andrewducker | Tell me how you play computer games

I prefer puzzle games - like sudoku, and tetris, and minesweeper... I also like games that involve jumping up and down or doing music stuff. Really not a fan of most computer games though.

Me too. I'm a classic Solitaire/Chips Challenge kinda gal.

This. I used to play a lot of text and platform games (Lemmings, Zork) but lost interest when they moved from intellectual puzzles to shoot-em-ups.

SEWIWEIC - it depends on the game! When given a choice between first and third (eg, WoW) or third and isometric (eg, DA:O) I go with third person, but for the other questions it's really game dependent. I think mouse and keyboard is the One True Way for things like FPSs and RPGs, but that's because I never got the hang of an Xbox controller and when I tried to play Call of Duty on an Xbox it made people laugh until they cried. I like playing Rock Band with a rock band controller, but it would suck for Tetris.

I've played games in all variations of with friends/strangers/online that you mention, and again it depends on the game. I prefer not to play with strangers online because they are often dicks, but other than that all the variations have their place.

As the kids are saying these days, "this". Different POVs/controls will suit different games, and I like games overall enough that I'm more drawn by the quality and context of the game than I am POV or control suite.

-- Steve can handle WASD+mouse and twin-stick controller with equal lack of facility, truth be told.

PS: I played Halo 2 at a LAN once where we handicapped the leading player by making him use a Guitar Hero controller. Hijinks ensued.

I did mean for when there was a choice, and when it made a difference. Obviously some controllers and viewpoints suit certain games, but I know that some people really prefer first person games, and some really prefer third-person ones.

Absolutely what you say here. I play a zillion games, there's no general rule. (Civilisation would require a lot of hiking about to do in 1st person and tetris would be much more difficult, not to mention bad for people who had a thing with heights).

Some great gaming experiences require exotic controllers. I loved the sword fighting with wii mote of "zelda skyward sword". On the other hand, the precision of a mouse and keyboard is ideal for strat and traditional RPG.

I play abstract games, because any of the other ones make me seasick. Not boats, just any of the 3D first-person shooter or over-the-shoulder stuff. If it's more sophisticated than Sonic the Hedgehog, my brain just can't.

My wife has the same seasickness problem with first-person games. Ironically, put us both on a ferry in a storm, and she'll be the one guzzling greasy chips in the cafe while I'll be the one spewing over the side.

See, that's the thing, I'm FINE on a boat.

Yeah, I'm the same. I can't play games like Oblivion or Fallout 3 because the 3rd person view doesn't work very well and the 1st person makes me ill.

I'm fine on boats though!

(Mind you, right now I've got labyrinthitis, so even typing this comment makes me feel sea-sick!)

Same, only I am also bad on boats, cars, and buses.

Sorry, meant to click on SEWIWEIC for the first question. Depends upon the game (and sometimes on the context of the game). For example in Skyrim, I will usually play in third person over-the-shoulder, but will zoom into first person for archery.

Very strong preference for mouse / keyboard for most types of game. I honestly don't know how console users can play first person shooters on a gamepad, but clearly the massive sales of Modern Warfare suggest that this is possible. I tried it once on XBox Halo and found it to be almost like playing left-handed. That said, I'm happy with a gamepad for stuff like FIFA or beat em' ups.

I prefer strategy games (ala Civ or the Sim games), so they tend to not have characters, but I don't think of them as abstracts either. I also think you should've had games where my character is an @ symbol, though I suppose those would count as top-down :-) Regardless of type, they are played on a PC with mouse/keyboard. I do have a Wii, but it's mostly used for exercise.

I think of Civ as being top down/isometric. It's a bit abstract, I'll give you, but it's mostly considered to be a top-down view of the world that you're rampaging across.

OK, that answers that one. Civ is the vast bulk of what I play these days, though I am non-trivially tempted by From Dust.

