Point-of-view shifts - what do you like about them?

[EvilChani]

In general, I don’t like them in IF games, but I think they can be useful at times. I hate them being used as basically cheat tactics so the author can delay character development (the ol’ “I’ll show you what they’re thinking so they can keep being assholes to your MC for over have the game/series!”), which is, unfortunately, precisely how they tend to be used. I also don’t like using other POVs to tell me the story. Let me experience it, don’t tell me!

@vera

Same goes for Wayhaven’s PoV switches for the villain characters (these really ruined Sin as one for me because everything was answered too quickly and simply)

I hate these more than any other use I’ve seen for non-MC POVs. I feel like the series would be exponentially better without any of the villain POVs and more interactions with the villains (see above about cheat tactics). In other words, let the reader learn about the story through the MC–that’s kind of the point. This kind of thing may work well in a TV show, but these games aren’t TV.

@vera

Seven’s PoV switch once MC leaves the scene - it just spelled out something that was already obvious to me.

Eh, it wasn’t obvious to me, mainly because I’m good at judging people’s moods, but ridiculously oblivious about subtle signals, so I just wrote 7 off as being a hateful dick. That said, I didn’t particularly care for that outside POV, either, because it felt like a “hang in there, 7 doesn’t really hate you!!” thing, and I don’t like that. I RP, so give my MC something to hang on to. Don’t give it to me, because it does my MC no good at all and ends up pissing me off.

@CC_Hill

Sorry, I lost track there. I think the best approach is to make them optional when possible.

I like the option to avoid them. And I say I hate these scenes, but I play every one of Shane’s. I avoid all the others, at least!

@Havenstone

I like it a lot in static fiction. Jordan and Martin both do fun things with it, where we get to see how the world looks through antagonists’ eyes etc.

I loved the battle scenes that had the quick POV shifts. That is one area where I love them, and would love them even in IF. Having a battle going on and getting a POV shift to someone the MC is about to rofflestomp (or get rofflestomped by) is awesome. And… OOOH!

This made me think of a game where I loved the POV shifts–I, the Forgotten One. The POV shifts during battle kept the pace of the action moving while not tearing me out of the story and not getting monotonous with choices to kick people in the nards or make them trip over limbs/their own feet/blades of grass. Best action scenes I’ve read in IF, with the ones from FH being a close second.

And I actually loved the LI POV shifts in ItFO, too, due to the reason they were used. They weren’t used to pacify the reader into tolerating shitty treatment from a NPC to their MC and were, instead, used to give a glimpse of the MC from someone else’s eyes. When you’re roleplaying a damaged MC who has little sense of self-worth outside of being a human battering ram, it’s nice to get a quick glimpse from someone who can see past that. It enriched the story for me, rather than dragging me out of it and getting me annoyed because I thought the writer was just jerking my chain to drag stuff out.

I think I need to be Bacon’s PR rep…

[EMT-fields]

I personally think if you’re going to do POV shifts keep them short as possible, and make sure they push the story forward, and are relevant to what is next to come. As I’m writing, I’m finding POV shifts are great tools to break up the story. They are really useful for when you need a time jump, and for some good foreshadowing. But I understand that they can be unpopular because the reader want to always know what’s going on with their character.

[Havenstone]

I’m mindful that the thread’s meant to be for people who like them, not people who don’t. But as someone who likes them in static but not interactive fiction, one more thought.

In IF, the thing I like most about POV shifts (seeing a place, character, dilemma, etc. from radically different angles) can already be accomplished without leaving the MC’s POV, by letting the MC choose to explore those angles.

What does it reveal about the world and cast when I’m playing the MC as cruel rather than kind, brash rather than cautious? I love IF that lets me explore this way, which (done well) can achieve most of what I enjoy about POV shifts in other media. Let me be both the hero and the villain on different playthroughs, and let that open up a different chunk of the story to me, or a different side of the characters.

But I’m also a speed-reader who loves re-reads, so YMM well V.

[cascat07]

I really liked the way Martin handles them. I think it makes the interpersonal relationships feel more real in immersive as you transition between their PoVs the reader knows more about the situation than the character and I think it creates a lot of great tension and help show character motivations rather than telling.

I agree that it is harder to make it work in IF, but I think it could be interesting especially if you get to play both protagonist and antagonist. If the reader is as invested in the choices of the villain as they are the hero for example.

