Instantly your mind is racing, giving substance to that room, life to that man. Perhaps it's a wood paneled room with plush velvet carpeting and a roaring fireplace, or it's bitterly cold in a castle keep, or the room is sheets of riveted steel, soulless, lost deep in space. The man is 20. No, he's 90. He's missing a leg. He's blind. He's wearing a tux.

But drop into the digital skin of that man, a specific soldier in a battle standing in a forest inCall of Duty: Ghosts, and that sense of control is gone, gone despite the very real control you have over him with a gamepad.