Game Design Lesson: Perspectives

To understand this essay you need to have a foundation to start with. Game design is the process of constructing experiences through an interactive medium, such as a computer or other platform (electronic or otherwise). A medium by definition is something intermediate in nature or degree. Used in this context, a medium is the "middle ground" between the player and the experience (such as a computer). By having this medium interactive, the player has a higher degree of influence over their experience, or at least the illusion of so.

What I'm going to talk about today is perspective. This lies in the context of the medium and experience. The two perspectives in games are the first and third person perspectives. In literature, a statement such as I move, I run, or I hide is in first person perspective, while statements such as she moves, she runs, or she hides is referring to third person. When we use the term in the context of games, we refer to the placement of the players vision. See below:

view is from behind the character

view is from the characters eyes

Now we move to personification. The main reason people use the first person perspective is because they try to enhance the experience by placing the player in the main characters shoes as much as possible. I believe instead that the third person perspective is even better yet as a tool of personification. In the first person setting, the player at first feels deep in the game world because of their vision, but soon more questions come into their mind, such as: "What am I?", "Who am I?", and "What do I look like?". These are a few of the question that riddle the mind of players in the first person perspective. The first person perspective does immerse the player in the game at the beginning, but chokes the introspection that the player so desires, as a tree growing in a metal box. As a game designer, it's a well know rule of thumb to give the player what they want, or hide it so that they don't know they want it. I believe the first person perspective can indeed be something of beauty, but may need some well thought-out craftsmanship to do so.

Now for the third person perspective. At first it seems as though there is an obvious separation between the player (one entity) and the game character (a completely different entity). This is true, in the beginning, but just as when you watch a good movie, or read a good book, this gap between the two entities becomes increasingly shallow. The person reading should associate with the character being presented in the story. After unification is complete, there is room for the player to answer question about themselves, just as a tree growing in an open field. This perspective is, in a way, completely opposite of the previously one. The first person perspective fosters immersion in the beginning, but become awkward over time. While the third person perceptive doesn't immediately set the player in place, it does over time grow the player to be one with the game character.

Now lets look at the technical dark side of both perspectives. The third person perspective is notorious with having terrible camera views. Because of the cameras distance from the play, this can cause many technical problems in closed areas, such as a room, cave, or other limited spaces. The first person perspective also has many flaws of its own. Because of the physical limitation of computer and television screens, the player of first person games have very limited peripheral vision. This mixed with the fact that most first person games feature action or horror, the player usually tend to never feel safe. This is actually a significant disadvantage to the perspective. I personally try to build games around the contrast of anxiety and safety. Without safety, the players eventually become numb to anxiety. Game designers strive to have a game filled with experiences. To numb the player to a sense, in anyway, is severely hindering the medium's potential.

That last problem with the first person perspective is motion sickness. It's a phenomenon where people become temporarily disoriented and/or nauseous. This is because in real life people can move their heads with complete control, and if you take the time to notice, your eyes dart around from object to object. People almost never slowly turn their eyes to something. This is probably why cinematography used the concept of scenes. It just seems natural to see the scene suddenly change without any movement what so ever. It is how our eyes work. Because of the way people interact with a game, (computer mouse, joy stick, etc.), it is extremely hard to imitate this in a game.

With all this said, I hope you have a fresh understanding of the deep logic that goes on behind a game. I feel that the best experience might lie somewhere in between these two perspectives. Maybe the game should start in first person only to switch to third person after the player has outgrown their "box". I may try experimenting with this. I deeply thank you for you time.