Does immersion mean that games become more real when we play them?

Video games are easy to get addicted to. When we play them we become so in touch with the characters and story lines or missions that we forget about our everyday lives. We become attuned to the problems that our character is facing and they become our priority.

When playing a first person game such as Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (KOTOR) you get to customize your character and it becomes the spawn of you. Throughout the game you complete the missions of that person. Also, because of the nature of Star Wars you can decide whether to enter the dark or light side of the force. In short, you become the character that you have created as you decide everything from the speech to their fighting style. When you become this close to the action does it allow you to become attached? Do we enter cyberspace?

In a third player game, where you control from a far away position and switch between characters, does it still have the same effect? In the case of something like The Sims, I would say it does. As with KOTOR, you can customize them to look how you want and chose their characteristics but they cannot be completely controlled. If you use the 'free will' setting then they'll do whatever they want to whilst you watch over them. So, even though we cannot completely control their destiny, it is still something to get immersed in- but why?

I think that video games are so easy to get immersed in because they represent lives that many of us would like to have. The younger audience that play them are more likely to get addicted because they'd like to be super heroes or drive fast cars and catch the bad guys. Games allow us to enter a place where our real life problems are put to one side as we look out for an avatar that isn't and will never be, real.