2013-02 Tuesday 19th, Amnesia: A Machine For Pigs Status Update

[WALP]

IMO I think using words such as I can spoil the immersion, since it gives the impression of the character talking to the player rather then the player it self. I think that when you say fx "when I press J, my journal can be opened" its more as if that its Daniel's head sitting on top of the player's headless body telling him what to do.
I think that the main problem with your way of thinking is that you fail to properly seperate Main-character and player. Being immersed into the game does not mean you automatically become Daniel. You're still you, but you inside the game's world if immersion is right. When you use "I", its as if the Main character's head is trying to force himself onto the player.

---

Aaahh yes. Surely professional Game Designers need the wisdom of some random dude from the Internet to tell them were they went oh so terribly wrong...Sorry, no offense, but your authoritarian tone made me chuckle a bit in this context

To me, personally, immersion wasn't broken at all by sentences like "find the key". In fact it makes a lot more sense that way. When I'm making notes for myself, I'd never write "I need to do XY". I already know the note is for me, why would I use a pronoun for myself? That just sounds terribly stilted. Instead I'd write "To do List: - do XY, - find XY..."

A person only uses the word "I" when talking to someone else about himself. So basically, sentences like "I need to find a key" means that the character of the game is talking to me, the player. That does not help identification with the character, in fact it firmly establishes the character as being a clearly different person than me.

As for tutorial texts, I prefer it if they're not trying to be part of the game world. Why would a character think a thought like "I need to press J" ? The key "J" does not exist in the game world. Pretending it does just feels silly to me...

seems hirnwirbel thought the same thing which only strenghens our point. just saying.