I knew I wasn't the only one.
And, sometimes, I also talk to NPCs, though I normally do it mentally. Sometimes, the dialogue choices they give us aren't good enough or don't really fit the character we're playing, so the way I see it, it is completely justified to do some inner (or outer) dialogue with your screen...
I honestly can't understand how anyone could eat while playing games. :/
Anyway, I don't really mind people watching me, but I do recognise the feeling that you've got to entertain them. It can be annoying but it can also be that little push you need to do your utmost.
Also, kinda strange; when shit hits the fan in a game, I tend to lower my face, look over my glasses, and somehow enter this kind of trance where I concentrate on the game to the point where literally nothing can disturb me. It's probably similar to the way most people move their body when playing a challenging racing game. (my little brother once fell off the couch because he took a sharp turn. It was hilarious)
Does anyone recognise this? The gaming trance?
I think we're on the same wavelength, you and me. I'm a big sit-in-the-dark-say-nothing-totally-engross-myself-in-rp type of player, whereas, my cousin for example, doesn't have an attention span for anything more complex than Far Cry 3. Even then he wasn't a fan of the 'perk trees'. But if he comes over and watches me play, all of a sudden I'm bunny-hopping around, or moving seamlessly from quest to quest, without sleeping at inns or talking to npcs. I start treating the PC as a simple vehicle of sorts, and not as a character. I never end up saving whenever he comes over, as a result.
The only ones that come to mind for me, aside from the obvious everything must be quiet, no distractions, etc are that it has to be night time, and I have to have an open-ended amount of time to play. I can never play a game like Skyrim, that involves serious immersion (for me, anyways) if I know that in say, 3 hours I have to either go to work, or sleep, or anything like that. I think it just keeps me from getting entirely into character, as I'm always at least partially aware of the fact that I'm playing a game, because I have to keep track of the time. And for some weird reason I can never get into an rpg during the day. I'll take a bathroom break, look out the window, and see everyone going about their business. It sort of drags me back into the 'real world' I guess. I like to play at 12am-4am, mostly. The world has gone to sleep, or at least all of my friends/family have, and there's an absence of opportunity cost calculations (ex: I could be out playing hockey with friends right now) that pull me out from total immersion. I pretty much like to be in a Matrix-esque like state when I play this sort of game. Totally in tune with my character, entirely immersed in the world.