immersion

It's really interesting to me as to how interesting Cathy's Book and Photopia were. Both of them were plainly written with zero flare yet it just kept building momentum. When diagramming the narrative of Cathy's Book from left to right on a linear line in class and then putting all of the little side bits to the top and bottom all I could think about was depth vs breadth. The side information to Cathy's Book and other args could be looked at as depth, but the way I saw it was as the narrative being extremely wide with each part not being terribly deep but the sheer breadth of it all makes it great. The main narrative could be incredibly well written and that would be nice, but it doesn't have to be. Photopia and Cathy's Book are both similar in how they use mystery and interaction to propel themselves forward.  read more »

Is Cathy's Book an ARG or not? I say yes! Using Dave Szulborski's explanation of Alternate Reality Gaming, I would definitely say so. Szulborski's introduction to defining ARG's is the fact that its main goal is to deny and disguise the fact that it's even a game. When I picked up my copy of Cathy's Book earlier in the semester, I was excited because I thought that it was some sort of mystery book and that the pouch of articles was some sort of pouch of clues to help us along the story. They have helped us through the story, but in so many more ways than just by looking at each item at face value. While reading Cathy's journal, without even knowing it, we are being pulled into this ARG. Some of us choose to engage ourselves within the story: calling phone numbers, figuring out pass codes, and visiting web-sites, all the while immersing ourselves more and more into this game that isn't a game, or rather having the game immerse itself into our realities. Szulborski states that most successful ARG's are really about relationships between characters, entities in the game and the players, I think Cathy's Book covers these relationships quite well.  read more »

In his blog, Greg brought up some really good points about the advertisements in Cathy's Book. One of these points was marking the difference between advertisements found in other story-telling mediums like television or movies compared to books. And his point was that with a visual medium the audience could be, for example, watching the main character drink a soda... and that soda just so happens to be a Pepsi...with the label perfectly facing the screen. However, this plug doesn't resonate so badly with audience members because it does not take time or attention off of the main plot or mood in the scene. The difference with advertisement in a written narrative is how obvious it is when the author takes time to write, "And then he set down his empty Diet Pepsi can". I find it quite sad that authors cannot use the same marketing strategies as movie producers but unfortunately that's one of the differences found in using different story-telling mediums. I do agree with Greg that it does take away from the story because it makes the author's attempt to make a plug very evident.  read more »

So I think I should start this blog off by saying that I absolutely LOVED Cathy's Book. I had never read anything like it, and I thought the whole experience was great. Like we touched upon in glass, the attention to detail is noteworthy, and it really adds to the authenticity of the story. All of the phone numbers and the Web sites enhanced my experienced and really immersed me in Cathy's quest to get to the bottom of this mystery. By examining all of the "evidence" included in her book, I was able to follow along with story and even figure things out on my own before Cathy had any idea. I literally finished the whole thing in one sitting, which I think says a lot for its immersive quality. It really sucks you in and makes the world seem as real as possible. Since I was so actively involved in the discovery process, I become really determined to find out ALL there is to know. Unfortunately, I haven't figured everything out yet, which is killing me because one of the articles we had to read mentioned that the biggest secret of Cathy's Book isn't even contained within it's pages. Hopefully some people in class tomorrow will have some more insight as to what I've missed.  read more »

As I mentioned in a previous blog, in my Victorian Literature class we have recently been studying some of the works of Lewis Carroll including Alice in Wonderland and also some of his poetry. Janet Murray talks about immersion as generally being an experience where the individual is somewhat lost within the text/game/movie/etc. In one of Carroll's poems "Jabberwocky" there occurs a particularly interesting form of immersion.
In my opinion it is a very brief, strange trip into another world...a completely bizzare surreal world only Carroll could create.  read more »

I discussed in my last post how Doom forces me into a close relationship with it. I feel as if I'm going to Hell, with a chainsaw.

In all my workshop writing classes, we discuss immersion as well, but in a different form. In literature, there are levels of interaction. Think about it: you have first-person narration, sometimes second-person narration (read Lorrie Moore's "Self-Help"), and almost always third-person narration. As first-person, you are the character. Second-person, you are a character interacting with others. (Also, it's important to note the level of immersion with second-person writing. You will not find a novel in second-person. It is too demanding on the reader.)  read more »

It's weird thinking about it, but I've been involved with Doom most of my life. It's always been a loving relationship, though Doom sometimes comes home late from work without giving me a reason as to where he's been.

