Perspective
In short Perspective is where a game places your view of its world, such as first-person, third-person, side-on or top-down.
Definition
Perspective is where the game places the player's view of its world: through a character's eyes in first-person, behind them in third-person, side-on, top-down, isometric, or from a fixed camera chosen by the designer. It decides what the player can see and therefore what they can know, which shapes tension, aim, navigation and the sense of being someone rather than directing something. Perspective is often mistaken for genre because some pairings became habits, such as the shooter and the first-person view. But it is a separate axis from genre, theme, format and mechanic: the same kind of play can be shown from different positions, and changing the camera can leave the rules untouched.
Not to be confused with
- Genre
Genre is what you do, while perspective is where you see it from, so "first-person" describes a view and not a kind of play.
- Immersive sim
Immersive sims are usually first-person, but what defines them is a world of consistent interacting systems, not the camera.
- Format
Format is how a game is packaged and played, such as single-player or episodic, while perspective concerns only the view within a play session.
Where the game lives
- rules: dropped
- goals: dropped
- feedback: used
- uncertainty: used
- choice: not essential
- play: not essential
Perspective is the channel through which the game shows the results of play, and what it hides creates uncertainty. The rules and goals can stay the same whichever way the camera points.
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Examples
Doomid Software, 1993
Fixed the habit of pairing the shooter with the first-person view, which later made the two easy to confuse.
Resident EvilCapcom, 1996
Its fixed, designer-placed camera angles hide what is around the corner and are central to its tension.
DiabloBlizzard North, 1996
An isometric view that shows the player's character from above, giving a sense of directing a figure rather than being one.
In the essays
Why “RPG” stopped meaning anything
“RPG” fuses five separate things—mechanic, theme, format, perspective and role-play—and once progression spread to every genre, the label stopped sorting games.
Sources
- BookGaming: Essays on Algorithmic Culture. University of Minnesota Press, 2006. Includes a chapter on the origins of the first-person shooter and the subjective camera. Reading list
- BookThe Medium of the Video Game. University of Texas Press, 2001. Includes Wolf's chapters on space in the video game and on genre, which treat how a game presents its world separately from the interaction it asks for. Reading list