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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Manbearcat" data-source="post: 8301693" data-attributes="member: 6696971">"At the population level" meaning across a robust distribution of players and not someone's autobiographical testimonial.I'm going to relay a quick anecdote about "immersion."Last evening, the Dungeon World game I'm running for [USER=1282]@darkbard[/USER] and his wife reached its conclusion.  Afterward, we reflected upon the play broadly and specific aspects/moments of play.One moment in particular is salient here (and its also salient in another ongoing aspect of this thread and the other thread).  There was a pivotal moment perhaps 7 sessions ago where the 2 PCs (darkbard's Paladin, his wife's Wizard, and their 6, yes SIX, Cohorts) were in a huge conflict at Camp 2 on their way up to a multi-staged perilous journey to the top of a K2 like peak to face one of the two primary antagonists of play.  There was an archeological dig site (the Wizard was an archeologist and a team from her academy was there) at Camp 2; a giant dragon ossuary where ancient dragons at the end of their life go to die.The other antagonist of the game was a horror from the Far Realm.  Due to conspiring forces (I don't want to drag this out so I'm not getting into it), the magical fabric of the world was being undone and all sorts of rather bad things were happening as a byproduct.  Places of power (like this ossuary) were particularly prone to issues.  So they were attacked by an animated Dracolich that obliterated the dig site (archetecture, including a lift to get down into the ossuary and scaffolding etc, and personnel).  The Wizard had a newly crafted wand (infused with primal elemental - lightning - magic).  When the dragon burst from the shaft leading down to the ossuary, all hell broke loose.  When she attempted to use the wand to Cast a Spell, she got a 6-.  The hard move I made against her was to have the wand explode out of her hand in a lightning-charged event...it bounced once, twice, three times and then down into the shaft.  Up top they were in a fight for their life.  This could have gone south quick in a TPK (very nearly did...there were two near TPKs in the game and this was the 2nd one).  Maraqli (the Wizard) is rash and impetuous (her play and her bonds and her Alignment created a very distinct feedback loop of an extraordinarily impulsive, borderline reckless, character).  Her move when this happened was not to help her companions deal with the Dracolich.  It was to leap down into the shaft (using a 3rd level Wizard spell that she has that gives her 1 hold to spend to either discharge a Lightning Bolt or Feather Fall - which she did here), get her wand back and close the fraying magical fabric of the world in the ossuary (and confront the denizens that were spilling forward from it or the animated dragon bones if it came to that).  When this happened...both darkbard and I were sitting there slackjawed.  Holy crap.  That is...quite a...thing.  She basically self-inflicted a "Separate the Party" complication on them and left the Paladin and the Cohorts outgunned in trying to deal with the Dracolich.  But the following was going on in her head (these are her words, more or less):1)  "I HAD to get down there.  The tear in the tapestry that was making this happen had to be closed...and I needed my new wand for that (play had established that Elemental Magic, particularly Lightning, amplified moves/Clock ticks to close these tears/rifts).  Maraqli is impulsive.  That was my basic instinct there so I jumped at it."2)  She is someone who is very "habitation/immersion-centric" in her play and this moment in particular was a highlight of habitation/immersion for her.  Darkbard is different in orientation (as he's discussed prior...he pivots between a few stances/states, but there is a persistent 3rd Person Omniscient that undergirds his cognitive state...even when he's emotionally swept up in the play).3)  In retrospect, this was (a) extraordinary skillful play (at the moment it seemed crazytown to both darkbard and I...but we were both fundamentally incorrect...in retrospect, this was probably the most skillful play move she could have made), (b) it was immersive, thematically-robust play, and (c) she was inhabiting both (a) and (b) simultaneously in her OODA Loop; she was threading the needle of skilled play meets immersive, thematically-robust play.  I mean, I already know/knew that this can be done.  But to hear her testimonial about this last night basically puts it to bed for me entirely that all of (i) (c) is a thing (that the cognitive state that underwrites skilled play and immersion/habitation can be married...that needle can be threaded) and (ii) Dungeon World is absolutely a game that features Skilled Play and (iii) the cognitive state of "immersion/habitation" is not some objective feature embedded into a particular configuration of agenda/principles/reward cycles/feedback loops/action resolution mechanics.  System Matters in dozens of ways (ALL the ways)...but immersion/habitation is a personal thing...a product of one's particular cognitive features/nuance.</blockquote>

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