Seriously though, I wanted to discuss the level of immersion in Doom. In my "Magic Circle," while playing the original Doom on my laptop, I completely ignore all that is around me. My heart races at times, and when the game intentionally tries to scare me, I find myself falling right into it.

When I was much younger, I found a copy of Doom, and it was terrifying, and somehow exhilarating. My mother didn't quite appreciate me renting a game that had me carry around a chainsaw. She also frowned upon the game Quake because it had a nail-gun. (I could be wrong on that, but it was some game with a nail-gun, which is just unnecessary).  read more »

Immersion as Janet Murray puts it is "a metaphorical term derived from the physical experience of being submerged in water. We seek the same feeling from a psychologically immersive experience that we do from a plunge in the ocean or swimming pool - the sensation of being surrounded by a completely other reality, as different as water is from air, that takes over all of our attention, our whole perceptual apparatus." I feel this definition of immersion truly captures what it means to be immersed in a game. It is for this reason I chose this definition to support my arguement that immersion and the fourth wall concepts are all subjective. As I mentioned in class the other day, text games such as Zork and Adventure depend on the user/player/interactor to have a previous experience with the content in the game. For example, [as we mentioned in class] in Adventure, we are exploring through a cave; if we didn't know what a cave was, then the game wouldn't be very immersive, rather it would be confusing. However, I don't think it is enough to know what something physically IS, to have a game be considered immersive.  read more »

I have thoroughly enjoyed Murray's ideas on immersion (and everything we have read on her in general), although this topic of 'Regulating Arousal' on pages 234-237 of the handbook seem to me a bit off.

And I quote, "The objects of the imaginary world should not be too enticing, scary or real lest the immersive trance be broken. This is true in any medium. If a horror movie is too frightening, we cover our eyes or turn away from the screen. If a romantic movie is too directly arousing, audience members may start necking instead of watching the characters."  read more »

I had never before considered amusement park rides in light of their narrative qualities, but when I read Janet Murray's chapter on immersion, it became clear to me that these intricately planned environments and machines are examples of some of the most immersive narrative structures available. Murray cites Jurassic Park in her discussion, but I'd like to head over to Disney's Magic Kingdom for my example because that's where my loyalties lie. I've been going to Magic Kingdom since before I could walk or talk, and to this day, I still find the illusion created by the park very enthralling. The whole thing is a huge, immersive show. The staff, the setting and the rides all make you feel like you're in another world outside reality. Each area of the park is designed to take you to a different place. Tomorrowland leaps into the future, while Fantasyland brings fairy tales to life. Within these immersive environments, rides serve to further immerse guests by putting them in the middle of the action. Space Mountain, for example, aims to give riders the thrill of traveling through space, which is made possible in the futuristic environment of Tomorrowland.  read more »

Many mediums require the reader or viewer to participate in interpreting the medium, but in order to do so, the participant must first learn the rules of the game, much like in Zork. In order to understand the meaning of a piece, the reader or viewer must adjust to the medium or as stated in Immersion, “immersion implies learning to swim” (99). For example, in the film, Life is Beautiful, if the viewer is American, he/she must learn that in order to understand the film, he/she must read the subtitles. As with learning how to swim or ride a bike, this takes a few minutes before it becomes natural to the reader or viewer and they are able to participate with ease.  read more »

I found Murray's discussion of immersion to be casually interesting, but not engrossing. What is more interesting to me is the fact that reading it produced a "duh" factor in my mind. This has nothing to do with her writing or content, but more to do with the fact that humans have for a very long time, if not always, been incredibly immersive beings. Although she does into details about MUDs and LARPing that are somewhat specialized niches of immersion in participatory narratives, the core idea of that immersion probably makes sense, and is entirely applicable, to the lives of everyone in this class. Just look around campus to see everyone staring at their laptops, ears plugged with iPods, or reading a novel or textbook for class.

Murray mentioned silent reading and the fears everyone had about people withdrawing in "secret" to read anything from medical encyclopedias, religious texts, or erotic literature. It was just another way for people to do something, think about things, and develop thought processes that no one else could no about.  read more »