christ dude But the answer to the question for me is Yes, with a Big Caveat, and that’s that you simply will never be able to reproduce the same experience as a regular PC. Even if you somehow stay anonymous, the other elements of the game – how the systems work, what the mysteries are, the relationships between other players and the jobs they submit up to you, these will all be floating in your head all the time and will inevitably color your experience. There is also, of course, the gulf between what you want a game to be and what it actually is to play. If you are open about it being a staff NPC, people will expect you to have knowledge and lore and stories. If you aren’t, they’ll be bitter when they find out. But it’s crucial anyway, whichever route you go. It’s far more important the more immersive your game is, too. An RPI needs it far more desperately than a game done mostly in async on Ares, but it’s still important wherever.

Not a scene, but I have to give shoutouts to Arx staff because multiple action responses to me led to some of the most impactful character development I’ve ever had in MU*ing.