How many countless hours have you watched your character with nothing but their back towards you?  It seems that a great many MMORPGs and a good amount of regular games are in third person, but why?  We don’t live our lives in third person.  Well a design student, Marc Owens had decided to see what it would be like if real life was in third person.  He created a helmet with a camera strapped a few feet behind and a boxed screen infront of your face so you can’t see anything but the screen.  Turned on you are now living your life in the third person.

So whats life like in the third person?  Surprisingly Marc says that while most people are slow to get used to it, once they do they tend to act more freely than they normally would.  There seems to be a disconnect between seeing yourself in the third person and your actions.  People approach strangers, start jumping around and moving as they normally wouldn’t.  Sorta like the vast majority of gamers you’ll see jumping around like idiots, myself included.

Heres a video of the Avatar Machine in action.