Concept research #4

I have now been looking into first person games and the conventions used to immerse the audience into a virtual reality as though they are looking through the eyes of the specific character. What ive discovered which was obvious when playing both 3rd and 1st person games is that 1st person games are certainly more immersive mainly due to the fact that in 3rd person games the character is taking up part of the frame. This is helpful if you enjoy viewing your character especially if you created them or the fact that you can check behind your character for enemies etc. However the 1st person POV is certainly more realistic in terms of the gamer feeling as though they're in the game. This is mainly used for fast paced action games and cinematic games which heavily rely on the narrative.



This screenshot from Farcry 2 (2008) shows a level of realism which is rare in video games of this genre, occasionally when a character you control is shot you can choose to treat the injury before carrying on. If chosen, an animation is displayed in which your character will attend to his injury, in this case bend over and flick the bullet out with his knife. This sense of being affected through injuries may cause gamers to be more cautious in their playing style which increases its reflection on a battlefield in reality.

To increase the sense of being a part of a virtual reality in these games, some gamers are now able to use a modern development called oculus rift which is released in 2015 however a few gamers already own a pair. This piece of equipment features goggles fixed with a head strap in which gamers view their first person games through the goggles whilst the motions and controls are simulated so that the gamer can control a character by turning their own head with a 360 degree capability whilst controlling the characters directory using the normal controls. when combined with headphones this creates a simulation which heavily immerses gamers and enables full concentration on the game at hand. This might be something to consider when presenting my project, an installation with this style of simulation could be quite effective.