Mass Effect - Puppeteering the pointless 3rd person
Mass Effect and the Thrill of Seeing
Genres of computer gaming have long found their conventions identified by modes and mechanics of viewership and control than more traditional narrative and thematic traits. Thus games are foremost referred to by terms such as First Person Shooter (FPS) Role Playing Game (RPG) and Real Time Strategy (RTS) rather than SciFi, Horror or Noir (though they very often possess these traits as well)
What this implies is a primary concern of games being focused on How a Story is engaged over the What of the storys depiction. The mechanics of engagement on the part of the viewer are governed by the vantage point of control they are presented. This range spans from the intimacy and immediacy of First Person (Bioshock, Half Life, et al) through to the omnipotent remove of a God-View 3rd Person (Command and Conquer, Company of Heroes etc).
Between these two extremes - and their various implementations and variations - sits the venerable 3rd Person Shooter. The addendum of the term Shooter constructs an intimacy to the scene whilst retaining a remove from the immediacy of 1st Person. Into this vein of games that exploit this viewership of Intimate Remove we add recent titles such as Arkham Asylum, Dead Space and Mass Effect.
Here we find a question begging - Why 3rd Person? What does removing the player from the personal avatar embodiment of 1st Person add to the experience?
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Posted at 07:33AM Mar 02, 2010
by Mike Jones in 3D graphics & gaming |
