First Person Perspective-why no one uses it?

[AntiMatter]

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Title. I don't see what's so wrong about first person perspective? And why no one uses it here? Sure you can read their thoughts, but it's fine as long as no one meta games. And a lot even read thoughts in third person perspective, so I don't see why first person is not used. When I use it will really feel like Roleplaying as that character. Using this person is still fun though, but I feel more connected to my character if I use FPP.


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[Dusky]

There are a couple reasons. Firstly, most players like to maintain some distance between their identity and their character's identity. Secondly, it's much easier to differentiate between characters, from a reader's perspective, when posts are in third person. I'm sure there are others, if anybody wants to come along and think of them for me.

 

[call me rae]

I agree that it tends to help people differentiate between their character and themselves. For myself it's also just a stylistic standpoint - I tend to be a descriptive writer and I struggle with first person perspective. It is actually harder for me to get into my characters mindset when I do first person as I'm focusing more on the style of writing than the character.


Plus ( and this is unfortunate ) it comes with a negative connotation. Like people that use first person perspective are just writing self-inserts and not putting as much effort into their writing.


That's obviously not true of the vast majority of people but I have seen that kind of stereotype come up.

 

[Sunbather]

It depends on the context. I usually just find it boring and unpleasant to read, but that's just my personal opinion. Generally, I like it when it's used for emphasis or narrative reasons.

 

[Coward]

I find it really uncomfortable, and it feels too weird to have characters interact in a naturalistic way. The distance of 3rd person makes a lot more sense, both stylistically for easy reading and to keep characters different from yourself.


Also I think there's a fair amount of truth to the stereotype. I think I've only met one person who wanted to use 1st person that wasn't writing a blatant Mary Sue self-insert. I've also had a few instances where someone who normally played in 1st switched to 3rd, and then would slip back constantly, like they were having to translate it in their head rather than actually thinking of this character as seperate from themselves.


To me one of the main appeals of RP is getting into the head of a person who isn't me, and the 1st person interferes with that.

 

[Zilla]

I'm jumping on the "not fun to read" boat. I don't find first person as immersive as third person. It makes the reading experience sort of awkward. RP is a collaborative story, so the story really needs to shine.

 

[Capriccio]

I think FPP and roleplaying is just a bad combination. It can work, but with chaotic as roleplays can be, you would need a small group of people with good communication in order to pull it off well. FPP is good for showing emotions and how your character thinks, but it's a limiting narrative. You can only tell what your character knows or sees.


For me personally, it interests me less than third person and second person. It requires a very good grasp on what your character is like, something I struggle with.

 

[Seiden]

I usually use the person my partner uses (because it would be weird to match 3rd person posts and 1st person posts in the same roleplay).


I love both, as they induce a different approach of the roleplay and the character. I do not see anything wrong with 1st person... It can be pretty interesting if done right.


Roleplaying in first-person does not mean the character is a self-insert. Some good books are written in first-person and they does not look like self-insert, and their characters are not Mary Sue. You just need to have a really good character that is fully developed for it to works. And, of course, you have to know to differentiate yourself from your character but this is also true for the third person...


To resume my speech, I would just say I love diversity.

 

[Roses and Money]

I think First Person is very nice when mixed in with third person roleplays (as a POV).


Other than that, when it comes to strictly using first person.... Well, for me is uncomfortable since it feels like it's integrating me rather than my character.

 

[Ishtarran]

I see nothing wrong with writing in first person if you're comfortable and know what you're doing. Of course, I'm more of an actor than a writer, and often my writings outside roleplays (where people have actually asked me to switch to third sometimes... I'm comfortable and fairly competent, so why not?) have been in first person for various purposes. It *is* a limited perspective, yes. But last I checked, I wasn't Vivec of the Morrowind Tribunal, i;e a living god. How it's klunky to read, I have no idea; at least if it's done properly. I suppose it's a matter of preference.

