Sorry for making this topic look like one of those where the poster just walks away,
Work has been too much this week to sit down and reply. I've read your posts, and it's very interesting how there are different views about it and the answer is not as simple as black and white.
Immersed means that the game enviroment and interaction constantly stimulates you to such a degree that you experience a sort of agnosia - sensory information coming from outside the game and peripherals is not being processed fully. This is how you decide to play one more turn of Civilization at 10 PM and suddenly it's 5 AM.
You can be engaged and experience presence in VR without being immersed.
Time flies when you're having fun, it happens to me only when I'm playing a good game with friends. Playing alone though, sometimes I get the opposite effect: I think I've played for one hour and it has been just 15 minutes. I guess that's good for me, LOL.
Immersion means the feeling of being in that world so when people say X breaks my immersion they usually mean it resulted in it breaking that illusion. That could be clipping through walls or whatever they feel makes them lose that feeling, that that world is fake or doesn't follow what they would expect. They still realise they are playing a game but it reduces the illusion a lot for them.
Mechanics can be immersion too. Being able to track your head 1:1, your hands 1:1, that's still immersion. It makes you feel like you're in that world even if you know it's a video game.
No you don't have a brain defect
. You probably already get immersion but it's not an "I'm immersed now then suddenly I'm not". It's usually a scale of a lot of things with different tolerances. Whether that's framerate, mechanics, graphics, characters, story, whatever.
I love purposefully trying to clip through walls and objects with my head in VR. I actually hate it when the game blacks out or even worse, pushes you back. It can even become nauseating.
Immersion just means that you just forget the reality all around you because you are so hooked by something. I don't think it's only a "buzz" word, it's more a mondset and it's not really about "I'm this character", it's more about "I'm in this world".
You are maybe someone that have difficulty to focus and concentrate fully on only one thing, it doesn't help.
Also, I'm guessing you are playing the wrong games, or, not playing the right games.
However, you are not going to experiment this if you are playing while constantly receiving notifications on your phone, checking your phone, speaking with someone at home, hearing sounds not from the game, having your pets distracting you, checking your browser on your multi monitor setup while playing, playing in a bright room with distractions all around you and so on...
I actually don't like getting distracted whenever I play a game, or even when I watch a movie. (I'd rather watch it at home by myself than at the cinema with a group of friends and their chatter while watching) I oldmanyellsatcloud when I see those youngsters not putting their phone away even if the world around them is falling apart. I don't even like to put background music while playing, the game already has its own music and that's how it was intended to be played.
When I play PSVR games and remove the headset, which I use with earplugs isolating me from any external sound, I *really* need to cool down to go back to reality from the virtual world. It's like I was in another universe and it's now very hard to come back to the harsh and dull reality.
How is it possible ? It's all about your senses: sight, hearing, touch in some extent and your attention (~brain).
Playing on a big screen filling as much as possible your real field of view helps, in a dark room and with a headphone if you don't have any 5.1+ audio setup.
Note also that I don't play game like "Beat Saber", there is no immersion in there this is just gameplay gimmick.
I don't really need to cool down after a VR session, but I've also never experienced ghost hands, nor fear of heights nor invasion of personal space. NPCs or other players can clip through me and I have zero issues with it. I guess I have some kind of VR immunity.
On the game side I have to be honest, I prefer arcade-like experiences more often than not, be it flat or VR. While Half-Life Alyx is incredible in its own right, I had to stop myself from playing Pistol Whip to continue the fight against the Combine.
Then, like said, the last part would be the game, some of them just hook you into their world because the world looks incredible, beautiful or just interesting to discover with a mysterious story and characters looking authentic in their behavior and so many others factors.
Skyrim is a game often noted as immersive because the world invites you to get lost into and the music plays a big part in it, incredibly setting the mood of your journey and your rewarding exploration. Just try Skyrim VR.
And in pancake, try an old game like Fallout 3 for exploration or Firewatch for the mood/story/interactivity.
There is also Scorn which is a hit or miss with people, you will either find the world fascinating and get hooked or repulsed.
If you like puzzles, try The Tanos Principles (VR if possible), the music is aen therapy and listen to audiolog you can find everywhere in the game.
Never liked any of the Elder Scrolls games in flat. I did play Skyrim VR on PSVR for a while and did like it this time around, enough that I plan on purchasing the PCVR version and modding with HIGGS and stuff like that for better physics and interactions.
Other games that have captivated me with their worlds are: Mirror's Edge (and Catalyst) Deus Ex: Human Revolution and Mankind Divided, the first Phantasy Star Online (the music and atmosphere in that has never been replicated in the sequels), and Odin Sphere: Leifthrasir.
EDIT: HOLY SHIT How could I forget Pseudoregalia!? I guess that's as close as being immersed as I could get. I couldn't legit stop playing that game, I was entranced by the N64-like graphics and music, it had a such a moody/melancholic feeling to it that I have not gotten even from the most graphically advanced AAA super production. Easily my flat game of 2023 to me, stealing the crown from Street Fighter VI.
Another example, in VR, would be RE7 which is just a masterpiece of immersion: in the free demo before the release, I was genuinely frightened to go to the basement, it was so dark and scary, for real. I was playing in the dark, alone, in the middle of the night with earplugs, no distraction.
But, again, you can't experiment immersion if you don't help yourself by not suppressing all forms of distraction while you play, you must not be interrupted during your play session and choose the right games which make everything to make you forget they are games (like with minimal UI, dynamics subtil musics, etc...).
To sum up, immersion is when all your senses are faked to the point you forget the reality and even the notion of time.
RE7 was one of the first PSVR games I've played. Unfortunately I already played through flat so I knew where the jumpscare (I think there was only one in the entire game) were so I was in it more for the experience of being in that superbly detailed environment. I won't do the same mistake with Village and RE4 Remake and I'll play through them in VR for the first time once I get around to buying a PSVR2 (and a PS5).
Forgetting I am playing a game, though? I don't think I'll ever be able to do that even with zero distractions, which is actually how I tend to play.
Immersion is jumping off the highest skyscraper in Spider-Man 2 and wincing back at the vertigo
I kinda wish I had vertigo, I played tons of high speed games with flying, falling, grappling-hooking, etc. and it's all just the Super Mario Bros. effect: you're not actually moving, you are just running in place while the world is scrolling you by.
