It creates immediacy and empathy with
the main character, literally pu ing the player in the
character??™s shoes. This view also limits the player??™s
purpose of the interface? What is the state of the
game, and how much information should the player
know about it?
In Chapter 5 we discussed the information
structure of games??”how much and what type of
information about the game state was given to each
player. The viewpoints we have just discussed provide
degrees of access to the state of the world, as
well as placing the player in a varying relationship to
the character or other game objects that they must
deal with. This makes the choice of interface view
both a formal and a dramatic design element.
Should the player feel extremely close to the
game character, sharing their sense of movement
in addition to their lack of knowledge at times? Or
should the player remain close but somewhat outside
of the character and be able to see more of the
environment, perhaps pick up on clues or tools that
might not be in the character??™s direct vision? Perhaps
there is no character in your game, or maybe there is
no world; in this case, what is the view of the game
state that makes the most sense for your design?
Exercise 8.
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