Is WoW Still Immersive?

[Vaelorian]

no Dungeon finder killed it for me

Yeah me too actually. This was a huge part of the immersion of finding other "heroes" to go to a dungeon with.

While serverwide it wasn't that bad... (yet already took a bit of the immersion) the crossrealm made it impossible to be immersed imo.

[Elexo]

I tried to remember all the way back to Vanilla what made it immersive.
And it were the awkward and annoying things that they took out that made the world feel alive.

As a hunter I could only bring 1 pet with me, had to feign death to set a trap (couldn't trap in combat), had to make sure to bring plenty of food for my pet and a boatload of arrows/bullets whenever I'd go out.

These things were annoying and could never be put back into the game.. but they did make me feel a lot more like an actual hunter whilst playing the game.

[Wazooty]

It feels more and more like an arcade game as they take more and more "bloat" out. Things like having to feed your hunter pet...being able to buy quivers...arrows...etc.

It's virtually all gone. It no longer feels like you're an inhabitant of this place, you're just a set of stats and hotkeys you press to kill the next enemy.

No longer is the world open enough for people to have different experiences. EVERYONE does EVERYTHING, though maybe at a lesser or higher difficulty. Back in the day there was no quest helper telling you where to go. There were quests scattered all throughout the world that you found simply by exploring/researching. Now the game shuttles everyone down the exact same path to do the exact same quests to get the exact same piece of loot, with stats appropriate to your class, of course.

MMORPG is an unfitting title. MMO-arcade game is more appropriate.

I have not felt immersion since wotlk. In WOTLK I actually felt connected to my character. I felt significance to what I did. When I heard the music in dalaran or grizzly hills I felt like part of a bigger grander world.

Now my characters feel like a set of buttons and stats with a physical avatar attached, nothing more.

[Delekii]

The less I think about it, the more immersive it is. The vast majority of posts in this thread are backwards.

The more of the setting of the quest I can get without reading quest text, the more immersive. The more feel I get for the characters from the environment, the more immersive.

Immersion in an MMO does not come from making sure every little feature of reality is replicated in the game. It comes from deciding which real life features belong nowhere near a game. Arrows, petfood, getting "lost", arbitrary socialisation..... going to the crapper! These are all things that sound like they would be immersive, but actually break immersion because of mechanics involved in doing them.

[Vaelorian]

The less I think about it, the more immersive it is. The vast majority of posts in this thread are backwards.

The more of the setting of the quest I can get without reading quest text, the more immersive. The more feel I get for the characters from the environment, the more immersive.

Immersion in an MMO does not come from making sure every little feature of reality is replicated in the game. It comes from deciding which real life features belong nowhere near a game. Arrows, petfood, getting "lost", arbitrary socialisation..... going to the crapper! These are all things that sound like they would be immersive, but actually break immersion because of mechanics involved in doing them.

Right so for you the game has gotten MORE immersion because those convenience features are here. Or you never felt any immersion anyway.

Fact remains that YOU can not tell ANYONE here that the reasons they feel that way, aren't correct. Immersiveness = feeling. Feeling differs per person.
As a person I wholeheartedly disagree with you.

[Geckoo]

I feel that in order to give us better tools, they also killed the immersion. So is a funny fight because those tools are something that was really needed with the years, they where simply logic, but at the same time those same tools have been damaging the game in long-term.

Something like the dungeon finder was needed, but it also comes with the countereffect that to remain possible, they need to be easier (or at least that's the argument we buy), but being easier you really don't give a shit about what's hapening inside those dungeons.

So no, wow isn't immersive at all, but it is consequence of our own modern-mmo needs.

[Falu]

Since nowadays everything is fed to you in a silver spoon, it's really different than what it used to be.
During vanilla and tbc mainly, you'd be easily immeresed, as content was mainly hard, and in the right pace.
In future expansions though (wrath and beyobnd) the only immersion I felt was during raidindg / leveling for the 1st time in those zones, other than that, yes, things can be immersive, but it's alot more upto the player to get himself immersed, the game doesn't "suck you in" anymore, which made it lose some of it's charm.

The classic leveling zones, mainly in kalimdor / eastern kingdoms, but also the majority of other zones in tbc / northrend are still extremley immersive imo, the problem lies in the fact that you level so damn fast (soon to be faster with the 100% exp buff bought in the store), that you don't spend enough time questing in the same place to become immersed.. which is a darn shame... so much effort has been put into these zones lore-wise, and so many people just miss it altogether... or experience it in a manner which doesn't do it justice.
To be honest, the leveling experience in Pandaria is great and very immersive imo, this expansion is starting to bring back some immersion.
Still, the main problem lies with new players or old ones leveling through old content, as I allready said, theyre missing out on some great lore and experience.

[Pull My Finger]

Actually, there is no real point in discussing this. Objectively speaking, WoW is more immersive than it used to be. The thing is that players don't get immersed so much any more. People always blame something or someone on the outside, because most people are incapable of self-reflexion. Very common.

[Vaelorian]

I feel that in order to give us better tools, they also killed the immersion. So is a funny fight because those tools are something that was really needed with the years, they where simply logic, but at the same time those same tools have been damaging the game in long-term.

Something like the dungeon finder was needed, but it also comes with the countereffect that to remain possible, they need to be easier (or at least that's the argument we buy), but being easier you really don't give a shit about what's hapening inside those dungeons.

