[MUD-Dev] Levels of immersion

[Richard A. Bartle]

On 13 December, Tess Snider wrote:

> There's a level of deep-roleplaying that can happen, when your
> characters are so intensely well developed that they sometimes do
> things that even *you* didn't expect.

Yes, this is like an actor "living" the part.

> Think about it this way: When you relate events that happened to
> your character to people outside the game, do you describe those
> events in first person or third person?

This is an excellent distinction.

> I find the very idea of immersing past the "character" level
> graceless, irresponsible, and distasteful.

It rather depends on how an individual goes about it.

When I play my own game as Richard the arch-wizard, that's basically
just me. I regard the game as a place, and feel no less present in it
than I would feel if I were in, say, the local sandwich bar. I can
instantly become in my office sitting at a keyboard if there's some
kind of external input, but while I'm in the game, that's where I feel
I am. Years of practice, probably...

Now I can do a similar thing with characters I create. I can slip into
them and "be" in the game, but I'm not necessarily fully immersed
because I'm always aware that every input or output has to go through
a filter to account for the character's point of view.  What I say and
how I answer questions are all on-the-fly converted between what I
would say/answer and what my character would. Again, I've done this so
often it's become second nature to me. In one sense I am immersed,
because I feel I exist in the game world, but in another I'm not,
because I don't feel the game character is me.  I feel that I am in
the game world, pretending to be someone else.

If the character I create becomes so similar to the real me that I
don't have to process everything that character says and does, then
that's immersion. I feel I'm in the game, and that it's me, not some
character. If I don't have to think "what would an elf scarred by the
recent loss of her father do in this situation" or "hmm, I said I was
only 15, maybe I ought not to make that joke" then that makes it
immersive. When your character IS you - has your personality - you're
immersed. It doesn't matter whether that means other people can
identify you as being the real world you; what matters is what YOU
think.

I regard the suggestion that becoming fully immersed in a game is
graceless, irresponsible and distasteful the same way I'd regard
finding yourself in Disneyland as graceless, irresponsible and
distasteful. It's just a place; immersion is how you get there.

> No player who was immersed at strictly the "character" level would
> even dream of doing something like that.

I disagree. I have had people play my games who, it transpired, were
clinically insane (although not, presumably, at the point when they
were given their release papers). If someone's grasp of reality is
shaky, then their grasp on fantasy is likely to be shaky too.

> At the "persona" level, that distance is lost, and a great deal of
> one's perspective can be lost in the bargain.

I do concur with you here, but I'd add that a great deal of
perspective can also be gained, in particular in areas to do with
self-perception.

Richard
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