Tim Cain explains why the term “immersive sim” is difficult to define, yet outlines three core principles that give it real meaning.
Immersive simulators are often compared to things like sandwiches or soups: it’s easier to point to examples than to write down an exact definition. Dishonored is commonly cited as a textbook immersive sim thanks to its open-ended levels, reactive systems, and encouragement of creative problem-solving. Yet many of these same traits can be found in Far Cry Primal, a game that fans of the genre would rarely label as an immersive simulator. Why is that? Fallout co-creator Tim Cain explored this question in a recent YouTube video.
At first glance, Cain’s interest in the topic might seem unusual. Much of his video content focuses on RPGs, and he has been developing role-playing games almost exclusively since 1993. He has even attempted to define what an “RPG” is in the past, a task he considers even more challenging than defining an immersive sim due to the sheer number of games involved. Still, Cain believes there is substantial overlap between the design goals of RPGs and immersive sims, making it worthwhile to examine both through a shared framework.
Cain breaks his definition down into three fundamental elements. First, the game establishes a set of core rules that govern how the world functions. Second, those rules interact with one another to produce new systems or behaviors that may not have been explicitly designed, but instead emerge naturally from the underlying mechanics. Cain points to Will Wright’s work on The Sims and SimCity as prime examples of this philosophy in action.
The third principle is consistency: players and every other entity in the game world must follow the same rules. There are no hidden exceptions or special cases that undermine the simulation. Cain stresses that immersive sims exist on a spectrum, and the more strongly a game embodies these characteristics, the closer it comes to being a true immersive simulator.
Cain goes into greater depth in the video itself, but these three ideas form the foundation of his thesis on what defines an immersive sim.
Source: PC Gamer
