Immersion in games

As I was working my way through the games on cecil I found myself doing a Google image search for each game. After this, I would decide if I was going to attempt to play the game based on whether or not it looked good. I mean this in a visual, aesthetic sense. I found that I didn't want to play games that look pixelated or are monochromatic. I’m looking for appealing graphics and attractive colours. 

I don’t consider myself a gamer. I never play video games. Yet, I was making judgments about which games I was going to attempt simply by looking at screenshots of the game and deciding whether or not I was going to give that particular game a go.

Considering that I never play games, I started to wonder why and how I could make these judgments when I have very little experience playing games. Having thought about it for a bit (and after the immersion lecture), I realized that the reason graphics and aesthetics was important to me was because it affected the level of immersion that I had.

I simply could not “get into” games that weren’t aesthetically pleasing. I don’t enjoy playing them. I much prefer to play games that have a focus on aesthetics and design. For me, I think that immersion is less about the act of playing a game or about the story within the game. I’m not sure of the reason for this. It may have something to with my interest and background in art, relating back to the world of concern concept and personal relevance.

As a non-gamer, I was having my own experience of immersion without initially realizing it.