Breakfast Topic: How do you immerse yourself in game?

When it comes to gaming, everyone seems to have different preferences for how they play, and sometimes those preferences change depending on what’s happening in-game. Often times, players will have very specific moments and ways in which they immerse themselves fully in the virtual world. For me, I’ve noticed two fairly specific occasions which lend themselves to immersion: fishing and leveling in WoW.

With fishing, there’s something about the simplicity of the profession that draws me to really immerse myself in the world. It’s not particularly exciting but, to a degree, it feels like real-life fishing and that makes me want to be in the moment. When I’m in the mood to immerse myself in fishing, I make sure to put on headphones, I up the ambient sound and turn down all other sounds, and I just let myself listen to the sound of the water while I wait for the fish to bite.

As for leveling, I have even more specific ways of immersing myself. I still put on headphones, but I usually aim to level specifically at night, when the virtual world feels as silent as the real one. If a zone has a darker night sky, I’ll even change the brightness settings on my monitor to bring out its full effect and I’ll stay in the zone longer — sometimes well beyond the recommended level range — because it’s nice to feel like the in-game sky matches the out-of-game sky.

Granted, there are exceptions to both (especially if I’m in the mood to multitask and watch TV) but when I am in the mood to immerse, I do so in my own little way. How about you? How do you like to immerse yourself and are there any specific activities that lend themselves to immersion more than others?