I would probably be much more drawn to first-person games as a style if I could play them with a nice chunky joystick, that being the interface modality of the Atari consoles of my misspent youth. I suppose it's possible that I could figure the hardware issues out there to get around that, but... not enough time in the day already.

(I'm very much a solo player. I'm an introvert and my People Stuff tolerance is saved for more important things.)

Edited 2012-03-17 01:56 (UTC)

wow, interesting results

Cheers for posting it, Andy :)

To give a little context, the conversation that prompted this was based on a gut feeling I have that players on consoles tend to play third-person-over-the-shoulder view rather than PC/Mac players who go for first-person. I admit this is based on nothing more than seeing a few folks over the years playing Oblivion/Skyrim on different platforms where you have the option of both views but it piqued my curiosity.

From there it snowballed a bit into spatial awareness (or lack of - one friend gets horribly lost and disoriented when playing first-person RPGs but is fine if they can see over-the-shoulder) and possibly even a gender-correlation with the viewing preferences.

Do people have different preferences in different genres of first/third-person games - e.g. Fantasy/RPG (Skyrim, Assassin's Creed, etc.) as opposed to Shooters (CoD, Half-Life, etc.) as opposed to Racing games where the choice is usually in-car, bonnet-cam or chase-cam and does it depend on platform?

For example, as a rule, I generally play my racing games with either the bonnet or in-car cameras on the PC but if it's on a friend's console then it's more likely to be chase-cam. It's something about the "feel" of the car and where the back end is. I'm not sure why I get that feedback from PC games but need the extra visual cues when on a console controller.

In my case, I'm primarily an Xbox gamer these days.

- Racing games; prefer in-car for Forza; the only other racers I play are arcade titles with fixed POVs, usually chase-cam

- Shooters: I'm big on Halo and enjoyed Half-Life/Portal (FPS) but also play Gears of War, Fallout, Mass Effect (3PS)

- Platformers: I like sidescrollers fine but also enjoy 3PS and FPS too. (I'd love to see a sequel for Mirror's Edge.)

- RTS: though I enjoyed Halo Wars, I reluctantly agree that no interface yet developed trumps mouse+keyboard in the genre.

-- Steve also plays board and card games as well as strategy titles on various platforms.

Shooters: Generally first-person, but conversely I had no problem playing the Max Payne games which were over-the-shoulder.

RPGs: Generally over-the-shoulder, but zooming into FPS where you can for archery or sniping, or those occasional times where your in a cramped space and need to see what is directly in front of you (such as picking items off a table).

Racing games: Cockpit view. (I especially like games like Forza where they make the effort to give each car a proper dashboard -when I got Forza 3, I still had my S2000, and it was a genuine thrill when I realised that they had properly modelled the electronic rev counter (see userpic)). I find chase cam difficult because the turn-in point feels wrong.

Interesting that you have that difference between Shooters and RPGs. I suspect it's simply a ranged vs. melee thing. I can never get the accuracy trying to do anything at range in an over-the-shoulder view but then I tend to play FP for both types so don't get the practise.

Ranged v melee is definitely a part of it. In melee, the person you need to attack next may well be to your character's side already hitting you, whereas in ranged combat you're only going to be firing at things in front of you.

It might partly be a speed thing - shooters are faster, so somehow my brain processes the change of direction quicker when the screen is showing what my character can see. Or something like that. Perhaps.

It might partly be a habit thing. I've been playing shooters since Wolfenstein 3D. (Actually, although you couldn't actually shoot anything, I've been playing 3D first-person perspective real-time movement games since 3D Monster Maze on the ZX-81 (see userpic)). And those shooters are usually first-person. Whereas with RPGs, there's an obvious progression from say Fallout (top-down isometric) to Fallout 3 (3rd or 1st person) and so my instinct is to see that sort of game as a third person game.

[I'm annoyed now that it's too late to edit out the ungrammatical "your" (which was a typo rather more than poor grammar) in my above post. I apologise. Normal service will be resumed at a later date.]

