The concept of Immersion

AA App / Events

I hadn’t done that one yet, had I?
Not explicitly.
And yet: the Immersion. The Alpha and Omega of all game developers. The new genre credo of gamers.
It is necessary to achieve the most perfect immersion possible.
Yes ma’am.

And madam wasn’t talking about it? Madam was snubbing this? Madam did not know, perhaps?

Madam, do you know what she says, madam?
She says that when she can wait for the right time to talk about things, it’s better.

And now, it’s time.

So immersion.
Immersion means offering your players a perfect illusion – as total as possible.
And : beware, no one is joking.
Don’t forget that there are guys out there, in their life, all they have to do is howl like demented wolves when they find fake connections in movies. The production laughed at them. It broke their beautiful immersion. It almost took them for sheep.
So it’s very serious.

Very. No joke.

Well….. I guess I know what you’re thinking now.
& I agree with you & yes, I am sorry.

As a result, loading times in the games became “problems” that had to be overcome.
And Chris Roberts – the pure genius who freelances for Star Citizen, a game I’ve had in the head since the beginning of Altair – was so applauded at E3 when he showed that you could play his game fluidly. Fluid means no waiting time between one piece of the game and another. 0 loading time. As if we were there –
Immersion in short.

You’ll agree that this is not a real-life problem: I don’t have – for my part – any loading time when I go from my bedroom to my stairs. Since Altair will be a real-life theatre, it won’t be the major problem either.
Do you agree?

It’s a concept that will have to be applied for the whole virtual part. So I’m applying it.
There you go.

You’re tired of me, aren’t you? I admit, I’m beating around the bush.

Okay, I’m moving on, I’m moving on.

This immersion story is not, in my opinion, just a geek or a psycho-rigid-model legend thing. It’s also – above all – a sign, a little exaggerated, of a change in the expectations of players and spectators with regard to what is offered to them.

They don’t want to be “excluded” – they want to be in it – they want to be able to believe in it thoroughly.
And that’s my thing.
The Altair audience will be them. Them, the ones who want to be in it.

How do you get them to be in it? How do you get them to be in it while still being spectators?

There are some pretty simple tricks – I’ve already gone through them and they will have to be used.

And then… there’s more. There will be better.
I mentioned this when I was talking about ours splendid and unbelievable Impossible Festivals and E.sport tournaments.

Taking players to interfere with history will be a big step.
But the real big step – the ultimate – will be by getting all the spectators to participate and interfere, thanks to the quests of the AA App.

Can you imagine what it will be like, a whole crowd of spectators, gathered together for a 5-day Festival, all of whom will embark on the quests necessary to make the Festival History?
Quests to investigate – quests to search for clues – quests to search for codes – quests to cheat codes – a whole range of quests to complete, to move the Festival forward.

Without them – no Festival – no story – nothing works, nothing progresses.
Can you imagine that?
The reversal of positioning of the spectator?
He too is in it.
And for this, the Festival format is ideal – because it takes place over a long period of time and between shows, the “free” time will be time for “action” – immersion – quest.

When I mentioned the Quest : Share & Love yesterday, I already evoked a bit of “that” – the audience/players of the AA App will already be used to going and finding things in the real world of the show – they will simply be invited for those times to play with us.

And there, without wanting to be detestable – the others with their immersion will be able to go back to bed. Because the day someone proposes this to all his spectators, they will be amazed – this word is too weak, isn’t it ?
& obviously, they will participate.

Don’t tell me it can’t be managed, of course it can.
Don’t tell me I can’t tell the difference between 30 guys and a whole crowd expected at a festival – yes, I think I can see the difference.
Obviously, there will be some bridles – and some cheating – let’s say, rather, rules to the games.

Obviously, it’s not very easy to set up – you need fast and good brains to imagine all that, yes. But there’s nothing impossible about it, and most of all – most of all – the goal is so huge, so great, that the brains to imagine it, there’ll be plenty of them.

That’s what it’s going to be used for, this damn AA App that’s going to be in the form of a mobile game: it’s going to create a real interaction between the audience and the shows – so they won’t be ‘as before’ relationships at all – and that’s fine.

That will be our immersion: you will be the spectator, you will be the player, you will be in action with us and you will really participate in the story.

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Featured Image : load screen – from Doom – 2016 – by id Software – like many games, developers took advantage of the download times to communicate with their players – and that’s often very, very, well done.