Basically it's taking camera control away from the player in a third person Polygonal Graphics game. The camera will either stay in a fixed location while the character roams about, or it will follow the player's movement only from a fixed angle and distance.
This is usually done for two reasons (and some games have both). One reason is "cinematic", as in making the game have a certain look and mood (though this quickly draws complaints of Event Obscuring Cameras when players want to look elsewhere). The second reason is to avoid Camera Screw by putting the camera in an optimum place. This is very hard to do right, as the developers not only need to find the right angles, but design the levels (especially the placement of traps, puzzles, and enemies) so that the player can notice them at said angles.
Yet there can be times when the player can still look around, such as with a Freelook Button.
Note that this is not when the fixed angle is necessary due to bitmap backgrounds. This is when it's all polygons.
Compare 2.5D (when the polygon graphics are always shown from the same perspective).
Contrast First-Person Shooter (in terms of viewing), Always Over the Shoulder, Free Rotating Camera.
Not to be confused with Camera Lock-On, where the player can "fix" the camera on a specific target of interest.
Examples:open/close all folders
Action-Adventure
Adventure
MMORPG
Platform
Pinball
RPG
Survival Horror
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