Tuesday, 24 March 2015

Perspectives P1, M1, D1

Introduction
Perspective in terms of video games is the view in which the player is able to see the environment within the game. This is mainly known by the camera angle in which they view their surroundings. Perspectives are one of 4, they are either first person, third person, aerial view or a two dimensional scrolling side view.

First Person Perspective

First person perspective refers to viewing the surroundings and the environment being viewed from the main person’s perspective (i.e.. their eyes). First Person Shooters (FPS) is the preferred perspective when it comes to shooting games for various reasons. First person shooters date back to a game by the name of Maze War in the 1970s. As gaming has advanced, this perspective has become preferred due to the fact that it entices the player behind the screen as if they were the player who was playing. First person shooting games have many advantages such as:


·         It immerses the player into the virtual world as you cannot see the protagonist who you control. So the mind comprehends that it is them who is the one fully controlling the player. It provides a bigger connection between the player and the virtual player as if the player gets hit from behind it could make the player change emotions due to the nerve racking settings created.

·         The first person shooters allow you to be more accurate do to the fact that you are able to look down your sights and get a clear view of who you are shooting and you do not need to hip fire which sprays bullets in a specific area but the bullets are not concentrated and accurate as they would be if you had aimed down the sights. Moreover you can clearly view where your player is facing which makes you likely to react quicker to possible enemies.

·         It improves reaction time as you will have to keep reacting quicker to possible threats in order to not be a liability to your team. You will need to view the whole setting/environment and this is not possible in third person as you focus more on movement of the player than you do in first person shooters. This allows you to focus more on spotting things in matches.

However, despite the advantages of first person shooters, there are some disadvantages such as:

·         The player is not able to completely view as much of the screen as those playing is third person. This is due to the fact that only an acute angle of vision is accessible (30/40 degrees) Therefore you will not be able to see player who may come from behind you because you can only see a limited part of what is in front of you.

·         If you are playing a game such as Call of Duty (shooting game) in a game mode such as Search and Destroy. This game mode does not allow you to re-spawn until the next round therefore lives are extremely important. The more player you have alive the more likely you are to win the round. Therefore you have to be extremely careful. If you are playing in first person, someone could creep up behind you and knife you. Whereas if you were playing in third person you would be able to view that area behind you which eliminates the possibility of a cheap death like that. It then comes down to reactions. Therefore you have less cover in third person.

·   Moreover one could be overcome by illnesses such as nausea or dizziness due to the fact that you are expected to turn a lot as you do not have access to an obtuse angle of vision. 

Second Person Perspective 

Second person perspective for games is very rare due to the face that it is less common within the community. This is because people prefer games such as Call of Duty which are first person or FIFA which is third person, however second person games still exist. These games consist of not seeing your actual character through their eyes but seeing them from another character's view

Some games such as Siren or Manhunt are second person. They view the main characters either from the eyes of another character or a tangible device in the game.

Third Person Perspective

Third person perspective refers to the environment and the virtual world being viewed from behind the main character or from an angle where you can see the character that you control as you control them. Third person shooter games are second preferred perspective when playing shooting games. Games such as Super Mario are third person as you view Mario from a side/scrolling view or Duke Nukem/ Call of Duty (Third person game mode) where you are behind the main character you control and you have a wider view of the environment.

With third person shooters you cannot actually aim down your sights which makes you less accurate when shooting.





1 comment: