...These immersive games such as Fallout and Skyrim are basically so expansive that it occupies our own perception of time and doing so affects our reality. I feel like it can compare itself to that of a drug inducing effect on the mind. Any opinions on the subject? This topic is neither positive or negative, it is completly neutral being generated through self-observation.

Well, I obssessively check the clock all the time, so it never makes me lose any grasp of time spent on playing games. And immersion is, to me, a question of perspective.

and to answer that question of perspective you check the clock all the time to not lose your self from reality? When I always played, I never brought our observable "time" into account while being immersed in-game.

_{lol i have an amazing explanation of how time is simultaneous via example from Skyrim, let me come back from signing up for school and I can explain.}

No, immersion, not time itself, is a question of perspective. You say Fallout (I'll assume 3 and New Vegas) and Skyrim are immersive games. I don't find them to be immersive. No game I've ever played was immersive.

And I check the clock all the time, not just when playing.

If anything playing Skyrim plays perfectly with reality because I can easily play during baby's stints of sleeping. A far cry from trying to do dungeon raids or a match in any MMO game. It's hard for me to become so engrossed in single player games which is why I have such an affinity for them.

Depends on what you mean by immersive. TES/Fallout are open-world games with a lot to do, but they are not really immersive at all.

Mhm, I was the immersive one being consumed by role-playing my character to the point of it becoming my reality until my physical body demanded comfort via food, sleep etc. shutting down the fake and illusivness these games provided me with. Yay for becoming aware of this happening and not suffering anymore! This is merely something I wished to discuss.
Immersion would be perceiving the game as reality, now the question is why would one want to do that? My opinion would be, to escape this reality which would be a drug inducing effect on the mind I explained in earlier text, similiarly to why people do drugs, to escape reality.

I havent had that issue. (Well not from those games anyway).

I belive its only an issue if you are someone who procrastinates. Games have lots of content, games are more fun, so you just keep putting things off and playing.
In that case, its the person at fault, not the game. If it wasnt a game they would just find something else to bury themselves in.

Kinda like how I could be cleaning my room, but instead I a just listening to music and on here.

I agree. Perfectly in peace we work in harmony, I give much kudos to the fact you didn't imply this to me but people with the problem in general *Pats you on the back*

It seems the longest I play in a day is 4 hours, but it seems so much longer.

I AM DRAGON BORN!!!

Oh, wait. This is real life. I guess that explains why my Fus Ro Da didn't work on my boss the other day.

Today a young man on Skyrim realized that all matter is merely energy condensed into a slow vibration, that we are all one consciousness experiencing itself subjectively, there is no such thing as death, life is only a dream, and we are the imagination of ourselves. Here's Tom with the Weather.

we are all one consciousness experiencing itself subjectively, brilliant... lol wow this blew my mind actually and I will not pridefully try to dismiss this but simply accept it, thanks.

Hmm, an interesting suggestion. I'd look at it maybe more like self-hypnosis, whereby you slowly become suggestive to accepting the "reality" presented by the game, thinking along its rules, and thus become immersed - which you only realise afterward, when something pulls you back out of the game and you notice the sun rising outside.

I definitely can "lose time" when playing a game that is attractive enough to me...but I can do the same thing with a movie, like how some 3 hour movies, when they're over, you say "what? that wasn't 3 hours, no wai." I can also "lose time" when surfing the internet, where reading one page leads to clicking another link and then another and another and another....

Time flies when you're having fun...

I'd probably compare it to that engrossing feeling when you get a really good book, not a drug induced state. But then even with an amazing game or book, I've never perceived that fictional environment as reality. Shrooms on the other hand...

I'm a firm believer in this quote. I had a lecture on thursday that was 3 hours long, and I must have checked my watch 10 times to see if it was time to go yet. When I came home I popped in L A Noire for "half an hour or so." Checked my watch and it was 2 and a half hours later. I simply couldn't believe that I'd managed to lose track like that, it definitely didn't feel like I'd been playing that long.

I don't know if this can compare to drug effects, since I've never taken drugs.

Well, not Skyrim, so much, but I can certainly get lost in a good, immersive game if I have nothing else to be doing. However, like Terra Nova time actually feels slower while gaming for me. "Time flies when you're having fun" rarely applies to me when it comes to games - which is nice.

My experience is having done drugs I have recently quit a while back, and now I see that drugs in general are the least of concerns, all it takes is a chemical in the brain to change the way we expierence things such as that boredom from class to an exciting video game to cause us to fall into the grasp of a video games reality.

You can argue with the logic if you want, the quote is from a dead man so you wouldn't get a great rebuttle from me. I just replaced a non-forum appropriate word in the quote with a topic related one. The guy was Bill Hicks btw he was really funny imo.


I've done a lot of highly controlled (but legally approved at the time of use) drugs and I never did them to escape reality,
In a non-judgemental way trying to immerse into a game to the point it is reality would be more of akin to a disorder like multiple personalities or dimensia than drug use.

On another note..if you're having trouble with reality sometimes you really have to search it out but there is someone around that will try to help you if you need it. If you don't believe me I'd be happy to prove you wrong.

Somewhat on topic actually read an interesting article about scientists discussing how they were attempting to creating artificle intelligence, one of their biggest problems was even if they made it how could they get it to do anything other than sit around and play video games all day?
Basically I think if a sentient creature can sustain it's own life it'll just feel like doing whatever gives it the most satisfaction with the least amount of effort. I think it would be a bit of a stretch to call myself a sentient but I know I do whatever gives the most satisfaction with the least amount of effort quite often.

yes.. video games are an escape from all the important boring stuff.. eg - real life

In that case you could call going for an invigorating run, watching a film or going on a rollercoaster a drug induced state. We don't, because that's sensationalistic. And again, I think the amount of people who genuinely do confuse that fictional environment for reality is very very small.

Most dedicated hobbies/interests are.....it's all an escape from the fact that when not engaged in the things that equal survival via access to eating, shelter/sleeping, or procreating, just sitting around on our collective butts staring at a wall 24/7 isn't very entertaining, interesting or engaging. Which is why anyone who thinks video games are somehow more of a "waste of time" are silly.

Immersion specifically related to gaming actually has me feeling like I'm in the game world. It's like having tunnel vision and the room I'm in, even the monitor, cease to exist. It doesn't feel like reality, mind you. But I'm lost in there.