Universal Videogame List - www.uvlist.net

Yes, they are mid-way between the two options, but I consider side-view to have very limited (or none at all) depth movement, like most platformers, so I would chose bird's eye here.

Many older RPGs had top-down view but all the graphics were from the side. So... umm... I think we can safely consider them to be bird's eye along with these :)

And some more sample cases where I need help with correct perspective.

1. Breakout style games like...
www.uvlist.net/game-12-Arkanoid
Side View or Bird's Eye? Have seen both perspectives in the info field for various breakout games. What is the correct one? My instincts say Bird's Eye.

2. Gambling games, slot machines, pachinko etc.
www.uvlist.net/game-8912-Pachinko+Time
www.uvlist.net/game-42655-Arcade+Fruit+Machine%3A+Cash+%27n%27+Grab
Bird's Eye, First Person or maybe "Other"?

3. Card games like Solitaire
www.uvlist.net/game-40204-Hoyle+Book+of+Games+Volume+2%3A+Solitaire
Bird's Eye, First-Person or "Other"?

4. Text Adventures without graphics... probably "other", but what about those with graphical illustrations showing the surroundings? Also "other" or "First-Person"?
www.uvlist.net/game-19074-The+Pawn

1. Breakout games tend to have a gravity of sorts, applied only to powerups (making it sideview), so it's a bit iffy.
2. Depends on the game, usually it would be 1st person, but since the person doesn't really exist it becomes ambiguous to use any.
3. Ambiguous. The player, again, doesn't have a character he/she controls.
4. In text-only, it would be the perspective the game events are described to happen in relation to your character. Usually 1st person (I've not seen any other used, actually). With text games including graphics, usually the graphic is a 1st person snapshot of the location from some angle, otherwise it is the same as other text-only games with no graphical output on your actions.

In case of the ambiguous titles (2. and 3.), we should probably decide on something to use and declare some exceptions that break it and use it in all cases (fixing any already set ones as well). Personally I'd use 'other' for most card games. In case of breakout and pachinko, I don't know. Bird's eye seems wrong in breakout, though.

1. The question with Breakout games is if its really gravity that lets the ball "fall down" (like in Tetris) or if it is a perspective similar to Space Invaders from top-down. When you look at an image like... www.gamefaqs.com/portable/gameboy/image/585606.html?box=38519 ...you might think that the game itself is from bird's eye.
www.uvlist.net/game-47939-Krakout would seem to be a real sideview breakout.

4. So you think the perspective in UVL could also stand for written perspective? I always thought it would just be about the graphics.

As for 2+3 I might also go for "other". In the past I often used bird's eye for such games, but I really don't feel well with this.

Otherwise it would be 'other' in all of these games and become meaningless, although perspective isn't as "important" in text-only games so it wouldn't probably matter.

Also, many roguelikes mix text with the regular bird's eye view, but I wouldn't call them fist person no matter how much the text in them is written in first person.