What's the appeal with first-person gameplay?

[Nazulu]

It could be as Yahtzee said, just a play style that's really simple, you click on the baddies till they go away.

Isn't this basically every game ever?

Is it? I don't think so. I'm sure there are other just as simple play styles but every game ever?

You mean Diablo?

We're clearly talking about first person shooters.

If you can put every game that used the first person perspective into a simple killing game than it is legit for me to summarise all gaming as an idiotic killing fest.

And no, we aren't clearly talking about FPS. We are talking about games in the first person perspective.

I think almost every single game I've played in the first person perspective (especially the popular ones which is part of the subject) has you attack by clicking on the enemy on the screen to death. It's a simple game style for people to get into, is it not? You don't think that may contribute to why it's popular? And I bring up first person shooters because they are very popular still.

 

[Nazulu]

Skyrim...

You'll get a warning straight away if you don't explain your answer. Edit, edit as fast as you can.

 

[Nazulu]

Skyrim...

You'll get a warning straight away if you don't explain your answer. Edit, edit as fast as you can.

The question was "What's the appeal with first-person gameplay?" which I answered. If I would've said "enough said" would it have made a difference? I've seen many small comments with nothing in the way of explanations to no consequence, so I don't see a reason to get a warning for that.

I didn't write the rules, that's just how they are. Sometimes short posts slip by the mods, but whenever they find them they will just give a warning. And yes, it can lead to a ban. Besides, don't you want add more to be more interesting?

 

[Sarge034]

I'm a 3rd-person kinda girl and I was just wondering why it's so popular. If there's a character on the box or one you get to create I would like to see what I payed for. I don't care for shooters, but now it's even in newer JRPGs that I would've otherwise been all over nowadays.

I prefer it for immersion's sake, and the fact that 1/2-3/4 of my screen is not taken up by a body. Especially in "horror" games. Why should I be nervous in confined spaces if I have a god's eye view of everything in front of me, to my sides, and behind me at the same time?

 

[Nazulu]

I think almost every single game I've played in the first person perspective (especially the popular ones which is part of the subject) has you attack by clicking on the enemy on the screen to death. It's a simple game style for people to get into, is it not? You don't think that may contribute to why it's popular? And I bring up first person shooters because they are very popular still.

And nearly every game I played has attacking me enemies by clicking on them. Quite simple if you ask me. So what it your point?

The question was not about what genre is popular at the moment but why people like this perspective. What you think of the more popular games featuring this perspective is irrelevant because it does not answer the question and with every post you display a lack of understanding what the difference between a perspective and a genre is. There are plenty of games in each genre featuring the first person view, several don't contain fighting (Portal, Antichamber, Quantum Conundrum, racing games), other contain fighting but it is different of what you describe (Legend of Grimrock, Thief series and other first person stealth'em'ups) and then there are the FPS where more often than not your description doesn't fit. If you want to tell me that 'you click on the enemies' in Arma 2 then I say that you miss most of the time.

All I see is that you wanted to be edgy and witty with a stupid phrase from someone who used it not as an universal truth but a comedic phrase that crumbles when you apply a little thought to it.

No, I think you just got confused and lost my original point which is that it is simple for people see and an easy thing to aim for. I never wandered off just talking about genre, I'm simply stating that 'simple' is what helps make something popular. It goes for entertainment in general so I don't see why it can't be applied to games. And what I was trying to get at is that the popular perspective can carry on to other franchises, which is what Miss. G mentioned with the new JRPG's (as well as other franchises we know that have converted as well).

Why do I feel hostility from you? Did I offend you? Do you usually make assumptions? Fucking hell. I don't feel like I need to be treated like an idiot. Can I make a mistake without people jumping on everything I say? I wasn't looking for an argument. What if I didn't mention 'Yahtzee', would I still be trying to be edgy and witty with a stupid phrase? I seriously doubt you would have even thought of it?

 

[Andy Farren]

It's a tricky one. Some games thrive in 1P, others do not. One game that springs to mind is Killzone; it's a cover-based shooter, but it's 1P. What the fuck is that about? I also thought Bioshock was a pretty poor shooter, once you stripped away the story elements.

Actually, yeah, fuck first-person shooters.

 

[GoaThief]

I'm glad someone read the topic I posted clearly. I wanna know why the perspective itself is so popular in gaming, not FPS, as I mentioned in my opening post I don't care for them... or shooters in general. My country has never had a war or a gun culture to make these games that appealing.

So people only like FPS because of gun culture or place of birth? Say what? What country are you from anyway?

