My personal glimpse into the first half of the 21st Century for some yet to be known future
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Saturday, February 14, 2026
Allie and I at Denver Botanic Gardens - Winter 2026
Thursday, February 12, 2026
Will the Gaming Industry Change Use of FPS and TPS?
The Inertia of Familiar Language
The traditional definitions of first- and third-person games rely on camera placement rather than on player agency. That shortcut has distorted how we talk about perspective for decades.
So why has this never been corrected? The short answer is likely inertia.
Once a term becomes familiar, widely taught, and commercially useful, it stops being descriptive and starts being infrastructural. Changing it becomes expensive, not just financially, but culturally.
The FPS Effect
The modern taxonomy of game perspective crystallized in the 1990s with the rise of the first-person shooter (FPS).
“FPS” was an unusually successful label:
It described what players saw
It differentiated a new genre
It was easy to market
It spread quickly through magazines, retail shelves, and early web discourse
Once first person became synonymous with “camera at eye level,” everything else was forced into contrast. The term third person did not emerge from narrative theory. It emerged as whatever FPS was not.
This asymmetry locked the vocabulary in place before anyone had reason to question it.
Camera Language Is Easier Than Agency Language
Camera placement is concrete. Agency is abstract.It is far easier to say:
The camera is behind the character
than to say:
The player issues commands to a represented self
Marketing departments, tutorial writers, and reviewers naturally gravitated toward the simpler explanation. Over time, that simplification hardened into definition.
Once perspective was taught as a visual property, revisiting it as a player–system relationship required more effort than most discourse was willing to invest.
How Designers Commonly Talk About Perspective
In public-facing discourse, perspective is usually described in terms of camera placement. In design-facing discussions, however, the vocabulary often shifts.
Designers frequently frame perspective through concepts such as:
Player embodiment
Identification with an avatar
Degrees of abstraction
Command versus inhabitation
Latency between decision and action
These ideas appear regularly in design talks, postmortems, and critical writing, even when the traditional labels of first- or third-person remain in place. The emphasis is less on where the camera sits and more on how the player relates to what they control.
This does not mean designers uniformly reject camera-based terminology. Rather, it suggests a practical distinction: the internal language of design often exceeds the precision of the public labels used to describe games.
In other words, the mislabeling persists not because designers lack conceptual tools, but because those tools are rarely surfaced in player-facing taxonomy.
Why the Industry Is Unlikely to Fix the Labels
Even if the argument is sound, several forces resist change:
1. Legacy Vocabulary
Decades of books, articles, reviews, and tutorials use the existing terms. Revising them would create friction with historical material.
2. Search and Discovery
“Third-person action game” is a deeply indexed phrase. Replacing it would damage discoverability without offering immediate commercial upside.
3. Audience Expectations
Players already believe they know what these terms mean. Correcting them risks sounding pedantic or confusing, even when accurate.
4. Mixed Perspectives
Many modern games blur categories intentionally. Studios may prefer flexible ambiguity to precise taxonomy.
Taken together, these pressures make formal correction unlikely.
Why This Still Matters
If the industry is not going to change its labels, why insist on the distinction at all?
Because language shapes analysis.
Mislabeling perspective:
Obscures why certain games feel immersive despite external cameras
Confuses discussions of agency and control
Flattens meaningful differences between avatar play and command play
Makes serious criticism sound mystical rather than structural
A player-centric model gives critics, designers, and players a sharper vocabulary—even if public-facing labels remain unchanged.
The Value of a Parallel Vocabulary
This series is not a call to rename genres overnight. It is a proposal for a parallel framework that can coexist with existing terminology while offering greater precision.
Just as film studies distinguish between camera angle and narrative voice, game analysis benefits from separating:
What does the camera do
What is the player
Keeping these concepts distinct allows deeper discussion without breaking compatibility with established language.
A Useful Mental Reframe
Rather than asking:
Is this game first person or third person?
Ask:
Who is acting?
Who is being addressed?
Where does the player exist in relation to the system?
These questions remain valid regardless of genre, technology, or trend.
Keeping It Going
The industry is unlikely to abandon camera-based labels. They are too entrenched, too useful, and too familiar. But clarity does not require replacement. It requires recognition.
