Do you prefer when developers use a "Cinematic" or "First Person" view?

[yihman1]

1st Person = Literally puts you into the main character, and then never leaves that reference point no matter what. You can only see, and hear, and interact with people and things that the protagonist is aware of.

Cinematic = It allows for you to see other characters and their interactions with other characters when the protagonist is currently not on screen. The protagonist does not even need to be in the same location. This can also show thoughts of non protagonist characters.

 

[Wolf Larsen]

Showing the thoughts of other characters sharing the scene with the protagonist is fine from time to time, otherwise "cinematic" is a big no-no.

"Cinematic" is getting closer to the idea of multiple protagonists, something I try to avoid. Besides, I have seen games with too many scenes without the protagonist that he becomes pretty much irrelevant at times. You are not playing anymore, just watching crap happen.

Cinematic is also a common tool to show characters having sex without any type of involvement or even awareness of the protagonist, something I also dislike.

 

[yihman1]

Showing the thoughts of other characters sharing the scene with the protagonist is fine from time to time, otherwise "cinematic" is a big no-no.

"Cinematic" is getting closer to the idea of multiple protagonists, something I try to avoid. Besides, I have seen games with too many scenes without the protagonist that he becomes pretty much irrelevant at times. You are not playing anymore, just watching crap happen.

Cinematic is also a common tool to show characters having sex without any type of involvement or even awareness of the protagonist, something I also dislike.

For cinematic assume that it is not NTR related unless it is an NTR game. NTR and non NTR can use both of these. NTR not related to this question.

 

[Synx]

Combination of both. I prefer the story to completely follow the main character (no scenes where he isnt present), but the scenes themselves be more cinematic then first person. Full first person limits a lot what your character can express emotion wise, often needing a lot of thoughts messages to give away how he feels or is doing etc. And sex-scenes are weird in just first person view, with floating dicks.

I dont like thoughts in general. Use their expression, posture, etc. to show off how they feel about a situation. Showing thoughts is often just lazy writing/lazy rendering.

 

[Wolf Larsen]

Combination of both. I prefer the story to completely follow the main character (no scenes where he isnt present), but the scenes themselves be more cinematic then first person. Full first person limits a lot what your character can express emotion wise, often needing a lot of thoughts messages to give away how he feels or is doing etc. And sex-scenes are weird in just first person view, with floating dicks.

I dont like thoughts in general. Use their expression, posture, etc. to show off how they feel about a situation. Showing thoughts is often just lazy writing/lazy rendering.

When I saw the title of this thread, I thought it was about the angles of the sex scenes or faceless or not faceless protagonists. I don't mind those things, as long as the protagonist is not horrendous looking and I agree that a game shouldn't have too many POVs during sex. But I went more with the OP's description.

 

[AlisaB]

Combination of both.

I dont like thoughts in general. Use their expression, posture, etc. to show off how they feel about a situation. Showing thoughts is often just lazy writing/lazy rendering.

I completely disagree. Character's thoughts enhances h-scenes greatly. Pretty renders without adequate writing do nothing for me.

 

[woody554]

3rd person, not cinematic. the POV should be the mc but always externally. you should never hear the thoughts of other people.

but you can sometimes show mc from the POV of the 3rd person without switching from MC narration. like you might see MC jerking off at pool, the text is his internal thoughts, but the camera is behind the back of someone else peeping. the important part is you should only ever hear the MC's thoughts regardless of what the camera shows.

 

[anne O'nymous]

I completely disagree. Character's thoughts enhances h-scenes greatly.

*oh my good, he's fucking me so hard, I totally feel like a whore ! Oh yes, fuck your whore, I love it baby.*
*His dick is so deep in me, it reach place no one have goes before, I'll so fucking cum soon.*

Hey girl, don't hesitate to tell it if you're so bored when he fuck you, that you've to play a whole porn movie in your head.


This being said, I'm pretty sure that he wasn't thinking about sex scene when he wrote this.
Using a cinematic approach permit to avoid all those internal monologues. The mother don't have to think that she's so fucking wet after having seen her soon shirtless ; we see it rushing for the top drawer in her room and make a good use of all the toys that hide there.
And it also works fine for the MC. Since we see him, we can also see his expressions and an idiot smile with big opened eyes replace easily an, "*I never saw a naked girl before, woooowww*".