 

[Tiny Turtle]

Well, I used to roleplay on a website where everyone used first person. So I can reflect on both. First person has some pros such as being able to write thoughts out a bit more fluidly, although it has more downsides I find. You do slip more easily into yourself than another character, it becomes chaotic to switch between reading a couple different people's posts and being shoved around from 1st person POV to another, and there is a lot of meta reading which can become extremely frustrating. When I hosted roleplays, if they were small first person was far less of a problem, but any sort of roleplay with more than three characters and it becomes a bit too messy. That's not to say third person doesn't have it's cons as well. I find that it can become a little bit more tricky to stick thoughts into things in a fluid manner, and things can feel a bit detached sometimes, although in the end it is easier on the eyes (at least in my opinion) and it keeps an air of mystery that first person simply can't.


Roleplaying to me is like writing a book with a bunch of different main characters, so while it's nice to have 1st person in a story with maybe one or two main characters, it becomes limiting when there's ten. But that's just my two cents on the subject.

 

[The Beholder]

It's been mentioned by others a few times, but Rping on sites like this tend to be a group effort. Whilst I have no problem with first person itself, I just think that using It places too much emphasis on the person than the group; when It's supposed to be a collaborative effort to create a story.


Hope that makes sense!

 

[Paranoid Android]

I simply think it sounds better. Just as in books. Reading 3rd person books always appeals more to me than reading 1st person (although I don't really read much at all).

 

[Saccharine Cyanide]

This is making me wonder if it's possible to have a character in an rp who is written in first person as an unreliable narrator. That would be interesting!


As for me, I require third person because most people find it the most comfortable, and I prefer my rps to be neat and uniform. It's a bit jarring jumping from third to first person from one post to another.

 

[Pretzel Heart]

[QUOTE="Saccharine Cyanide]This is making me wonder if it's possible to have a character in an rp who is written in first person as an unreliable narrator. That would be interesting!
As for me, I require third person because most people find it the most comfortable, and I prefer my rps to be neat and uniform. It's a bit jarring jumping from third to first person from one post to another.

[/QUOTE]
Unreliable narrators are the best! For me that's one of FPP major charm points. You really are only allowed insight into one character's head, and you are fully there, for the duration of the story. I personally don't use FPP all that much, though it's kind of depressing to see people dissing it as an automatic "Mary Sue" form. Uh, ever hear of John Hawkes? Brilliant writer, mostly in FPP. William Faulkner also used FPP like a frikkin pro in Sound and the Fury, which is only considered one of the greatest books of all time, partially because of the way he was able to so poetically get into the very different minds of his characters. Not to mention the entire canonical tradition of "I-Novel" confessionals in Japanese lit. Even freaking Dante wrote in FPP and how many centuries later are we still eating that stuff up? Maybe a more recent example, the book Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn that recently got turned into a popular movie, made perfect use of FFP (as well as switching between narrators and narratorial styles) by tricking the audience using their expectations and the normative reading experience against them. That's nothing really to do with RPing, but just because Stephanie Meyer used FPP in Twilight or whatever else is rustling your jimmies, doesn't mean it's a shit form.


At the same time, I can easily see why it typically doesn't fit in well with RPing. Thinking about it, it's probably the immersive aspect that makes it uncomfortable and jarring. Sure, everyone's writing in an RP is typically different, but when Johnny comes along with his "I watched tepily from the sidelines as the birds began to attack," while everyone else is talking "he said she said," it kind of throws one off past the point of suspension of disbelief. It makes your posts stick out, not really in a good way, and highlights a character that maybe shouldn't be highlighted, since everyone kind of shares the "protag" spotlight in an RP.


That being said, I can imagine a really cool RP that makes use of FPP's benefits. But I think everyone would have to agree to stick with it in order to work. An example may be an RP where everyone is trapped in a new environment, trying to solve some mystery with complete strangers they may or may not be able to trust. That was completely off the top of my head, but I can see that kind of set-up benefitting from the exclusiveness and isolation of FPP, since it's truly every person for themselves.


Just my two cent, anyways. Breaks my heart to see people trashing an art form that can be so beautiful when correctly used.

