[MUD-Dev] Levels of immersion

[Tess Snider]

On Tue, 12 Dec 2000, Richard A. Bartle wrote:

> I'd disagree: you can't really consciously immerse yourself in a
> game world, but you can consciously role-play. If you're immersed
> and you want to role-play, you have to do so from the point of view
> of the immersed persona, otherwise you wouldn't be immersed. If it's
> my aim to be a noble paladin type and I become immersed in the game
> before I achieve my aim, then the me in the game world has to want
> to be the paladin type. Now this could well happen, because the me
> in the game and the me in the real world are the same me, but it
> would probably involve leaving immersivity to make the decision,
> which undermines it. Now if the immersed me wants to become the
> paladin because the context of the game world, rather than the real
> world, makes the decision natural, that's fine, I have no problem
> with that. It wouldn't be an aid to role-playing, though, because in
> the game world I wouldn't be role-playing, I'd be striving for some
> goal to improve ME, not my character.

This is a *very* important clarification, which I was on the verge of
bringing up, myself.  In an environment which is designed with good
roleplaying in mind (particularly consensual roleplaying), players who
have descended to the "persona" level of immersion can be downright
deterimental to the game.

Here are some fundamental reasons for my assertion:

1.)  A player who is immersed at the character level will tend, in
	general, to be a more altruistic and cooperative player.  This
	is because when bad things happen to his character, it's the
	*character* who suffers, and not him.  Unyielding, selfish
	players tend to make storytelling extraordinarily difficult,
	easily frustrate the other players in the game, and can
	ultimately damage the realism and well-being of the game.

2.)  Players who operate strictly at the character level do a very fine
	job of playing characters who are unlike themselves.  Players who
	immerse themselves at the persona level are either forced to
	play characters who are similar to themselves, or will be
	confronted with cognitive dissonance on a regular basis.  When
	this sort of dissonance arises, it is usually the player's view
	which win's over the character's, resulting in generally bad
	roleplaying.  When the character's view wins, the player may
	lose perspective regarding his character's role in the world.
	For example, a player who is playing a villain may become
	immersed to the point that he has forgotten that his character was
	a villain in the first place; this may be good for his portrayal
	of the villain in the beginning, but in the long run, he will
	have a great deal of difficulty accepting his role in the fiction
	of the game -- particularly when the good guys come calling.

3.)  For the health of the game and community, it is essential that the
	lines between out-of-character (OOC) knowledge and feelings
	and in-character (IC) knowledge and feelings remain clear.
	A player who is immersed too far will have difficulty keeping
	OOC knowledge and feelings from leeking into his IC play, and
	vice versa.  The results of this range from the comical to
	the devastating.  (A comical example:  A guy who allows his
	character's IC feelings of love towards another character leak
	into his OOC feelings towards the player -- until he discovers
	that the player of his lady love is another man.)

4.)  In any game where some characters are villains, it is essential that
	there is an understanding that character behaviour is strictly
	just that, and does not reflect on the personality of the player.
	This is what enables nice people to play villains, without the
	player base hating them.  When too many players are immersed on
	the persona level, the player base begins to doubt that other
	players are roleplaying their characters in good faith, and that
	their OOC intentions are pure.  It becomes harder and harder for
	players to effectively play villains, in such a climate.

It is because of the above factors that in a consensual roleplaying
environment, immersion on the persona level is often frowned upon.  In
a stroke of amusing irony, I distinctly recall the "It's just a game"
litany being heard quite frequently in the consensual RP worlds where
I have played.  In these cases, it's not a justification for the vile
behaviour of grief players.  These are not people who are "missing the
point" (to quote RK).  It is *because* these people understand the
absolute power that the community and fiction in these worlds holds
over the human psyche that they are willing to scream from the highest
mountaintop that it's just a game.  These are players who have had to
tell fellow players that none of this is worth ruining (or even
losing) your life over.  It's intended as a very important reminder --
a not-so-gentle kick to the head, saying "For God's sake, DON'T GET
TOO IMMERSED!"  They say it, not just because they don't want people
to roleplay badly, but because they don't want their fellow players
showing up at work one day with a machete.


Tess Snider

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