Character Immersion in Video Games as a Form of Acting

We examine here the proposal that playing video games is akin to a form of acting, in other words, a type of informal character portrayal in which the player not only controls the actions of the character but enacts the character’s narrative and emotional arc. Informal acting in video games is a mentalistic process in which the player embodies the character by empathizing and immersing with the character. To examine the extent to which video game players “become” the characters that they are playing, we had 45 experienced video game players complete an online survey in which they reported on their psychological states when playing character-based versus self-based video games. Their responses demonstrated that players immerse themselves in the emotions and thoughts of the main character in character-based games, but do so far less in self-based games. These results support the hypothesis that, when there is a contextualized character in a game, the player views this character as a separate entity whom they identify with and act as, as opposed to being merely an avatar that the player projects themselves onto.