Self-Expression

Self-expression is another way to promote immersion. By giving players freeform ways to communicate themselves, designers can draw them more deeply into the world—they feel more of a part of it. Communication and stake-holding help players to exhibit self-expression in addition to being ways to promote community; the decision to have them therefore looks trivially easy.

Self-expression allows players to discover more about themselves, which is almost a definition of the goal of immersion. It also, to a lesser extent, lets them find out more about the virtual world; this, too promotes immersion.

The only real reason to curtail self-expression is the impact that it can have on other players. However, that is a very powerful reason. One person’s self-expression can be someone else’s “limbo dancing wasn’t a feature of life in ancient Rome.” The appearance in a recreation of Victorian London of a character called Ladyboy is going to unimmerse even those players who smile when they see the incongruity of it. It can undo hours of work: A designer may have agonized over the exact positioning of a field to create just the right sense of rural idyll from a neighboring hillock, but if someone has planted potatoes in it in the shape of a smiley face then it’s all to waste.

Self-expression will find a way, but promoting it will increase its prevalence. It helps immersion for individuals, although it can reduce immersion for other players. Whether this becomes a problem depends on the maturity of the player base and the vigilance of the community management representatives.