RPGs often have more character customisation options than in shooters, so your clothing/armour/character creation choices (whichever you're given in the specific game) might change how you look so give you a reason to want to see your character. If I reset the game mid opening cutscene three times just to tweak the shape of my character's nose, I damn well want to see it!

The issue with third person (whether console or PC) is that even at the best of times the camera can drive me mad.

The best games for me are those that use first person at times and third person at others (eg. Rainbow Six: Vegas that used a third person camera in cover).

Not played Rainbow Six:Vegas but I think that's the reason for my general dislike of third-person too although now that you mention it you've reminded me that Deus Ex: Human Revolution blended the two so well (third-person for cover) that I barely notice it these days.

I still wouldn't play DX:HR 3rd-person all the time but there's clearly a knack to it that some game developers have got and some don't, some of which, I guess, is down to level design. All the cover in DX:HR is positioned so that there's room for the camera and it doesn't clip objects/walls behind it - makes for a much smoother experience, less camera-jumping (unlike some games that move the camera to avoid clipping - I'm looking at you here, Tomb Raider) and a less intrusive feel to the switch of angles because you know exactly where your point of view's going to be when it changes.

(edited for typo)

Edited 2012-03-16 16:59 (UTC)

Actually DX:HR did the same thing and probably did it better.

Third person works brilliantly for melee combat however.

DE:HR did it very well. Also the way it had separate UIs for KB&M or joypad, and switched immediately if you touched the other control method. That was awesome.

I was very annoyed in Assassin's Creed 2 that they manage to have the focus of the game be on free-flowing cool movement, and then completely fuck up the camera for timed puzzles that needed quick reflexes in the temple puzzle bits.

I don't play many games of this style, but the one that comes to mind is Fatal Frame (and its successors), where you're looking at the character from the side most of the time, except than when she looks in her camera, you go first-person there. I personally find first- and third-person games pretty disorienting, all told; I'd rather see the whole body of the person I'm controlling.

And my 'something else' on the third question is that I like to play video games with lots of people in a room, only where only one of the people has a controller, and the rest of us are talking, giving pointers, and watching the story. But my friends and I play a lot of plot-heavy games, and very few that are primarily shooters.

I do feel like PC controls are more responsive and that that might account for some of the preference.

The over-the-shoulder view is something I associate with consoles primarily because a lot of the games that popularised that view have been big flagship console games, even if I've played some of them on PC (GTA if it counts, Tomb Raider, Gears of War, Resident Evil as examples)

In Fallout New Vegas, I used 1st person for combat and switched to 3rd person when I was wandering around the Strip etc talking to people. That said, on entering the Strip, my Courier also changed out of her armour and into a nice day dress and hat...

The thought that occurs to me here is that it being possible to see your character in the game environment at all in Tension: the Void would not really work. (One is playing a disembodied soul in what appears to be a peculiar quasi-afterlife.)

I seldom play shooters; partly because first person can make me feel sea-sick but also because I just find shooters of themselves a bit boring!

I'm an RPG chap mainly, so that tends to gravitate towards 3rd person anyway (except the Oblivion and its ilk, which I can't get on with - see comment on sea-sickness above! I don't find the 'over the shoulder' option works terribly well.)

Other than that I tend to play (badly - I have the reactions of a small, dead whelk) 3rd person action games.

I'm a female PC gamer; very occasionally I play on other people's consoles but generally I prefer to watch them play as I've never got the hang of controllers at all.

I prefer to be able to see my character when I'm playing a game with a character to be able to see (I count the car as the character in racing games).

I am ridiculously bad at computer games, especially from a spatial awareness perspective - I really like CRPGs of many stripes, but I regularly just stick things on God Mode to be able to play through them without all the inconvenient dying, and anyone who's seen me trying to pilot a FPS can attest to my complete inability to sensibly control a character from a first person perspective; jumping puzzles literally make a game unplayable for me as I just cannot solve them in any view.

