Third-person Point of View
The game provides the player a "them" perspective, where the player controls multiple game entities, maintaining an outside perspective of all the game entities, rather than looking through the eyes of any given entity under the player's control, much like third person limited omniscient perspective in literary parlance.
A third person perspective is often used in games where the player can manipulate multiple entities within the game. Using these two patterns together serves to create a coach or commander position within the game for players.
Strong example
Warcraft III [Pardo, 2002] provides the player a "bird's eye" view of the battlefield that the user can scroll through cursor motion and direct camera controls. The player can select characters and objects in the world with the cursor and issue commands to different units by clicking on icons and menu items with the on-screen cursor.
Strong example
Grand Theft Auto 3 you control Claude Speed from a third person perspective. The camera is facing his back and the mouse controls the facing movement available. You can also jump on vehicles and jump backwards and see his face. You can also look behind you and to the side of you
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Children
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References
Pardo, R. (2002). Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos. Blizzard Entertainment, windows edition.
