A games atmosphere and writing followed by music. Graphics are nice if done well but not all that important to me as long as the gameplay is good.

Well its abit hard to say but i can say that the least important one is "graphic".

Then its all about the balance with gameplay being the most important. Art direction, music, smoothness, do it work for the type of game it is? (rpg, action rpg etc etc).

Yeah, I think thats the difference. I prefer third person because I'm most interested in the story and the characters. I'm much less interested in being the character. That being said, I also need to be able to pick dialogue options. If I don't have control over my character's dialogue, then I'm much less immersed.

I find in first person games the protagonist has much less personality and background. I like my protagonist to be an interesting character in their own right.

So yeah, rather than wanting to be the character in a game, I just want to hear a good story.

I agree with Aningan - it has to be good NPCs for me, unless it's a multiplayer game (NPCs still important but less so). I don't care much about graphics, and frequently have the sound switched off.

Good NPCs know about player-character actions when it would make sense, and care what your initial choices (e.g. class) were.

I did find Myst immersive - maybe no NPCs (well, hardly any) is better than bad NPCs?

The most immerse ive ever been in a game was Doom3 and Dead Space... the atmosphere just sucked me into the game and i felt like iw as there...

adventure games dont do it, survival horror does... and im not going to speak of Amnesia since im still having nightmares

Two big things for me, in addition to the music and atmosphere:

1) Depth - not necessarily big things in the story, but little things that let you feel that the world isn't just focused around the character and the main story events. NPCs that live out their own little world within the character world; little interactions and viewpoints.

2) Small details - not just the amazing vista painted on the screen, but the little details like moving birds or suchlike.


I think that its the attention to the smaller things and to things that present a wider view of the world presented that really help make a game feel deeper than it really is. Great audio certainly stands up there, but good audio and visuals are nothing if there isn't some feeling of life presented in the game.
It's similar to books at times; those titles where the only details are those that deal specifically with the lead character, specifically with the main story can feel weaker than those that spend a little time to build around things; to present whole interactions that have no part to the main story, but help to build the world.

Just take most of the beginning of Lord of the Rings (for those who have read the books) a very slow start with lots of little events that have no real bearing on the main story; and yet all those little bits and details, that also keep up through the whole of the story, helps to build that world far more than many others.

1) Controls & Interface - If I have to spend more than 30 minutes fiddling with adjusting the controls just to get it right (console ports). I'll be pissed off and no matter how good the game is, it'll take me a long time to be immersed.

2) Gameplay - If some aspect of the game isn't working like I think it should I'll probably lose immersion. The bipods in BF3 for instance are a little finicky and can be a hindrance when I want to actually just want to use scopes/ironsights/etc. or they won't deploy exactly where I'm prone. I end up losing focus for a bit which usually ends in me getting shot more often.

3) Writing

4) Audio

5) Graphics - Mostly how things are animated, but I have some tolerance depending on a game's age.

ATMOSPHERE
and it helps to avoid fourth-wall-breaking shit

i love stalker so much because i really, genuinely think i'm a badass zone survivor when i play it. i have memories from that game that feel like real memories.

Besides water :

Musics + original and unique worlds (Outcast, BG&E, Ryzom etc...).

Depends on the game and the target audience

Attention to detail's is a big one for me, making things as realistic as possible in a fantasy world where one can interact with the enviroment and make world changes that player can see visualy and connect with on some sort of emotional level, being the hero and saving the day is the general premise of most games having a good story plot is essental.

Good Audio can seriously improve a game and add atmosphere where needed, even some old games have some great sounding little midi's.

Ease of control with lots of depth,what i mean by this is making things complex while maintaining a user friendly user interface,i like to see the detail in the objects i carry and information about what it does and how it effects my character or party, the abilitys i use must be vast yet able to access quickly at the click of a button while relaying detailed information about how it effects whatever it is you're interacting with in game .

Todays gaming i have a little higher expectations, good graphics and physic's from my games, a puff of smoke rising from a flame or a body rolling down a hill or flight of stairs.

Mostly gameplay.A touch of atmosphere, and a TON of details. That makes me tick.:)

I think it's easier to list things that kill immersion for me, but by knowing those, one can get a perspective on what immerses me.. I guess.

Well, here goes:
- lots of cutscenes [especially the unskippable ones]/an overly invasive story line [while it's nice to have a story, i'm playing a game, not watching a movie],
- locking controls, moving my camera for me [SOLE reason for me not completing C&C3 actually, they called me a commander, then they took my controls],
- untoggable hints throughout the game,
- not enough voice actors/alternative dialogue lines,
- third person perspective [i always feel that i'm playing a camera behind some guy/chick who obstructs my view all the time],
- a huge world with needless blockades that ensure a more linear gameplay [an unclimable wall on the right, and a chasm on the left, Far Cry 2 style],
- "that door is just a texture" [lack of door handles saves that one, details tend to do that],
- an irritating design logic/inconsistent world, for example: my hero is able to open some doors with his bare hands, but when faced with a barrel, all he'll say is "locked" or "it won't budge" [don't remember where i've seen that], or when a hero can do something a few times, and later on, when it's a logical move, he forgets that he can, forcing me to play the sequence as 'intended',
- absurd difficulty, hard is good, pixel perfect jumping are moronic.

[edit]
Point is, if a game doesn't make any of those 'offences' i can probably sink into it with ease.

STALKER Shadow of Chernobyl is one of the most immersive games that I've ever played. I really felt like i was there.

Metro 2033 sucked me in, Music, Story, lighting, and hearing myself breath, fogging mask... it was a masterpiece of gaming history...

Music and sound effects are really important to my immersion.

What breaks my immersion is saying that the whole world united into a single human nation/planet when they reached true space age, formed a world government, super science prospers, and then all of a sudden someone uses feet as a unit of length. :p