First Person Immersion
This is an interesting article, that hits close to home for me, as an avid first person gamer.
http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=24513
I play first person shooters both competitively and for fun, and have done so for a long time. I only really play them on the PC, as I find the controller on consoles just isn’t up to the task of high speed aiming and moving in FPS games. This is clearly an opinion piece, as it discusses his difficulty in getting into FPS games originally, and how he doesn’t feel for the character he controls, since he can’t see him. I find this to be much different from my experience.
In first person shooters, I tend to enjoy most the realistic, life-like games, most notably the call of duty series. These games place you as a soldier (and often different soldiers, in the single player campaigns), in the middle of a global conflict. I find myself very immersed on the character, as I directly control their fate, in a role a person has or could actually play in life. The author complains that he doesn’t understand how you could interact with a character you can’t see. This to me is the thickest part of the article- isn’t it easier to place yourself in the position of the player you control without visual cues to remind you you aren’t that person? FPS games allow you to control your player and environment directly- there is no interface, avatar, or other barrier to change your perspective- you are directly controlling the character. An excellent example of immersion in an FPS is found in the COD4 single player campaign. In one of the missions, you are attempting to capture a rogue leader of a nation, who has taken control by force. You are flying in by helicopter, when a nearby helicopter crashes, leaving many dead and a wounded pilot. While you attempt to save that pilot, the rogue leader, realizing he cannot stop the attack on his overtaken empire, detonates a nuclear weapon. You are left on the ground, far enough away to not be vaporized, but not far enough away to escape the fallout. You literally see this occur through your characters eyes, and watch in vain as you attempt to walk, stumble, and crawl to safety, only to find none. Your character dies a slow and painful death, miles away from home.
This is just one example of many. I find that with fewer barriers between the character and you, it is easier to place yourself in that role. I think this author confuses immersion with his ability to do what he wants- he struggled getting into the genre, as he found the perspective difficult to handle, so he abandoned the FPS games early in his gaming, then when he went back to them, he found it difficult, and therefore not immersive. His inability to place himself into the character he controls comes from a dislike of the gametype, rather than the camera viewpoint.