The acronym FPS is the acronym for “First-person shooter” which means first person shooter. The FPS are therefore a sub-genre of shooters characterized by the subjective first-person view that therefore simulates the point of view of the playing character.
The history of FPS
The birth of this genre conceptually dates back to the 80s where there were the first games in vector graphics such as Battlezone. The real turning point that sanctioned the birth of this genre took place in 1992 when what is still recognized today as the first FPS in history came out, we are talking about Wolfenstein 3D. Just a shooter triggered the phenomenon of eSports (competitive electronic games) in 1996: Quake, a true icon of the genre.
Then followed titles that represented an epochal turning point for eSports and FPS among which the most incisive were Quake III and Unreal Tournament. Thanks to these titles, LAN rooms for online multiplayer battles have spread like wildfire.
Concomitantly with the evolution of eSports, the FPS has also grown , the increasingly advanced technologies have made it possible to make the graphic experience more and more compelling and the physics of the games has reached a high level. All these factors contribute to making FPS one of the most successful esports game genres today . The titles that have recently allowed first person shooters to increase their popularity globally have been in particular games such as Counter-strike , Call of Duty and in recent times the world phenomenon Fortnite. These titles are also available on both consoles and PCs, making them accessible to a very large user base.
The game characteristics of FPS
From the gameplay point of view, FPS are generally united by some characteristic elements present in each game. First of all, in addition to the visual, which in some games like Fortnite is not strictly in the first person but can also be in the third person, the inevitable common element in all FPS are the weapons.
However, depending on the setting of the game, the arrangement of the weapons of the various games can change. in terms of type, these are repeated and have common traits: the distance that the shots can cover, the damage per bullet, the reload speed and the quantity of shots per magazine.
Another typical feature of FPS is the possibility of obtaining items to collect in game which can be kits for healing, better armor and grenades of different types.
The care kits are essential in all FPS as often in this type of games you face direct skirmishes and constantly you need to heal after the clashes before proceeding. The armor are used to increase the maximum damage that can be suffered before being killed, generally in the various games they differ by level.
In this genre of games, grenades are often underestimated but are instead of great use in particular in team fights . The most used are often the smoke bombs that are thrown before a push against the enemy team. From weapons to armor, everything in FPS is distinguished by rarity and this feature is highlighted by the colors. Rarity expresses the strength of a weapon or the amount of health that armor can provide.
FPS in eSports today
Today, together with MOBAs, it is the shooters that represent the most followed eSports games. The latest successful titles, which fall into the so-called “battle royale”, are Fortnite and PUBG (Player Unknown Battleground).
The catchment area on Twitch, the number one streaming platform in the world, is made up of almost 40% of users who watch FPS, highlighting the favor of the audience of the new generations. Constantly hundreds of thousands of spectators watch Twitch Rivals official game tournaments streamed on Twitch , among these the ones where most of the tournaments are held are the FPS.
The future of this genre therefore promises to be rosy and prosperous also thanks to the contamination with other genres such as battle royale.