 

[Owyn_Merrilin]

The problem is that once you go outside the subgenre, it becomes even less true. I mean, try "clicking on other players to win" in an old school Arena FPS. You can't do it, because the guns all have weird properties that you have to work with. It's kind of like Yahtzee's deal with multiplayer. He hates multiplayer games because he hates people, which makes it really obnoxious when gamers start spouting his justifications like they're the gospel truth about videogames.

Basically, it's just a pet peeve of mine when people quote him on stuff like that. Most reviewers have biases against certain genres. On one notable occasion, I actually bought a game[footnote]An old school first person dungeon crawler for the GBA called "Mazes of Fate." It's first person like Wizardry and Eye of the Beholder, though, not like Doom.[/footnote] based on overwhelmingly negative reviews... because the people reviewing it were complaining about features of the subgenre, they just wanted it to be a totally different kind of game. Did not regret it at all. Yahtzee's complaints about a lot of things are like that, he's whining that it's a style of game he doesn't like, and usually doesn't even understand. It could be the best game in the world, but if it either forces him to interact with other people or otherwise hits one of his blind spots, he's gonna trash it, and I mean legitimately trashing it, not just for comedy like he does in pretty much all of his reviews.

Yahtzee, Yahtzee, Yahtzee, Yahtzee, Yahtzee, pet peeve.

So you wouldn't have become sensitive to what I wrote if I didn't say Yahtzee's name, that's all I got out of this. It's way off topic and I don't care for it.

No, I would have recognized the quote even if you hadn't said it was from Yahtzee. If it had been an original thought, it would have still been ignorant, but it would have been less obnoxious. But it wasn't, you were quoting a comedian on something he personally dislikes yet knows very little about and not thinking for yourself. You're hardly alone on this site for doing that, and for more than just FPS titles (his even dumber opinion on multiplayer games is the one I see quoted the most often), and it's obnoxious no matter who does it.

Face it, Yahtzee was wrong and so are you. "Click on things to kill them" doesn't describe first person shooters, let alone first person games in general. If anything it describes RTS games, MOBAs, and RPGs, next to none of which that use that particular mechanic are in first person.

 

[Nazulu]

No, I would have recognized the quote even if you hadn't said it was from Yahtzee. If it had been an original thought, it would have still been ignorant, but it would have been less obnoxious. But it wasn't, you were quoting a comedian on something he personally dislikes yet knows very little about and not thinking for yourself. You're hardly alone on this site for doing that, and for more than just FPS titles (his even dumber opinion on multiplayer games is the one I see quoted the most often), and it's obnoxious no matter who does it.

Face it, Yahtzee was wrong and so are you. "Click on things to die" doesn't describe first person shooters, let alone first person games in general. If anything it describes RTS games, MOBAs, and RPGs, next to none of which that use that particular mechanic are in first person.

Your assumptions disgust me. And whats even worse is you think you're talking facts, then you missed the point of what I was saying and then you decide to generalise other types of genre's that are completely different and not part of this topic. I bet you just became sensitive of what I originally said (like I'm taking a stab at your favourite franchise, which I'm not) so you think that means you can insult me and preach to me what you believe. That's right, all you're telling me is your beliefs and I don't care for it.

Do it again and I'll just throw you onto the ignore list.

 

[Owyn_Merrilin]

No, I would have recognized the quote even if you hadn't said it was from Yahtzee. If it had been an original thought, it would have still been ignorant, but it would have been less obnoxious. But it wasn't, you were quoting a comedian on something he personally dislikes yet knows very little about and not thinking for yourself. You're hardly alone on this site for doing that, and for more than just FPS titles (his even dumber opinion on multiplayer games is the one I see quoted the most often), and it's obnoxious no matter who does it.

Face it, Yahtzee was wrong and so are you. "Click on things to die" doesn't describe first person shooters, let alone first person games in general. If anything it describes RTS games, MOBAs, and RPGs, next to none of which that use that particular mechanic are in first person.

Your assumptions disgust me. And whats even worse is you think you're talking facts, then you missed the point of what I was saying and then you decide to generalise other types of genre's that are completely different and not part of this topic. I bet you just became sensitive of what I originally said (like I'm taking a stab at your favourite franchise, which I'm not) so you think that means you can insult me and preach to me what you believe. That's right, all you're telling me is your beliefs and I don't care for it.

Do it again and I'll just throw you onto the ignore list.

