Abstract: To what extent does immersion contribute to the emotional experience of fictional works? Could it be that emotions are essential ingredients to immersive experiences? How should we distinguish these two states of mind? Many scholars have modelled the viewer's experience of emotion after perception and have connected it with immersion, suggesting that fictional works are similar to illusions. Game studies have mostly turned to motivational theories of emotion and immersion, drawing attention to how both states require investment of the self. This chapter examines both the perceptual model and the motivational account with the intent of laying an appropriate groundwork for understanding the conceptual connection between emotion and immersion in the context of engaging with fictional works.

Keywords: emotion, investment, video game, fiction, fear, guilt

One common assumption about emotions is that they are indicative of a lack of perspective, whether they are caused by works of fiction or not. Emotions are said to denote biases and partiality, not critical distance and considerations. When we experience them, we see the world from a very specific angle, without being able to account for what may be relevant to our understanding of the situation. In art or media analysis classes, we have learned to set our emotions aside, so they do not interfere with the cold, calculating, and all-encompassing judgment that is privileged instead. This is also what expressions such as “love is blind” or “blind rage” suggests. The emotional person is not perceiving the world as it truly is. Hence, following this line of thought, emotions are sources of misguidance of which we should be wary.

This widespread assumption—notably in the history of Western philosophy— is also tied to another common idea about how emotions operate when consuming fictional works. Why do we care about characters and feel invested in their fate? One popular explanation is that we lose awareness, for a moment, of the fictional status of the represented events. It is as if we were there with the characters, thanks to a spell that makes fiction and reality blur together. We may call this spell “immersion” or “presence,” which is also indicative of a lack of perspective.