hi,
i have questions
are there any Twine games that use 3rd or 1st person perspective rather than 2nd person perspective?
if so, do you have any thoughts on how it changed the experience in the game(s)? for better or for worse
if not, do you have any thoughts on how different perspectives of narration might change the experience?
are there any common pitfalls (obvious or not-so-obvious) for 2nd person perspective, particularly in the context of its use in twine games?
Comments
Second person perspective, while an anomaly in literature, is the default perspective in interactive fiction "You are standing west of a white house" as oppposed to "Adventurer Dave sauntered into the clearing, finding himself standing to the west of a white house..."
Second person feels more immediate and immersive, especially in parser fiction, because all the events and reactions are set in terms of them happening to the reader. In fact, some second person games stumble when the author assigns a trait to "you" or puts words in the PC's mouth that cause a break in immersion/connection for the reader - "I would never do that!"
The normal transcript of a second-person interactive fiction would read very clunkily as prose to a reader, although there have been successful novels written in second person
Conversely, third-person perspectives in interactive fiction tend to distance the player/reader from the PC and make them feel they are not "in" the story. In third person, the player often can feel they are directing the actions of a completely separate person. The player tends to be the "superego" of the PC who goes about the story as prompted by the player, with no acknowledgement that the PC exists or that choices are being made.
>TAKE AMULET
Miranda picked up the amulet, letting the cool chain drape over her fingers.
>X AMULET
Miranda gazed at the amulet wistfully, remembering the day Lord Chauncey presented it to her.
There has been IF that capitalized on the separation of player from active protagonist, such as SUSPENDED and Jon Ingold's FAIL-SAFE where the plot hinges on directing external entities to act, entities who may or may not be able to accomplish (or may not want to accomplish) what the player directs. Technically these then become quasi-second person since the player is in the story, but is directing the action at a distance for plot reasons.
Similarly, pure first-person is distancing, but sometimes less so, often coming across as a conversation between the player and PC.
>EAT APPLE
I tore into the apple voraciously, checking first to make sure Adam wasn't lurking behind the tree.
One of the best examples of this is VIOLET by Jeremy Freese, where the PC is the player, but every interaction is narrated in the voice of the PC's girlfriend:
>BREAK FRAME
"You don't really want to destroy that picture frame I spent so many hours making you for your birthday, do you?"
>BREAK FRAME
"Very well then. You dash the frame to pieces, without a thought of the tears it would bring to me."
(This is paraphrased, Freese's writing is a lot better.)
Some authors set the goal of having every bit of output text readable as a story. The Undum creation system fosters this, as clickable choices by default are sucked into the resulting text and disappear when one is selected.
(What'd I tell you, random? And abrupt. Ugh, back to work.)
I'm writing my current game in third person because I have three main characters. You can choose which one's story to follow on the first screen, and later in the story you can choose to change POVs to see what the other two are thinking and feeling. I chose third person because I felt like "you" can't "be" three different people, especially switching among them--it would get confusing. But also, it's less like a parser adventure like Hanon's examples, and more of a story/novel. Since third person is used more often in fiction, I thought players/readers would be more immersed in it as a story using third person.
That being said I'm still interested to play any other twines that use third person because I want to see how it feels for me as a player.
What do people think?
But the story branches determine the road the protagonist walk down. Not the character you're following, mind you.
Confusing? Yes. But it'll be even more confusing if it's done in first or second person.