System Shock and Deus Ex Were RPGs: Gloomwood’s Distribuitor Hesitates to Embrace the ‘Immersive Sim’ Label

“That’s a roleplaying game”

You know, I think at this point in my life there is a non-zero chance I will die before anyone is able to settle comfortably on what defines an immersive sim. I’m not going to even try to! The idea is too annoying and I’m sure someone will disagree with some aspect of it. And if you ask New Blood boss Dave Oshry, when it comes to trying to flog an immersive sim, it’s probably best to not even refer to it as one.

“Is it a good marketing term? No. It sucks,” Oshry told PC Gamer in a recent interview. “It’s awful.” For those unfamiliar with New Blood, they’re a publisher of some pretty cultishly popular games like ULTRAKILL, as well as immersive sims like Gloomwood and Fallen Aces. Ironically, though, it’s through publishing Gloomwood and working with lead dev Dillon Rogers specifically that he even heard of the term. “He’s like, ‘That’s what these are called’. I’m like, ‘I have never heard that before in my life. What the fuck are you talking about?'”

That doesn’t mean Oshry had never heard of or played an imsim before, he was familiar with classics like Deus Ex, he just considered them to be a different genre: RPGs. “System Shock and Deus Ex, they were RPGs. People called them RPGs. That’s the funny thing about an immersive sim. You’re immersed in this world. You’re building your character. Yeah, that’s called an RPG, brother. That’s a roleplaying game.” Perhaps a controversial statement amongst the diehard imsim fans, but perhaps not an entirely untrue statement either.

In Oshry’s opinion, “if you market something as an RPG, I think you’ll do better than marketing it as an immersive sim.” This part I’m not sure I’d entirely agree with. Sure, everyone knows what an RPG is, but they do also have certain expectations that come with them, such as stats and the like that you don’t typically find in imsims. Ahah! Maybe that’s the difference. Immersive sims are RPGs without the stats. By golly, I’ve done it without even trying. Either way, this Oshry fellow does seem to be pretty good at peddling weird little indies, so maybe I should just pipe down.