Shifts in Consciousness in Game-Based Narratives

Becoming engaged in narrative worlds involves shifts in consciousness. Individuals who are transported into narrative worlds focus their attention on the events occurring in the story rather than the world around them. Similarly, audiences who identify with characters mentally experience story events from the perspective of a main character. We consider these processes in the context of actual play, an entertainment genre featuring the performance of a tabletop role playing game for an audience. Events in actual play narratives occur through improvised player choices and game mechanics (e.g., dice rolls). Thus, stories may contain unexpected events, presenting a challenge to narrative engagement. Furthermore, performers interact both as themselves and as their role-play character. Audience members may identify with both the characters and performers, sometimes with rapid transitions between the two. We explore the implications of these complex types of narratives for understanding the way in which consciousness shifts occur in narrative engagement.