First-person adventure

First-person adventures are one of the oldest computer and video game genres. First-person adventures tend to focus on puzzles, exploration and character-interaction with no shooting or action elements, though some also feature elements from other genres, including action games and role-playing games. The definition covers games with varying technology levels - from text adventures to the modern 3D first-person adventure games such as Myst and The Last Express. Most modern first-person adventure games use a point and click interface enabling the player to interact with objects or characters in the game-world.

The term first-person adventure is also used, somewhat controversially, as a term for games that are a combination of first person shooters and action-adventures, such as Metroid Prime, Azrael's Tear, Geist and Bioshock.
The term 'first-person' is used because players are asked to believe that they themselves are the principal protagonist in the game. This means that players always see from the point of view of that protagonist. The term derives from the fields of grammar and linguistics, where the 'first person' describes pronouns which speakers use to refer to themselves ('I', 'me,' etc.), or verb forms which speakers use to describe their own actions ('I am,' 'I go,' etc.). Similarly, in the field of literature, first-person narrative describes a text in which the narrator is also a character within the story, and frequently refers to themselves and their own actions.

In comparison, in a 'third-person' game, players participate by controlling an in-game character, or 'avatar,' which has its own pre-written personality and history. In a third-person game, players do not always see from the point of view of the principal protagonist, but often see from an another perspective (often called a 'third-person perspective') from which they can view the protagonist from outside. This is similar to third-person narrative in literature.

fr:First Person Adventure

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