What is mimesis?
mimesis (mi-me’sis, mi-) n. 1. The imitation or representation of aspects of the sensible world, especially human actions, in literature and art. [the following is stolen from a post to raif by Adam Cadre] In brief, there are generally two different things people on this group use the word “mimesis” to refer to: (1) The extent to which the player feels like she’s experiencing what the game tells her she is, rather than experiencing the sensation of typing on a keyboard and watching words scroll by on a screen; (2) The extent to which stuff in the game seems to work the way things work in real life, or at least the extent to which it maintains a degree of internal consistency. The idea of mimesis with regard to IF was started by Roger Giner-Sorolla in his “Crimes Against Mimesis” postings some time back on raif. You can find a copy of it at
