First-Person in Virtual Reality: Do I think it's worth it?

In the past, few years virtual reality has become a new way in consuming and producing content. From streaming videos on your phone to training new employees with hands on equipment, virtual reality is becoming more mainstream in many ways. For this blog post however, I will be talking about one form of content in particular. That is of course, first-person video games. 

First off, virtual reality or otherwise known as VR, is a three-dimensional computer generated environment that is created to give off an artificial, but otherwise life like experience that we can explore and interact with ourselves. With this technology we can play games through our own perspective, and not just through the perspective of a character on a screen either, no we experience it with our own two eyes. The way we experience this is with the use of a virtual reality headset.  To name off a few, those would be the "HTC Vive", the "Oculus Rift", and the "PlayStation VR". Now there are probably more out there that are currently being developed or don't have the spotlight shined on them, but when it comes to video games these are your three main competitors.
 

"HTC Vive"

"Oculus Rift"

"PlayStation VR"

My personal views on virtual reality when it comes to video games is that it has the capability to further our experience in video games in a true first-person fashion. However, I don't really think we are at a point where virtual reality is a revolutionary new way to play video games that will one day take away controllers and replace them with big awkward headsets. I think of VR more as a gimmick as of right now, mainly due to the lack of content being created for them. While yes there are plenty of games being created for this platform, I don't really see them as full-fledged games. Rather, they are more like experiences that you would share with some friends or by yourself for a short period of time then move on to something else.

Also, don't think these experiences comes cheap. As of right now, these headsets will cost you a sum of around $350-$600 depending on which one you choose, and that's just the headset alone. You will also have to invest into a machine to run the games as well. This can be another $300 for a PlayStation 4 or around $750 for a beefy PC.

Note that I have never personally used or played with VR, so my viewpoint may change depending on I have some hands-on time with one. As of right now though, coming from an outsider's perspective, I don't think VR is worth the time or money for a short 30 min. experience that I'll play for a week then never touch again.

Tell me what you guys think. Do you want VR to become the new normal way experience video games, or do agree with me and believe that it's just a gimmick that won't make substantial leap for quite a while? Also, if any of you own or have used a VR headset tell me what's it like in the comments below. Until next time everybody.

First-Person Shooters 1970's-1990's

I've noticed in the comments of my previous blog post that some of you wanted me to write about the history of some first-person shooters. I knew I was going to have to write about it at some point, but I just didn't want it to be my first post. The reason why is because, I wanted to give out the information about first-person games first, then worry about history at a different time. Now is that time. Today I will be going over the history of first-person games. Where the concept came from and how it developed over the years.

The earliest examples of first-person games go back to around the 1970's, when Steve Colley and Jim Bowery created two separate video game titles. Those two games were Steve Colley's "Maze War" and Jim Bowery's "Spasim". Comparing to modern games they were very simple concepts. In "Maze War" you were walking through a maze in a first-person perspective view and looking for giant eyeball monsters to shoot. The game "Spasim" was just a first-person flight simulator in space. Neither of these games were fully developed and sold. They were just simple projects to test in order to figure out what they could develop. 

Maze War                                     Spasim

Over the years many first-person games came out and were heavily popular in arcades. Light gun shooters being a good example, but they lacked any sort of interactivity that video games need. You were pretty much only on a set rail telling you where to go and then you could shoot any enemies on the screen. It wasn't until 1990's when first-person games got kicked into high gear. Texas developer Id Software created one of the first revolutionary first-person shooters that helped get the ball rolling. I'm talking about "Wolfenstein 3D" of course. For its time, the environments and character models were impressive, and it all ran smoother than any 3D shooter that had come before it. With the success of the game, it effectively popularized the run-and-gun style of shooting, making it easy for everybody to pick up and start playing from the get go. One year later "Doom" came into play, and it instantly became another cult classic. With it being better than "Wolfenstein 3D" by improving on every aspect that was previously made, and even adding things like fleshed out level design, a variety of weapons, and even multiplayer, "Doom" established the genre of first-person shooters for entire generations to come.

"Wolfenstein 3D"

"Doom"

Now I know I'm talking a lot about shooters right now, but they were the starting points of first-person perspective games. Later, the concept of first-person was used for other genres as well. With fantasy and adventure games like the elder scroll series, racing games like Forza, and in today's world indie development studios make a plentiful amount of games that tells a rich narrative story that are told in first-person. For now, I think this is a good stopping point. This blog post was mainly about shooters, later I would like to expand on this and show how first-person games can be something else besides shooters. This isn't to say I don't like shooters, but rather I think first-person games should be known for more than that. Until next time.

