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Understandably, the process of perfecting a game has become an extremely tedious task as the technology has become more, and more advanced. When developers do create an outstanding game, it is easily recognizable. One of the things that these games have, that the other titles do not, is the immersion factor. A good game can put the player in a “zone” where they no longer have to think about what they are doing. Unfortunately, there are many of flaws that break the illusion. Some are technical, while some are design flaws, but they all contribute to degrading the experience. Here is a list of these flaws, and why developers want to focus on minimizing them.

Note: “Immersive” does not mean “real”. If you can’t distinguish a game from your life, both are in serious need of help. Also note that if your companion cubes talk to you it’s not immersive either, it’s creepy.

#1 Texture Popping

Sorry Mass Effect, maybe the citadel needs to install longer elevators. One of the most unprofessional ways to break the illusion is a temporary absence of textures. In the end, it doesn’t matter how good the resulting texture is, but if a substantial amount of the textures have to load their realism has no value because the game has reminded us that is all it is, a texture. This isn’t a problem if the textures load on the screen quickly and don’t pop frequently, but it is ultimately better to have less impressive textures that are there when they need to be.

#2 Object Popping

For the same reason as texture popping, object popping is a horrible way to ruin immersion that the player has in the game. Now, I’m not talking about objects in the horizon coming into view because of draw distance, that’s fine. What is problematic is when NPCs or other models are generated when the player is a few feet away from them. Assassin’s Creed suffers from this quite a bit. Ubisoft almost has the problem under control, but the game is often a second behind the player. Guards, people, sometimes even trees will appear momentarily after turning a corner, reminding you that it’s just a game. This is a severe problem for a game that depends on its “real world” rules.

#3 Inconsistent Environmental Interaction

Now that I have picked on Assassin’s Creed, it is time to commend it. Inconsistent Environmental Interaction, it is a mouthful, but what does it mean? Unlike the previous two problems, this one is, for the most part, a design issue. Inconsistent environmental interaction is when the players’ ability to interact with the environment is not consistent. For example, when a player is able to open some doors but not others. Assassin’s Creed is the opposite. How is that? Well, In Assassin’s Creed, the player is unable to open any doors, hence the game has consistent environmental interaction. The problem is, developers have become too used to only providing necessary interaction. When things consistently do not work the way they should, it is a problem. Players should not have to guess whether performing a certain action would actually do anything. Take Half-Life 2 for example. Levers or lever like set ups will always react to unbalanced weight, and realistically. Though using a seesaw is not always the solution to puzzles (even though it might feel like it is sometimes), players can rely on the mechanic to work consistently.

#4 Interruptive Loading

Loading has become much more of a problem with next/current gen hardware. It is bad to have the game interrupted unexpectedly. Now, if your mom’s calling you for dinner, that’s different, because it’s worse to not eat than be interrupted. That said it is a poor design choice if the game itself stops the action. A game that is bad for this is Half-Life 2. It would not be so bad if the interruptive loads were a fraction of a second long like they are in Halo 3, but they’re not. A team that does seem to understand this problem is Ubisoft, specifically the team in Montreal. While it can’t be denied that Assassin’s Creed’s loading is not by any means short, once the game does load the player is given an overwhelmingly huge space to freely run around to their content with out any further loads.

Be sure to read part two later. In it, I’ll explain why it’s bad for a player to fall through a church roof.