At last I know what I've been missing in my life lately!

;-)

On a more serious note, gameplay that requires "potion-popping" or spamming insta-restore health items during combat tends to break immersion for me. I try to avoid it to the extent that I sometimes die when a simple potion could have saved me.

believable characters... even in a fantasy world people should still be people

I have no idea.

Sometimes when I play a game, it ceases to be a game, and I lose myself in it. Hours can pass by in the blink of an eye.

But then some days I'll play that same exact game, and I'll be constantly acutely aware that I'm playing a game, and it'll never hook me.

Might be something mental.

+1 to Arteveld

Here's some things I like:

- soundscape (music, ambient music, sound effects and ambient sound)

- the world must exist and work without the player

- first person/third person views are two different kinds of immersion for me (I can be on USG Ishimura but I can't be Isaac Clarke)

- this is big: FPS smoothness (graphics don't matter much, but it has to be smooth or else I start losing the illusion FAST)

- little creative stuff to do in the game (crafting, character development, renaming items, arranging player house furniture myself etc)

- great voice acting

- VERY small lore/gameworld details and choices in wording (like in Skyrim, items with banishment have a text "Daedra up to level X are sent back to Oblivion" instead of just generic "are banished")

- a sense of depth in the gameworld and items (too few different armors or weapons can feel restrained and unrealistic)

It's more dependent upon what DOESN'T happen for me. There are more "breakers" than "makers", Arteveld said most of them. Even bugs or typos don't bother me, but unintelligent dialog (too "easy" and modern Hollywood style), too much handholding and tutoring are bad.

Immersion-wise some of my favorite games are STALKER, Bioshock 1, System Shock 2, Penumbra and Amnesia. I love the dialogue style in STALKER, it's dodgy but it has a foreigner-sort of charm.

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By the way! It's important to note whether the game intends the protagonist to be "you", or intends you to be the protagonist - for example in Doom, the marine is supposed to be yourself (despite the face graphic in the status bar.) But whenever the protagonist has a pre-set name, appearance or other very distinct features, it's no longer "you" as yourself, it's about you being THAT character instead. Different kind of roleplay and immersion, and both can be equally powerful.

Story above all immerses me if it's done well, followed by atmosphere and sound. Graphics don't really have much of an effect on me for immersion. All sorts of perspectives can immerse me, although I find it hard for first person to immerse me when you're a pair of floating arms with no body. Dark messiah of might and magic did the body well, and I think games should learn from that.