I am going to talk about perspectives in a general sense because it’s an important aspect in gaming. I had a discussion with a co-worker about this recently. First-person and third-person are popular points of view in video games, and while he mentioned second-person without much thought (and I laughed), it’s rare…but it does exist!
First-person: Me, Myself, and I
A first-person narrative would read, “I went to the market today. The cashier handed me some coins.” In life, we all experience first-person perspective - I cannot see my own face unless I look at a reflective surface. I can, however, see my own hands…holding a mouse, cooking, driving, folding laundry, etc.
In a video game, first-person is equivalent to holding a video camera to your eye, or having cameras embedded into your eyeballs. You cannot see the character’s face (unless she stands in front of a reflective surface). Here’s my amateur drawing to try to illustrate this point:
The most popular usage of this point of view is first-person shooters (FPS) such as Half-Life, Quake, Doom, Counter-Strike, Battlefield 2, Unreal Tournament, Halo, etc. As of now, I can only name one first-person game that is not a shooter: Myst. Here are some sample first-person view shots from games:
Third-person: He, She, and It
A third-person narrative would read, “He cackled at the top of his lungs, grabbing her hands and pulling her close. She quickly punched him.” For the video game equivalent, the camera would be situated behind you, so that you see yourself from the back. I suppose a real life example of this would be if you had an out of body experience and floated behind yourself.
At this point, I stress the fact that the camera is behind you. It “sees” your back and is facing whatever you are facing. In essence, you (your character) becomes he, she, it in this perspective. There are exceptions to this “camera on your back” rule that still falls under third-person view, and I will briefly touch upon those later.
Some popular examples of third-person perspective are Resident Evil, Silent Hill, Tomb Raider, Max Payne, Gears of War, Metal Gear Solid, Splinter Cell, etc. Here are some sample third-person perspectives:
Second-person: You, Yourself, and You
A second-person narrative would read, “You wander into a clearing in the forest and find a tree. You grab a rock and smack the dragon in the face.” Majority of text-based adventures, popular back in the days, are in second-person. If you’ve read a Choose Your Own Adventure book, those are written in second-person.
In a video game, the camera would be situated in front of you and would always be pointed at and locked onto you. You become the focus. You usually see yourself from the front. In real life, you would have an out of body experience and be watching yourself the whole time. Creepy, eh?
In the TV show Survivor Man, the guy often attaches the camera to (a pole on) his waist, and it is focused on him as he moves. As he moves forward, the camera retreats and is always locked on him. The camera behaves this way in second-person view.
This point of view rarely exists in a game for one reason - it is awkward to control the character this way. For first- and third-person perspective, the camera can view off to the distance as far as possible, limited by the processor, console, clipping distance, etc. But in second-person, the viewable area is limited to the distance between the character and the camera.
It is difficult to find a second-perspective image, so this is the closest example I could find. This is from Devil May Cry 4, Nero looks like he is running towards the camera, and the camera might be retreating.
I have not found a game that’s completely second-person, so I will name specific instances in games that use it briefly. Note: In all of these examples, it is during a situation where the character is being chased/has a limited amount of time to react. This can be frustrating since you can’t see the obstacles ahead of the character, but you can sure see whatever is chasing the character.
The Bouncer (PS2): The doors are shutting behind the character, and I have to maneuver him around boxes as he runs toward the camera. This is annoying as the obstacles would suddenly “pop” into view, giving me little reaction time.
Sword of Beserk (Dreamcast): Gatts has giant green branches chasing him in the castle. If he stood still, he’d be skewered and dead. Again, he is running towards the camera, dodging and dashing around broken rubble.
Code Veronica (Dreamcast/PS2) spoiler!: Claire meets chained up Steve, who was captured by Alexia and used as a test subject. He mutates into a monster, and as he attacks Claire, the game snaps into second-person mode. (For those of you that know Resident Evil’s “turn, then move” control, it added to my frustration that in second-person, right and left were reversed because she was facing the camera).
Devil May Cry 3 (PS2): After being swallowed by Leviathan, Dante is being chased by a huge centipede-like creature. Fortunately, there are no obstacles to dodge, but the monster dashes forward a couple of times - scary!!
This post is supposed to be about perspective, but I’ll briefly touch upon the different camera behaviors after the arrival of 3D games (I don’t want to talk about 2D, side-scrollers, platform games, and the like in this post):
Moveable/Controllable Camera
With the advent of 3D games, many games these days allow the player to control the direction of the camera to explore the world. “Locked” camera position means you cannot change perspective. A controllable camera may allow you to change perspective. There’s a subtle difference here. You can move the camera in Resident Evil 4 because it’s a fully 3D world, but it is still third-person view (the camera is still locked behind Leon).
There are a couple of games where the perspective is fully changeable for the majority of the game due to the controllable camera (and doesn’t shift the moment you move your character): Okami, Battlefield 2 (when you’re in a tank), World of Warcraft.
Fixed Camera
Basically, the camera is “set”, and you cannot change it. Sidescrollers are an example of this. In some cases, the camera never moves in the scene. In the earlier days, these are the pre-rendered, 2D backgrounds (with 3D moveable characters). Examples of this are Final Fantasy 7, Final Fantasy 8, and earlier Resident Evils. Here, even though the character sometimes faces the camera, it is still third-person because the camera doesn’t move.
So the next question is, which perspective is good for what type of game? I’ll have to think about this one.
What other video game examples can you come up with that fit these perspectives? Are there perspectives that I missed?