[Sylents]

Oh boy, My IF is loaded with them though you can sometimes choose to change perspectives but currently its for conflict.

Other times, I use it to introduce new important characters and to show where theyre going in relation to the MC.

Adds replayability and insight into a character during the moment you wouldn’t otherwise know.

Thats just for me. Ironically I dont like when others do it. A character idc about and they dont mention your character.

I feel like my way is better even though its not varied yet. Having your actions be seen through someone else is always good.

[saggittarius]

This reminds me of the best visual novels I played - where most bad endings contained useful character development.
For example, you learn that a character with a strained relationship with MC keeps enough weapons to kill them. If you go through their bad ending it turns out they would never summon courage to do it. If you learnt that from POV shift that would no doubt deflate the tension, but it doesn’t have to - you can instead have POV shift that is full of doubt. Doing so feels repetitive if done too many times though.
I enjoy POV shifts in more romance oriented IFs, but authors should be careful not to use them as a crutch.

[fsix]

@HarrisPS

Does it make a difference whether there are choices involved during these shifts, or simply some passages of writing from another perspective?

Having other characters able to make their own choices, as opposed to only mechanically react to the MC’s actions, relationship scores, etc. allows the player craft wider range of narratives and helps to convey the idea that the game’s world is a place with a number of independent actors, instead of MC being the center of it with everything revolving around them.

Though i get how for this very reason it can be unpopular with players who do want nothing else but be the center of the game universe with everything revolving around them. /s

In general, PoV shifts can be useful to show (“… don’t tell”) the player things which can be important for the plot but aren’t something MC could be realistically privy to, or something they’d normally have learned long before the game events happen. Or just something that’s simply tedious when it’s MC just yap yap yapping about it with someone else for paragraph after paragraph or becomes dry when condensed to swallowable chunk.

Foreshadowing, some extra context to what’s happening, some things about the game world that don’t naturally involve the MC but help the player to make informed decisions going forward. It can make a difference like between the tension from helplessly watching a character unknowingly walk into a trap and a sudden “wtf” jumpscare. Having some of both helps to shake things up.

Getting slightly NSFW – in IF where other characters/RO betray the MC in some manner it can be also down to the player’s whether they prefer the mental anguish of uncertainty if there’s anything going behind the MC’s back (no PoV shifts) or the one from seeing all the “grisly details” of such events developing and/or happening, through the extra PoVs.

[malinryden]

I am not a fan of it in general. A lot of the time it reads like the author didn’t know how to put subtext and hints in the actual story your character is experiencing, and is instead relying on the crutch of telling you these things directly. However, there are exceptions.

The battle scenes in I, the Forgotten One, does an excellent job of conveying what the battle feels like for an ordinary soldier. I love the inclusions of those little cutaways, and I think it was well handled. The story is better for it.

I have also chosen to do this for the epilogues in Fallen Hero in order to give people hints of what might be coming, and how their decisions during the game have affected the story. I see those scenes as more of a tangible reward than just a trophy. Especially in a series, the effect of many decisions won’t appear in the same book, and the epilogues is a way to show that they are still remembered, even if you are not a code-diver.

[Regali]

Generally I find them to be something that takes me out of the game but, as seemingly mentioned already in this thread, I, The Forgotten One with the shifting POVs to show the scope and tragedy of battle is one that works really well! It shows a side of the war we can’t really experience following the Marshall with brief glimpses into what their men think of them followed by their very sad deaths.

In general I think they work best as a very occasional and purpose driven thing; the tease of the villain you’ll have to wait at least 9 chapters to see to build suspense/interest (Mind Blind with the villain who’ll posess Button,) the epilogue showing how you’ve left the characters before the sequel (Fallen Hero,) and showing a perspective that adds to the world/atmosphere but can’t be shown via the MC (ITFO,) I don’t love it when it’s there just to show what the RO thinks of the MC as those tend to feel a bit random to me and a bit like they weren’t confident in showing how the RO feels from the MC perspective.

[yelhsa]

I love seeing how other characters we have already interacted with see our protagonist.

I hate reading their POV’s from a perspective that has them called “you” rather than their names since I’ve been drilled into only seeing the protagonist as “you” and it gets unnecessarily confusing, or worse, pulls me out of the story.