“EVE Online is renowned for its depth. Its backstory, gameplay and social aspects are all qualities that draw players in. What does immersion in EVE Online mean to you?”
If you look at the trailers and screen shots, you would think that EVE is a visually immersive game. While you can indeed have your EVE experiences look familiar to those, generally you won’t. EVE requires you to have a good overview of what is happening around your character – so for the most part you tend to play it zoomed right back.
While the player driven history (and to a far lesser extent it’s backstory) certainly adds to the game’s appeal, I don’t find immersion from it on a day to day basis. For as much as the social aspects of the game draw you to it – they can just as easily push you away. The loudest and most obvious people associated with EVE tend to be the scammers, griefers, thieves, trolls, and outright deranged and delusional.
When I started out playing EVE, I was immersed in how fascinating the game was, the sense of vastness, the unknown, the exploration, experimenting, and the myriad of goals available for you to chase down. Throw in getting to know a variety of different people from around the world, and it was a game I loved spending time in.
Now I’ve been playing EVE for over 5 years, and it doesn’t feel so big, or quite as interesting. I still get immersed in the game, but for a different reason.
I sit there with my three accounts spread across three screens, with Ombey’s printed maps sitting beside my keyboard, and a plethora of windows and screens open – a mix from EVE Fitting Tool, the ISK Guide PDF, my EVE Excel Data Spreadsheet, OneNote, TS3, EVEMon, Battleclinic, or forum pages for the Corporation, Alliance, Kugutsumen or Failheap Challenge. I get immersed in its complexity.
It is like an all encompassing distraction. While in that zone I am not thinking about work, or the wife, or the kids, or the massive to do list. Just for a little while I am focused on an unimportant amusement. It is not so much an escape from reality – more just some much appreciated downtime.
A list of participants (that will be updated by the owner as time permits) can be found here:
http://freebooted.blogspot.com/2011/10/blog-banter-29-immersion.html
Evehermit 