Living the Life Third Person

Doug doesn't normally enjoy reading PC Gamer magazine. In fact, he doesn't even know why it still arrives in his mailbox every month and can't wait for the subscription to end (even though he doesn't recall sending the magazine a check since 2005). Nevertheless, every month the magazine comes and before throwing it into the recycling bin, Doug quickly flips through it just to see if there's anything that catches his eye. Usually, Doug only notices a lot of bashing of console-gamers and e-dick measuring between hardware nerds. But for the first time in a very, very long time, something else caught his eye.

This.



A Brit by the name of Marc Owens wondered what it would be like to view life as we so often view our videogame avatars. That is to say from a third-person point of view. So Marc created a padded character suit and added a wide-angle camera that is mounted 6 feet behind the wearer, and a couple feet overhead. His "Avatar Machine" also includes a 7" flat monitor head-set that receieves a direct-feed from the camera so the wearer can see the action not from his eyes, but from the third-person overhead view.

Doug's first thought was mountain biking. He thinks helmet cameras are okay, but believes they tend to make even pretty technical trails look rather dull. But this? He can't help but think it would be pretty cool to have a view from directly over his shoulder while zipping down a really technical trail or crossing over some ladder bridges. That is, assuming he could still see the terrain. Hmmm... on second thought, maybe the first-person view has some advantages after all.

It's definitely better for writing, that's for sure. And I'm sure you would agree...

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