 

[call me rae]

@Pretzel Heart - I don’t think anyone was saying that first person perspective was bad as a writing style in general we were saying it doesn’t work well as in roleplays specifically.


I mean I’ve read plenty of books in first person perspective that were fantastic and I never had a single problem reading them. But here’s the thing books and roleplays are different.


A book is a story written by a single author typically with a central protagonist telling the story. So in that case a first person perspective is fine as it allows you to really immerse yourself in the story as if you yourself were the protagonist.


That same format doesn’t work well in roleplaying because it’s a collaborative writing form. There is no one author telling a unified story, it’s multiple authors working together to tell a story that is constantly changing and progressing.


Not only that but in most roleplays there are multiple central protagonists, or at the very least you're seeing the story through the eyes of multiple characters.


So where something like .. “I saw Sally and Jared playing a game of baseball and joined in.” works fine if there is just one person telling the story.


Something like this does not.


“I stood on second base waiting for the pitch.” “I threw the ball with all my might.” “ I swung and missed the ball.” “ I saw my friends playing baseball and joined them.”


The reason being that from just a reading perspective it seems like it’s all one person doing each of the actions, which makes it confusing as it seems like the last sentence is out of place.


The reality is that each sentence is from a different person’s perspective, but because they’re all using the same “ I did this/I did that” perspective there is no real way to distinguish between the characters without adding a name before the sentence.


So when doing a quick read through of the sentences it just ends up all blending together and getting confusing.


Now try the same actions in third person perspective.


“Sally stood on second base waiting for the pitch.” “Jared threw the ball with all his might.” “George swung and missed the ball.” “Candy saw her friends playing baseball and joined them.”


Now we can clearly see who did what action in what order. It makes it easier to read as a sequence of events. The same thing stands for large posts as well, when you use third person perspective it just makes it easier to read the sequence of events from multiple characters perspectives. Rather than having to constantly be referencing a name at the top to make sure you have who said what in what order right.

 

[Adrenalvapor]

First person is ten times harder to become even somewhat proficient at than third person because when you write in third person you can allow yourself to describe things your character wouldn't know or see, and it'll be understood that your character simply missed them. Furthermore, you can be much more objective and monotonously describe things that wouldn't make sense to do in first person because you would see it through a person's eyes. If you, however, do start monotonously describing things then that might suggest that the character is bored, depressed, etc.


Generally (and I stress generally) people who use first person simply try to shoehorn that point of view into third person writing which understandably rubs people the wrong way. If you want to start writing in first person you need to get used to describing things as seen through your character's eyes which can be an incredibly difficult task to do in a consistent and believeable way. What's more, it limits how you describe your character because, well, you can't really see exactly what's going on with you unless you look in a mirror. Same goes for your character; What feels like a confident grin may come off as part awkward, and somehow other people will have to guess this without much description to go off.


Personally I wouldn't be opposed to see the point of view used more but I would like to see it be used right in order to repair the bad reputation it's been given. I'm certain there are many resources online to help.

 

[Volarit]

I find FPP really difficult and sometimes uncomfortable to read. Its okay for a small section of a paragraph for additional insight into something that going on for a specific character maybe? I just don't think I could get enough detail into a reply with FPP without feeling really clunky and awkward. I'd like to see someone use it and wow me, maybe my opinion would change.

 

[sorrow made you]

It might have been said already, but I don't like to put myself in the perspective of the character. I am not the character, I am simply someone looking into the story being presented to me. Its really awkward if its from first person perspective, because it is forcing me to be the character. It is also hard to distinguish who the character is compared to all the other characters. When reading posts, if there's multiple characters, I don't want to keep switching between each person's eyes and trying to remember "who I am" at that time. Its much easier and more fluid to read third person perspective.

