First person Point Of View in storytelling is first person Point Of View in video games.
In a first person short story or novel you're locked in the viewpoint of the protagonist.
In a first POV game you're the protagonist.
You’re immersed in the game.
The most common POV in mystery and hardboiled detective fiction is the First Person Point Of View.
You’re a participant instead of a spectator.
This is the big advantage traditional media and video games have over film.
The best cinematic experience is the theatrical one.
To sit in the dark movie theater staring up at the big screen with a combination of strangers and friends, and to participate in the collective energy of experiencing The Good, The Bad and The Ugly for the first time.
Through the filter of cinema, Sergio Leone and his collaborators expose you to a variety of moral viewpoints and take you on an exciting journey where you’re following along as Blondie, Tuco and Angel Eyes make plans, change alliances, and work their way through problem after problem on their way to a cache of buried gold in a soldier’s coffin.
What is morally right or wrong in this dangerous journey is left up to you to decide.
But very few movies offer you this kind of respect currently, or give you the thrill of discovering and overcoming problems alongside the characters.
But print and traditional media still offer this degree of intimacy.
And video games do this too.
Even if the framework and game dynamics are designed by a team, much in the way a film is assembled by a crew with a variety of skills, and using a screenplay as a blueprint, video games offer hidden challenges, bonus rounds, upgrades, and in some cases even the opportunity to create your own mythology and challenges within an established universe.
And what the definition of a game is a fluid changing thing, such as The Sun Vanished, a horror series told through X (Twitter) posts. Or the creator Molly Moon, who has posted a series of slasher-based posts over several years, that she has collected into a game.
But the foundation to everything is writing. If you write, there’s a greater choice of platforms on which to share your ideas with others. You are the classic detective of hardboiled novels. You’re on a quest for the best framework on which to hang your ideas and influences on.
Whichever one you choose, involve your audience in the story!
Perspective is such an important part of story! This is why story teaches us empathy, because in order to write immersively, we must be able to “see” through different characters’ eyes. Put ourselves in the shoes of someone who is not us.
I don't often use first-person POV because I like to see certain scenes through different viewpoints and first-person POV where you switch the to different characters is too confusing in my opinion. However, I do love first-person POV and it is the most intimate way to tell a story and honestly, the most realistic way. If I want to change POVs, I have found it helpful to write in first-person POV and then switch it to third-person limited POV later because I'm still telling the story in that character's viewpoint with their particular thoughts in mind. I think writing in first-person POV can definitely smash writer's block. It's so easy to dive right in. Awesome post.