How immersive can you get? How immersive have you gotten?

I agree with Desmond..it must be a skill.



You are probably right, but for myself I just have never had the desire to do so. I actually like being myself...for all my faults which I admit I have several. It can just be the type of person you are too I think. I'm a detail oriented person without much imagination I guess. Totally not artistic at all in RL either but I feel so in SL when I create. I am still learning and enjoying this new facet of myself. Maybe when or if SL ever get's boring or I quit enjoying myself just as I am... I will be able to turn off that little voice. It is certainly worth thinking about.

You can do it with an alt. It's a lot of fun to shed the business mode for an hour or two....and be Free.

You don't have to go to a full fledged role-play sim to do it....just line up some friends....find a location you can call home base. We eventually added a guest house, a vacation home, and some other props to make it more interesting. Choose the characters each of you want to be....let it flow, don't force it....they develop.

You don't have to use fancy role-playing technique. You're just being another character....speak in the same manner you do normally...just tweak it to your character. None of the people that were in my scenario were experienced role-players, with all the fancy lingo...but it was great practice, if you wanted to eventually take that route.

I could see a bunch of you and your forum friends lining up quite the scenario....some are quite the "characters." It's a bit more fun among friends...you can cut loose, and live on the edge, without worrying about who is on the other end. (usually - lol) You do have to have an understanding among them....that your alt character is NOT to be identified with your main, to anyone else jumping in....never....that frees you up a bit to be a little daring.

I bet you would have a ton of fun.

Usually I lose interest within a month or two of RP's I join.
However recently I found a character and a sim that I cannot lose interest in.
I think some of the assertive nature of my character, amongst other traits, are seeping into my RL. (Which I don't mind at all.)
But I've gotten really immersed.

Darn.. thought this was going to go the other way... I mean, Kokoro has her own bank account and card in her name IRL, and she almost got me to go get her a drivers license in her name. Thankfully I saw the paperwork in time and nixed that.

But yes.. there are times when she takes over, and I have no idea where it is going. Otherwise, she is just whispering in my ear so that I know I am heading in the right general direction.

Yeah, that.

This is a process I can't consciously control, but that was emerged from creating a series of alts. It pretty much runs like this:

* I need a testing alt for content creation projects and choose a fun name.

* I can't stand working with a noobish avatar, even for testing, so I look for some freebie skin, hair and assorted wardrobe items that suit the name.

* A personality begins to emerge, and the tastes become more defined and freebies aren't good enough any more.

* I end with another side of myself being expressed in a well definied character who demands access to my land and activities ... which ruins it as testing alt.

* I create a new testing alt....

That's why my testing alts are all named "Argent".

Argent David is the bitchy one.

One of my close friends recently told me that she was starting to get me. See, for her, she had no trouble suspending disbelief; while still feeling 'this isn't real, but it's the best I can do to be what I want to be right now'. But she realized that I don't have to suspend disbelief. For me, SL is as real as RL is, just different. I don't mean in a can't separate fantasy from reality sort of way, either.

I may be radically different in SL than I am in RL, but everything that happens here is as real and dear to me as anything that has ever happened to me in RL. I get hurt, I cry, I laugh, I love. So it is almost the exact opposite as your Glass character for me, I'm very much inside and not observing.

Quite a few people have troubles with the whole "total character immersion" thing, it seems. Which is fine by me since I'm in the business of making stuff that assists people in it. I make a line of Hypnosis Roleplay Stuff (LustBaby is the brand - named after my RL and In-World GF Lustbaby Nightfire - well, it's not her RL name... lol Anyway - I digress...)

The stuff is a lot of fun. While there are several fantasies not of an adult nature, most of the stuff we do is adult themed. That aside, the hypnosis can be really great in helping to awaken your imagination, and allow you to really "feel" as if you are the character you are portraying in SL. In a way, it's a sort of meditation exercise which can really take you down into the game in ways that a lot of people find surprising.

True, it's not an experience for everyone. Some people (especially highly analytical types) will have a hard time relaxing enough to let the stuff do it's magic (the nature of how we have to do it in-game isn't nearly as efficient as it is to have a live hypnotist that can gauge your condition and adapt as they guide you through the exercises). For a lot of people, it works after just running a session or two. And for a vast majority, with a little practice - both in world by using the machines and sometimes out of game by practicing traditional relaxation and meditation exercises, they can get really cool results.

Very very valid. That's how I am with Immy. Immy is very much an amplification and extension of me and a very difficult character for me to disconnect from. Even to the point where I can't really say she's different from me in RL. (^_^)

Immy is my me that's more "me" than I am, myself. (^_^)y

I have one account, no alts, I don't even own any additional avatars. I do everything with her. I do all RP with her in several genres, but no matter what she is doing she still reflects my basic personality and ideals, tailored to being in that situation. Since I am not a business owner or person of any note, I don't have a need to protect any identity or repuatation in world, which is a legitimte concern.

As far as my immersion goes, I am always able to keep that one foot grounded in the Real World, even though at times it can seem to be just by virtue of the big toe.

