Player decentralisation: a world that doesn't revolve around you

This research focuses on the concept of decentralisation within contemporary single-player video games, which is identified as the effect of the game world appearing independent of the player character, or having its own agency separate from the player. The questions that the thesis seeks to answer are: What decentralisation techniques are found in contemporary single-player video games, and what do these techniques achieve?

The paper begins by defining both centralisation and decentralisation as terms within interactive media, before exploring various definitions of immersion and its related terms. A set of criteria is built from different prominent definitions of immersion that, when met, will increase a video game’s immersive qualities. This criteria will be important when examining the effects that decentralising techniques have when used. It is important to note that this paper does not equate immersion with quality, and is not stating that if a game is more immersive it is automatically better.

Next, the paper explores four different methods of decentralisation: genre mechanic subversion, social realism, knowledge of unwitnessed events, and world persistence. These techniques are defined and explored through case studies that employ them. The effects of these decentralisation methods are then compared with the various criteria for immersion in order to understand how their implementation affects the games that employ them.

This research serves as an introduction to the concept of decentralisation within single-player video games, and it finds that the concept deserves more academic attention.
Through comparing the conditions for immersion with what the decentralising techniques achieve, the paper concludes that decentralisation can be used to increase a game’s immersive qualities, creating the impression that the game world is not reliant on the player character’s presence to exist.