We can say that a game has first-person perspective with third-person camera angle. Or, a game is second-person perspective with the ability to show either game-piece camera angle or top-down third person camera angle. Such descriptions are more meaningful.
Once we understand that most so-called third-person games are structurally second-person, a great deal of confusion dissolves. Design intent becomes clearer. Player experience becomes easier to articulate.
Also see
Tuesday, February 10, 2026
Full Day Lord of the Rings Mavora Lakes Adventure
However, while visiting these filming locations was great, the travel between them is a bit rough. This is the nature of travelling around the South Island of New Zealand in this region, especially when you are leaving paved highways behind for a time. The tour length definitely adds to discomfort as much as the roads themselves since this is a 10 hour tour, with long stretches between locations. Just be prepared. One bit of advice is to pack your own lunch, as I found the location where food was available to purchase to be rather lacking.
Sunday, February 08, 2026
Real-World Games and Player Perspective
Why Physical Games Clarify the Debate
If digital games complicate questions of perspective with cameras, avatars, and simulated worlds, real‑world games strip those ambiguities away. There is no virtual camera, no rendering engine, and no ambiguity about where the player exists in relation to play.
What remains is the core relationship that person actually describes: how the player is positioned relative to action and agency.
When we apply the same player‑centric framework to physical and tabletop games, the mislabeling of digital perspectives becomes immediately obvious. The categories align cleanly without edge cases, caveats or special pleading.
First Person: Embodied Physical Play
In first‑person games, the player is the acting body. There is no representational layer.
Examples
Tag
Soccer, basketball, martial arts
Darts, bowling
Poker (as bodily participation rather than avatar play)
Perspective Structure
The player acts directly
The player’s body is the locus of agency
There is no token, piece, or proxy
The language of play is unambiguously first person:
I run.
I throw.
I bluff.
No one meaningfully describes these games as issuing commands to a representation. There is no interpretive distance between decision and action.
This is first‑person perspective in its purest form, mapping precisely onto digital first‑person games where avatar and player identity collapse into one.
Second Person: Token‑Mediated Play
Second‑person play emerges the moment a personal proxy is introduced.
Examples
Monopoly
The Game of Life
Sorry!
Most role‑playing board games
Perspective Structure
The player is personally represented
Actions are issued to a token
The token is “you,” but not identical to you
The language shifts naturally:
You move three spaces.
You pass Go.
You go to jail.
No one confuses the plastic token with the player’s physical body. No one treats the token as an unrelated entity either. It is unmistakably you, addressed directly.
This is the exact structural relationship found in traditionally labeled “third‑person” digital games:
A visible body
A controllable character
A personal avatar that can be observed, directed, and positioned
The tabletop world exposes the truth that digital cameras obscure: this is second‑person play.
Third Person: Unembodied Command
True third‑person perspective appears when the player has no personal representation at all.
Examples
Chess
Checkers
Go
Wargames with multiple units per side
Perspective Structure
No piece represents the player
All entities are equally external
The player exists entirely outside the system
The language reflects this detachment:
That piece captured the queen.
These troops were sacrificed units.
That side is losing control of the board.
Even when players identify emotionally with a side or strategy, no single piece is you. The relationship is observational and managerial rather than embodied.
This maps cleanly onto digital strategy games, god games, and simulation titles where the player’s presence is abstract, systemic, or omniscient.
Why These Categories Feel Obvious Offline
In physical games, no one argues that Monopoly is “third person” or that chess is “first person.” The distinctions feel intuitive because:
There is no camera to confuse viewpoint with identity
Tokens and the actually human self are physically distinct
Agency is visibly mediated or not
Digital games inherited linguistic categories before these distinctions were fully examined. Real‑world games demonstrate that the confusion is not conceptual, but rather it is terminological.
The Consistency Test
A useful diagnostic question emerges:
If this game were played on a table instead of a screen, what would represent the player?
Your body → First person
Your personal token → Second person
Nothing at all → Third person
This test holds across media, genres, and technologies.