Generalize? Dude, I'm doing a playthrough of The Witcher right now. That is literally a game where you click on monsters, and then when your attack is finished, click on them again at a specific time. You don't even have to be facing them when you do the initial click, and your camera doesn't need to be facing them on subsequent ones. It's also either third person or top down depending on your settings, with absolutely no first person mode of any kind. But please tell me how I'm generalizing about other genres and/or trolling. I'm not the one who said something false and assumed I was talking facts. Deal with it. Put me on the ignore list if you will, but that's basically admitting defeat in the most pathetic way possible: plugging your ears and going "I can't hear you."

 

[Nazulu]

No, I would have recognized the quote even if you hadn't said it was from Yahtzee. If it had been an original thought, it would have still been ignorant, but it would have been less obnoxious. But it wasn't, you were quoting a comedian on something he personally dislikes yet knows very little about and not thinking for yourself. You're hardly alone on this site for doing that, and for more than just FPS titles (his even dumber opinion on multiplayer games is the one I see quoted the most often), and it's obnoxious no matter who does it.

Face it, Yahtzee was wrong and so are you. "Click on things to die" doesn't describe first person shooters, let alone first person games in general. If anything it describes RTS games, MOBAs, and RPGs, next to none of which that use that particular mechanic are in first person.

Your assumptions disgust me. And whats even worse is you think you're talking facts, then you missed the point of what I was saying and then you decide to generalise other types of genre's that are completely different and not part of this topic. I bet you just became sensitive of what I originally said (like I'm taking a stab at your favourite franchise, which I'm not) so you think that means you can insult me and preach to me what you believe. That's right, all you're telling me is your beliefs and I don't care for it.

Do it again and I'll just throw you onto the ignore list.

Generalize? Dude, I'm doing a playthrough of The Witcher right now. That is literally a game where you click on monsters, and then when your attack is finished, click on them again at a specific time. You don't even have to be facing them when you do the initial click, and your camera doesn't need to be facing them on subsequent ones. It's also either third person or top down depending on your settings, with absolutely no first person mode of any kind. But please tell me how I'm generalizing about other genres and/or trolling. I'm not the one who said something false and assumed I was talking facts. Deal with it. Put me on the ignore list if you will, but that's basically admitting defeat in the most pathetic way possible: plugging your ears and going "I can't hear you."

You were already defeated when you started preaching to me with your poor aggressive arguments (which is what desperate people do when they can't think of a way to defend), and you still remain way off topic of what I was talking about. I don't know where you're are going with this but this whole thing is a waste of time. Why should I waste time on this, I have no idea. Aggressive people aren't worth it so keep it up till you get banned please. Bye bye Mr. Silent.

 

[Owyn_Merrilin]

No, I would have recognized the quote even if you hadn't said it was from Yahtzee. If it had been an original thought, it would have still been ignorant, but it would have been less obnoxious. But it wasn't, you were quoting a comedian on something he personally dislikes yet knows very little about and not thinking for yourself. You're hardly alone on this site for doing that, and for more than just FPS titles (his even dumber opinion on multiplayer games is the one I see quoted the most often), and it's obnoxious no matter who does it.

Face it, Yahtzee was wrong and so are you. "Click on things to die" doesn't describe first person shooters, let alone first person games in general. If anything it describes RTS games, MOBAs, and RPGs, next to none of which that use that particular mechanic are in first person.

Your assumptions disgust me. And whats even worse is you think you're talking facts, then you missed the point of what I was saying and then you decide to generalise other types of genre's that are completely different and not part of this topic. I bet you just became sensitive of what I originally said (like I'm taking a stab at your favourite franchise, which I'm not) so you think that means you can insult me and preach to me what you believe. That's right, all you're telling me is your beliefs and I don't care for it.

Do it again and I'll just throw you onto the ignore list.

Generalize? Dude, I'm doing a playthrough of The Witcher right now. That is literally a game where you click on monsters, and then when your attack is finished, click on them again at a specific time. You don't even have to be facing them when you do the initial click, and your camera doesn't need to be facing them on subsequent ones. It's also either third person or top down depending on your settings, with absolutely no first person mode of any kind. But please tell me how I'm generalizing about other genres and/or trolling. I'm not the one who said something false and assumed I was talking facts. Deal with it. Put me on the ignore list if you will, but that's basically admitting defeat in the most pathetic way possible: plugging your ears and going "I can't hear you."

You were already defeated when you started preaching to me with your poor aggressive arguments (which is what desperate people do when they can't think of a way to defend), and you still remain way off topic of what I was talking about. I don't know where you're are going with this but this whole thing is a waste of time. Why should I waste time on this, I have no idea. Aggressive people aren't worth it so keep it up till you get banned please. Bye bye Mr. Silent.

