[MUD-Dev] Levels of immersion

[Tess Snider]

On Wed, 13 Dec 2000, Richard A. Bartle wrote:

> 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.

You misquoted me, slightly, earlier in your letter.  This was my
actual quote:

> I think that I wanted to deny it because, coming from the background
> that I do, I find the very idea of immersing past the "character"
> level graceless, irresponsible, and distasteful.

I appended "coming from the background that I do," because I
recognised the fact that the sentiment I was expressing might seem
somewhat ludicrous to some folks.  The reason that I feel the way I do
is literally *because* of my background; on the games that I played,
people who were immersed at the persona level created serious
problems, for reasons that I have discussed previously.  In short,
persona-immersed players find it extremely difficult to engage in the
level of give-and-take compromise required for a cooperative
roleplaying game to survive in any kind of healthy fashion.

When a player perceives his character's misfortunes as his own, he
simply can't make objective decisions about his character's fate in
the context of the greater framing story (and the stories of other
characters).  He will no longer make decisions because they are good
for the game, or good for the story, or just because they'll lead to
some intensely brilliant roleplaying.  He will always be looking out
for his own best interests and survival (and even, in some cases, will
even feel that he needs to *win*).  At this point, he's taking from
the game, and not contributing anything in return.

Now, understand that the problem I'm describing may be somewhat unique
to the cooperative roleplaying realm of games.  Most games don't
demand the same level of maturity and altruism that cooperative
roleplaying games do.  My aforementioned "background" includes a lot
of time spent in cooperative roleplaying games.  My experiences with
observing persona-level immersion and its effects tend to come largely
from that context.  So, my attitudes are profoundly coloured by that.
Someone from another background might, understandably, feel very
differently!

I am also mindful of the fact that players don't consciously decide to
immerse at one level or another, in general.  In the end, nobody can
really be blamed.  Heck, a good character roleplayer might even be
unwittingly complicit in the heightened immersion of another
player. :)

Tess Snider

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