Implications for Game Analysis
Understanding perspective through real‑world analogs helps clarify:
Why some games feel intimate despite external cameras
Why avatar visibility changes player psychology
Why command‑based games encourage strategic rather than empathetic thinking
Why VR intensifies embodiment without redefining perspective
Most importantly, it reinforces the fact that perspective is about player–action relationships, not visual framing.
Looking beyond
Real‑world games quietly and intuitively preserve the original linguistic meaning of person in the terms of first-, second- and third-person. When we let them inform our understanding of digital play, the long‑standing mislabeling of game perspectives becomes impossible to ignore. The camera never determined perspective; the player's relationship within the game makes that determination.
Also see:
Saturday, February 07, 2026
Places I've Visited So Far Winter 2025-2026
Friday, February 06, 2026
A Player-Centric Model of Game Perspective
From Definitions to Application
The previous article in this series established a narrow but important claim: camera angle does not determine narrative person. "Person" in "first-person" describes who acts, not where the camera viewpoint is placed.
Taking this into consideration, let's apply the concept directly to video games. Doing so requires shifting perspective from what the player sees to how the player is represented within the game system.
This article proposes a player-centric model of perspective and uses it to reëxamine the three categories commonly described as first-person, second-person and third-person.
A Player-Centric Definition of Perspective
Rather than anchoring perspective to the camera, this model defines person by the relationship between the player and the acting entity in the game world.
| Person | Defining Question | Player Relationship |
|---|---|---|
| First | Am I the body acting? | Player and avatar are the same entity |
| Second | Am I directing a represented “you”? | Player controls a personal avatar |
| Third | Am I commanding others? | Player is unrepresented in the world |
This framework does not replace existing camera terminology. It runs alongside it. A game can still be described as having a first-person perspective with a third-person camera. What changes is how we describe player perspective.
First-Person Games: “I Move Here”
In first-person games, the player and the avatar collapse into a single acting subject. There is no meaningful distinction between the decision-maker and the body that carries out those decisions.
Common examples include:
Doom
Counter-Strike
Mirror’s Edge
Most virtual reality titles
Player intent is expressed directly as action:
I reload.
I lean around the corner.
I jump.
The defining feature is not the absence of a visible character model. It is the absence of narrative distance. The player does not instruct a character. The player acts.
The Misnamed Middle: Games Labeled “Third-Person”
Most action and role-playing games are grouped under the label of third-person:
Tomb Raider
The Witcher
God of War
PUBG
This category is where the traditional terminology begins to fail.
In these games, the player does not fully inhabit the avatar in the way first-person play requires. The character on screen is visible, persistent, and separate. The player does not experience the world as the body. The player directs the body.
The internal language of play reflects this relationship clearly:
You roll.
You climb.
You draw your weapon.
This is not metaphorical. It is structurally second person. The avatar represents the player, but the representation is mediated. The player and the character are not the same acting subject.
What distinguishes this middle category is not camera distance, character visibility, or animation style. It is addressability. The player addresses a personal avatar that exists as an object in the game world.
That distinction matters. A player can empathize with, customize, and narratively identify with an avatar while still relating to it as "you" rather than "I." The presence of dialogue choices, equipment management, and movement commands reinforces this relationship. The player tells the character what to do. The character then does it.
The camera makes this separation obvious, but it does not create it. Even if the camera were forced to overlap the character’s head, the underlying relationship would remain unchanged as long as the player continues to issue instructions to a represented self.
The moment a player can observe their own body as something acted upon, perspective has already shifted away from first person.
This is the core of the mislabeling. These games are neither first-person nor third-person in the narrative sense. They occupy a distinct middle ground that aligns cleanly with second-person structure.
True Third-Person Games: “They Move There”
Third-person perspective, in the narrative sense, emerges when the player is not embodied at all.
Strategy and command-based games provide clear examples:
Civilization
X-COM
Command & Conquer
StarCraft
Here, the player does not control a personal avatar. Instead, they direct multiple agents, units, or factions.
The language of play naturally changes:
They advance the unit.
They lose morale.
They capture the city.
Even when the game provides a narrative role such as ruler, commander, or overseer, that role is abstract. No single entity in the game world stands in for the player.
