I found Week 2’s lecture incredibly interesting, and provided a meaningful and insightful recitation the following day. Nicolas brought up points regarding immersive experiences in regards to ideas of control, engagement, and our resulting altered states of mind. The presence of a challenge, specifically, provides us with a set of constraints in which we are guided to complete an certain objective. Something that occurred to me during this, that I brought up in recitation, is the idea that in life, outside the real of immersive games, meaning itself arises from structural constraints. In turn, we can look to life itself as being the truly ultimate immersive experience. Sometimes, we are pulled out of that immersion, exiting the so-called “flow-zone,” and shaken by our distaste of the real world. The structural and societal rules of the world around us are the constraints set in life as immersion are an important aspect in participating in it, and, if not followed, if you choose to not “play the game,” there are serious consequences.