 

[AlisaB]

*oh my good, he's fucking me so hard, I totally feel like a whore ! Oh yes, fuck your whore, I love it baby.*
*His dick is so deep in me, it reach place no one have goes before, I'll so fucking cum soon.*

Nice try. Your examples are low quality porn writing whether it's character's thoughts or speech - doesn't change much if at all.

 

[anne O'nymous]

[...] doesn't change much if at all.

Change what at what ? You give your opinion, I give mine, nothing more.

 

[Deleted member 229118]

1st Person = Literally puts you into the main character, and then never leaves that reference point no matter what. You can only see, and hear, and interact with people and things that the protagonist is aware of.

I wish more games did this.
Nothing kill immersion faster then out of character knowledge.

 

[Wolf Larsen]

*oh my good, he's fucking me so hard, I totally feel like a whore ! Oh yes, fuck your whore, I love it baby.*
*His dick is so deep in me, it reach place no one have goes before, I'll so fucking cum soon.*

Hey girl, don't hesitate to tell it if you're so bored when he fuck you, that you've to play a whole porn movie in your head.

But but... I love dirty talk.

 

[anne O'nymous]

But but... I love dirty talk.

I also have nothing against dirty talk, but he was talking about dirty thoughts. And in I found them really annoying and mood breaking.

 

[Wolf Larsen]

I also have nothing against dirty talk, but he was talking about dirty thoughts. And in I found them really annoying and mood breaking.

But dirty talk and dirty thoughts are pretty similar concepts in porn, although I agree that neither can be too cheesy. If dirty thought is used to describe the "lewdness" of the situation, for example, it's fine. Although dirty talk should take precedence over dirty thoughts, I think.

 

[Meaning Less]

Nice try. Your examples are low quality porn writing whether it's character's thoughts or speech - doesn't change much if at all.

Indeed, real thoughts during sex would be something on the lines of:
"Damn, I wonder what I'll make for breakfast tomorrow. Maybe I'll knead some dough later and leave it in the fridge fermenting."

 

[simarimas]

Not a fan of mind reading. I only want to know what the MC would know. In our game we keep it this way. If something happens without the MC there, someone will have to tell him about it, or he won't know it. We will then show the scene of what is happening as the person is telling the MC about it.

 

[Winterfire]

Both.
The main perspective should be the main protagonist's, since you are playing as them.
However you, as the player, also need to know some important elements going on in the world, so having a separate third person scene where such points are explained through narration is also important from time to time.

In Overlord H (My previous game), it was entirely in first person, but I had optional mirror events you could unlock throughout the story in order to watch side events on a third person perspective, which allowed the player to watch some funny scenes or interesting bits anytime they wished.

In Legacy of Hestia (My current project), it is 90% first person perspective, but when I feel like it is necessary or just want to give extra narration to the player, I play a small interlude.

 

[Joshua Tree]

I also have nothing against dirty talk, but he was talking about dirty thoughts. And in I found them really annoying and mood breaking.

Monologues in their head describing what you see on the screen is so silly. How about actual dialogue and interaction between the characters... These people writng this type of thing never had sex before? I don't self insert watching a porn flick (or whatever), and have no need for that in games/stories. The only thing required really is it for being somewhat engagning, and if the creator really manage to strike a cord... somewhat arousing at times for lack of better words...

Depends on what type of game as well too though. If they use real porn as images. There is no bigger turn off than when there are dozens of different actors portraying the same characters.

 

[Carrera]

I don't care, really it just depends on how the story/game is presented.

 

[freebirdfreebird]

I personally prefer first person, though I don’t think a lot of ero writers can keep it simple enough- I don’t need a description of what is literally in front of my eyes, and I don’t want an internal monologue. If I’m supposed to self insert (which is my preference in a POV) then let me mostly focus on my own personal thoughts and decisions. Generally, I lean more to the writing of something like A House in the Rift, but I think it can even be a bit too monologue-like at times.