Pretty games are not immersive

I think I've been playing video games wrong my whole life. But I also think a lot of other people have too. I worry that the industry's relentless march towards prettier, more graphically sophisticated games is taking us away from the substance of why games are so good in the first place. I am coming into this argument as a convert. Previously, I would only buy games which looked amazing — and I mean that literally. I would scroll through the screenshots on Steam, and if it caught my eye visually, I would buy it. Alternatively, if the game fit thematically with other games I'd enjoyed before, I would give it a try. I never stopped to wonder why I ended up returning so many games. But the reason hit me recently during yet another play-through of Skyrim. This time, I said to myself, I'm not going to role-play or try and make "realistic" decisions for my character; I'm just going to play the game. I'm going to focus on the systems, not the world. This play-through has turned out to be my…