Comments on: Am I a Gamer Now? (No)

By: swanXVI

swanXVI — Sat, 16 Nov 2024 04:32:35 +0000

You are not alone in the unobtainable victory seemingly lurking in Mario Party. I have thousands of hours gaming and I am still without it. I’m gonna regurgitate the above comments. POV in gaming is largely dependent on who the player character is. Baldur’s Gate comes to mind as a game where the player character dictates how the story goes, so the POV of the player is assumed by the player character. It can get a little semantical when playing as a player created player character, but it still matters. I’d encourage you to try the Mass Effect series where the player character assumes the player’s point of view, and contrast that with a game like Control where you play as a predetermined character. I really appreciate your questions & desire to know more!

By: The01Raven

The01Raven — Thu, 14 Nov 2024 21:24:14 +0000

Frog also helps capture the ideas of what POV in video games means. It’s a hard topic within video games. Game-play POV often ends up being a question of where your camera is placed. This is in contrast to narrative POV, which, especially within video games, can get WEIRD.

Stealing Frog’s perspective (hopefully elaborating upon it) you can have an avatar, a character, or a blank slate (or often a weird mix). For example, MMOs are all about your avatar, as in that’s the “you” in the game world. Narrative games (such as Last of Us) take an actual character. Then you have blank slates, such as Link from Legend of Zelda, which often just serves as a vehicle for interaction.

The way I interpret it, the question comes down to how you want your players to think. “What would I do?” vs “What would Joel do?” Or if you want your player to not ask that question and instead focus on interacting with the game world itself (something more akin to Undertale, LoZ, or Metroid).

This allows us to ask the questions of decisions. For example, the hilarious case of people who forget to feed Arthur Morgan (character from Read Dead Redemption 2), which results in him being sickly. They then start making the choice to feed him regularly. There is minimal punishment for not keeping Arthur fed, but people cannot help but try to take care of him. Or the ethical questions Undertale asks.

By: Frog

Frog — Thu, 14 Nov 2024 18:57:00 +0000

POVs in video games are more about the type of character you control. In something like Fortnite, you play as a blank slate. The skins that each person chooses is entirely visual. As far as I know, there is no difference between playing as Peter Griffin and Spider Man. On the other hand, you have the protagonists of more narrative driven games. Characters with distinct appearances, personalities, and character arcs. A lot to the time, you don’t really have control over where the story goes. There are some narrative driven games with silent protagonists, but you usually decide how they act throughout a story. Essentially, POV in games are a spectrum between customization and player limitations.