So then I win? You really can't hear me? Wow, that's a first. If you ever do see this, realize that I wasn't being aggressive, you were just flat out wrong and were called out by multiple people. You came off looking like a two year old, at the end of the day.

 

[Poetic Nova]

I can't aim in third person shooters and FPS's are more immersive imo.

 

[Bluestorm83]

Well, the word that everyone will toss around for this is "Immersion," but honestly, I'm not convinced that Immersion is what every game needs. I mean, I've played more boardgames in my life than Videogames, have probably had more fun with boardgames, and never was enthralled by the illusion that I really and truly AM tiny plastic tanks rolling into West Germany as my buddy Steve IS tiny plastic bombers coming to blow up my tanks because in four years I NEVER beat that Sumnabitch at a SINGLE GAME of Axis & Allies.

At the same time, there is no, and there should be no, immersion in a game of Tetris. I suppose that what I'm saying is that different presentations work differently for different genres.

Platforming? Third Person is a must.
Shooting? First or Third is good here.
Horror? Like, REAL terrifying horror like the first Condemned game? First person. At 3 AM. In a dark creaky house.
Puzzle? Almost always Third Person (I think that Portal's the only first person puzzler that really NAILED it.)

But the Market will look at the most successful (Read; Call of Duty) games and try and make things like them, in an ill informed attempt to steal the sky from Zeus, instead of just realizing that the Ocean is actually more important to people, and we could make a killing there. So more games get repetitive, grind based multiplayer, more games get Angry Bro With Gun on the Brown and Gray Cover, more games get First Person, more games get Photorealistic Grime Effects, etc.

 

[Bluestorm83]

SIGH, sorry for the Double Post. The Captcha pooped itself, and told me that it didn't post, so I did it again, and there was the original one that "didn't work."

So I'll say something different here... OH! Okay, the Skyrim Story.

I'm in Pennsylvania, staying with Family for the winter, since my job is in horticulture, and you can't really do happy warm weather plant things when Snow and Ice Exist. So I'm playing Skyrim, right? And I'm in this sidequest where some young woman is being forced by her mother to kill a dude and become a witch. And she's like, "I don't want to be a witch, I need you to help me to stop human sacrifices and kill my crazy evil witch mother, because witches that do human sacrifices are bad!" And I'm like, "Yeah, I'm down with that."

But my Stepfather is like, "Wait a second, Witches and Human Sacrifices!? Those are BAD!" And I'm all, "Right. That's why I'm-a kill that witch, and stop the Human Sacrifices." And he goes, "But the only human sacrifice was Jesus, who gave his life willingly to pay for Man's sins!" To which I reply, "Right. So I'm going to kill the witch, and stop the sacrifice." And he's like, "Witches aren't good either!" I'm like, "See previous comment about stopping the sacrifice by KILLING the witch." He's like, "I'm sorry, I can't have a Witch Human Sacrificing game in my house." And I'm thinking "I'm 30 years old, I am too old for this shit," but I'm like, "Yeah, sure, whatever," because he's CLEARLY having a different conversation in his own head than the one that I'm having in reality.

End Result? About a month later, I come home, pop in Skyrim, and knock that Witch's head right off her shoulders with one swing of my mace.

And it was all done in First Person (But I AM on topic!) which actually works better for an Elder Scrollsy Experience.

 

[Owyn_Merrilin]

And he goes, "But the only human sacrifice was Jesus, who gave his life willingly to pay for Man's sins!"

Wat? Does your step dad not know about some of the other religions that were mentioned in the old testament, the ones that various prophets had a hard time keeping the Jews from joining? Some of them practiced human sacrifice, that's why there's quite a few mentions in the old testament of why you shouldn't do that.

So even Biblically, that's not correct.

 

[Olas]

Realism, immersion, a sense of actually being the character and not simply controlling them like a puppet. That, to me, is what makes first person almost ideal. I probably take the whole immersion thing a little too seriously, but I even disable crosshairs, subtitles, and HUD elements where I can to keep things as close to reality as possible, at least in first person games.

It's also great for a good horror game since it limits your view and makes you feel more vulnerable.

Plus in some games you can use the third person camera to cheat by looking around corners and seeing things your character shouldn't be able to see, which is stupid. First person perspective makes the position of your character important.

Plus it clears up your view since you don't have an annoying little guy standing in your view range taking up part of the screen the whole time.