So where is the immersion?

MMO fans now might laugh because I mentioned the evil word. Something I heard not long ago was :"MMOs are not about immersion, they are about effectiveness."
Seeing how much damage one does to enemies, how to get the best equipment, how to effectively decorate the house and how to effectively grind dungeons.

SotA has this. It is a MMO. Not from the very beginning, no. If we look at the first videos that were released, SotA did look like something else, something unique. But somehow it changed during development to a standard MMORPG we can also play offline.

Many of the game mechanics and the design decisions seems to have been made to please those dwindling numbers of players who like numbers, windows, bars, lists and think that those are more important than immersion. SotA just shows this, straight into our faces.
Where is the immersion?

Sure we can remove the HUD which basically removes the ability to play the game as the mechanics rely on the HUD. Next is crafting: We need to open lists and windows in order to craft items. There is no way to do everything directly in the world.
The same goes for the character progression system. We meet static trainers without backgrounds and personalities and train skills which we see in a window with numbers...
We do our dialogues in a chat-window.
When I see some of the screenshots and the UI some people use I cannot help myself but think that windows, lists and numbers are more important than the world, the story and everything else. SotA is played in windows and lists.
So again my question: Where is the immersion?

I watched videos of Sea of Thieves and Escape from Tarkov - both are MMORPGs and they do not use any HUD at all. In Sea of Thieves everything is done in a natural way directly in the game and not with lists or windows. THIS is immersion, this is new and unique. Other games like Hellblade show health of the hero or the enemies in a unique, natural and very immersive way without any bars or numbers.

The games from Origin have always been about bold new approaches, about the best possible immersion. Ultima 7 and Ultima 8 didn't have any HUD at all, everything could be done directly in the game world. So what has happened to the genre to decline and go back to the ages where everything had to be done in lists and windows?
WHERE IS THE IMMERSION?

 

Probably in another game.

It may be time to give up, a few weeks before launch, that game won't change so drastically.

 

(Kneels and bows his head reverently before his beloved Ultima V)

 

I thought release was in december of 2016? Did that get push up, Though last wipe is in july I was under the impression its still in developement.

 

I loved those stand alone ultima games but they always seamed to missing something- other players

 

Agreed...

 

The game was released as soon as it was available on "early access".

The launch of the persistent world is on July.

December 2016 ? It's just a marketing deadline, like december 2015 was supposed to be the "release" back to january 2015.

 

Use the non-list inventory bag mode. I wouldn't say this game is anything like a standard MMORPG. . we don't have exclamation marks and/or question marks telling us which train tracks to follow.

 

I suspect immersion takes time and costs money.

 

Launch isn't until the end of the year. Server persistence/final wipe is not launch.

 

Maybe it's just me, but I don't need to hide the HUD to feel immerse into games, though. As long as the games don't focus too much on meta-gaming, they do leave room for me to feel being part of the game settings/lore/storyline and such. I mean... I feel I like Skyrim and Bethesda Fallout series because I can keep thinking of myself being part of the game world, not just because I view the game in 1st person view.

 

Content - this is what you want.

Systems/Balance/Performance is what is on the table now, Content is next after those have been solidified.
You should know this by now, and know content will take months and months to develop.

 

I spend most of my day looking at lists, checklists, and Windows. Pretty immersive work day.

If you want Middle Ages immersion try fighting diseases most of your life, living on scraps, and dying as an old man at 30.

Immersion is different for everyone.

 

When I play the game I have tons of immerssion. Then I come to the forums and realize that most people don't really know what immersion is and what immersion isn't. This thread is a perfect example. Immerssion is not skipping around a single player world where dumb NPC's (and literally all NPC's in all games are dumb) relay bits and pieces of a story to your pile of stats and loot that you call a character.

Years ago, before multiplayer was possible, that was the best we could do. Now though there are living and breathing and most importantly THINKING people that can respond to you and help you become a part of the story. Where's the immerssion? In multiplayer.

Of course, there is a single player game and that does have it's roots in a more static and linear path that can also be fulfilling and satisfying. The two don't necessarily have to be opposed to one another, but can they be as immerssive as one another? I doubt it. Where's the immerssion? Well like many other things I believe technology has sailed passed that port and those looking for immerssion in single player games are likely also looking for new songs to put in their 8 track cassette players.

Games like Wasteland and X-COM and Pillars of Eternity are fantastic, but are they immerssisve? I guess that depends on who you're talking to.

Btw, they created a whole "New Player Experience" section on the forums where specific and actionable feedback could go on scenes that are already in game. I haven't seen a lot of posts there of ideas that would make them more "Immerssive". Which is really frustrating to me because if some people on the forums took just 1/3 of the time they've spent whining about what the game isn't (for them) and refocused that on what EXACTLY could change, then maybe the last 3 years of work wouldn't be so unsatisfying (to them).

Oh well, I'm super excited about playing in the extremely immerssive multiplayer world that I've actively been giving actionable feedback about since the beginning of development.

 

Hi, I am fairly new, my brother turned me on to this game... so here is 2 cents from a noob

^^^This statement...^^^ This free and open multiplayer world is very "immersive"! Hehehe it might be too immersive..! I can spend way too much time in here with everyone and whatever they are up to - Avatars are up to all sorts of stuff... People are running around with some pretty cool Avatars too, and nice houses, set up lots... err entire Towns..! (And its going to and has been getting wiped!)

I also like that while this game has so much to do and is so extensive(players build all the good stuff - equipment and even most of the content in the towns), yet I am completely free to do whatever I want, and it does not require 100% of my attention 100% of the time I am playing it. I can have a great time and a casual time and a social time at the same time hehehe... and those are good times

 

While Sea of Thieves looks like a huge amount of fun (I've been playing Pulsar: Lost Colony which is similar but with a sci-fi twist and no PvP), you won't be finding your single-player experience there

I would love a minimalistic approach to design, though. Considering that a lot of people are fighting tooth and nail to prevent player's motor skills to have any impact in combat (especially with the targeting; making the devs having to resort to a Frankenstein mashup that is the reticle system), I doubt we'll see something so simple and intuitive as what you saw in Sea of Thieves.

... as fun as it looks, it's probably not going to be that deep of an MMO... get it? "deep"? SEA of Thieves? Okay, I'll show myself out.

 

This statement implies you are under the impression that we will still see some major changes in design. At this point, literally weeks before the game becomes persistent, I think its pretty clear that this aint gonna happen.

 

Weeks? december is months away acording my my calandar anyways.

 

The game becomes persistent long before December.

 

But I was talking about launch u know eps 1 complete. Its stiil early access construction zone until then.