Is Immersion Important to You as a Player?

[hawkeyefan]

I would buy the idea of engagement as being the number one priority as a DM and a player. If you're disengaged from the game, then nothing really matters does it? You're not participating in a game which highly values participation. I've certainly been disengaged during play. And, when I've been in a group where I find myself disengaged more than I'm engaged, I've had to walk away from the group.

Immersion? Nah. Don't care. You can certainly play your character 100% like a pawn if you like and keep things purely mechanical and be very engaged in the game. Immersion, I find, is generally one of those things that gets brought up to badwrongfun other people's ideas. "Oh, that hurts my immersion if you do that" which is a position which is completely impossible to argue against while at the same time completely impossible to compromise with.

I mean, heck, right now, I've got a DM who insists on narrating every attack. Drives me straight up the wall since it slows things down SOOOO much. I really, REALLY don't care that my character, on his fifteenth attack of the night, swings overhand or backhand. Just get on with it.

So, no, count me very much out of the immersion camp. I just don't care that much.

I think the problem with immersion is it means different things to different people, achieved in different ways by different people.

If we take the idea of “inhabiting my character inhabiting the world” it’s still going to be different for everyone. Like, I agree with your take on the GM narrating every attack… I don’t need that, and I’d be so concerned with moving things along, that it’d distract me.

But other folks probably find that kind of hyper description to help them inhabit the fiction and their character.

I think immersion is far more broad than is often considered.

 

[niklinna]

It is possible to have a definition so broad as to be useless, and I think you've managed it.

I'll take broad over vague any day.

 

[Hussar]

I find it really annoying it when immersion interferes with my immersion.

More like someone’s immersion is interfering with my engagement.

 

[niklinna]

More like someone’s immersion is interfering with my engagement.

That too! I find it takes engagement to experience immersion, unless the thing I'm supposed to be experiencing immersion of is utter boredom. But I have been told that I am not experiencing immersion, merely engagement, so what do I know?

 

[Reynard]

More like someone’s immersion is interfering with my engagement.

I've seen this happen in actual play: one character is so intent upon inhabiting their character that they hog the spotlight and other players disengage while the immersed talks to a rock for for 15 minutes. No, seriously , this happened at a table I was at.

Of course that's not how the vast majority of "immersion players" behave and I don't mean to imply it is. I am just making a point. The opposite is equally likely or maybe even more so: a player so engaged with the mechanical side ruins the experience of the immersion player by demanding they do the optimal rather than in-character thing.

I also understand that some will quibble with my distinction between "engagement" and "immersion." That's fine. I'm making a largely arbitrary distinction for the purpose of being able to discuss immersion specifically. You can be engaged without being immersed, I think, but not immersed without being engaged.

 

[kenada]

When playing in a TTRPG, how important is immersion -- defined vaguely as "inhabiting your character inhabiting the world" -- to your enjoyment of the game?

I don’t get to play as much as I should like, but when I do, I’d describe my approach as (more or less) doing what my character would do. However, I’m not bothered by having game mechanics or needing to zoom in and out depending on the detail of resolution being deployed, so I’m going to go with: not particularly important to me.

Do you endeavor to experience the world of the game through your character and only your character? Do the rules matter for this, or is it more about the nature of play at the table? Are you okay seeing the sets and strings as it were? Do you act, speak and even think as your character for the duration?

As noted above, I’m generally fine with seeing behind the curtain. For me, what matters is being able to pursue my character’s agenda.

If immersion is important to you, how do you react to other players or the GM when it isn't as important to them?

I’ll echo comments above about needing to work this out when the group starts playing. As a player, I know my style can be disruptive to certain kinds of games, so I try to avoid those if I can.

 

[hawkeyefan]

And as e.g. @John Dallman already mentioned, if a game requires resorting to an authorial perspective often, this kills immersion quite effectively.

Not always. Or not for everyone.

I mentioned upthread how having to zoom out to a greater level of authorship can help me with inhabiting my character. It gives me some ability as a player to have input on the world… and that makes me feel like my character knows things. That there are truths he knows instead of things he is told are true.

This then helps me when I’m thinking from the POV of the character.

Of course that's not how the vast majority of "immersion players" behave and I don't mean to imply it is. I am just making a point. The opposite is equally likely or maybe even more so: a player so engaged with the mechanical side ruins the experience of the immersion player by demanding they do the optimal rather than in-character thing.

One player making demands on another is always a sticky situation. But it can just as easily happen in any game, and I don’t think it’s really connected to gamist versus narrative concerns. Certainly such concerns can conflict, but I don’t think they must, or that such conflict is all one-way.

I also understand that some will quibble with my distinction between "engagement" and "immersion." That's fine. I'm making a largely arbitrary distinction for the purpose of being able to discuss immersion specifically. You can be engaged without being immersed, I think, but not immersed without being engaged.

I don’t know… I’ve seen players who many would classify as “immersed”… they’re using a voice and portraying their character in a way that seems authentic to what’s been established. And while there’s certainly a level of engagement happening, is it meaningful?

The answer depends on many other factors, I’d say. But I don’t think that “portrayal” is the same as immersion, or inhabitation.

Personally, I’ve come to realize that the most immersive kind of play for me is when the mechanics support the fiction… when they take the events of play and what my character is going through, and then connect that to something I experience as a player. The Panic element of the Alien RPG or Sanity mechanics in Call of Cthulhu are good examples. XP Rewards are another; something is important to the character, so the game rewards the player pursuing that thing. There are many examples.

These mechanics mirror the fiction to some extent. When the character is at risk, there is a risk to the player. When the character achieves something, so does the player. Without such elements, for me, it feels like portrayal more than immersion.

 

[payn]

Personally, I’ve come to realize that the most immersive kind of play for me is when the mechanics support the fiction… when they take the events of play and what my character is going through, and then connect that to something I experience as a player. The Panic element of the Alien RPG or Sanity mechanics in Call of Cthulhu are good examples. XP Rewards are another; something is important to the character, so the game rewards the player pursuing that thing. There are many examples.

These mechanics mirror the fiction to some extent. When the character is at risk, there is a risk to the player. When the character achieves something, so does the player. Without such elements, for me, it feels like portrayal more than immersion.

I like these items too....except XP. Has always been an immersion killer in my experience. Folks just gravitate towards mechanical levers over things that make narrative and/or logical sense in the fiction. I'd say it promotes a certain type of meta-gaming that kills my engagement.

 

[hawkeyefan]

I like these items too....except XP. Has always been an immersion killer in my experience. Folks just gravitate towards mechanical levers over things that make narrative and/or logical sense in the fiction. I'd say it promotes a certain type of meta-gaming that kills my engagement.

I think it depends. What are the XP triggers? Who gets to choose them? Who gets to decide if they apply?

There’s no reason the mechanical levers can’t be in synch with the narrative/logical goals in the fiction.

 

[Campbell]

I would say I experience bleed with the characters I play and the situations they find themselves in. I want to inhabit the character, but I care far more about their personal world than like the world. Their desires, aspirations, relationships, places they frequent. Things they care about. That personal perspective.

Thinking about the greater world, how it interconnects in ways that are not directly relevant to the concerns of the characters pulls me away from that immersion in character and situation. Makes me feel more like a space alien exploring strange new worlds.

Edit : I don't like immersion for this because it makes seem like something we experience rather than something we have to work at to maintain, manage (to make sure it remains emotionally safe) and balance with other concerns.