AFGNCAAP

AFGNCAAP (pronounced Afghan-cap or Afghan-cop) is a satirically politically correct initialism for "Ageless, Faceless, Gender-Neutral, Culturally-Ambiguous Adventure Person" from the computer game "Zork Grand Inquisitor", released by Activision in 1997. The player is given the name AFGNCAAP by the former Dungeon Master Dalboz of Gurth. It is a joking reference to many other adventure games, including Infocom's original "Zork" games and Myst, in which the player's character has no identity, name, or background.

Definition

The name comes from the select-your-own-adventure style of the early text-based and later puzzle-adventure games, wherein the main character is the player him/herself and not a pre-designed character in the story as is usually the case with videogames. Obviously, as anyone could be playing, these games never make an assumption or reference as to the main character's (the player) identity, gender, ethnic background, age, etc. In light of this, it is also interesting to note that many graphical adventure games of this type are entirely devoid of mirrors.

A more conventional description of this type of game is a first-person game, played by the player in the first person: Players are asked to believe that they themselves are the principal protagonist in the game, see (often literally) through the eyes of the principal character, and are addressed directly as "you" by the game or other characters.

Since narrator and character in a video game are not always sharpely defined, there are fewer instances in which extensive narrator text can introduce a second person perspective: The player still acts from a first person perspective, but is constantly reminded of himself being addressed by someone else in the second person. (Similarly, in the field of literature, Second person narrative describes a text in which the reader is also a character within the story.)

Both first- and second-person games also exist with characters whose age, sex, backstory etc. are explicitely or implicitely defined.

In comparison, in a third-person game, players participate by controlling an in-game character, or 'avatar,' which has its own pre-written personality and history. In a third-person game, players do not always see from the point of view of the principal protagonist, but often see from an another perspective (often called a 'third-person perspective') from which they can view the protagonist from outside. Console games such as the Final Fantasy series and similar typically use this format. Although a default name is provided, typically, the player is given the option to change the name the character although this does not affect the gameplay in any way. This is similar to third-person narrative in literature.

The distinction of a 'first-person' or a 'third-person' game is separate from the graphical viewpoint presented by the game. For instance, most first-person shooters, such as "Wolfenstein 3D", "Doom", "Quake", and others, have names and backstories for the characters controlled by the player ("Wolfenstein 3D"'s BJ Blazkowicz, for example), and are, therefore, third-person narratives presented in first-person perspective.