Immersives

Immersives are one of the most popular forms of recreation available, placing a person within a narrative story and allowing them to interact with elements of the story line such as characters and objects, though the user is unable to influence the progression of the narrative.

HISTORY

Immersives come from a long line of entertainment media. In the near Modern Era, the first equivalents were the 20th Century's films which allowed an audience to share the same story projected on a screen in front of them, first with an accompanist on a piano and then with recorded sound. By the middle of that century, three-dimensional sound was included for a more 'life-like' experience. Most commonly a two-dimensional format, three-dimension film (through the use of specially designed spectacles) became fashionable on several occasions, though never long-lasting.

The advent of advanced electronic games allowed players to play a character within a story, constrained by programming limits, which furthered the experience of being in control of a narrative, especially when allowed to participate in stories across the internet (Earth's means of communication before the Q-Net) involving dozens or possibly hundreds of other game players. Electronic games could range from simple building games (where the player might be expected to add buildings to a city) to ultra-violent, not to mention highly controversial, crime-simulators. Electronic games were aimed at all ages, and became incredibly popular - though traditional pen-and-paper games, played on a tabletop and run with the rolling of dice, remained popular despite this.

With the development and widespreading of holographic technology, projection films fell out of use and holography became the popular medium for entertainment. Though far more engaging than previous technology, it had the same limitations in that the story projected was fixed and noninteractive. Though this medium has since been made obsolete by the rise of immersives, "holos" remain in use in technological-backwaters due to the limitations of technology and bandwidth.

Immersives were developed as a combination of the two media, electronic games and holographic films. Though lacking the full ability of control that games possess, it allows the user to take part in the story being displayed and to interact with it in a very limited capacity. The user can touch, hear and smell the environment around them, "immersing" them in the story and making it far more realistic than a simple projection. They cannot, however, influence the story in any meaningful way, as the narrative follows a fixed progession which cannot be altered - if the user performs an action which would normally affect events, the program simply ignores them and retcons any meaningful changes caused.

Originally, immersives required a large projection room (usually 20m x 20m) for the user to experience the story, but the technology rapidly improved as demand increased. Today, immersives can be enjoyed anywhere, requiring only the use of goggles, ear jacks, haptic feedback gloves and a digital breathing mask for the experience, allowing all five senses to be experienced.

THE FUTURE

Holographic projection technology has reached its limits in terms of hardware, though a revolution in entertainment thinking is taking place as innovative psychiatrist and bio-engineer Ludwig Graves has claimed that he can achieve the immersive effect with a simple nano-device injected into an individual's cerebral cortex.