I'm into it and I love it, I say in my profile I kind of blur SL and RL, it's all me, internet existence and society are all very post modern as my friend says and she's right.

I *completely* disagree.

I keep the essential back story of each alt in his 'My Notes' tab although I find it's rarely necessary to consult this again. The process of thinking ideas through and writing them down seems to be enough to lodge them in my mind. Also, the characters tend to build themselves as they interact with others in very much the same way that RL personality is built out of experience and interaction with others.

The big problem is finding a 'voice' with distinctive vocabulary, syntax and attitude to immediately identify the characters in chat. Apart from a few ticks I use to 'trademark' my alts, I've managed with quite a bit of practice to establish four separate identities so far. It seems I've been successful because a number of residents who know the alts for what they really are have commented that they 'overlook' this despite themselves and treat each one as a distinct personality - even when I run two at the same time.

Since the last will use my own RL 'voice' and attitude (if I ever get him on the road) there are still three that need to get out more. At this point I haven't a clue how they should express themselves.

Rizzy is my me that's more "me" than I am, myself.

I like it! *grin*

I'm like you ... I only have one account and have done some light roleplay with this account.

Lately, I've been trying something a lot more roleplay intensive. I would actually like to get a lot more immersion out of it and pick up that foot, but a few poeple that know me sort of keep that from ever happening. My best friend online kind of insists the non-roleplay me plan every single thing the roleplay me does, to the point where it ends up being a fraction of what I had hoped for.

My general advice, if you really want to get somewhere close to stepping out of yourself, make an alt and tell no one about it.

You would be too if you'd been usurped by an alt. Bastard.

Know your place and behave yourself.

What would be fun....is if a group of about 10 friends worked out a basic story line. Then, you all agree to use an alt that NO ONE knows about, or create a new one....no one is to reveal who they are. See just how well you can create a character that is nothing like you....that can get past all your friends' radar....10 people pulling it off all at once....that would be cool.

You could even introduce a second or third alt to play another character....really throw them off. Fun!

It's a deal. Where do you want to start?

I kinda like that idea. Maybe have everyone kick in a few hundred Lindens, and who ever is the last alt not outed gets the pot.

Here's what would make it more interesting. Set the first few initial "meetings" in a role play sim that has quite a few people in it. That way you get some random people thrown in, as well....just toss your character out there.

You have no idea if it's one of the friends you are talking to....and you may have just added some more characters in the mix to throw everyone off even more.

I want to play.

I use my alts like the different cars you might drive to the store.. it's always me at the wheel even though the outside may be different. I'm an immersionist, so *every* day, every logon is like that for me. The difference being the RP character takes on a life of it's own within the story, and the immersionist RP's themself so SL itself takes on a life of it own and IS the story. Very similar, yet with concrete differences. The rewards are the same.


That's a classic immersionist view. It's akin to a RP character in that immersion yields rewards, but the context is totally different and is decidedly first person in nature.

I created an alt that I had big plans for. I got the skin, clothes, shape, eyes and hair I wanted. I tooled a bit with edit appearance. When I was pretty far into the process, I turned her around and almost fell out of my chair. She didn't look a thing like what I was aiming for. Not even close.

When I spun the camera around, I was looking into the face of a dearly departed friend who had died rather sadly back in 2003. I sang 3 songs at her memorial. We'd been friends for around 20 years, and while she wasn't my best friend, we were good friends much of that time with a lot in common. (There were a few things we did NOT have in common, and this was why the friendship didn't progress beyond "good" friends). She died of an overdose, something that I had been up front with her that I couldn't have that lifestyle around me once she'd jumped into it.

How that happened with this alt, I do not know. I sure didn't set out to make an alt look exactly like my friend, frankly I doubt I could have had I tried. It isn't like I think about her daily, in fact it's only once in a while I'll remember something funny or meaningful, or some family function that she was a part of.

At first, I was rather spooked about it. I thought briefly about respinning the edit wheels entirely and switching her looks completely away, but then I realized what a nice tribute to her. Going on that, I remembered all the things she'd said she'd change if she could, and so I went with that and gave her all of it. (bigger boobs, really long hair, taller, longer legs etc)

I was fortunate to find jewelry that looked really close to hers, the necklace is almost exactly like the one she wore a lot. I was stoked to find a parrot that looked like her favorite of her 30 plus bird family she adored so very much.

So okay, the alt looks like my friend, but even odder is how in operating this alt, I find myself going places and doing things that my friend was into and realizing it later on. Hiking, riding motorcycles, a bit of fishing, exploring builds with a lot of flowers and plants etc. I remark offline to myself, "wow that is sooo Sarah!".

Recently by some unusual coincidence I ran into her ex boyfriend who is still with the gal he'd taken up with after he and she had broken up years ago. (The unusual was that I ran into her and after a half hour of gabbing we realized we had this link in common).

I showed them the pictures of this alt, including a comparison shot. It was pretty magical. She's fun to log in occasionally.

God rest her. It seems you still had a few things to learn about yourself when you lost your friend. I like stories like this, they take the chill off the virtual experience.