History Main / DeepImmersionGaming

* The Total-Immersion Video Games on ''Series/RedDwarf''.

* ''Webcomic/ChainmailBikini'' neatly fits this description, as the scene shifts back and forth between chararacters-in-gameworld and players-at-table views. Recently, a newcomer took over one of the characters in the RPG, and that character's face changed to represent the new player.

* In ''LightNovel/SwordArtOnline'' this is part of the premise - when the villain traps 100,000 players inside an MMORPG, he also changes their avatars to match their real-life appearances (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 outright tells the players that if they die in the game, they're dead ''for real.'' Survivors who later join other [=MMOs=] choose avatars resembling themselves out of habit, though other players rarely do so.

* ''WesternAnimation/JimmyNeutron'' literally invents a machine to go inside any video game.

* Invoked in the {{DLC}} ''Tiny Tina's Assault on Dragon Keep'' in ''VideoGame/Borderlands2''. 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. This got expanded into it's own game, ''VideoGame/TinyTinasWonderlands,'' where three stranded mercenaries agree to play a campaign with Tina to pass the time until rescue, this time with actual classes from the game. While the Overworld map is represented by a model being moved around, dungeons are presented as a classic ''Borderlands''-style FPS/ARPG.

* ''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 ''Franchise/MortalKombat''.

** "Who Is Ellen?" Part 2 features a roleplaying game and has scenes set within the game where George, Rich and Larry are all shown as their characters. Nananse, who finds it harder to get "into" the game than the others (and whose character is [[TrappedInAnotherWorld from the real world]] anyway), is repesented as [[https://www.egscomics.com/egsnp/wie-088 herself, still sitting on her chair]]. Larry is also shown as his real self within the gameworld when he's {{Metagaming}}, and [[https://www.egscomics.com/egsnp/wie-092 transforms back into his character]] when called on it.

** "Who Is Ellen?" Part 2 features a roleplaying game and has scenes set within the game where George, Rich and Larry are all shown as their characters. Nananse, who finds it harder to get "into" the game than the others (and whose character is [[TrappedInAnotherWorld from the real world]] anyway), is repesented as herself, still sitting on her chair.

-->'''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.

** "Who Is Ellen?" Part 2 features a roleplaying game and has scenes set within the game where George, Rich and Larry are all shown as their characters. Nananse, who finds it harder to get "into" the game than the others, is repesented as herself, still sitting on her chair.

* A common occurrence in ''LightNovel/AndYouThoughtThereIsNeverAGirlOnline''. Whenever someone's real-life identity is revealed to Hideki, their ''[[FictionalVideoGame Legendary Age]]'' avatar invariably becomes their real-life self in cosplay.

* {{Justified|Trope}} 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.''

* Inverted in ''Anime/LogHorizon''. Originally a simple MMORPG where characters could customize their looks to themselves or radically different, a major update to the game effectively teleports all those logged at the time into an AlternateUniverse as TheGameComeToLife. We see brief moments of adventurers at their computers at play, before the transformation.
* A common occurrence in ''LightNovel/AndYouThoughtThereIsNeverAGirlOnline'' beginning with episode two. Whenever someone's real-life identity is revealed to Hideki, their ''[[FictionalVideoGame Legendary Age]]'' avatar invariably becomes their real-life self in cosplay.

* In ''LightNovel/SwordArtOnline'' this is part of the premise - when the villain traps 100,000 players inside an MMORPG, he also changes their avatars to match their real-life appearances. Survivors who later join other [=MMOs=] choose avatars resembling themselves out of habit, though other players rarely do so.

* Whenever more than one person is involved with a game in ''LightNovel/{{Haganai}}'', this trope is invoked, including one DatingSim.
** Played with in one episode. Maria, the healer, had left to take a nap. Thus, her character stood idle during the climatic boss battle. After almost every character is killed off, Maria's character starts moving again. [[spoiler: It was Kobato playing in her stead, though.]]

