Monthly Review July 2006

A major theme of this month has revolved around the question of what is immersion. The cause of this discussion originates with Thomas Robertson's month of immersion. He presented his own definition of immersion, namely when a player ceases to consciously filter the events in play, here, further refining it here. Over at story games, Fred Wolke describes immersion as the state where you visceral respond to a character's emotions. Elsewhere, Moyra Turkington discusses three literary terms as types of immersion: catharsis - emotional purification through identifying with a tragic character, kairosis - emotional integration with a character undergoing a significant internal change, and kenosis - the losing of self. Finally, a variety of definitions are put forward in response to Thomas Robertson's request here.