Lost, in a good X

[andrewducker]

After someone being quoted saying "It doesn't matter how good the technology is, nothing's quite as immersive as a good book."
[Poll #1054920]

Comments

[pickwick.livejournal.com]

I said books, but some computer games can come a close second. Stuff like Civ or the Sims, that you can accidentally spend 6 hours or so in.

[matgb]

Exactly what I was going to say.

of course, it also depends on the book, sometimes you just can't get into something and have to put it aside for later *cough*First Among Sequels*cough* or it's just a trainwreck that you want to finish (Kevin J Anderson's latest ppb).

I stopped playing computer games, uninstalled them all, because I got addicted. Forced myself to just stop. Good thing, too.

[andrewducker]

I did that with coffee. Addiction's a scary thing :->

[johnbobshaun.livejournal.com]

Personally, I think few things are immersive as mid 1990's VR games. They sure knew how to render a triangle back then.

[octopoid-horror.livejournal.com]

Fuck rendering.

Everything that isn't wireframe is immersion-breaking.

[andrewducker]

Wireframe? Back in my day we had blitting - and we were _happy_ goddamit!

[octopoid-horror.livejournal.com]

>w

You go west. You are in a maze of twisty-turny passages, all alike. Exits are west, south, east and up.

>search

You search for a while. You find a box.

>get box

I don't understand that command.

[octopoid-horror.livejournal.com]

I can think of a joke about you and a Virtual Boy.

[octopoid-horror.livejournal.com]

Watching a film in a mostly empty cinema on your own, or watching something on TV alone in the dark is very different to a packed Friday night cinema filled with chatting neds and your mates telling rude jokes over the popcorn.

[andrewducker]

And reading a book tucked up in bed while a gale blows outside is different from reading it on a bus while small children chew on your leg.

[octopoid-horror.livejournal.com]

Exactly.

Computer games and books I -tend- to find more immersive because I am usually playing/reading alone. Of course, some computer games are more immersive than others.

The cinema, regrettably, usually has other people in it... and I don't watch much TV these days. I guess it could be immersive, but it's usually just a bit shit.

Radio I don't listen to really any more, but is good for people who haven't been too conditioned by this modern age to need images. There could be gender issues there too. I don't find comics particularly immersive in the main, but most of them are either badly written or badly drawn. The -good- ones are easily as immersive as good books.

[khbrown.livejournal.com]

Missing options:

The Matrix
Reality
Dreams
The Society of the Spectacle

[andrewducker]

The middle two of which are entirely immersive and the outer two also are, unless you know the trick of them.

[octopoid-horror.livejournal.com]

I would look at your friends list, and indeed mine, and question as to whether all of those people find reality to be immersive.

[kashandara.livejournal.com]

I find -my- reality to be immersive. It not being the same reality as yours isn't my problem. =p

[robhu.livejournal.com]

Books win! Surprising, but then it shouldn't be as it's what I voted for.

[cx650.livejournal.com]

Most immersive: Definitely books, they involve both imaginations, the writer's and the reader's.

Least immersive: Comics, they involve too much 'suspension of disbelief'.

[heron61.livejournal.com]

The peak of my immersion scale is playing a tabletop RPG, but books come a close second, followed fairly distantly by movies. However, I suspect that full sensory VR, or even just believable audio-visual VR might well trump books.

[andrewducker]

Gaming! I knew I forgot something!

[cairmen.livejournal.com]

There's no "Depends" setting.

It depends. Depends on the game, depends on the book, depends on the movie, depends on my mood, the surroundings, the people around, and so on.

[andrewducker]

You, sir, are weak.

I am, of course, in the spirit of Good or Bad:
http://coalescent.livejournal.com/429530.html

[monocycle.livejournal.com]

http://void.printf.net/~morag/images/icons/book_power.jpg

[amberite.livejournal.com]

Depends on what you mean by immersive.

Books (including comic books) stimulate my mind to generate data to run through the unused brain cycles. Video games, as far as I can tell, simply use up most of the brain cycles.

If I'm depressed, a book isn't usually a good escape for me. They put me in contact with my subconscious mind. Video games usually don't, but they do generate random data that goes back in later.

If I were to only have access either to books or video games for a year, I'd pick books in a heartbeat. If I were to have access to only one book or one video game for a day or two, I'd pick a video game...

Television and movies are a third category. Most of the time these days I seem to be too hyperactive for non-interactive watchable media, but good television can be used to generate a form of gnosis; it's also inspiring in the same way books are.

And radio is just goddamn irritating here -- too many commercials, all targeted at suburban parasites who've got things I haven't -- kids, mortgages, cars, intestinal flus, none of which I want to hear about, so the ad spots are like having your really annoying neighbor's kvetching piped into your house. No thanks.

[wolflady26.livejournal.com]

I reluctantly picked movies, because an excellent book can be more engrossing than a movie, but a mediocre movie can be pretty darned engrossing. I have yet to dodge and duck in my seat because of anything I've read.

From that perspective, I'd have to put computer games next.

If you asked me which one I couldn't live without, I'd definitely take books, though.

[neferet.livejournal.com]

With the exception of radio, I would have to to say each of them have been either at some point. What I find most immersive today could change totally by tomorrow :) I think many people would find it difficult to give a definitive answer.