I SEWIWEICed the first option because it depends on the game, but with a first-person/third-person choice I generally go for first person. I think it's because it makes targetting easier to have a clear, straight-ahead view of where I'll shoot.

(I play on a PC, with keyboard and mouse, unless the game says otherwise)

I don't think I have a favorite POV, but if I did, it might not fit neatly into any of the categories you suggest. Lemmings, for instance, is arguably 'third person' except that you are not following any of the particular lemming-creatures, you're deploying them. So is that really first person? Only, there's not really anything in the game to indicate that you, as a player, are 'in' the game. Sim City doesn't have characters at all except in aggregates, though I guess you would call it top down. I think your categories particularly fall apart with what you're calling "abstract" because lots of games aren't abstract at all, they are clearly representational of something: tiles, cards, tumbling solids, et cetera, they just don't have any anthropomorphic *characters* in them at all.

I tend to play games by myself, but I prefer playing games with someone else - ideally on the same machine. Coop titles are few and far between though.

Ditto.

I'm mostly a strategy gamer, which pretty much means top-down/isometric.

OTOH, Minecraft only works as a first person game. If it were top-down, then the gameplay would have to be a lot more like Dungeon Keeper, which would make it a very different game.

If it was side-on it would be Terraria.

Minecraft has third person now, I think.

I find myself playing games mostly on the iPad these days - although that will change when the next expansion comes out for Civ V, and when Sim City comes out.

I haven't been able to play FPS type things well since Quake - I just can't get used to the mouse + keyboard combo. (I found some of the later levels in Portal difficult for that reason - difficult to move quickly and accurately.)

I'll generally prefer the keyboard when given a choice on a PC, although that's probably due to having been using the keyboard to play games since the BBC Model B.

haven't been able to play FPS type things well since Quake - I just can't get used to the mouse + keyboard combo. (I found some of the later levels in Portal difficult for that reason - difficult to move quickly and accurately.)

They actually took these kind of puzzles out of Portal 2. They were in one of the first trailers, but they cut them before release.

My family has decided that I am controller-impaired.

I just could never get the hang.

I don't think I've played enough games to have a favourite style or type of controller, though most of the games I do play, are on a PC.

There ought to be an asterisk to part 3, as the true answer is often on my own, but with Rob shouting instructions over my shoulder. Especially if the game in question is Star Craft 2. :)

Sorry, terrible comma usage there. I'm tired.

Does enjoying watching other people play, and the occasional Let's Play on YouTube or the like, count as a preference ?

I enjoy FPS games (e.g. Quake, Half Life), and have been using WASD/mouse since forever (I used to be extremely good at them, but lately they seem to have been giving me motion sickness). I suppose Minecraft kind of fall into that category too. Point and click RPGs like Neverwinter Nights are fun. Not sure which category Plants vs Zombies falls into, but I like that too.

However I also love 2d and 3d platformers (e.g. Mario, Zelda, and Metroid). My favourite ever controller was the GameCube controller, followed by the SNES controller. I'm growing to enjoy Skyward Sword, but in general I'm not hugely impressed by all these wands, remotes, and hand wavey things. It seems a bit gimmicky to me, and I don't think it's improved gaming for me (although maybe okay for games where you shoot things, because analogue controllers are passable at best for FPSes). I also used to like racing games, like Diddy Kong Racing, but I don't really play a lot of those.

So I split my time between PC gaming and console gaming, but I couldn't definitively tell you which I prefer. Games where the music is good is usually a good start (good music >> graphics any day).

I love the concept of FPS, but get motion sick rather too quickly. Over-the-shoulder just feels weird. So given the option I play pretty much everything like a Diablo clone.

Mouse and keyboard, strictly single player.

1. Strong preference for top-down/isometric except that I have weird little islands of other preferences all over the place. eg. I hate playing FPS games in general but enjoy playing them with friends in the same room, and when I do that I prefer first-person and can't imagine enjoying it any other way. Similarly, for racing games it's better in first person.

