Just watched Jane McGonigal's session (Quicktime Video) at the New Yorker Conference [Podcast Link] called "Saving the World Through Game Design".
Round about 5:29 she makes a very good point about immersion:
"its not about immersing yourself in a story or graphics or fantasy, its actually about immersing yourself in an interactive system, and your engagement with that system and your engagement with other people playing games. That's the core focus of game play"
I think this is something that with SIMPLE I've always felt. The simulations/games our students engage do not use the latest computer graphics or fancy tools. They use really boring applications like Word! They aren't always terribly engaged by the substance of the games either (although we try to make them interestin). What does grab them is the interactivity, with the elements that make up the system and the competition between themselves and their opponents