Game Mechanics of First Person Games

In today's blog, I will be describing first-person a little more in depth than before while also going over different game mechanics used in first person shooters ranging from the standard stuff you would find in all of them to more unique in game mechanics that you can't find in other games.

First-Person
As I have discussed before, "first-person" refers to a graphical perspective rendered form the viewpoint of the player's character. In some cases, this viewpoint may be from the cockpit of a vehicle like "Ace Combat" or a perspective of a video camera in game like in "Outlast". Over the years in video game history, many different genres have used the perspective of "first-person", ranging from adventure games to flight simulators. The most notable of all genres to utilize this perspective is first person shooters (FPS), where the graphical perspective has a important impact on game play.

 

"Ace Combat"

Game Mechanics
What game mechanics are at their most basic form are constructed rules and methods designed for how you interact with the game. Video games with a first-person perspective uses a game mechanic that makes your character avatar-based, what that means is that the game displays what the player's avatar would see with the avatar's own eyes. Now because of this, the player typically doesn't see the avatar that they're playing as, aside from weapons, hands, and the occasional feet. Take "Call of Duty" for example, through the entirety of the game you play as soldier who is on the battlefield of some firefight. You don't have any sort of context of what you look like or even what you sound like for that matter. (Unless seen through a cinematic cut-scene) All you see is the weapon being held in your own two hands and a objective marker telling you to head in that direction.

"Call of Duty: World at War"

Now because games with first-person perspectives don't show the player's avatar body, there is no need for any sort of sophisticated animations for the player's avatar, nor do they need to implement any sort of manual or automated camera-control scheme as you would see in third-person games. Because of this, players have a easier time aiming, since they have free reign over what they look at as well as no representation of the avatars body to block their view. However, there is a downside when it comes to seeing through first-person perspective. Depending on how fast you move or how well depth of field was implemented in game, it is hard to distinguish specific items in game. That is why whenever there is a specific item needed to be interacted with in game most of the time it is either highlighted or shown where it's at by a objective marker. 

So we've gone over how first-person perspective can limit the way the player sees the in game world, so how do game developers help with this. One way is the use of color. With the making of all games color pallets choices are very important when it comes to creating the game world. Too many games use the bland color and texture of gray,green, and brown in many shooters, and in time it just becomes boring to look at as time goes on. That's why games like "Mirror's Edge" are a special. "Mirror's Edge" uses contrasting colors to differentiate between items the player can and cannot interact with. The setting in "Mirror's Edge" is a clean, white city that for all intensive purposes is rooftops, and the player is running on rooftops using the environment to help move them around. The way it shows what the player can use is by highlighting the objects in bright red through the power of your "runner vision". 

"Mirror's Edge rooftop"

It kind of goes to show that games made in first-person allows us to really experience the game in a more, I wouldn't quite say natural, but free-form kind of way. They allow us freedom of control in game, whether it be camera or movement. First-person video games lets us dive into what we can perceive as real life, and as time goes on it will only get better. With things like "Virtual Reality" being easily accessible today and "Augmented Reality" around the corner we can see the game and world differently through our very own eyes, but that's a topic for another day. For now that's all for this blog post, until next time.

Introduction

Hi, my name is Michael Soelter, and this is my first ever blog. Over the course of this blog I will be posting anything related to video games that are experienced or seen through in first-person. What this means is in video games first-person refers to a graphical perspective seen from the viewpoint of your character. Topics could include: new games coming out in the first-person genre, new ways to immerse yourself with the perspective of first-person, or thoughts and ideas of how first-person perspective is better or worse in some scenarios of video games. 

If you're wondering why I decided that this will be the main focus on this blog, it's because of two reasons. One is because, I've always thought that video games played through the perspective of your character were much more fun than other games played through other perspectives. As a kid I didn't understand why, I just chose to play what was more fun in my opinion, but as I got older I understood that the reason why was because of immersiveness. When you play in first-person, you see the world in the eyes of your character, rather than from up in the sky as seen in moba's or from the side of the screen as seen in side-scrollers. This allows you to experience the in-game world as if you were seeing it through your eyes, and I've always been drawn to that sort of feeling, that immersiveness that makes you feel like your in the game. Two is because, I've always been a sucker for first-person shooters. I feel like I know them the most out of all genres of videos games that I play, and I figured why not write something that I know and love about the most. 

So, that pretty much sums up what I think and what I will be doing with this blog. I hope someone finds this interesting and feels free to comment about what you think.