Probably an odd question as it pertains to myself specifically, but I thought maybe others here have had similar experiences and can tell me.
When I was a kid I used to really get immersed into the games I played; I'd feel as though I was actually, feeling the very walls around me in dungeon crawlers, getting tense in fights and such, but nowadays I don't really get that sense any more. I'm in my mid-30's and now I'm thankfully able to afford any game I wish, I thankfully can choose how long I spend gaming, yet I just can't get immersed, I just can't get pulled in anymore.
My buddy told me about the Witcher 3 and told me it's great and immersive like only the oldest games ever were, and yet when I played it....I got kind of bored, and lost interest somewhat fast. One possibility is that maybe with modern proliferation of game knowledge, we can simply google for anything we want rather than let the game help us find what we need, pulling us out for that much of the game, another possibility is that we recognize mechanics and animations for what they are, and we try and memorize enemy combat animations, and our own iframes and such, even if instinctively.
I honestly can't remember the last game I played where I got immersed into the game and just felt the world rather than just see it.
i found that i still enjoyed figuring stuff out at the beginning of games. but then you get to the point where you know most of the mechanics, you just have to actually get good at it. and that feels like work. unpaid work.
so i stopped playing games.
Oof, yep, that one hits home. I play games to have fun, but when the mechanics becomes an obstacle the fun ends, and more and more games are aiming for that skill threshold. Indie games can be great for enjoying games as they realize that not everyone will 'git gud' and some are just there to enjoy the beauty of the environments, the stories and the characters, the fun of just dungeon crawling and discovering new things, etc. (probably why the early phase of Stellaris where you go around discovering anomalies and studying the different strange facets of the universe, making first contact and trying to understand your new galactic cohabitants is so much fun for me, more fun than when the primary meat of the game, the empire building becomes the chief part of the gameplay)
Yeah I just end up buying a lot more games. Primarily because I can spend my money freely, and I have an income. But also because the most fun part of most games is the very beginning, experiencing the mechanics and graphics and so on. And then almost every game becomes a boring slog where I can't even remember the plot (probably because I have 10 other in-progress games that I'm playing on and off). But it's a combo of game mechanics that are work (when I have actual "work" that I could be doing and feeling actually accomplished about), which require too much thinking and learning, and stories, settings, and mechanics that are cliche and clearly not something anyone was passionate about. I have the same feeling with most movies too. I feel the entire time that I'm sitting in front of a screen. I end up critiquing the movie in my head more than I actually watch it.
Someone else already mentioned Death Stranding, which I feel did actually work for whatever reason. Maybe it was Kojima. Maybe it was the sound design. Maybe it was the music. Or the combo of them. He did say it was the first "strand type game" xD, which I guess is true because it does feel unique.