Is WoW Still Immersive?

[Rykin]

Yea I remember that I don't remember it being immersive. It was frustrating and stupid. In fact all it did was serve to ROB me of the immersive value of feeling strong. Your confusing your general ignorance of the game (when it was new and you were new and the resources available to you as a player were quite small and you as a player were smaller) with a poorly designed mechanic. Danger is not in and of itself immersive. Go ahead and take out all the stuff that promotes "risk free gameplay", i mean they tried for part of mists and it didn't fool anybody.

To be blunt the view being expressed by the guy you quoted is ignorant. They could make wow the most painfully difficult and risky game in the universe, so fucking risky in fact that you would never leave Orgrimmar. It would not fool you into being immersed again. Nothing they can do will fool you into being immersed again especially to the degree you were in vanilla. Game Over.

Opinions like that is what killed the immersion, you'd rather have no challenge than a little frustration. Overcoming a little strife gives you a sense of accomplishment making it a more fun an rewarding experience.

[Deleted]

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.

[Deleted]

Though the shine wears off once you start leveling alts

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.

[BenBos]

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.

[Azgraal]

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!

[Kelimbror]

Player decides what and how he plays and sets out complete different goals for himself.

Not immersion

Play hardcore with white gear from NPC's. You'll see the world through a complete other kind of glasses.

Not immersion. Also...no you won't.

Azeroth is certainly the most immersive background world ever created.

No, no it isn't. This is the most unfactual statement you've possibly ever uttered. I love WoW, but this sort of spin is ridiculous.

[dope_danny]

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.

[Akka]

I began playing early Cataclysm so I can't really give a good opinion on how it used to be but the game isn't immersive for me at all anymore.

See the bright side : at least you can say you don't find WoW immersive without being accused of "rose-tinted googles" or "being nostalgic".

[gee]

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.

[Deleted]

Play hardcore with white gear from NPC's. You'll see the world through a complete other kind of glasses.

I think this would definitely ramp up the difficulty of leveling substantially. Iron man challenge comes to mind. Never actually tried it tbh.

[Deleted]

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.

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.

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.

[Ronduwil]

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.

[xanzul]

Whilst doing some shado-pan dailies on my monk the other day I realised I did not feel very immersed in the gameplay. I made the effort to start reading the quest text and instead of listening to music, turn on the in-game sound. This, as silly as it may sound, actually made me feel far more immersed in the gameplay as a whole. I think immersion is still a part of the game but Blizzard may have directed us away from that immersion in certain ways.
Below are some immersion makers as well as immersion breakers which I have come up with through research and personal experience:



Immersion Makers

• Reading Quest Text
• Playing the in-game sound instead of other music - this allows for good in-game atmosphere

• Playing the game with friends

Immersion Breakers

• Questing that holds your hand to the point where it becomes brainless (Questhelper)
• Lack of group questing - Isle of Thunder is an exception
• No encouragement to speak to other players (most of the endgame can be seen through LFD/LFR which requires no communication) - HC scenarios are a start however
• Dead realms. Results in a lack of server community, thus a loss of in-game immersion

So you may have noticed that I listed next to nothing other than HC scenarios and Isle of Thunder questing as recent content to encourage in-game socialising. It, as far as I can see, really does come down to the player to immerse themselves in the game.

Unfortunately it seems there is a lack of encouragement on Blizzards part to socialise with other players. In my opinion this is a huge factor in immersing oneself in the game. I think Blizzard may have dug themselves a hole with the LFR/LFD systems. Unfortunately the convenience of such features are now taken for granted by most players and I can see why - why would you ask a random person on your server to run a dungeon instead of the other one on a different realm?

Is it completely down to the player to immerse themselves in WoW now? Or can Blizzard implement more features that aid in-game immersion, or encouragement of it for that matter, as a whole?

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.