In a flurry of hubris and ambition, I have decided to devote the entire month of July to discussions of immersion.
I do this more because the topic fascinates me than because I think I’ve got something profound to say about it. I mean, I do think I have some minor insights, but I don’t by any stretch consider myself an expert. What I really want to do is start a dialog. I want people to point out where my ideas are wrong and where I’m operating from faulty preconceptions. In fact, it’s likely that I’ll be starting each and every post with a big, fat disclaimer.
I almost backed out and didn’t do this thing because ‘immersion’ is probably the single most ambiguous word in the roleplaying world. It seems to mean two or three dozen different things to different groups, and as a result has incredibly high flame-war potential. I’m coming into this discussion with that foremost in mind.
The reason I do this at all is that I suspect that the many things that immersion discussions refer to are all actually different faces of one big thing. If I can, I’m going to try to get at that big thing. If we can understand what lies at the root of the desire for immersion, maybe we can understand how to make our design and play more conducive to it. I think it would be awesome to find new ways of satisfying the desire for immersion by some completely new and unexpected means.
But I’m not going to be able to do it alone. I’ve only got a couple of the many views on immersion myself, and I’m going to need help getting to the others. If you have the time and interest I’d really love to have feedback and input from you.
So, it is with some misgivings that I continue forward with this mad plan. Hopefully we can manage to derive something cool and useful from it in the end.
Thomas
Tags: Administrata
[...] Musings and Mental Meanderings Game Design, Theoretical and Applied « Immersion month [...]
I almost backed out and didn’t do this thing because ‘immersion’ is probably the single most ambiguous word in the roleplaying world. It seems to mean two or three dozen different things to different groups, and as a result has incredibly high flame-war potential. I’m coming into this discussion with that foremost in mind.
Here is a little secret. We don’t need a dialogue about Immersion. In fact, a dialogue will only lead to flame-wars or people nodding in agreement without anything reached.
You do not need to add anything new, just write your posts. What the concept of Immersion needs is that the people who have their opinions regarding it post these ideas, and then for the readers to read all such posts and compare them for themselves.
They don’t need you to compare yourself to that person, and arguement.
Sometimes you don’t need dialogues.
Sometimes you need a bunch of monologues, just like school text-books.