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2021

The Coal Game

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I'm writing a video game fic with an undefined protagonist. Shall I write it in the first or second person? (I don't usually write in either but this one's definitely not feeling like a third person fic...)

first person!

Second person

First unless the game is in second.

First person.

Second person!!

First unless something about canon makes second person flow naturally, such as an AI sending commands to the MC.

Second, but make the "you" do things that no person who acts like a semi-normal person would do. But really, second person for a video game protag makes more sense to me as someone who plays a lot of games like that. I'm used to prompts in-game that say things like "You go into Character's room," whereas first person would be more jarring.

It depends on the game! And what you're going for in the fic! Second-person is both more immediate and more distancing - you're right there in the story but you're also being told about it by an outside voice. First person tends to take you further out of the story - the implication is that the protag is telling you about it later - but to get you closer in to the protag's POV.

Second person is always my choice in these scenarios.

What is the narration in the game like?

If the game has second person narration then you should be fine.

If the game *doesn't* have second person narration then I would go with first. I play a lot of games with an undefined protagonist (like walking simulators or indie horror games or mobile games that slot the player into a blank slate protagonist/system character) and wouldn't be expecting second person unless it was readerfic.

OC - this was a far more divided and yet constructive set of responses than I was expecting! Thanks! I'm going to write an initial draft in second, and see how it goes.

Write it in first and then edit it to be in third.

Should he spit or swallow?

Spit. It's so rare that I see a fic where someone actually spits it makes the whole scene more alive just from that.

Spit, and have his partner tenderly wipe his mouth afterwards. A+ detail.

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