作者：Jake Shapiro

我是超级曲棍球迷。今年，EA Sports宣称将在其曲棍球模拟游戏《NHL 13》中添加全新的“真实广播”视角。随着《NHL》系列越来越逼真，电视上的曲棍球比赛与虚拟曲棍球存在的最大不同便在于摄像机视角。大多数曲棍球电子游戏总是使用垂直角去呈现玩家的视角，而电视广播则是通过水平视角去确保两个团队在摄像机中的平衡。

NHL 13(from insidehockey)

那么这种视角是否适合于《NHL 13》？并不见得。水平视角更适合多人游戏，如此能够确保没有一支玩家所控制的团队是向下前行，而对于标准的单人玩家游戏来说，玩家们更青睐于垂直视角。《NHL》的模拟操纵杆便是基于垂直视角进行设置，开发者清楚：尽管在宣传中强调了真实广播视角，但是游戏的默认设置仍然是经典的垂直视角。

Ice-Hockey(from blogspot)

但是并不是所有体育游戏都是如此。两款非常有影响力的8位体育类电子游戏——Konami的《1987 Blades of Steel》以及任天堂的《Ice Hockey》便都使用了水平视角。

但是当EA Sports在1991年推出《NHL Hockey》时，他们选择了为玩家呈现出垂直游戏视角。从那时起，垂直视角便成为曲棍球电子游戏的标准视角。

其它体育类游戏又是怎样的情况？基本上，足球与曲棍球具有很多相似处：两个团队努力通过攻破对方守门员，将球射入网中得分。但是很奇怪的是，在经历了一些改变（游戏邦注：包括1993年在《FIFA International Soccer》中出现的等距视图）后，水平视角反而成为了今天足球类电子游戏的标准。篮球游戏也是基于这一标准。

MLB-12(from gamasutra)

但并不是只有曲棍球是特殊的。美国最畅销的一款游戏《Madden NFL》便也是使用垂直视角。与《NHL》在整个游戏过程中始终保持同一视角不同的是，《Madden》会随着球的传递而出现180度的视角转变。在橄榄球游戏中比较容易实现这种转变，因为在这里球的传递不像曲棍球那样频繁。

因为不对称的游戏玩法，篮球在体育游戏中算是独树一格。击球的标准视角是背对击球手（不像电视广播那样是背对投手），而当球在空中飞行时，镜头将切换到更广泛的行动视角中（就像电视中那样）。

所以曲棍球电子游戏是否会完全采用“真实的广播视角”？尽管你不是体育迷，你也可以从体育游戏的视角设置中学到一些重要内容。将现实中的游戏转变成电子游戏对于游戏设计师来说便是一个巨大的哲学问题。总而言之，体育类电子游戏设计师应该在保持最佳游戏玩法的同时尽可能模拟玩家所熟悉的现实游戏中的内容。

（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，拒绝任何不保留版权的转载，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

Approaching Camera Angles in Sports Games

by Jake Shapiro

I’m a big hockey fan. This year, EA Sports announced a big new addition to its hockey sim stalwart NHL 13: a new “true broadcast camera” angle! As realistic as the NHL series has become, the most glaring difference between real hockey on TV and virtual hockey is the camera orientation. While most hockey video games usually use a vertical angle to replicate the players’ perspective, TV broadcasts use a horizontal view to create more of a balance between teams’ camera space.

So does it work in NHL 13? Not really. The horizontal perspective makes local multiplayer easier since neither human-controlled team has to be going downwards, but for standard single-player and online gameplay, most players will stick to the vertical angle. NHL’s analog stick controls were built around the vertical view, and the developers knew this: despite touting the true broadcast camera in marketing, the default settings for the game are still set to the classic vertical view.

It hasn’t always been that way. Konami’s 1987 Blades of Steel and Nintendo’s Ice Hockey the following year (pictured here) were two of the most influential 8-bit sports video games, and they both featured the horizontal perspective.

But as soon as EA Sports got into the game with NHL Hockey in 1991, they introduced the vertical camera to hockey gamers. It’s been the standard angle for hockey in video game form ever since.

What about other sports? On a basic level, soccer (football) has many similarities to hockey: two teams trying to score on each other’s net, guarded by a goalie. But strangely enough, after going through a few changes (including an isometric view in 1993′s FIFA International Soccer), the industry standard today for soccer video games is the horizontal perspective. Basketball games have settled on this angle as well.

Hockey isn’t an anomaly, though. One of the best-selling game franchises in the United States, Madden NFL, uses the vertical angle. While the angle in NHL remains the same throughout the duration of play, the camera in Madden actually makes a 180o flip whenever the ball changes hands. This is easier to accomplish in (American) football because possession doesn’t change nearly as frequently as it does in hockey.

Baseball is a league of its own, due to the sport’s asymmetrical gameplay. While the standard camera angle for batting is behind the batter (instead of behind the pitcher, as it is in TV broadcasts), it matches television angles when the ball is in play and the game switches to a wider angle of the action.

So will hockey video games ever change full-time to the “true broadcast camera”? Even if you’re not a sports fan, we can all learn something from studying sports games’ approach to the camera. Capturing a game within a game–adapting an existing real-world game to video game form–presents a huge array of philosophical questions for game design. It boils down to balancing what’s best for gameplay with how to best simulate the real world events players are already familiar with.(source:GAMASUTRA)