[MUD-Dev] Levels of immersion

[Yves K]

<EdNote: Text moved under the quote it refers to>

Richard A. Bartle wrote:
...
> Avatar, Character, Persona.
> Immerse yourself...
...
> 	First, we have "players". Players are real-world people who are
> sitting at a computer connected to some virtual world (usually a game,
> hence the term "player").
...
> 	An "avatar" is a player's representative in a world. It's really just
> a puppet.
...
> 	Contrast this with a "character". A character is a player's
> representation in a world. It's a whole level of immersion deeper. Your
> character is an extension of yourself, a personality that you don when
> entering the world.
...
> 	A persona is a player, in a world. Any separate distinction of
> character has gone =96 the player IS the character. 
>...
> 	That's when people stop playing a MUD and start living it.
...

I would like to notice that these different "levels", avatar, character 
and personae definitions, could very well be applied to real life as 
well. The avatar is your body, the character the role you adopt 
through a choice of clothes, manners and other social behaviors, 
and the personae is your real you. Your senses and body functions 
are the interfaces connected to the real player, the brain to some, 
the soul to others. These biological interfaces are indeed used for 
actual role playing games such as LARP's (Live Action Role 
Playing Games).

So, this leads me to ask the dreaded question: is real life a mud? If 
so, what is a mud? And what if it doesn't rain?

Semi-joking apart, maybe the fact that the largest game input, 
coming from the world builders as stories and npc..., naturaly and 
definitively stops at the "character" level is part of the cause of the 
"it's just a game" versus "No it isn't" shism.

Yves K. aka Volstoff.
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