player character

noun

a character in a role-playing game or video game who is controlled by the person playing the game. Abbreviation: PC: Compare nonplayer character.

Origin of player character

First recorded in 1990–95

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Because you’re controlling player characters and deciding what to look at—often even changing where you’re looking with split-second reactions—smooth motion matters a lot more in gaming.
The graphics settings that actually matter for video games (and what they do) | John Kennedy | July 8, 2021 | Popular-Science
The sprites for both enemies and player characters are smooth and gorgeous, evoking a simpler gaming era, but with some wonderful scaling and twisting bells and whistles to keep them from seeming staid.
Best Nintendo Switch games for graphics: The titles that justify jumping to the big screen | Billy Cadden | June 20, 2021 | Popular-Science
When the player approaches a mirror, modern graphics technology should render an image of the player character back.
The real tragedy of Ethan Winters, Resident Evil’s ‘Village’ idiot | Gene Park | May 14, 2021 | Washington Post
A rarity in the VR space, it is a much more “typical” gaming experience, even using a fully rendered player character model, eschewing the floating hands so often seen in VR titles.
Virtual reality has real problems. Here’s how game developers seek to delete them. | Derek Swinhart | January 21, 2021 | Washington Post

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