If I have it right, psychic positioning came up twice (that I noticed) while at BigBadCon:

First was at a playtest of my game. There’s a part of a game where everyone roleplays in character at the table, their characters sharing a table at a tavern. The only game mechanic is that if you feel like your character has revealed something about themselves EVEN IF UNNOTICED by anyone else, you hand a die over to the main character.

The other was when playtesting Banana Chan’s Attention Passengers. We were all passengers on a subway. I had two cards, one with the location I was coming from, and the other was where I was going. There are many quiet moments where I was not only creating the story of where my character was, but also what I/my character should be feeling and also trying to feel that. None of this I shared (aside from how I acted or tried to). It was interesting because at times I had to weigh this versus my social positioning (making the game interesting for others/myself, checking in to make others are ok, etc).

I sometimes balk at trying to categorize things, but I think this helps to clarify a designer or player’s goals.