Quote Originally Posted by Wizard_Mike View Post
I don't see how a fixed camera limits immersion.

The most immersive MMO I've ever played, as in got completely taken in to where I could truly "tune out" of my immediate physical surroundings, was Ultima Online back in '97/'98. It was all 2D, top down view, no zoom, no camera control. Just a bunch of low-res sprites running around a flat, 2D world. At it was freakin' glorious!

I've still yet to find an online game that has provided as much of a "get completely lost in the game" level of immersion as Ultima Online did. None of these newfangled 3D games with fully controllable cameras come anywhere close. But then, I grew up with Atari and NES, so I suppose the younger generation growing up on today's technology are so used to controlling the camera that once they can't do it, it breaks their immersion. It's the exact opposite for me. Once 3D games started coming out, I found that having to move the camera around, separate from my character's own movements, was immersion breaking to me. I'm used to it now, of course, but I do still appreciate (and prefer, depending on the genre) fixed camera games these days.
well first off it is only an opinion. mine is it adds to the immersion. yours is it doesn't. that's ok that we have different opinions right?

ultima huh? I guess I wan playin Zelda oot, Mario kart, ff7, and such in 97-98. and I was highly immersed in all of those. but my ability to be immersed in a video game world did not only extend to those 2 years. long b4 those years I was highly immersed in the worlds of ff2 and ff3 for snes shadowrun for sega genesis or honestly I could go back further and talk about how immersive Metroid, kid niki, and the wizards and warriors series were for me back on the nes days. it did not end in the years 97-98 either. after those years we would get gems like shadow of colossus, killer 7, resident evil4 and later still there would be borderlands, bastion, batman, no more heroes , the castlevaniaroids(ds)games, kid Icarus,and all the sts games so far. and that is by no means a comprehensive list.

all that was to let you know im not really part of the younger generation heck my daughter plays legends games with me nowadays. actually now that I think about it I have loved quite a few fixed camera games. its just jarring to play an sts game with out it ... im sure ill adjust since it is not changing ... just like I did when they added cool downs to pl ... I hated it ... I've adjusted *actually now that I think about it I guess I never did get used to it in pl ... quit playing that shortly after ... but that could be blamed on sl*

anyway since you read this and cared enough to comment im going to ask if you tried my "zoom up so I can see the pretty graphics even with out camera control" method? and if so what did u think? and yea I can take if you didn't like it ... I don't expect it to be a good enough fix for most ppl... also im a bit old school so sometimes I play with double pixel on just so it feel more like an 8 bit game ... does that make me weird?