The last sentence of the film is my favourite too. :)

That's interesting that you use eXistenZ in your classes – do you happen to have notes available online that I could look at?

I use eXistenZ in my first year classes each year. Thanks for providing me with another set of good follow up links!

OH, and DEATH TO THE DEMONESS ALLEGRA GELLAR!

Well, all this theorising really is somewhat solipistic in nature. ;) This particular theory perhaps doesn't really account for multiplayer games!

However, regarding the concept of diegetic immersion and the double-consciousness of play in multiplayer games – yes, this double-consciousness is very much apparent in these scenarios, as players may frequently speak to one another out of character. This in fact helps double-consciousness I guess, as you know you're playing, and everyone else knows you're playing and that they're playing. Players can, in the same sentence, refer to RL events as well as in-game ones, and it doesn't 'break' the fun of play. This just adds to the engagement with the game, as it then brings about a layer of 'social fun', too.

You raise a very valid point, and one I avoided discussing lest the post ended up at twice it's already-ridiculous length! Yes, full-body interfaces do indeed grant what I suppose we can think of as a different kind of situated immersion, perhaps? A more extreme case of this are augmented reality games, of course. These would probably fall outside of the paradigm I'm talking about here (and thus break my theorising!), but then the possibility space of games is so huge, and growing all the time; I'm addressing but one small part of it.

Glad you enjoyed the post, and I do apologise for the potentially-difficult-to-stomach nature of my 'virtual rape' entry, though I guess both of these posts share a common theme. Both present somewhat outlandish scenarios, though it's not outside the realms of possibility for tech to get there before too long. After all, being humans, if we *can* build it, we will; that's just what we do.