History Main / DeepImmersionGaming

** In the OVA, Konata, Nanako and the Hiiragi twins all play a MMORPG together, and they're only shown as their RPG characters for the whole segment. Their characters are essentially just chibi versions of their real selves but wearing fantasy outfits.

* ''WebVideo/GameGrumps'' has made a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74yK4-_3K0E few]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YOZuBzY0sE flash]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_gPZGiV_m8 videos]] of themselves as the characters they play as (with identifiers like Arin's long hair and Jon's beard and hat) using audio from their episodes. The fans picked up on this and have made several, several, [[UpToEleven SEVERAL]] "fanimations" of their favorite Game Grumps moments. A popular scene that gets animated is the glitch scene from their ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog2006'' playthrough, where Arin RageQuit [[TenMinuteRetirement temporarily.]]

* Konata from ''Anime/LuckyStar'' claims to be [[IKnowMortalKombat good at athletics by visualizing herself playing]] ''VideoGame/TrackAndField''. Cut to actual NES ''Track & Field'' graphics starring Konata's sprite, and a closeup of Konata's hand on the controller performing the famous coin and ruler tricks to win the game.

* Played absolutely straight in the ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad'' episode Dungeons and Wagons, where Haley, Steve, and their friends obsess over a computer game similar to ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons''. (See the page image.) All events in the game are drawn in a completely different style from the main show, but all the characters speak with the voice of their player. Downright hysterical when Steve's massive warrior speaks with Steve's scrawny voice.

** Happens in ''Webcomic/CrystalFighters'', which revolves around a MagicalGirl-themed virtual reality game called "Crystal Fighters", in which a number of players have set up a secret magical girl fight club.

* This may very well have been started by ''Film/{{Tron}}'', where Programs were played by the same actor as their users. {{Subverted}}: The Programs are ''not'' the same people as their Users. The Programs in the first film just ''look'' like the User who created them, and it's implied by a line by one character that the appearance issue is because a part of the programmer's spirit goes into their creations.

* ''WebVideo/SwordArtOnlineAbridged'' has a recursive version: Not only is the entire game in virtual reality as in the original, the MundaneMadeAwesome ForgingScene [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKvYEXA5sIU puts the forging minigame player in their own world]] combining ''VideoGame/GuitarHero'', ''VideoGame/SpaceInvaders'' and an ''Anime/TengenToppaGurrenLagann'' version of ''VideoGame/MortalKombat''.

* Three Drama [=CDs=] of ''Webcomic/AxisPowersHetalia'', called Hetalia Fantasia, has an MMORPG made by America and Japan that several characters join in.

* ''Mythic Quest'', like ''[[Franchise/DotHack .hack]]'', revolves around players of a fictitious MMORPG. Few characters are seen both on- and offline, but the dichotomy in personality and appearance with Tragic/John and Aramusha/Anaya are recurring themes.

* Whenever more than one person is involved with a game in ''LightNovel/BokuWaTomodachiGaSukunai'', this trope is invoked, including one DatingSim.

* In ''{{Manhwa/Yureka}}'' this is {{Justified|Trope}} as a legal requirement of [=MMOs=] (which isn't too far from existing Korean online laws) - your av's appearance defaults to your own, though it can be altered to a limited extent. The restrictions are looser in VR-space outside of [=MMOs=], but everyone still looks somewhat like their real appearance.

* [[JustifiedTrope Justified]] in ''LightNovel/SwordArtOnline''. Due to the creator's god complex each player is given their actual body dimensions and gender (resulting in a brief but funny scene where two players who were previously a seventeen-year-old guy and a young girl turn out to be a skinny, unattractive redhead guy and a short, fat, definitely ''not'' seventeen-year-old) and are outright told that if they die in the game, they're dead ''for real.''

