Moved this from the description, as it would better fit on a page about video game camera controls in general:
In the beginning, Video Games were 2D and things were simple: Your game screen was rendered as if you were looking at the world from a side-on or top-down view, and it was easy to locate and maneuver your character in any direction simply by using the corresponding buttons. Move far enough to the edge of the screen and it would scroll in that direction, revealing more of the world as you travel. The "camera" as we might call it was simply a pair of X-Y coordinates reflecting what portion of the game world was visible on the player's screen.
Then came 3D, and things became complicated. Not only did the "camera" acquire a third coordinate (X-Y-Z) to describe its position, but other terms such as "pitch" or "pan" suddenly appeared in the equation, to determine how it should display the game world to the player. Most (but not all) games did an adequate job of keeping your character displayed somewhere visible on the game screen, but it was no longer a simple matter of "scrolling" the screen in the requested direction. Re-orienting the camera when the player moves sounds easy enough at first, but but to what extent should the game adjust the camera's position or its angle to do this? And what happens when the player wants their character to move one direction while keeping their view fixed in another?
Solutions varied — giving the players manual override over the camera angle was one option, but depending on the game, using one directional stick to move the character, another to move the camera, and then requiring button presses to actually interact with the game world could leave players wishing they had four thumbs.
Moved this from the description, as it would better fit on a page about video game camera controls in general:
In the beginning, Video Games were 2D and things were simple: Your game screen was rendered as if you were looking at the world from a side-on or top-down view, and it was easy to locate and maneuver your character in any direction simply by using the corresponding buttons. Move far enough to the edge of the screen and it would scroll in that direction, revealing more of the world as you travel. The "camera" as we might call it was simply a pair of X-Y coordinates reflecting what portion of the game world was visible on the player's screen.
Then came 3D, and things became complicated. Not only did the "camera" acquire a third coordinate (X-Y-Z) to describe its position, but other terms such as "pitch" or "pan" suddenly appeared in the equation, to determine how it should display the game world to the player. Most (but not all) games did an adequate job of keeping your character displayed somewhere visible on the game screen, but it was no longer a simple matter of "scrolling" the screen in the requested direction. Re-orienting the camera when the player moves sounds easy enough at first, but but to what extent should the game adjust the camera's position or its angle to do this? And what happens when the player wants their character to move one direction while keeping their view fixed in another?
Solutions varied — giving the players manual override over the camera angle was one option, but depending on the game, using one directional stick to move the character, another to move the camera, and then requiring button presses to actually interact with the game world could leave players wishing they had four thumbs.
I'm on the internet. My arguments are invalid.