OK, I don't have time to answer this as I want to. My background is in psychology, and I fell into role playing games when I turned 10 in 1976. So by the time I was in college, understanding where the term Roleplaying game really came from, I understood the critical nature of immersion, how it is the most important ingredient for game success.
And to be clear, the definition of immersion is to "Immerse oneself into the identity and Role of the part one is playing. To respond, as much as possible, as the person one is playing, not as oneself."
And before getting into the smaller details, I will dive right into the fact that the very system/game one chooses has a huge amount to do with the amount of Immersion.
Metagaming is the opposite of immersion. You use both terms, but I need to make that absolute definition from the beginning. This also means rules that encourage metagaming decrease the immersion in a game and therefore, decrease the main ingredient of a roleplaying game. The mechanics are called "Dissociated Mechanics", a term coined by Justin Alexander. This is very worth reading, because it gets into many of the larger picture issues with players being able to use in-game logic to see the world around them, as opposed to the rules forcing dissociation from in-game logic.
Once the players assume that rules are going to determine the content of an encounter or treasure (based on EL, or whatever) instead of what the environment or history of the area dictate, verisimilitude is lost.
Vreeg's Rules of Setting design are also heavily immersion related. My current campaign is 26 or so years old (started in '83). Building verisimilitude is a huge part of this.
Vreeg's first Rule of Setting Design
Make sure the ruleset you are using
matches the setting and game you want
to play, because the setting and game
WILL eventually match the system.
Corollary to Vreeg's First Rule
The proportion of rules given to a
certain dimension of an RPG partially
dictate what kind of game the rules
will create. If 80% of the rulebook
is written about thieves and the
underworld, the game that is meant
for is thieving. If 80% of the
mechanics are based on combat, the
game will revolve around combat.
- Multiply this by 10 if the reward
system is based in the same area as
the preponderance of rules.
2nd Corollary
Character growth is
the greatest reinforcer. The
synthesis of pride in achievement
with improvement in the character
provides over 50% of the
reinforcement in playing the game.
Rules that involve these factors are
the most powerful in the game.
Vreeg’s Second Rule of Setting Design
Consistency is the
Handmaiden of Immersion and
Verisimilitude. Keep good notes, and
spend a little time after every
creation to ‘connect the dots’. If
you create a foodstuff or drink, make
sure you note whether the bars or inns
the players frequent stock it. Is it made
locally, or is it imported? If so,
where from? If locally made, is it
exported?
Vreeg's Third Rule of Setting Design
The World In Motion is critical
for Immersion, so create 'event
chains' that happen at all levels of
design. The players need to feel like
things will happen with or without
them; they need to feel like they can
affect the outcome, but event-chains
need velocity, not just speed.
Vreeg's Fourth Rule of Setting Design
Create motivated events and
NPCs, this will invariably create
motivated PCs. Things are not just
happening, they happen because they
matter to people (NPCs). There is no
need to overact, just make sure that the
settings and event-chains are
motivated and that the PCs feel
this.
Vreeg's Fifth Rule of Setting Design
The Illusion of Preparedness is critical
for immersion; allowing the players to see
where things are improvised or changed
reminds them to think outside the setting,
removing them forcibly from immersion.
Whenever the players can see the hand of the GM - even when the GM needs to change things in their favor -
it removes them from the immersed position.
(Cole, of the RPGsite, gets credit for the term).
Remember that part of immersion is the lack of feeling walls around and rails under the characters. This means that the players should not feel that there are things that their character cannot do solely because of the rules or the GM's mindset. The job of the GM is to enable roleplay, not to inhibit it.
This also means the GM must be as immersed as the players, or more.
Another big-picture thing that may irk some folk who sell stuff is that published settings can hurt immersion. They don't destroy it; but when the players have a lot of knowledge about a setting that their character would not have, this increases the opportunity to use it, consciously or unconsciously. Similarly, if your setting has its own bestiary that the characters learn as they go along, or at least a lot of homebrew tweaks, the players get used to working with the in-house data and not trusting the published sources.
If you have done all of this larger-scope stuff, the smaller scope stuff becomes easier. As a GM with miles on the tires, I find that playing up the level of knowledge my NPCs might have and do not have helps keep the players in the same mindset. Players key heavily off the way the GM plays their NPCs. They won't do the funny voices or the mannerisms if the GM does not, and if the GM is particularly careful about what their NPCs know and don't know, especially verbally, the players emulate this.
Using Spout Lore to reveal a detailed, pre-created world is contrary to the rules.
There is a caveat I should make here. I'm going to talk about rules the GM has to follow. You're welcome to not consider them binding rules, but DW as designed does. If you don't follow the GM rules, you're "voiding the warranty" on the game and it will not operate as advertised. You're on your own then. (Incidentally, this is a close paraphrase of the designers [on p. 159 and in various conversations] – it's not just me saying so.)
