Opinion: The First-Person Immersion Myth (Gamasutra) - 0 views
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Chris Johnson on 05 Sep 09I tend to agree with the author, though I would be interested in seeing evidence to support his claims. I remember playing the classic horror survival game "Alone in the Dark" (from 1992) The graphics were fairly primitive by today's standards, the controls could be clunky, but I felt more immersed in the experience, even upon replaying years later. By contrast, I played through first-person shooter and survival horror game F.E.A.R. recently. The graphics are very realistic and the controls are smooth, but something was missing that kept it from being an immersive experience for me. People who haven't played the original "Alone in the Dark" may recognize more with games like "Resident Evil" in comparison with "Half Life".
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The reason for that is likely that we are used to seeing games and movies play out before us in a third-person view.
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Are first-person games inherently more immersive? A lot of developers seem to presume that they are,
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do a somewhat better job by at least allowing the player to make some dialog choices -- but still, the character isn’t you
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we’ve come to our own conclusion that first-person games are inherently intuitive and more immersive, simply by virtue of their camera position
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a couple people mailed me to say that they feel I have too closely tied character identification with immersion, and that’s not my intention