2. Depends too much on the game. For strategy, mouse and keyboard all the way. For rhythm games, appropriate dance mats/instruments/etc create a large portion of the fun (ever tried Stepmania for the PC? It's not completely awful but it's about 1000 times less fun). For the rest, traditional controller.

3. For strategy/puzzle games, by myself. For everything else, with friends in the same room, preferably on the same device simultaneously if possible (rhythm games, co-op platformers) but otherwise on separate ones (Diablo 2)

1: I like different kinds of games to have different kinds of perspective. Something that is all shooting all the time, I much prefer first person view. For games where your character matters, I like third person.

2: I like using mouse and keyboard, except for driving games and brawlers which only crazy people play with KB&M.

3: I guess I like shooty games that friends don't often play on the same platform, or big RPGs that are solo play only. In theory I'd like to game with friends (and enjoyed, for example, brief forays into Borderlands co-op, and lengthier playing L4D and L4D2) but there aren't that many good co-op games, and people tend to have very specific preferences for more competitive shooters, or play on different platforms.

I wonder if solo gaming will become more social. The Modern Warfare games, for all their explosions, have a strong linear narrative content. If you were watching someone play them (particularly if they were good, or playing on a less difficult skill level so they could talk more easily during it and distractions wouldn't matter), it'd be much the same as watching an OTT Hollywood blockbuster. Hell, if Black Ops or Modern Warfare were films, they'd probably have less awesome set pieces. I enjoy watching other people play games.

Edited 2012-03-17 00:02 (UTC)

As I only play computer games on my phone now, my preferred control method is tilting the phone, plus some screen fondling. I like racing games which seem to favour accelerometer based controls.

My SWEIWEIC for Q1 : First-person or isometric, but never over-the-shoulder if I can avoid it.
I play all sorts of games, FPS, RPG, strategy, RTS, the above is true for most ...

Incidentally, the only time I think the 3rd versus 1st person view was important was when I spent several years obsessively playing the realisitic-to-the-point-of-being-near-impossible 60s F1 simulation Grand Prix Legends the "in cockpit" versus "behind cockpit" debate was rampant. This was an obsessive detailed simulation so most people played in cockpit. Some people played "behind cockpit" and this sometimes gave an actual advantage as you can get a clearer view of a pass maneuver. Then some purists cried "foul" and hilarity (OK, months of tedious debate) ensued.

I have zero preference for viewpoints. It's a functional thing. I like all kinds of games, it comes down to execution. When there's a choice of viewpoints in a game (like, say, Skyrim), it still comes down to how well the viewpoint is executed (I play Skyrim 1st person).

Interesting that there's no choice for "side on" view: pretty much all my favorite games growing up were plaformers or side scrolling shooters like R Type.

I have some preference for gamepad over keyboard and mouse, and I can't stand PC FPS Nazis bemoaning the lack of accuracy when playing on games consoles. FPS's on consoles feel different: not better or worse.

But liking gamepads probably comes from liking everything else that comes with the console gaming experience: A big TV and kickass 5.1.

I tend to play games by myself. But the most satisfying gaming experience I've had this year was Journey on the PS3 which is played with strangers.

I'm going to have to go with "it really depends on the game." The game I play most is WoW, wherein I prefer mouse/keyboard and 3rd-person-following, on another system from the other people playing (including my wife on a nearby computer, who uses similar perspective but adds a gamepad to the mix.) With WoW, I play with an assortment of acquaintances, friends, and strangers online; with other games, totally offline.

We also have a PS3, meaning handheld controllers on a shared device, and perspective really depends on the game -- I enjoy the first-person perspective of Portal 2, the side-scroller view of Little Big Planet, and the in-vehicle or chase-vehicle view of whatever racing game.

In short, *shrug*. :)

Tell me how you play computer games

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