[MUD-Dev] Immersiveness - good or bad?

[John Buehler]

Adam Martin writes:

> From a personal view point, I get that immersed in everything I do;
> looking at my peers at Oxford/Cambridge here in the UK, it seems to
> me that many of the most prolific, most interesting people tend to
> be that focussed on everything they do: it's a major part of how
> they manage to be the best.  This may not generalize, but please
> don't write off immersion that easily.  It does not seem to be
> considered a bad thing in other fields, so why should it be bad in
> computer games?

People who immerse themselves in service tasks in order to benefit the
general community are doing something positive.  Especially if they
reguarly come out of that immersion in order to be a member of that
community.  People who immerse themselves in consumer tasks do not
benefit the general community.  Games are a consumer activity.
Particle physicists and authors are engaging in service activity.

[Primarily for Matt: I'm excluding consumerism as a community service
where it provides demand for goods.]

> Learning the ability to cope even when you "lose track of time" and
> are so involved in something as to forget to eat, sleep etc, seems
> here to be a skill learnt in the process of growing up. There is of
> course also the stereotype of the academic who experiences such
> immersion only in his field of study, and even if said field has no
> profound effect on the world, other people generally seem to be of
> the opinion that as long as they are happy in what they do, then
> that is what matters most.

I don't happen to be of the opinion that if you're happy, that's what
matters most.  As the man who jumped off the building said to the guy
on the 15th floor: everything's just fine so far.

> As a final example, most people I know get that absorbed in reading
> a good book, and everyone seems to consider this a Good Thing. An
> English literature teacher of mine once told how he was hospitalised
> with sunstroke after starting reading a book in the height of
> summer, and being so absorbed he didnt move all day, and didnt
> notice anything wrong until he stood up, and promptly fainted.

Uh, yeah.  That sounds like a good thing. [sarcasm]

Consumer tasks are useful because they ensure that we, as members of a
community, sate our desire for our personal desires.  Excessive need
for personal desires is not a Good Thing, and immersing one's self in
an electronic game for hours on end is an excessive need for a
personal desire.  Just like an addiction to a drug sates a need for a
personal desire, and is not a Good Thing.

JB

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