Immersive Sims -- the pointless argumentations are still on

[Starfox]

You now, for almost as long as I've been a gamer (meaning more years than I care to count) the used of the terms "Immersive" and "Sim" to describe a certain genre of games has been the subject of many hot debates IRL, online... whatever. Even the concept of Immersive Sim seems to be in question.

Some people get the concept and get that "Immersive Sim" is just an appellation because the concept needed one (and I admit myself that it may not be the best appellation, but there you go), others argue that Immersive Sim is not even a genre and that games like Half-Life 2 are full of Immersive Sim elements.

Not so long ago I was on a Discord server on which such an argument started after I had the bad idea to call Deus Ex, Prey, Dishonored example of Immersive Sim. Then I read from another person that Half-Life 2 was Immersive Sim like enough, and I was like "Wait... What?". Sorry but you know that I'm a fan of Half-Life, I started on Hangar 16 because I was a fan of the series. But quite frankly, HL2... an Immersive Sim? Why? Because it features a gravity gun that allows you to move boxes? I think there's a big misunderstanding in some people minds here. Following this logic then HL2 is also a RPG. You are role-playing Gordon Freeman, putting yourself in his shoes, surely that's a good enough reason to call it a RPG, no? Even if it's the only RPG-like feature in the game.

Ultimately I decided to not participate in the argument because -- even though the HL2 approach was something new to me and mildly amusing -- I've heard too many similar arguments over the years, running in circles and going nowhere so I wasn't about to waste my time on another one.

But yeah people, HL2 is IS, apparently. Who knew? I would add that it is a RPG (already told you why), and a dating simulator as well, considering the weird thing going on between Gordon and Alyx And of course it's also an adventure game because anything involving walking around and moving boxes is considered adventure these days (don't believe me? Try to browse the adventure game category on Steam and see what you get...).