For reference, these are the GM's responsibilities:
- Describe the situation
- Follow the rules
- Make moves
- Exploit your prep
… plus following the Agenda and Principles.
So part of your job is to "exploit" your prep, as in mining it and twisting it for the benefit of the current game session. You also have to follow the rules, which includes your agenda. And your agenda is (p. 161):
Your agenda makes up the things you aim to do at all times while GMing a game of Dungeon World:
- Portray a fantastic world
- Fill the characters’ lives with adventure
- Play to find out what happens
Note that doesn't say create a fantastic world – "portray" is a very deliberate word choice, as we can see by continuing the same quote (emphasis mine)…
Everything you say and do at the table (and away from the table, too) exists to accomplish these three goals and no others. Things that aren’t on this list aren’t your goals. You’re not trying to beat the players or test their ability to solve complex traps. You’re not here to give the players a chance to explore your finely crafted setting. You’re not trying to kill the players (though monsters might be). You’re most certainly not here to tell everyone a planned-out story.
So that's the trouble you're having: Spout Lore does let you, the GM, reveal a detail, but Dungeon World itself doesn't permit you to have revealing a big pile of pre-crafted details to be part of your agenda. Spout Lore isn't a opportunity to infodump on your players. In fact, it encourages the opposite with the agenda "Play to find out what happens." That includes about your world.
So why does Spout Lore not work well with pre-crafted worlds? Because in many subtle ways, the answers that players get won't be as interesting to them. The setting detail revealed existed before the PC did, so it's only maybe relevant or interesting to them and their adventures. (Note that Spout Lore requires the GM to say something interesting about the subject.) You are quite understandably going to be way more excited by pre-created setting details you reveal than the players are. If the Spouted information isn't as interesting as it could be, their motivation to use the move decreases. If it decreases below a certain threshold, they'll start seeing it as a "dead" move – one not worth taking when the risk is getting a miss. Other moves become much better value propositions for the same amount of risk.
Something created on the spot or quickly adapted to current circumstances and the flow of the game will be much more relevant and interesting to the players and their characters. By holding your world lightly in your mind and being willing to kill your darlings, you are serving the GM's agenda better. You're serving your players better, too. You can more easily come up with details that are pertinent, and more easily adapt the loose details you do have in your prep to your players' current game input, and as a result come up with something that's way better because it's leveraging the collaborative-narrative design of Dungeon World.
Best Answer
Yes, but... try asking for a verbal player summary at the end each session and a recap at the beginning of the next.
I've used this technique with my players in several campaigns, ever since it became apparent to me that players will find things interesting that you as the GM did not expect and they will sometimes interpret or recall material differently than you as the GM intended or thought you conveyed. My suggestion is that this is a better solution than asking for their notes.
At the end of each session, ask your players to verbally summarize what occurred during the session. They might find this a little strange at first, but if you just explain to them one time what the purpose is (so that you can audit what information got across from the GM to the players to help improve the player experience) they will, in my experience, buy into it. This helps you prepare for the upcoming session by focusing on what they like.
Then at the start of the next session, ask your players for a verbal recap from last time. They will tend to forget about things that they didn't consider especially interesting or important. Whatever they do recall, it stuck with them enough that you should probably focus on those topics during the current session. Also, if there are important things they fail to recap, you can easily use some simple exposition to remind them of what they may have forgotten. This helps you keep the current session on track and maximize player comprehension.
If they mention things that you already intended for them to pay careful attention to or things that you considered important, then don't bother writing those things down, because you already know them. If they review something that you had not considered important or if they interpreted information or events differently than you did, write down just enough for you to be able to incorporate those ideas into the remainder of the session or into the next session. (And if some players are paranoid and think they've got everything all wrong whenever they see you write something down... take notes no matter what they say, or make it clear that you're not writing down gotchas to try to trip them up later.)
With this technique, you don't need to ask players to show you their notes. In my experience, this makes them feel less like they are being judged or graded on accuracy. It also clearly identifies for you what they thought was important in the grand scheme, not what they might have thought was important when they were jotting it down. In other words, the information they will tell you is a more accurate representation of their intrigue than what their notes include.
To avoid stressing players who don't like this sort of thing, don't make it compulsory to participate in the summary or recap. Make it an optional thing for those sorts of players who enjoy it and want to participate voluntarily.
Depending on the kind of game you're playing, it's easy to incentivize these activities, too, by giving the player who provides the most informative recap some sort of one-use perk or boon for the session, depending on the rules for the system you are playing. For example, in D&D 5e I give Inspiration, in 13th Age I give a free icon relationship re-roll, and in Freeform/Universal or Fate I give hero points. Most games have something equivalent you can provide as a reward to give attentive players a motivation for participating in the summary or recap.