So no, wow isn't immersive at all, but it is consequence of our own modern-mmo needs.

Look if LFX was server based it wouldn't have killed the immersion as much. (anti social people also kill immersion)
But because servers are "dying" we needed Crossrealmstuff. While if they had just manned up regardless of any sublosses, and MERGED servers. This problem (and many others) wouldn't exist as much.

[Communism]

The game is just old, imagine being a new player coming in now.

What would you think then?

[Mandible]

Since a lot of what I feel have allready been said I'll stick to this one thing. When the game almost forces you to get to max level in an instant instead of taking your time - then the immersion will be gone.

There are quests and areas that has great immersion still, but doesn't help when blizzard directly say that "it all" happens at max level, and then its mainly dailies (and thats not immersion to me).

- - - Updated - - -

Actually, there is no real point in discussing this. Objectively speaking, WoW is more immersive than it used to be. The thing is that players don't get immersed so much any more. People always blame something or someone on the outside, because most people are incapable of self-reflexion. Very common.

Objectively speaking its not due to what I just posted a sec ago

[Deleted]

Look if LFX was server based it wouldn't have killed the immersion as much. (anti social people also kill immersion)
But because servers are "dying" we needed Crossrealmstuff. While if they had just manned up regardless of any sublosses, and MERGED servers. This problem (and many others) wouldn't exist as much.

Virtual Realms might be a solution for this, effectively "merging" realms together to provide a bigger community and economy, though I'm not sure how this would affect immersion.

[Vaelorian]

Virtual Realms might be a solution for this, effectively "merging" realms together to provide a bigger community and economy, though I'm not sure how this would affect immersion.

I really hope it will make servers feel like a giant home again like it did in Vanilla/TBC. I love seeing people I enjoyed playing with again without having the required realID attached to it.

[ItachiZaku]

I never found MMO very immersive. Why? The boar i just killed respawned 30 seconds later. That boss I killed is back again (dungeon/raid reseting)

Exactly. I'd like full scale phasing. You kill a boss, he's dead for good. Have each tier have a boss that'll drop each type of gear, or quest chain that'll reward each type, so at the end of the tier, after all quests and bosses have been killed, you should have your whole set of epics. If you come in late? Well, you'll have a harder time finding groups or it will be with someones 5th alt.

[Fus Ro Yay]

Yes, for me wow is still immersive.
but then again i spend a lot of time playing by myself, rarely doing BG's / Dungeons
i think the best moment in pandaria was when we opened the gates to the vale or defended Stoneplow.
another series of strong moments for me personaly was the Li Li & Chen quests, trying to track down the other Stormstouts.

it all depends on your prespective if you ask me. Vanilla wasnt "more" immersive, it was just new... thats just my 2 cents anyway.

[Vaelorian]

Since a lot of what I feel have allready been said I'll stick to this one thing. When the game almost forces you to get to max level in an instant instead of taking your time - then the immersion will be gone.

I get what you're saying but think about this: everyone's main is at max level and at max level in vanilla/TBC/WOTLK I have had much MUCH more immersion. Leveling in itself is important the first time around. After that the content itself (the end content be that raids/dungeons/professions/remaining quests/etc) needs to pick up from there and keep it going. It doesn't anymore. And I do not believe this is because I am older now. I might be 34, but some of my guildies are turning 55, which they say aswell that the immersion has been fleeting...

And playing the same game for years on end could be an issue, but then again - if I play WCIII again I am also immersed...still after so many years. If I play Final Fantasy 7 again, I feel once again immersed. Maybe not as much as when I played it for the first time, but still immersed.

[Deleted]

And playing the same game for years on end could be an issue, but then again - if I play WCIII again I am also immersed...still after so many years. If I play Final Fantasy 7 again, I feel once again immersed. Maybe not as much as when I played it for the first time, but still immersed.

So you are saying it does depend on the game itself? This leads me to believe further that Blizzard could maybe implement one or two features, or take a couple out, that will improve the immersion factor. Really though I think it just comes down to the player.

[Vaelorian]

So you are saying it does depend on the game itself? This leads me to believe further that Blizzard could maybe implement one or two features, or take a couple out, that will improve the immersion factor. Really though I think it just comes down to the player.

Obviously it comes down to the player. But a lot of people might like the same thing. Apparantly a lot of people bought Vanilla TBC WOTLK, then people stopped buying/subbing to the game. Apparantly there had been changes that a lot of people did not like (amongst hundreds of other reasons to stop people from playing).

I do not think Blizzard can take a feature out of the game (unless its Have Group Will Travel kind of things) once it is implemented. LFR will not go away I am pretty sure of that. Ergo we get a convenience at the cost of a lot of things. If they continue with this trend of putting more convenience in at the expense of "possible" immersion and accountability and uniqueness of each players character - the more of a shell of a game it will become.

[yuca247]

WoW can be immersive but the problem is most people have been playing it for a long time they no longer care about being immersed. They just want to blow through the content as fast as possible.

Now I've tried every mmo under the sun over the past few years and I always say the most immersive MMO for me is LOTRO. It has it's flaws but it can immerse you like no other imho.

[Shiny212]

Nope, stopped in cataclysm. Handholding cuts you out.