First person - third person

The PC games review magazine I buy has a DVD with video reviews, that's why I buy it. Seeing some gameplay video with comments is a lot more informative than written words and static screenshots. This month is a good one for fans of role-playing and strategy games, like me. There is Medieval 2, and Anno 1701 on the strategy games side, and Neverwinter Nights 2 and Dark Messiah of Might & Magic on the role-playing side. And looking at the video reviews I quickly decided that the one game I certainly wouldn't buy is Dark Messiah of Might & Magic. Because of all the games in the list it is the only first person view game.

I also didn't play Oblivion, for the same reason: Oblivion is first person view. You can play it in a fake third person view, where basically the camera is moved back to behind your head, instead of in it. But then it still behaves like a first person game, that is the camera points where your character looks. And, most stupidly, in the case of Oblivion your view of the cursor is then blocked by the back of your head. Doh!

I just can't play first person games very well. In the best of cases I just don't have the overview of my surroundings as in a third person view game. In the worst of cases I get video game motion sickness. In any case I don't enjoy playing first person view games very much, so I tend to not buy them.

Interestingly most MMORPG can be played from a third person perspective. While most shooter games can't. The difference is that in shooter games you need to target your enemy exactly, while in a MMORPG you lock onto a target, and can usually hit it as long as it remains in a wide arc in front of you. Now upcoming MMORPG are about to introduce more active combat, with more elements not unlike a first-person shooter game. Tabula Rasa proudly claims to introduce first-person shooter elements into the MMORPG genre. Which makes me wonder in what view these games will be played. Third person? First person? Or the Oblivion-like fake third person view, where the camera always points in the same direction as your nose?

I would much prefer if all MMORPG could be played in third person view. Because just like in WoW you can always zoom in a third person view so much that it becomes a first person view, which means that first person view fans are never excluded. But if MMORPG became first person view, I wonder how many people would stop buying them. I would be one.