I started at two years old with the 5200. I got an NES for Christmas when I was five in 1986. I haved owned or played every major handheld and console released

I started at two years old with the 5200. I got an NES for Christmas when I was five in 1986. I haved owned or played every major handheld and console released in the US to date since then with very, very few exceptions. Believe me when I say that I didn't feel immersed in a video game until Wolfenstein 3D, and that immersion didn't deepen until Quake. Novelty doesn't really create immersion. A big part of immersion is a sensory experience that supersedes "real" stimuli. First-person games like Wolfenstein 3D were immediately more immersive than, say, Donkey Kong or Mega Man because it was easier in a real-time, first-person perspective to displace your sensory experience onto the video game avatar. What really makes a game immersive isn't just the sensory experience, though. Your brain has to engage with the game's systems to large enough degree that the world outside the game takes a back seat to it. When I am truly immersed in a game, what I'm supposed to do tomorrow becomes what I'm supposed to do for the next quest. The part of my brain that keeps track of what I need at the grocery store keeps track of what I need from the weapons vendor. The urge to clean up the kitchen is supplanted by the urge to clean out my inventory. Older games were constrained by simpler hardware platforms and paradigms. They just weren't complex enough to be nearly as immersive or even immersive at all, let alone more immersive than more recent games.