Janet Murray, "Immersion"

(In Hamlet on the Holodeck)

- Any medium can present an immersive "virtual reality" through narrative, but the effect is intensified by participatory media
- Computers as liminal, like stories
- Immersion must rest on the threshold between real (present) and imaginary (elsewhere/distant)
- Problem of seeing ourselves in the fantasy without disrupting it
- Problem of "finding our way back" (what is the fourth wall of digital media?)
- We just need to get used to new media
- Formalism/formal experimentation as a sign of maturity (Duck Amuck)
- Unlike older media, we are asked to transgress boundaries and enter the liminal space
- Screen/controller as threshold objects
- Active creation of belief (not passive suspension)
- Immersive stories invite participation
- Virtual objects become "real through use"
- Link between spectacle and immersion
- Avatar as mask that allows for participation in/on the threshold
- Move away from "gun-crazy" violent games
- Awareness of others can break immersion, but in MUDs and other similar games we only see the avatar, not the "real" person
- Well-defined rules/roles structure immersive environments and engender belief
- Game mechanics mediate/stand in for other actions/meanings (does that make them linguistic?)
- Experiences that are authentic, if not "real"