This aligns cleanly with third-person narration in literature. The player observes and directs, but does not inhabit.
A Shift in Perspective
Reframing game perspective around player representation reveals a gap in the familiar terminology. What has long been labeled third-person gameplay occupies a distinct middle ground that matches second-person structure far more closely than third.
This does not mean existing labels must be discarded. It does mean they should be understood as describing cameras rather than perspective.
The next article in this series steps away from digital games entirely. By examining board games and other real-world play, it becomes easier to see why camera-based definitions were always an awkward fit.
Continue to Part III: Real-World Games and Player Perspective.
Saturday, January 31, 2026
We’ve Been Using “Third-Person” Wrong for 30 Years in Gaming
A Comfortable Mistake
Video games are routinely sorted into neat perspective boxes: first-person and third-person. The terms feel intuitive, established, and beyond dispute. An FPS shows what the character sees. A third-person game shows the character from the outside. A second-person game doesn't truly exist, per se. Case closed.
Except that this framing quietly borrows language from literature and then uses it incorrectly.
In grammar and narrative theory, person is not about camera placement. It is about who is the acting subject. Once we apply that definition consistently, a strange realization emerges: what the games industry has long called third-person does not actually describe a third-person relationship at all.
This article is the first in a short series. Its purpose is not to reclassify games yet, but to clear conceptual ground. Before we can argue about first, second, or third person in games, we need to be precise about what those terms mean.
Camera Angle Is Not Narrative Person
Before redefining perspective, one clarification is essential: camera angle does not establish narrative person.
Games inherited the terms first-person and third-person largely through visual analogy. The distinction became shorthand for what the player sees on screen, not for how the player is positioned within the system of action. This shortcut made the terminology easy to teach, but conceptually unstable.
In literature and narrative theory, a scene can be described from any imaginable vantage point without changing grammatical person. A third-person novel may describe events from directly behind a character’s eyes. A second-person text may position the reader outside their body. A first-person account may briefly describe the narrator from an external viewpoint for dramatic effect.
The camera, or its literary equivalent, does not determine personhood.By tying person to camera placement, game discourse quietly collapsed two distinct ideas:
Cinematography: where the viewpoint is located
Narrative person: who the acting subject is
Untangling these concepts is the key to understanding why the familiar labels begin to break down under closer inspection.
What “Person” Actually Means
In language and literature, person refers to the relationship between the speaker and the subject of action:
First person: I act ("I walk down the road")
Second person: You act ("You open the door")
Third person: They act ("She draws her sword")
Person describes agency and identity, not point of observation. It answers a simple question: who is doing the acting?
This definition has remained stable across centuries of grammar, rhetoric, and narrative theory. What changes from medium to medium is not the meaning of person, but the techniques used to express it.
Game terminology drifted away from this definition by anchoring person to the camera rather than to player representation. Once that shift occurred, the labels continued to function socially even as they lost their original precision.
Clearing the Ground
At this stage, no games need to be reclassified. The only claim established here is a foundational one: camera placement and narrative person are not the same thing.
If person is understood as a question of who acts rather than where the camera sits, the familiar categories of game perspective become less stable and more interesting. Some labels begin to feel strained. Other labels begin to feel incomplete.
The next article in this series builds on this groundwork by proposing a player-centric definition of perspective and applying it directly to video games.
Continue to Part II: A Player-Centric Model of Game Perspective.
Thursday, January 01, 2026
Express Your Message as Atomic Weights
Element Cipher
Converts text to atomic masses (3-digit format) and back.
Tuesday, December 30, 2025
Trail 44 South Mesa
South Mesa has a good loop trail and lots of interconnecting trails with many other areas. The loop takes you from the trailhead and around the South Mesa. Technically, this is not the route shown in 60 Hikes Within 60 Miles: Denver and Boulder, but it still a nice hike with good views. The hike starts out with thick brush, but transitions to forest on the Westside of the Mesa, as you switch from Mesa Trail to Homestead Trail before returning to the trailhead.
Monday, December 22, 2025
Tool that Rounds to the Nearest Fraction
When working in trades like carpentry, machining or cooking,
you often run into decimal measurements that are difficult or impossible to
translate to a standard ruler, tape measure, or measuring cup. Sometimes, you
just need to work with fractions.
