as "immersed" as you want within reason but at the end of the day, still a video game. Far too many use this word as an attack on how the game is designed in lieu of actually saying what they do and don't like and trot out "it broke my immersion" line.