* Invoked in {{DLC}} ''Tiny Tina's Assault on Dragon Keep'' in ''[[{{VideoGame/Borderlands2}} Borderlands 2]]''. While you're using your characters, in-game it's represented as Tiny Tina hosting a game of [[MagicAmpersand Bunkers & Badasses]], and the game is being played by Lilith, Mordecai, and Brick. They will all comment regularly throughout the story missions, and during some of the sidequests as well. In odd twist, Lilith and friends play ''as'' the player characters from ''Borderlands 2'', while the real ones are interrogating a Hyperion prisoner. Brick plays Maya for example.
* A Variation: In ''VideoGame/DonkeyKongCountryTropicalFreeze'', it's possible to see[[note]]or rather hear[[/note]] Donkey Kong either playing ''[[VideoGame/MarioKart Mario Kart 7]]'' or playing ''[[VideoGame/DonkeyKongCountryReturns Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D]]'' on his 3DS, [[RecursiveCanon both games that include Donkey Kong himself as a playable character]]. Because of this, he plays as himself in both games.

* This trope is used in the ''VideoGame/{{Touhou}}'' web video ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W7Y8dA5Ir7g Patchouli Plays Super Mario Bros.]]''

-->'''Tensaided''': You ''roleplayed''. You paid perfect attention, and yet you pictured our game as an actual wizard duel ''so vividly'' that you cried out after Justin took a bad hit.

* The entire premise of Tad Williams ''Literature/{{Otherland}}'' series, except those plugged into the network does not necessarily resemble their real selves.

** In the OVA, a whole gang of people engaged in that in a MMORPG.

* ''WebVideo/SwordArtOnlineAbridged'' has a recursive version: Not only is the entire game in virtual reality as in the original, the MundaneMadeAwesome ForgingScene [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKvYEXA5sIU puts the forging minigame player in their own world]] combining ''VideoGame/GuitarHero'', ''VideoGames/SpaceInvaders'' and an ''Anime/TengenToppaGurrenLagann'' version of ''VideoGame/MortalKombat''.

* For a non-videogame example, ''Franchise/YuGiOh'' plays with this; in general, they show holograms of cards. However, shadow games show the monsters themselves. Also, there are several more straight examples when characters get caught in the game. ''Manga/DuelMonsters'' does the same thing, but with no holograms.

* ''Webcomic/DMOfTheRings'' and ''Webcomic/DarthsAndDroids'' are based entirely around this concept with the images taken from ''Film/LordOfTheRings'' and ''Franchise/StarWars'' respectively, but with all the speech being comments made by the players of a tabletop RPG following that story. The same applies to any CampaignComic, after these two launched the trend.

* ''Franchise/DotHack''. The anime and the games are predicated on the idea of a MMORPG which is the literal embodiment of this trope. Note, however, that the appearances of the game characters do not necessarily correlate with those of the "real world" versions -- characters of the same class and in-game gender look very similar. (E.g. Bear and Orca, Elk and Tsukasa, [=BlackRose=] and Mimiru, Suburu and another Heavy-Axe User, etc.) This doesn't stop some players from deliberately engineering their characters to look like themselves. In .hack//Sign, Subaru, Mimiru, Bear, and B.T. are all depicted with the same faces as their in-game characters. Kite is known to look a lot like his avatar while Orca, who is in middle school with Kite, looks like a large muscular man with little in the way of clothing. Other examples of the first type include Haseo and the second include Wiseman, who is a young boy despite being an old man in game.

* In ''WesternAnimation/ReBoot'', the User is never seen except through their avatar in whichever game they are presently playing, as the entire story takes place within a computer, and, you may not know it, but in the ''ReBoot''-verse, every time you play a game, you're endangering the computer people.

* Played absolutely straight in the ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad'' episode Dungeons and Wagons, where Haley, Steve, and their friends obsess over a computer game similar to ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons''. All events in the game are drawn in a completely different style from the main show, but all the characters speak with the voice of their player. Downright hysterical when Steve's massive warrior speaks with Steve's scrawny voice.

* ''Film/SpyKids 3D: Game Over'' featured this, though it was justified as the game in question was a virtual reality game. [[spoiler:However, each character's in game avatar was an idealized version of their real world equivalent. The strong character is weak, the cool character is a nerd, and the wheelchair bound grandfather could walk.]]

