Vincent has an excellent new post up on his blog about immersion:
Some of you think that I’m saying or about to say something like this: “our intent focus on immersion has blinded us to other, just as fun ways to play.” And you’re already responding: “maybe so, Vincent, but immersion is my favorite, and those other ways to play may be just as much fun but I don’t like them as much.” Wrong!
See, that buys into the stupidbad false dichotomy. Let it go. What I’m really saying and about to say is this:
Our shared misunderstanding of what makes immersion happen has parched our experience. WE CAN HAVE IT ALL. Our big monkey brains are fully capable of having immersion and those other kinds of fun all at the same time.
I think this is a really important point. I know people whose main reason for gaming is to immerse themselves in their character, and I think they often buy into the idea that game systems usually interfere with that. I don’t think that it’s at all hard to see why they might have come to that conclusion, as dealing with the intricacies of some of the more popular (and complex) RPG systems, like D&D, Champions or GURPS, can all too easily pull you back to a place where you’re letting go of the character in order to deal with the numbers. That doesn’t mean that rules or dice need to get in the way of immersion though, it just means that some rules have a tendency to do so.
So, go read what Vincent has to say, and take the time to go through the comments too, as some good discussion seems to already be starting there.
