Original Post
Usually the representation of modern games is more or less objective; that is, the player sees the world as it is. This does not imply omniscience, but the fact that if the player's character can see something, the player will see it also, but in the way an omniscient entity would. For instance, if the player's character sees something that in its physical manifestation resembles a man, the player is shown a man. If the man happily greets the player's character, the player will hear a happy greeting. If the character sees a mirror, it is represented as a mirror with a reflection (consider a third person viewpoint where the mirror is really just a surface with neat sphere/cube/whatever-maps of the environment). I would think it would make a major difference to show the game world to the player as the player's character senses it. I'm not talking about first person viewpoint here (as it really isn't necessary for what I'm talking about here), but rather that the representation of the game is filtered through the character's mentality. In the preceding example the character saw a man. What if in a fit of madness the character thought that the man was actually a demon coming to destroy him? Or maybe the man is from a different culture and his happy greeting is the vilest possible insult to the player's character considering the cultural differences? In my opinion, the player should see a demon and hear an insult, respectively. As for the mirror, the character might think he is actually seeing into another room, so there really should be a room and not just a sphere/cube/whatever-mapped shiny surface. The point is, another day with a different character, given the very exact same situation, the player would see a completely different thing because of the character's different mentality. If you play as a raging barbarian, everyone seems weak and the world is displayed red. If you play as a paranoid colour-blind weakling, you might see glimpses of ferocious beasts in the dark alleys in the otherwise colourless world. If you play as a hammer-wielding maniac, everyone looks like a nail. And so on... Replayability by changing the representation. Moreover, this would make multiplayer gaming interesting, as different characters would see things differently, someone might see the approaching man as a demon while his party member would see the man as a saint. Any thoughts?