 

[QuirkyAngel]

Nothing against first person pov. It could be an interesting stylistic choice and I'm not particularly bothered by flow change. I don't mind if another person chooses to use first person in an rp. Why I, personally, don't use first person pov is because it makes everything my character does too personal. I also run the risk of offending the person I'm rping with unintentionally. Writing 'she thinks his idea is stupid' is less confrontational than writing 'I think his idea is stupid'--which might make someone upset. =(

 

[ManicMuse]

I feel like our language is built upon third person perspective, when it comes to storytelling. First of all, it is traditional. We have had books read to us in third person perspective since we were children. This is how we are programmed to partake in a story we are reading, in main stream media.


This also allows for easier transition between posts. It allows the reader and writer, to stay subjective and observe differences between character's behaviors, that would not be seen from a first person perspective. This also gives the writer, a better option for giving a character more outside influence to express them.


This gives you freedom to give more detail of interactions! Instead of being trapped in a first person experience, you can make the world around them as big or wild, as you want to. Instead of telling and then telling some more, which seems to create very bland toned posts in my opinion. Third person expands the tools to write in the world around the character, beyond just observations of said character.

 

[CrystalGoblets]

I agree that respectively, third person is better for storytelling and I prefer to use it when writing. But (and I honestly have no idea how this happened) when I first started roleplaying years ago I would write in first person. I think mostly because they were modern/realistic roleplays that involved only a few characters. It was easy to tell the different characters apart just by the different users writing styles and how the character's opinions and perspectives were different. Nowadays I use third person (Especially if I have more than one character) but I still don't mind FPP, as I also read books written in FPP and such. I think if everyone in the roleplay writes in FPP it's less of a headache, as in reading third person and then suddenly switching to reading FPP can understandably get annoying. Honestly I think it just depends on the writer and their proficiency with the type of writing they decide to work with.


There's a lot of negativity surrounding FPP in writing. But if that's how you want to write, don't be afraid to use it! Write however you're most comfortable, and if people have a problem with it please ignore them. I understand that sometimes it can be hard to share your writing with others, and to have it shot down because of what perspective it's written in can be very hurtful (Especially if said person won't even fully read it because they think it's not good if it's not in second or third person. I've had to deal with them before, but it's okay. To each their own ( )). With my experience so far on this site everyone seems quite friendly though so if you're wanting to roleplay in FPP I don't think you'll really have to worry about backlash!


Happy roleplaying!

 

[Danchou Tsubomi]

For roleplays, I only use second and third person. In stories I write, I use third and sometimes first person. It depends.


I think first person is good for looking into a character's thoughts and it feels pretty personal, like a living diary. I'm pretty weird when it comes to going into major detail of the thoughts of a character who is different from me. It turns out too exaggerated and I'm better at implying emotions and thoughts, so I choose third person out of preference.

 

[ApfelSeine]

I think it makes a lot of sense that one is able to immerse themselves in a character by using the first person. I think that's why it's a common writing style for people to use when writing stories. At the same time, roleplaying is more than just immersing yourself in a character. You also have to be conscientious of who you're playing with. The other player doesn't need to be in your character's head, and it feels somewhat awkward to be reading in the first person because you have to consciously disconnect yourself because you're playing a different character and have to be thinking about your response. It's generally a bit easier to respond to posts in the third person for that reason.


There are other reasons too of course. The reason I like people I play with to use third person is that otherwise I'll forget the names of their characters.


As a side note, I'm bewildered by the idea of using second person in an rp O.o I suppose there is the classic example of a D&D GM saying "you encounter a horde of orcs" or some such thing. I've yet to see an example of it though, so I'm rather curious about it.


Actually, that brings to mind an example of when you might use first person. In an rp where you are primarily starting your action, such as a D&D style roleplay, you'll likely use the first person. It won't get too confusing since the GM will mainly be the one who has to tell the players apart.

 

[Dusky]

As a side note, I'm bewildered by the idea of using second person in an rp O.o I suppose there is the classic example of a D&D GM saying "you encounter a horde of orcs" or some such thing. I've yet to see an example of it though, so I'm rather curious about it.

I have to actively prevent myself from using the second person perspective when I'm taking on a more traditional role as a GM (solely using NPCs). xD Since "you" is a directive pov, it's easy to dictate events ocurring to a character using it.