At the same time, however, there is the argument about escapism – that games aren't about identification, that they are about the obliteration of the self into an immersive fantasy.
Virtual reality, for example, continues to improve and has the potential to become the most addictive tech in history, offering fully immersive fantasy worlds people may never want to leave.
Where am I? 2020: Virtual reality home entertainment systems become the rage, offering immersive fantasies.
Bridget Collins has written seven young adult (YA) novels, but her intense, immersive historical fantasy The Binding (Borough £12.99) is her first aimed at an adult audience.
Meanwhile, Tim, played by Ansel Engort (from The Fault in Our Stars) has dropped out of the school football team to dedicate himself to (or, in his words, "invest in") an immersive online fantasy roleplay game, and has now formed a relationship with shy Brandy (Kaitlyn Dever), whose uptight, controlling mom (Jennifer Garner) monitors her every keystroke.
It was Hoffman's third year at Ragnarok, a weeklong, immersive medieval-fantasy event that draws 1,500 self-described nerds and history buffs from all over the world to the picturesque grounds of Pennsylvania's Cooper's Lake each year, where they use foam-padded boffers and shields in a series of full-contact battle games.
Its story of war between the orc-led Horde and human-led Alliance was set in an immersive, intricately detailed medieval fantasy world.
If magical, immersive science fiction and fantasy requires a bedrock of plausibility to be believed and enjoyed by readers, it also must go a step further, imagining future or alternate realities both bleak and aspirational.
It was immersive before "immersion" became an entertainment-industry buzzword, it was "interactive" back when interactivity meant writing reasonable letters to the editor about characters named Tigra and Man-Thing and it linked like-minded thinkers in an open-ended virtual fantasy world before there was a World of Warcraft or even a Web to play it on.
But it was only in 2002 that a video game managed to equal the immersive experience of entering a fantasy world like Lord of the Rings or The Belgaraid.
Followers of the Famous Five and fans of Five Children and It will be delighted to discover a modern-day writer who has created a similarly immersive world of mystery and fantasy.
