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Editor's note: It may seem like an unlikely match, but Alex argues that first-person shooters are often more immersive than role-playing games. Shouldn't that be the other way around? After all, RPGs are ostensibly all about stepping into someone else's shoes. -James

I have nightmares in which I direct my body using Battlefield: Bad Company's Xbox 360 controls. One by one, the buttons stop working, and I feel helpless.

When I'm awake, the head bob, movement speed, and jump height are all perfectly tuned to push me into my nameless soldier who's weighed down by his gear. Even without 3D or motion control, it's the closest I've felt to sharing someone else's body.

By comparison, Fallout 3's Lone Wanderer feels like an unmanned drone. Role-playing games should immerse the player more than any other genre. But when I'm not listening to dialogue or reading diaries, I feel like I'm controlling avatars by remote, or worse — like I'm giving them instructions by email.

 

At GDC 2010, Virtusphere demonstrated their virtual-reality hamster ball with a rudimentary first-person shooter. Likewise, when someone invents a proper holodeck, they'll use the genre that already gives the player the most control over their avatar and the simplest method of interacting with their environment.

But look at old episodes of Star Trek — at least as many holonovels are character-driven RPGs as are shooters. The best RPGs have huge, detailed worlds that beg us to explore them. Too bad the tools we have are so clumsy. Too bad (most of) the best shooters have clumsy writing.

Immersion comes from many places. It could be from a well-placed audio log, a complex party member, or a stunning futuristic skyline. In FPSs, it comes from having complete control over a body and the tools (guns) to interact with the world.

Why can't RPGs have both? No matter how great Fallout 3, it's not a good action game. Too often, RPGs that aspire to be such games produce third-rate results. Reviewers praised Mass Effect 2 for its shooting, but I can't help wondering if they were all secretly thinking: "…for an RPG." More importantly, though, Shepard moved with weight and banked around corners like a human.

More than anything, I love depth in games' characters, dialogue, and universes. But until I can explore one using a control scheme as deep as developer DICE's Battlefield series, I'll feel less like I'm actually in those worlds with those characters. I don't need to have a gun, but I want my avatar to feel like a real person — not only in the way they talk and act, but also in the way they move and feel.