Changing Perspectives: Defining What We See in First Person and Third Person Games

And so comes to an end of a month looking at walking games with jaunt over to the Third-Person Walkers of last year Journey and Bientôt l’été.

The whole idea of the first-person walking genre was from Kris Ligman or at least I thought it did until I tried to track down where she said it. It isn’t often that a year provides so many examples of a new genre. Especially one as diverse as this one. The walking genre is about stripping things down to their bare essentials removing nearly all interactivity until it is just the looking and the moving, two of the most essential elements of video games and those not given a lot of credence to in the wider world.

But neither Journey nor Bientôt l’été goes that far. they have additional elements that almost seem required given the difference between first person and third person games. Thanks to these minimalist games, we can see the difference much clearer. I didn’t see the conclusion until I had written it. I always like surprising myself when I connect the dots in my essays.

So, take a look at the ostentatiously titled post over at PopMatters. (Thank you, G. Christopher Williams, for that one.) Now I have to come up with a new monthly topic to last 5 weeks.