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Examining a Game Character's Physical Presence
GameSetWatch is running a feature about the evolution of game characters' physical presence. In many games, you can look down and not see your feet, or pass right through other players or NPCs. Other games rely on a believable model that can animate and collide with its surroundings. Tom Cross examines some of those scenarios, and also games that raise the bar for having a physical presence, such as the new Alone in the Dark.
"Edward Carnby's body is a distinct factor in everything that the player does. Your inventory is carried inside Carnby's leather jacket. To use, drop, or combine items, you must open it wide and look down at your own chest. The healing mechanic, too, reinforces the oft-forgotten fact that you have a body. To heal yourself, you must look at the parts of your body (arms, leg, chest) that are wounded, and then spray them with first-aid liquid. Likewise, when you equip an item, Edward reaches for it, palming it and then switching back to the stock third or first person view."
A 2D screen cannot portray the necessary 3D clues that we as humans need to identify with an object as 'real'.
task: place an object on the table between a few obstacles. Now try to do the same thing using a computer monitor and remote controlled arm. Magnitudes more difficult.
"The price good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men." ~Plato (427-347 BC)
But leaves out the explanation, as suggested in the article comments. See Partial Identification.
In RL you can feel where your kit is, and know by touch how to pull it out. Ditto for assessing wounds. The compromise of not needing to look in games is actually more realistic than looking at a virtual body.
Same problem with driving/flying games. You don't have the tactile feedback of the Gs of turns and climbs and descents, so the game has to compromise "realism" in another way to make the overall faked-realism effect work best.
It's not just about 3D. As you implied, we use more than our sense of sight to grab and hold something. But computers can only provide visual information.
Why can't I reach into my jacked to get the pistol that I can FEEL against my chest?
And if we're going to be using "first aid spray" as a healing potion, does anyone really care if it's equipped to a status bar on your screen or if you have to flip to a different screen view to choose it?
To be honest I rather have full view of what's underneath me for an action based fps.
Besides, work on getting the NPCs to move their mouth properly when talking. That will enhance thing more than being able to see my guy's shoes.
Does all this realism make the game more fun?
Circumcision is child abuse.
The FPS convention that you're just a floating viewpoint with a gun attached has always bothered me; this is one of the reasons I lost interest in the genre after the novelty of Doom's first-person view wore off. Every time I'd look down and see nothing but a vague shadow, I'd completely lose suspension of disbelief.
Even in a game like Portal, where you can look at yourself whenever you like, the player model still only exists when you see it from outside. Look down and you're just a shadow.
It always makes me feel like I'm Rimmer.
egypt urnash minimal art.
A detailed and humorous examination of the player's physical presence in System Shock - probably the earliest 3D FPS/RPG combination to hit our screens: (Warning: contains game spoilers and possibly other content that's bound to be offensive to someone or other.) http://www.it-he.org/sshock.htm#hacker