Second person

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bigbigt0

Guest
Hi

If games can have first and third person views what is second person view?

bigt
 
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xenon2000

Guest
'Tis a puzzle I've spent many years trying to figure out at any time when I've been bored out of my skull.

First person: when one performs actions and reffers to them through their own perspective. In the case of games, the reffering is done using a computer screen, so in FPSs, whoever is watching nearby is seeing things through the perspective of the gamer, just as in a first-person book, where the reader sees things through the eyes of the author, uh huh?

For third person games, if you were to take the gamer as the author, and the character as the subject matter, then a similar case resides, where the onlooker is seeing a third-party character perform all the actions.

In second-person the onlooker would have the illusion of performing actions themselves, seeing things through their own perspective yet controlled seperately by the gamer. I suppose in that sense a demo of an FPS match would fit as a second-person experience.
 
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Sar

Guest
2nd person POV games used to be played a LOT, but technology has shifted the players perspective to third and first person "views".

So what gametype was it that heavily featured 2nd person perspective as it's only viewpoint for the player?


Old style text adventures, mud games etc.

"You are in a small room, and there are doors to the north and west"

/west

"You go west, you have left the building and a standing in a small meadow. There is a small man here singing a soft tune, but he has his back to you. There are exits to the east and south"


And so on.

Basically all your actions are described to you in the second person. The narrative implicates the player in the narrative and the actions performed. It's an effective method of tying the player/reader directly to the actions being performed, making it more personal, more intimate than a blunt first person view. More psychologically involving.

Read Iain Banks' Complicity, as there are several chapters in it painting the reader as a serial killer.
 
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Perplex

Guest
2nd person perspective is the person you are killing.

In a conversation with someone, you are the first person, the person you are talking with is the 2nd person, and any bystanders are in the 3rd person (so to speak).

First person shooters means you see things from your own perspective, 3rd person shooters means you see things from a fixed camera angle (or a bystanders point of view - kinda like MGS2 I suppose).

2nd person would be impossible - as you would be watching yourself from the eyes of the enemy you are killing.
 
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Summo

Guest
Makes sense. With insurance claims you are the first party, the insurer is the second, and the other claimant is the third.









Note: This post contains no valid points whatsoever.
 
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Summo

Guest
To make amends I done looked it up. The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Linguistics, (© Oxford University Press 1997) has this to say:
...the speaker is first person: e.g. the pronouns I and we. One referring to (or including reference to) one or more addressees is second person: e.g. you. One which involves reference to neither is third person
Also backs up Perp's claim, I guess.
 

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