In my experience, all they mean is the kind of "immersion" you can get from, say, watching a movie. When you watch it, if you're into it, you'll feel a little sad when something bad happens to the characters you like, you'll feel a little happy when good things happen to them, you feel a little scared when scary things happen, and when the movie ends you'll just feel satisfied that you enjoyed it.
There's no lingering sadness/happiness/fear. But the immersion is still there - in the moment, you still feel stuff in relation to the on-screen events. And I think for most people, if there isn't that temporary emotional connection, you end up getting distracted, feeling disinterested, and not enjoying the movie as much. If something in the movie happens that doesn't make sense to you, then it "breaks your immersion", forcing you out of the headspace where you're focussing on the feelings and into a headspace where you're trying to rationalise what you just saw, and most people find that less fun.
At no point is there any illusion that you're "in" the movie, that you as a real person are a real participant in the movie; (to take common examples of problems that arise from having no IC/OOC divide) there's no feeling that if something bad happens in the movie to the character you like that it's a personal slight against you as a movie-goer, or that if a romance happens on-screen that it means that the actor portraying it is now dating you IRL.
Movies aren't an interactable format, so it's much rarer for people to feel that way in relation to them. But the point I'm making is that immersion (which can happen when watching a movie... or reading a book, or any other non-interactable media that tells a story) is a separate thing from a lack of IC/OOC divide (which is a phenomenon largely restricted to roleplay).
I think most people, when they're watching a movie, can easily understand "ah, I feel sad because a sad thing is happening in the movie; this movie is really good!". At no point do they go "I feel sad because the director is personally trying to upset me!". The problems don't arise when you begin to feel emotions at all as a result of a roleplay - they arise when this conflation happens; when you jump from "this person's character is behaving in an upsetting fashion" to "this person is trying to upset me".
Because of the interactable nature of roleplay, it lends itself much more strongly to those mistakes. But I think folding "feeling any emotions at all from a roleplay" (i.e. having immersion) in with "having no IC/OOC divide" simplifies the issue, and makes it harder to understand. The IC/OOC divide is in being able to recognise where those feelings are coming from ("I feel sad because a sad thing is happening in the roleplay" vs "I feel sad because this person is trying to upset me") and act accordingly (continuing the roleplay IC, rather than making OOC accusations).
TL;DR Recreationally inducing feelings through storytelling isn't the same as having no IC/OOC divide.
There's no lingering sadness/happiness/fear. But the immersion is still there - in the moment, you still feel stuff in relation to the on-screen events. And I think for most people, if there isn't that temporary emotional connection, you end up getting distracted, feeling disinterested, and not enjoying the movie as much. If something in the movie happens that doesn't make sense to you, then it "breaks your immersion", forcing you out of the headspace where you're focussing on the feelings and into a headspace where you're trying to rationalise what you just saw, and most people find that less fun.
At no point is there any illusion that you're "in" the movie, that you as a real person are a real participant in the movie; (to take common examples of problems that arise from having no IC/OOC divide) there's no feeling that if something bad happens in the movie to the character you like that it's a personal slight against you as a movie-goer, or that if a romance happens on-screen that it means that the actor portraying it is now dating you IRL.
Movies aren't an interactable format, so it's much rarer for people to feel that way in relation to them. But the point I'm making is that immersion (which can happen when watching a movie... or reading a book, or any other non-interactable media that tells a story) is a separate thing from a lack of IC/OOC divide (which is a phenomenon largely restricted to roleplay).
I think most people, when they're watching a movie, can easily understand "ah, I feel sad because a sad thing is happening in the movie; this movie is really good!". At no point do they go "I feel sad because the director is personally trying to upset me!". The problems don't arise when you begin to feel emotions at all as a result of a roleplay - they arise when this conflation happens; when you jump from "this person's character is behaving in an upsetting fashion" to "this person is trying to upset me".
Because of the interactable nature of roleplay, it lends itself much more strongly to those mistakes. But I think folding "feeling any emotions at all from a roleplay" (i.e. having immersion) in with "having no IC/OOC divide" simplifies the issue, and makes it harder to understand. The IC/OOC divide is in being able to recognise where those feelings are coming from ("I feel sad because a sad thing is happening in the roleplay" vs "I feel sad because this person is trying to upset me") and act accordingly (continuing the roleplay IC, rather than making OOC accusations).
TL;DR Recreationally inducing feelings through storytelling isn't the same as having no IC/OOC divide.
![[Image: tUzrT.png]](https://puu.sh/tUzrT.png)
