The episode got me thinking about the impact on the concept of flow on player choice. I can recall several times where my choices as a player became wrapped up in the flow of play and decision making became almost unconscious.
Where the decisions I was making my own in that period of energized focus? Was the avatar piloting me in those moments? Are the lines between the player and their avatar jagged edges with clear delineations, or fuzzy and permeable?
This is the stuff I'm trying to get at. There's a gestalt. The player is in the game and the avatar is in the player. But the player isn't just the avatar and the avatar isn't solely the player. Like in sports, the player is the avatar. In boardgames, avatars system incentives or disincentives, while player choice is primary. In an RPG, it's different.
I've had an OBE exactly once, ever, during a game — a Vampire LARP. About 5-10 minutes at most? It was bizarre. I could see myself doing it, like an over the shoulder shot of the action.
The episode got me thinking about the impact on the concept of flow on player choice. I can recall several times where my choices as a player became wrapped up in the flow of play and decision making became almost unconscious.
Where the decisions I was making my own in that period of energized focus? Was the avatar piloting me in those moments? Are the lines between the player and their avatar jagged edges with clear delineations, or fuzzy and permeable?
This is the stuff I'm trying to get at. There's a gestalt. The player is in the game and the avatar is in the player. But the player isn't just the avatar and the avatar isn't solely the player. Like in sports, the player is the avatar. In boardgames, avatars system incentives or disincentives, while player choice is primary. In an RPG, it's different.
I've had an OBE exactly once, ever, during a game — a Vampire LARP. About 5-10 minutes at most? It was bizarre. I could see myself doing it, like an over the shoulder shot of the action.
The worst part of games? The players.
Okay, okay... starting to listen now.