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]

* ''Film/TheGamers'' and its sequel play this for comedy, switching between scenes of the roleplayers sitting at a table and the fantasy world inhabited by the characters as whom they roleplay. Taken to an extreme in the third movie when the party banters with the main villain while waiting for the DM, ending with him asking [[LampshadeHanging who is playing him]].
** The second film in the series has a male player playing as a female evil wiz-, sorry ''[[InsistentTerminology chaotic neutral]]'' wizard. The in-game actor flips back and forth between the player's actor in drag, and an actual woman. One scene even has them "tag-out", pro-wrestling style.

* Used in the cold-open of the ''Series/{{House}}'' episode "Epic Fail".

[[folder:Music]]

** ''The Last Journey Home'' might be an example of this as well.

* The video for Music/ArchitectureInHelsinki's song 'Do The Whirlwind' turns the band into 16 bit style sprite characters and ends with them in a version of Pac-Man -- all thanks to the art of Creator/PaulRobertson.

* ''WebVideo/GameGrumps'' has made a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74yK4-_3K0E few]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YOZuBzY0sE flash]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_gPZGiV_m8 videos]] of themselves as the characters they play as (with identifiers like Arin's long hair and Jon's beard and hat) using audio from their episodes. The fans picked up on this and have made several, several, [[UpToEleven SEVERAL]] "fanimations" of their favorite Game Grumps moments.
** A popular scene that gets animated is the glitch scene from their [[SonicTheHedgehog2006 Sonic '06]] play through, where Arin RageQuit [[TenMinuteRetirement temporarily.]]

[[folder: Web Original]]
* Most of ''WebVideo/TheGuild'''s season 4 finale is presented this way, with the live-action cast appearing dressed as their avatars, like they did in the "Do You Want To Date My Avatar" music video.

* Parodied in [[WebVideo/ThatDudeInTheSuede Suede's]] review of Anime/PokemonTheFirstMovie. He, [[WebVideo/AtopTheFourthWall Linkara]], and [[WebVideo/YouCanPlayThis Jew Wario]] are given access to a Pokemon MMORPG. When they enter, Suede and Linkara look like animated versions of themselves...and JW looks like himself but female. This horrifies the other two, and he begrudgingly switches to male.

* ''WebVideo/SwordArtOnlineAbridged'' has a recursive version: Not only is the entire game in virtual reality as in the original, the MundaneMadeAwesome ForgingScene [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKvYEXA5sIU puts the forging minigame player in their own world]] combining ''VideoGame/GuitarHero'', ''VideoGames/SpaceInvaders'' and an ''Anime/TengenToppaGurrenLagann'' version of ''VideoGame/MortalKombat''.

* Invoked in {{DLC}} ''Tiny Tina's Assault on Dragon Keep'' in ''[[{{VideoGame/Borderlands2}} Borderlands 2]]''. While you're using your characters, in-game it's represented as Tiny Tina hosting a game of [[MagicAmpersand Bunkers & Badasses]], and the game is being played by Lilith, Mordecai, and Brick. They will all comment regularly throughout the story missions, and during some of the sidequests as well.
** In fact, Lilith and friends play ''as'' the characters from Borderlands 2, while the real ones are interrogating a Hyperion prisoner. Brick plays Maya for example.

** The storyline "Duel of the Discs" [[http://www.elgoonishshive.com/?date=2012-09-06 does this]] with a ''MagicTheGathering'' [[BlandNameProduct style]] card game. Mr Tensaided is [[http://www.elgoonishshive.com/?date=2012-10-03 very impressed]] with how immersed Grace gets.

* Robert J. Defendi's free audiobook ''[[http://playtesting.net/?cat=3 Death by Cliche]]'' has a unique twist on this trope. The main character is shot, fatally, but rather than dying his consciousness is somehow transported into the world created by a particularly poor DM (who, ironically, is his assailant). He becomes part of a ragtag party of adventurers, who are characters being played by real D&D players who are participating in a campaign run by his assailant. [[spoiler:He eventually learns that he has some godlike influence over this world, and semi-intentionally alters the plot of the campaign, without the DM's intent.]]