[MUD-Dev] Levels of immersion

[Tess Lowe]

From: "Tess Snider" <malkin at Radix.Net>

> 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.

[snip lots of excellent stuff]

Tess,

I wanted to say thankyou for being the first person who I've seen put
into writing, views on this which I wholeheartedly agree with.

This issue of character vs persona is the major difficulty I have with
playing muds. I always start with immersion at the character level. I
have fun. Nothing that happens to my character affects me
personally. I can play bad guys or good guys equally well.

Then, of course, I start to make friends. Some of these people are
also (more or less obviously) immersed at the character level, and
this is fine.  We both know that the characters are not really us, and
that frees us from stress if one or the other decides to roleplay 'an
argument' or whatever.

The problems begin when you make friends with someone who is immersed
at the persona level. Ie they are being themselves in a virtual world,
rather than roleplaying a character in that character's real world.

For a while I can hold out, playing my character and not getting
immersed to the persona level. But eventually I weaken and the
boundary breaks down.  They talk to you ooc and get upset if you dont
reciprocate. I can no longer play my character when around that other
player - especially if I'm supposed to be a badass - because I know
they are taking everything personally. So I start having to be
myself. This is a slippery slope. As soon as that detachment is gone,
I start to *care*. I get personally upset about things that happen to
my character, because they are now happening to *me*. I get personally
upset about things happening to my friends. I start wanting to get
involved in game politics to clear up the corruption. Suddenly all
these things are becoming real to *me*.

Over time the ability to roleplay my character is completely lost, and
eventually I go through the frustration to the despair phase and quit
the game.

I've never quite gotten to the machete stage.. yet. :)

So yes, there are those who are never immersed at all - they just have
an avatar, a puppet which they use to kill stuff, a la Quake. Then
there are those who get *too* immersed and lose all distinction
between themselves and their avatar. (That level of immersion is
dangerous for me. It's the drug I find most addictive and the most
soul destroying.) And finally there are those who roleplay a character
but remain personally detached. (analagous to "but I didnt inhale",
perhaps? *g*).

I personally admire the detached roleplayers who can keep to the
character level of immersion. However, I doubt they are ever likely to
be the target audience of mmorpg developers. My intuition tells me
it's the folks at the persona immersion level who get addicted and
spend lots of money (plus the non-immersed powergamers who just want
to ownz the server for the sake of their ego).

~Tess Lowe

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