|
Abstract:
|
Immersion and interactivity have long been heralded as the products of good video game design. The immersive, interactive experience has been regarded as the ideal experience for the video game player. However, the spread of an online gaming culture through massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs) has shifted the role of video games in everyday life. The immersive, interactive ideal is no longer so simple. Immersion in practice is a more complicated phenomenon than previously thought. The role of interactivity in shaping player experience has been also grossly underestimated. While MMORPGs possess many of the qualities associated with the traditional conception of immersive design, the player often interacts with the virtual world in a way that is necessarily against immersion. The player's interaction with the MMORPG often extends beyond the in-world experience into other media and social outlets, pulling the player out of the immersive environment of the MMORPG world. This project investigates how the concepts of immersion and interactivity as we know them are not adequate to discuss to player experience in today's massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs). Using the narrative system of World of Warcraft as my example, I will illustrate why traditional conceptions of immersion and interactivity are inadequate to address the affective experience of today's MMORPG player and define new ways of looking at the total, aggregate experience of the MMORPG player. |