2d media versus 3d games

This post I am going to talk about traditional 2d media versus the newer 3d media, where 3d games fit in.

Traditional 2d media, such as movies, animations, photography and paintings, can't be influenced by the viewer, the view and perspective can't be changed. This is my definition for 2d media in this post. Even if an animation can be made with 3d tools, the animation is still rendered as a 2d movie, in which you can't change the view. The directors of the movie have chosen the viewpoints they believe are the greatest for their movie. It is perfectioned for a fixed set of viewpoints. Same with photography, paintings, illustrations and so on, it's a view of the creator, and the viewer has to accept to perceive the vision of the creator only. Most people totally accept this, and just want to be surprised, overwhelmed by a quality movie or picture.

3d media, such as 3d games, make multiple camera angles possible, and the player can influence the view of the game by controlling the camera. This causes the game to no longer be bound to a fixed set of viewpoints according to the makers of the game. But this has a downside, it's also impossible for the makers to perfection the way the player views the game, since multiple camera angles make it impossible to make every angle look good in the game.

I also want to talk about immersion for a bit. Immersion can be described as viewers, or players, getting "sucked in" the story, they feel they are part of the story or world of the movie or game.
2d media has a quick immersion factor. People can feel immersed very quickly in a movie or picture, or even a book. With 3d games however, players first have to learn to control this world of the game. This doesn't immediately give players a feeling of immersion, not as quick as a movie or book can do. A movie is also only 1.5 hours long, and most people can afford to spend this amount of time. While a game costs alot more time to finish, if players don't immediately feel immersed in the game, they can quickly turn the game off. A book however, takes a lot of time to finish aswell, but the reader doesn't have to learn any controls. 3d games introduced alot of new buttons to control the game, so unexperienced gamers need to be persistant to learn the game, and if they don't feel the immersion factor quickly, they might consider to not continue playing the game at all. Old 2d games just had simple controls, a few buttons, and while the graphics weren't 3d or realistic, players could leave many elements of the game to their imagination, just like a book.