While a CAD program might output a required component hole as
0.6875 inches, a person on the shop floor needs to select a tool or check a
dimension using the common fraction 11/16 inches. Similarly, scaling a recipe
can result in awkward numbers like 0.833 cups, which is much easier to manage
when converted to a practical fraction like 5/6 or the nearest standard
measuring cup size. Below is the tool that is designed to bridge that gap by converting any
decimal into its closest usable fraction.
The Fractional Rounding Tool (below) takes any decimal
number and, based on your chosen level of granularity (the maximum denominator,
such as 1/8 or 1/16), it determines the nearest possible fraction. This is
essential because it allows you to standardize your precision and use common
measuring instruments effectively. You also have full control over the rounding
method, which dictates how the tool handles numbers that fall exactly halfway
between two fractions. This is a great feature when working with tolerances,
negative numbers or specific industry standards like rounding half up or half
even. Use the tool below to instantly convert your decimal plans into
measurable, actionable fractions.
Fractional Rounding Tool 📏
For information on other tools and topics:
Futhorc Runic Bi-Directional Converter: Turn your message in to First Millennium runes and back! [Try out this rune conversion tool on your own messages.]
Earth's Looming Expiration Date: Why Earth faces an early deadline as Sun's energy output increases. [Idea on how to preserve our planet]
Number Rounding Tool: This the rounding tool that you didn't know you need! Multiple methods of rounding are supported. [Type Your Number and Round it up or down!]
Friday, December 19, 2025
Trail 33 Chautauqua Park
Chautauqua Park is a great mountainside park with various interconnecting hiking trails of easy to hard classes. Allie and I have been here many times. We almost never hike the same combination of trails. In fact, I don't think we've hiked the specific trail choices mentioned in 60 Hikes Within 60 Miles: Denver and Boulder. Segments of the trails are in shade, while other segments are exposed. There are great views of Flatirons and Boulder. This park is particularly dog friendly, though dogs need to be leashed.
Wednesday, December 17, 2025
Trail 14 North Table and Mesa Top
Though it's mostly exposed, one of my favorite hiking areas is North Table and its various trails. The easier trail loop is described in 60 HIkes Within 60 Miles: Denver and Boulder as "a brief hike straight up the side of this iconic mesa (North Table) leads to a unique experience atop an ancient lava flow that feels like a tabletop." The hardest segment to hike for the mesa top trails is the initial slope right up the side of the mesa cliffs. It's steep by hiking trail standards, as it was originally an access road for a now abandoned quarry at the top. Once you are on top of the mesa, the trails have very little elevation change. It's a hike for the views. Hiking in late Spring will give you a chance to see many different flowers in bloom.
If you want, you can hike to the top of the top at Lichen Peak. Why is it named Lichen Peak?
Friday, December 12, 2025
When buying a used DVD is cheaper than a movie's digital rental
...when buying a good quality DVD is cheaper than renting the movie digitally...
(Also, it's funny that the AI gave Bryan Cranston the arms of Kevin Hart)
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fcsuper/p/DPNYiCsjPjR/Wednesday, December 10, 2025
Trail 31 - Betasso Preserve Canyon Loop
I've visited the Betasso Preserve Canyon Loop Trail a few times during late Spring and early Summer. I really like this trail. It has a variety of terrain with beautiful mountain scenery. The trail is shared by hikers, joggers and cyclists. The area is a good mix of brush and trees without heavily overgrown areas with wild bramble. Early Summer supports a wide variety of flowers.




Sunday, December 07, 2025
Ireland's First Script Ogham (with Converter tool)
The Ogham Alphabet
The Ogham alphabet (often pronounced "OH-um") is the earliest known form of writing used in Ireland and parts of Britain, appearing primarily in inscriptions between the 4th and 9th centuries AD. It's unique among world writing systems for its striking visual form and method of inscription.Historical Context and Use
Ogham emerged during the period of Primitive Irish, the
oldest attested form of the Gaelic language.