* Averted in the ''Series/{{Community}}'' episodes ''[[Recap/CommunityS2E14AdvancedDungeonsAndDragons Advanced Dungeons & Dragons]]'' and ''[[Recap/CommunityS5E10AdvancedAdvancedDungeonsAndDragons Advanced Advanced Dungeons & Dragons]]'', in which the group, [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin unsurprisingly]], play ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons''. Both episodes feature the group simply sitting around a table talking about what they're doing in the game.
--> '''Narrator:''' And so did the group describe themselves walking, and so did Abed confirm they walked.

* Averted in ''Series/{{Community}}'', in which everything they do is them sitting around the table talking about it.

** Not technically gaming, but roleplay, in ''Abed's Uncontrollable Christmas'' the characters are shown as the stop motion figures that Abed believes everyone has turned into. Averted in a later "clip show" episode containing solely new footage that showed the rest of them sitting around the table uncomfortably playing along with Abed's Christmasland fantasy.
** Played straight in "Digital Estate Planning", where the gang play an 8-bit platformer and most of the action takes place within the game. Abed, naturally, takes things further, falling in love with one of the game characters and raising a family, [[spoiler:who come in handy when the time comes to defeat the FinalBoss. At the end, Abed saves the character in a flash drive, saying "I told you I'd come back for you."]]

* ''Manga/LuckyStar'':
** Konata claims to be [[IKnowMortalKombat good at track and field by visualizing herself playing]] the NES game ''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.
** 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. While Konata frequently plays that same MMO in the TV series, nothing on her screen is ever actually shown as she plays aside from the in-game chat.
** Another episode of the anime features Konata and Nanako having an argument that soon cuts to a ''Lightnovel/FullMetalPanic''-in-''VideoGame/SuperRobotWars'' battle, with them piloting the Arbalest and Codarl respectively and arguing in the dialog boxes.
* The RPGEpisode in ''Anime/WelcomeToTheNHK'' has Satou deeply immersed in an MMORPG. He also meets a CatGirl healer, who he falls in love with, who [[spoiler:turns out to be [[{{GIRL}} his friend and next door neighbour]], out to teach him a lesson]].

* The Better Than Life game in ''Literature/RedDwarf'' is this, particularly since it manages to generate a perfect existence for them without betraying the fact that it is fictional. The Better Than Life simulation is able to probe an individual's subconsciousness so deeply as to determine ''exactly'' what what any given person would want as their ideal life, even better than what may be wished for through their own conscious imagining.

* Invoked in the {{DLC}} ''Tiny Tina's Assault on Dragon Keep'' in ''VideoGame/Borderlands2''. 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. This got expanded into it's own game, ''VideoGame/TinyTinasWonderlands," where three strabded mercenaries agree to play a campaign with Tina to pass the time until rescue, this time with actual classes from the game.

* Invoked in {{DLC}} ''Tiny Tina's Assault on Dragon Keep'' in ''VideoGame/Borderlands2''. 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.

* While the game itself is a tactical wargame, ''[[LightNovel/HaruhiSuzumiya The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya]]'' gave us (really awesome) scenes of the SOS Brigade as star fleet commanders when they played the computer club. Haruhi gets really ''megalomaniacal'' here. There was also the nice touch of having their command ships' crews reflect their commanders (Haruhi's crew had varied aliens, Mikuru's wore cute animal masks, Itsuki's had {{henohenomoheji}}, Yuki's were copies of her; [[ButtMonkey Kyon's crew is not shown except for a brief glimpse at the back of the heads of a few at a distance]]). The anime makes clear contrasts to highlight the MundaneMadeAwesome traits of it all by cutting smoothly between [[WorldOfHam ridiculously epic orchestral scores and dramatic speeches]] within the game and the tinny, 8-bit MIDI version in the 'real world'.
** Even funnier is the end, where the enemy flagship goes down to both BeamSpam and a WaveMotionGun, the orchestra is in full trumpets-and-drums, the enemy commander DisappearsIntoLight... and cut to the computer screen proclaiming [[AWinnerIsYou You Win!]]

* The Better Than Life game in ''Literature/RedDwarf''.