English is not my native language, so i have a question.When narrator speaks, which option is better for second person point of view in the visual novels, past tense or present? I saw both of them and now I can't decide.
For example (just random image):
You opened that chest (He opened that chest) or You open that chest (He opens that chest).
Second person point of view.
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Ren'Py specific questions should be posted in the Ren'Py Questions and Annoucements forum, not here.
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Re: Second person point of view.
It's more a question of what style do you like better rather than which is objectively better. Either can work well.
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Re: Second person point of view.
I would say that usually, 2nd-person writing is in the present tense, since the whole point is to involve the reader as much as possible, making you the protagonist, right now. 2nd-person writing is less common in visual novels than in (choice-based) interactive fiction though.
That said, there are definitely certain works in the 2nd person which play with the past tense for a certain purpose. I don't have anything specific in mind, but I'm 100% sure there are pieces of interactive fiction which play the protagonist remembering past events, or maybe inventing them.
But as I see it, the present tense is more common in almost all cases!
That said, there are definitely certain works in the 2nd person which play with the past tense for a certain purpose. I don't have anything specific in mind, but I'm 100% sure there are pieces of interactive fiction which play the protagonist remembering past events, or maybe inventing them.
But as I see it, the present tense is more common in almost all cases!
Read Sylvan Disappearance, a folk horror epistolary mystery visual novel!
Re: Second person point of view.
Thank you for your detailed reply!Rastagong wrote: ↑Tue Jan 02, 2018 6:51 am I would say that usually, 2nd-person writing is in the present tense, since the whole point is to involve the reader as much as possible, making you the protagonist, right now. 2nd-person writing is less common in visual novels than in (choice-based) interactive fiction though.
That said, there are definitely certain works in the 2nd person which play with the past tense for a certain purpose. I don't have anything specific in mind, but I'm 100% sure there are pieces of interactive fiction which play the protagonist remembering past events, or maybe inventing them.
But as I see it, the present tense is more common in almost all cases!
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