Cameras in video games
Cameras in video games: comparing play in CounterStrike and the Doctor Who Adventures.
Eric Laurier (Edinburgh University) & Stuart Reeves (University of
Nottingham)
Abstract
Players of both first- and third- person perspective video games deploy a repertoire of analyses of the courses of actions of others with and through the game’s optics (be they other players or computer-generated actors). Visual activities of ‘looking around’,
‘scrutinising’ and ‘inspecting’ and so on, are achieved via localised and dexterous combinations of mouse and keyboard manipulation. These activities are conducted in combination with courses of play that then ongoingly render the 3D environment intelligible. At times, these basic techniques of looking can be complicated by various in-game effects (such as ‘smoke’) and perspectival augmentation (such as ‘telescopic weapon sights’). As a consequence players develop further specialised ways of looking.
Players also develop a reciprocal awareness of the visual detectability of their courses of action within the virtual environment (Reeves, Brown, & Laurier, 2009). Their movement of their perspective point is thus crafted in, and through, hiding or disguising their courses of action with respect to both the perspective of others as well as a concern for how their perceptibility (i.e., visibility, audibility) is modified by key terrain features (layout, walls, objects and resulting lines-of-sight). In multiplayer environments games are inherently collaborative; working as a team, players develop quick, implicit forms of visually oriented coordination with their fellow players.
1
1. Introduction
This chapter explores the relationship between game playing and the carefully crafted movements of visual perspective that players employ in and through the 3D environments that are characteristic of modern video games.
Much of the methodical ‘work’ of play engaged in by players involves rendering virtual game spaces
Eric Laurier (Edinburgh University) & Stuart Reeves (University of
Nottingham)
Abstract
Players of both first- and third- person perspective video games deploy a repertoire of analyses of the courses of actions of others with and through the game’s optics (be they other players or computer-generated actors). Visual activities of ‘looking around’,
‘scrutinising’ and ‘inspecting’ and so on, are achieved via localised and dexterous combinations of mouse and keyboard manipulation. These activities are conducted in combination with courses of play that then ongoingly render the 3D environment intelligible. At times, these basic techniques of looking can be complicated by various in-game effects (such as ‘smoke’) and perspectival augmentation (such as ‘telescopic weapon sights’). As a consequence players develop further specialised ways of looking.
Players also develop a reciprocal awareness of the visual detectability of their courses of action within the virtual environment (Reeves, Brown, & Laurier, 2009). Their movement of their perspective point is thus crafted in, and through, hiding or disguising their courses of action with respect to both the perspective of others as well as a concern for how their perceptibility (i.e., visibility, audibility) is modified by key terrain features (layout, walls, objects and resulting lines-of-sight). In multiplayer environments games are inherently collaborative; working as a team, players develop quick, implicit forms of visually oriented coordination with their fellow players.
1
1. Introduction
This chapter explores the relationship between game playing and the carefully crafted movements of visual perspective that players employ in and through the 3D environments that are characteristic of modern video games.
Much of the methodical ‘work’ of play engaged in by players involves rendering virtual game spaces
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