Immersion

A discussion I had with some local rpg-players got me thinking about the history of rpg-theory in Finland. The best known of theories was the one based on the text known as the Turku School Manifesto (it was displayed online not long ago, but I can’t seem to find it anymore). It meant that for a long time, role-play - and especially larp - was viewed through these concepts. For those that don’t know, Turku School ideas were based on the idea of immersion, or the player “becoming” more or less, the character. That idea has been elaborated and criticized since, but for (roughly) a decade, it was the way theory worked (in Finland), at least in practice if not in all discourses of theorists. ...

On Matthijs Holter’s article in Lifelike: Holter argues that we (the writers, students and - ) should stop talking about immersion. He admits that there is something called ‘immersion’, but that it isn’t constructive to use immersion as a term in writing about role-playing games and theory of role-play. I disagree and this is why: ...