01-18-2005, 11:34 PM
See, now, I find WoW completely immersive. I completely relate to my characters and on a fairly regular basis when I walk into a new area I find myself just stopping to look at stuff. And the little touches are brilliant. I love the fact that the default camera position matches your height so if you move the camera right behind your dwarf/gnome you end up looking up at everything and the world seems taller. And most computer RPGs aren't role playing at all, they line you up with the story they want to tell, and drive you through it. There's no RPG in FF, for example, just a linear story they set up that you play through. There's a TON more RPG in WoW. PvP servers drive this substantially. A lvl 30 Tauren killing low level night elves in Darkshore getting taken down by a player working patrol for newbies is a great example. You can always choose to get so into power leveling and the numbers that you lose sight of immersion because everything is seen as "what can I min/max?" but if you let yourself relax and enjoy it it's quite a ride. The first time I wandered across from Elwynn to Darkshire I got seriously creeped out - now that's immersion.