Both in the real world, and in our beloved synthetic cyberworlds of escapism, succes is often determined by how you interact with people who views the world differently from yourself. We all have a tendency to drift towards people with the same views as ourself, which in the world of MMO’s often result in the making of guilds; a somewhat crude tangent to how we also group up in the real world.
But how about the way we “physically” view our MMO’s or videogames in general? Ofcourse we all use a monitor or TV-set, but different types of games offers different ways to view both the protaganist and the digital world he/she/it exists in. I remember being very fond of the sidescrolling platformers in my younger days with a 2d sideview and I never was too keen on the isometric views like in Zaxxon. Top-down views always worked great for racing games and strategy, but what really blew my mind was the first person view(FPV)…not the “1 step per second” FPV of Darkside, Bard’s Tale or Eye Of The Beholder, but true full-textured free-roaming FPV with a (at that time) high framerate like Wolfenstein 3d.
Ever since the real first person shooters came out, this viewpoint has been my absolute favorite in videogames. I felt it placed me right in the middle of the action and the imaginary world of videogames and in the 90′ies I almost wouldn’t accept any other take on videogames…almost, as 3d suddenly gave old genres a whole new way to experience the gameplay. I was so hooked on this 3d thing that the lack of it in Ultima Online made my first MMO-experience a really short one. I simply couldn’t immerse myself in this isometric world, as I had become addicted to getting real up-close in the face of the entities I interacted with in other videogames, especially as FPS multiplayer-offerings where beginning to get real popular amongst the general videogaming public.
What initially turned me away from MMO’s, was what got me into them again in 2000. A fellow Counterstrike-player told me to go try out Everquest(1) as I was always babbling about how great this multiplayer-aspect of gaming was. I had read a wee bit about EQ before, but hadn’t realized that the game was actually fully 3d and offered the possibility to play through a first person view. Needless to say, I never looked back.
Fast forwarding to present day (and a good bunch of MMO’s later), I am sitting here wondering: What ever became of this wonderful way of viewing things? I bet there were lots of people playing EQ1 in third person view, but I always assumed the majority played it in FPV like me (The control mechanics were slightly less than not-that-great in EQ1 third person view). These days it seems like the third person view (TPV) has become the norm of most MMO’s and I guess the main reason is that it gives the players the ability to keep tabs on everything happening around them and it is way easier visually to pick which mobs you want to attack. So TPV is a great view when it comes to some gameplay-specific concepts, but personally my immersion takes a huge hit with TPV. You tend to always get a downward view of things which really lessens the feeling of height and differences in size, and you forget to turn your face to the sky and feel how huge the “world” is and how small you are. Now, to me this has a great immersive effect and reminds me of my first experiences into “another world”, when leaving Kaladim opened up a skyline filled with treetops clouds and mountains. This is simply not something you will see when looking at 1600×1200 pixels of grass, rocks and mobs. (Yes, I know that you also look ahead a lot and see the sky this way, but I’d bet quite a few copper that your view will mostly be ahead and down.
If you have trouble seeing what I am getting at here, try zooming into FPV the next time you enter StormWind City (WoW), or Freeport/Qeynos(EQ2). Now they actually feel like real cities instead of lego-buildings on your floor. Or try RUNNING into IronForge(WoW) for once and notice the feeling in your gut when passing underneath this enormous dwarven statue…I know you already have, but hasn’t it been a while?
Recently I read a first impression of the Darkfall beta, and was very surprised to find that the viewpoint is (almost) locked into FPV, and this even because of the implementation of certain gameplay-concepts. How exciting! I still remember the shock of having drolvargs sneaking up on you while fighting in the Dreadlands…and to put it simple: I miss being scared and not always being on top of what is happening around me (Just like IRL!). I also miss putting on the pair of pants that I’m allowed to get dirty, and really get rolling on the playground feeling myself being sucked into a imaginary world that feels alive instead of having to fight my way through the mathematics, numberization and stat-ification of it all. There is enough of optimization and focus on effectiveness in real life, and I dont need my imaginary gamingworld boiled down to the exact same thing….*huff pant huff
….damn, before I get completely off track here: Remember that it is always healthy to try and see things from another perspective…momentarily going into first person view sometimes can add just a little spice to the daily grind!
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I'll be giving that a go tonight Ffaff. I am guilty of playing in 3rd person most of the time, though I do often go into 1st person while wandering around dungeons.
I'll be trying Darkfall as I too am interested in the 1st person viewpoint. That and the fact there is no invis, so to hide you have to use your head, well you have to think.
First person = The Win.
If Mirror's Edge (no link as im typing on my wii, bleh) was just a third person platformer it would be forgotton amongst the immense amount of chuff released, but as a first person jumping-off-buildings-like-a-loon-em-up it gets attention it rightly deserves. It's one of the most immersive games i've played in good while, not just another faceless first person shooter, and when you look down, you have… FEET! I have no idea why more games don't do this, adds a better sense of scale and actually being more than just a disembodied floating piece of firepower. Other games which have this same obvious yet overlocked feature include Vanguard, Chronicles of Riddick, The Darkness (both developed by Starbreeze), Halo 3 and EQ2 when you find the option hidden in the menus, and only works when in combat (?).
In my opinion, third person is somewhat cheating, for instance, you can angle the camera to see something that your protagonist would not be able to see without some form of handy periscope. Punishing gamers for using first person is not the way to go.