thread: 2005-06-02 : Immersion
On 2005-06-02, Brand Robins wrote:
Jonas, there is a degree to which I agree with you. However, let me suggest that the problem with the "break" is not that there is a break, but the method of determining when it comes and whether or not the medium is suited for the type of break being taken.
To go back to analogies for a moment: your point about movies on TV is well taken. A break where the original intention did not call for a break can cause problems in focus. However, things made for television, shows such as Buffy: The Vampire Slayer or The Shield, often use the break to increase the tension or for other dramatic effect. In being created for a medium where they know there will be breaks, the scriptors come to rely upon those breaks rather than dread them. The same thing applies to theatre, where it is often standard to have an intermission in which there is a break in the midst of the action. Good plays use this break for dramatic effect, often marking the point where we?re reaching anagnorisis (the point where the protagonist realizes they have made a mistake and must change or be destroyed) and increasing the tension the audience feels. There have also been theorists who have suggested that the talk that takes place out of the auditorium, while people mingle and have drinks during the intermission, actually increases audience buy-in and stimulates them towards a limited form of ownership through discourse and speculation. The break does not ruin the focus, it enhances it (though it may change it as well).
Under that paradigm, I?d suggest that the reason that folks have problems with rules breaking immersion is not because of the fact that there is a break. It is because the breaks come at the wrong time, or with the wrong emphasis. Which is a fancy way of saying: the rules of traditional RPGs do not make for good breaks in places where a pause will increase drama and focus, but detract from it by focusing on the wrong things. Games that focus on the mechanical physics of the world would be a prime offender in cases like these, but games that focus on the dramatic or personal mechanisms of drama and development could, like intermissions and commercials in shows made for TV, increase the focus.
