Player's hands on the screen

[LSDY]

How would you feel about player's hands on the screen?
You don't usually stare into a mirror while talking to people, to see your expression (reaction image frame) , but you can see your hands making all kinds of gestures. for example, greeting someone, pointing something out, clenching a fist, making a "MEH" handwave, giving a finger (LOL) and whatever else that comes to mind...

I know filling every scene with those things would be silly, but once in a while it could add to experience. What do you guys think?

[Chorvaqueen]

inb4 groping scenes

[papillon]

Field of view on the monitor is too small for visible hands IMO.

However, FPSes do it, and while I hate FPSes many people don't.

I wouldn't want to see it except in a rare situation like pointing the Finger Of Accusation, but not everyone would mind. (Also, yes, groping. Interactive groping games often have visible hands I think...)

[Aleema]

Welllllll, I kinda have something like this because of sign language, but the character is always on screen, to the side. It's not first person hand gesture. To me, a disembodied limb like that is subtly disturbing -- not in a gory way, but in an unsettling "this doesn't feel right" way. Maybe because you don't have control of the hands, or maybe just because that is totally not a convention and what I'm picturing in my head is actually quite stupid looking.

[LSDY]

Field of view on the monitor is too small for visible hands IMO.

I'm pretty sure that you can do all gestures I named withing your line of sight.
Yeah, girls are waving at you with their hand stretched above the head, but guys often greet with their hand only few inches from the face.

and groping... well, that's not what I have in mind, heh.

[papillon]

As a real human being, yes, my hands are in my line of sight.

However, the field of view *on the monitor* is much, much smaller.

As a real human being I can generally see the feet of people I'm talking to in the same room.

[LSDY]

how about this?
I know it's butchered, but you can get the picture

[Aleema]

I think you run the risk of over-gesturing. But if you don't do a lot, it's not a consistent convention and would look even more out of place. So ... huh. Don't know until you try it. I can pretty much say, though, that if you release a game with the hands, most of your reviews on the game will talk about it, maybe even revolve around it, perhaps making or breaking their gameplay because of it. Sounds like a fun risk, actually.

[papillon]

how about this?
I know it's butchered, but you can get the picture

Yeah, that's a situation where I'd think the use of hands is probably okay, although as Aleema said it's hard to be sure without the game to see how well it fits in.

[LateWhiteRabbit]

how about this?
I know it's butchered, but you can get the picture

Fine. But things like that need to be used sparingly. The hands shouldn't be visible during every dialogue exchange, only when appropriate.

After all, in real life, our hands often ARE NOT in our view when we are talking to someone. They are hanging down at our side, and only the most extreme gestures are going to bring them up into our field of vision.

[LSDY]

@Aleema
guess breaking the conventions isn't a bad thing unless you screw up really bad. Still, I don't take it lightly. After all, the game should be for the others, not for me only... That's the reason behind this topic. To see if you folks would mind such a thing in the game you play.

@papillon
@LateWhiteRabbit
yup! Depends on situation. Also I know, that seconding every player's emotion with visible hand gestures would be an overkill, but 5-6 times through the gameplay can't hurt, can it?

[HikkiPanda]

At first I thought it's probably going to be weird .. but after I saw the screenshot, I begin to like it ^^;

It really help in showing the main character's emotion

[LSDY]

It really help in showing the main character's emotion

glad to hear that.
You see. I saw a lot of these "I'm gonna punch you!" situations (every angry Tsundere ever) and every time I felt like: Look at this guy! He's just standing there waiting for a beating... sure he's blabbering something but he doesn't seem to mind his lack of cover. Sure an gentleman should be able to take a hit from a lady, but come on! Not ten times a day...
Then after a smack into head he cries how unfair the world is. Yeah, the devs are unfair not giving the poor guy hand to cover his head.

[Chorvaqueen]

"Objection!"

I guess that works.

[HikkiPanda]

"Objection!"

I guess that works.

You probably already received several beatings by the time you finish the words XD ... . and most of the time, the girl never bother to listen the guy's explanation T__T ... .