- Form
and Structure: Unlike the Latin or Runic alphabets, Ogham consists
entirely of a system of notches and parallel strokes etched along a
central line, or "stemline." On monuments, the natural corner or
edge of a standing stone served as this stemline, making Ogham essentially
a three-dimensional script. It reads vertically, typically from bottom to
top.
- Primary
Function: The vast majority of surviving Ogham inscriptions are found
on monumental stones (known as Ogham stones) scattered across Ireland and
Wales. These stones functioned primarily as commemorative boundary markers
or memorials, usually bearing the name of an individual and that person's
lineage.
- The
"Tree Alphabet" Tradition: Ogham is incorrectly known as the "Celtic Tree Alphabet." This
association comes from medieval manuscript tradition, where each of the 20
original Ogham characters was given a name corresponding to a native Irish
tree or plant (e.g., ᚁ
Beith = Birch, ᚇ
Dair = Oak). This tradition popularized the script but often
overshadowed its true linguistic purpose.
- Decline:
Ogham usage declined dramatically after the 7th century, largely being
replaced by the Latin alphabet as Christianity spread and written language
shifted from monumental inscriptions to manuscripts.
Transliteration for Modern English
The original Ogham alphabet had only 20 core characters (feda),
which reflected the limited sound set of Primitive Irish. To adapt this ancient
script for Modern English (which has 26 letters and many more sounds), a
systematic approach is necessary.
This converter (below) uses a modern, mostly reversible transliteration method that maps the six missing English letters (J, K, P, V, W, X, Y, Z) to their closest existing Ogham phonetic or orthographic neighbors, ensuring every modern English word can be accurately rendered in Ogham. We also use the dedicated (Ogham space mark) for all word separation and punctuation to maintain the authenticity of the script's digital representation.
Ogham Bi-Directional Converter
Output (Click to Copy):
Note on Mapping: This converter uses the 20 core Ogham letters plus the later Forfeda for missing English sounds (P and CH). Punctuation is converted to the Ogham space mark ( ) for a more authentic output.
| Latin Input | Ogham Output | Ogham Name | Mapping Rationale |
|---|---|---|---|
| A, E, I, O, U | ᚐ, ᚓ, ᛁ, ᚑ, ᚒ | Ailm, Edad, Idad, Onn, Ur | Direct Ogham Vowels |
| B | ᚁ | Beith | Direct Ogham character. |
| P | ᚚ | Peith | **Uses the Forfid (supplementary letter).** |
| F, V | ᚃ | Fern | V is voiced pair of F. |
| C, K | ᚉ | Coll | K shares the hard C (/k/) sound. |
| CH | ᚙ | Eamhancholl | **Uses the Forfid for the CH sound.** |
| G | ᚌ | Gort | Direct Ogham character. |
| D | ᚇ | Dair | Direct Ogham character. |
| T | ᚈ | Tinne | Direct Ogham character. |
| H | ᚆ | Uath | Direct Ogham character. |
| L | ᚂ | Luis | Direct Ogham character. |
| M | ᚋ | Muin | Direct Ogham character. |
| N | ᚅ | Nuin | Direct Ogham character. |
| R | ᚏ | Ruis | Direct Ogham character. |
| S, Z | ᚄ | Saille | Z is voiced pair of S. |
| J | ᚉ | Coll | Mapped to C/K as a functional default. |
| W | ᚒ | Ur | Mapped to the vowel U (closest to 'oo' sound). |
| Y | ᛁ | Idad | Mapped to the vowel I. |
| Q | ᚊ | Quert | Direct Ogham character. |
| X | ᚉᚄ | Coll + Saille | Mapped as the two-character phonetic sequence CS (/ks/). |
For information on other tools and topics:
Futhorc Runic Bi-Directional Converter: Turn your message in to First Millennium runes and back! [Try out this rune conversion tool on your own messages.]
Earth's Looming Expiration Date: Why Earth faces an early deadline as Sun's energy output increases. [Idea on how to preserve our planet]
Number Rounding Tool: This the rounding tool that you didn't know you need! Multiple methods of rounding are supported. [Type Your Number and Round it up or down!]

























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