(07-27-2017, 09:49 AM)Niamh Wrote: I mostly read RPC to pickup information to help learn RP in the FFXIV environment, and get ideas on how to develop a character in said environment. Â I keep seeing the word "immersion" pop up in threads. Â My exposure to RP in the past always treated the character as being a separate entity/avatar.
Am I just misunderstanding the context and avatar / immersion are the same thing?
If they are separate:
How do you create the line between IC and OOC if you are truly "immersed"?
Do you play in 1st person view to maintain your immersion?
Do you declare that you are "immersed" to others during RP interactions, or is it something participants should just pick up on?
Is the etiquette for interacting with an "immersed" player/character different than the etiquette for interacting with an avatar?
I got a postponement of the meeting I'm waiting on so I'm glad I can respond to this.
Immersion is one of those terms that gets thrown around a lot and I don't think most people really understand what it means. Â For some it just means RPing free of distraction. Â For me to become 'immersed' in RP is kind of like method acting. Â It's something I haven't been able to indulge myself with because I have too many constant real world distractions to keep me from falling into a character that closely.Â
>> How do you create the line between IC and OOC if you are truly "immersed"?
For me, this being like method acting, you leave yourself behind and put yourself in the character's position. Â You let yourself feel instead of just watch. Â Yes, there's a ton of bleed over because you're making yourself feel what the character is feeling, and going through a lot of it as you're creating a rather direct emotional attachment to what the character is going through.
While doing this I tend to completely cut off OOC communication except for the bare necessities. Â (read: I'll probably send a tell before doing something like trying to stab someone's hand, etc to make sure it's ok.) Â
It is difficult to keep OOC influences away from the character, but this is not really any different from regular day to day RP as well.
>> Â Do you play in 1st person view to maintain your immersion?
Not really. Â I sometimes zoom in to check to make sure I should be seeing what I think my character is seeing. Â Sometimes I've zoomed in to help prevent self-meta-gaming. Â It is really impractical since you have a very narrow viewpoint in 1st person mode compared to a real world 160 degree scope and in game 1st person point of view is often a 80-90 degree cone.
>>Â Do you declare that you are "immersed" to others during RP interactions, or is it something participants should just pick up on?
No, not in the least to either question and no one really needs to pick up on it.
If someone I'm RPing with is baragging me with OOC tells about the scene or their actions I'll often just suggest "lets leave it in play" or "let the scene play out as it will, do as you want" to keep it from spilling over into OOC too far.
>>Â Is the etiquette for interacting with an "immersed" player/character different than the etiquette for interacting with an avatar?
No? Â They may ask you to just stick to IC interaction, but that goes for non-immersed people too sometimes.
There's no grand line or change of rulesets between the styles of textual character acting we call RP. Â
