Hey Bethesda/Zenimax/Whom it may concern,

From all of the videos that I have personally seen, it appears that Elder Scrolls Online is going to be following the Third-Person perspective rather than the First-Person perspective that I have grown accustomed to throughout the earlier games of the Elder Scrolls Series (Though I know they have also had the option to switch to 3rd-Person).

What I'm wondering is if ESO will have any sort of perspective choice, whether you'll be able to switch from 3rd-person to 1st-person, or will you be stuck in 3rd-person? I've always found it less comfortable to be using the Left and Right mouse clicks to attack and block in 3rd-person than I have for 1st-person.

Hope you'll take it into some consideration (if you haven't already) and have a 1st-person perspective as an option.

Welcome to the forums!
ESO has both first and third person perspectives.

This will make you quite happy! Zenimax Online Studios has thought of everything as far as viewing perspectives go! YES the game is at its best in third person HOWEVER ZOS has made it so you can switch through 3rd person above your character as seen in their videos but you can also go first person! You may even go with third person above the shoulder view as seen in Skyrim!

ZOS really has been one of the best developers I have seen for an MMORPG..they really listen to the fans because they added all of this in just for us!

Hope this excites you!

I've seen the devs say you can play 3rd or 1st person but atm the usual 1st person view doesn't show arms/weapons, as in the ES series, at the moment. TBH I'm unsure which I'd prefer as a personal bugbear of mine in the ES series was being unable to see much of the screen unless you sheathed you weapons. In most MMOs I've tried to play 1st person the lack of arms/weapons felt disassociating so I reverted to 3rd person which is preferable for situational awareness.

You can play both ways.

However, given what I've seen of the gameplay first-person will put you at a disadvantage unless you're playing solo. Cooperative play in TESO seems to have a lot of visual cues, like the buff-circles that can be left on the ground, and they'd be easy to miss if placed behind/to the side of you if you regularly play in first-person.

But if you're all about solo/small groups or just PvE first-person probably wouldn't impair you much. I would say third-person appears to be a near-necessity for PvP.

I have heard that there was problems with the 1st person perspective, however not many of the people who were in the ESO Alpha event complain about the 1st person perspective. I would also find it hard to believe ZOS itself would comment say that you can play in 1st Person view, if there was going to be problems with seeing the arms and weapons at least. I am sure they may of had problems with it in Alpha but I am guessing they have fixed it or they wouldn't say so much about it. But thats just myself hoping because I'll play in first person while leveling a bit but I personally play in 3rd person even in Skyrim. So either way it doesn't bother me none.

Last I heard they were also animating first person (seeing your arms and weapons and such) but that might just be a rumor, heard it from these forums.

MMO's are all about seeing your surroundings relative to your character. Good luck raiding in first person. I can pretty much guarantee you will die all the time because you can't see harmful AOE spells on the ground or if mobs are behind you, etc.

I think it was in the works but we don't know if it was completed or not.

Thats what I heard as well. And truth be told that may be old information. Like I've said before the people who were at the ESO Alpha event either didn't say anything about the 1st person view or had nothing bad to say about it, if anything at all it was "Yes, you CAN play in 1st person". Now I'm not sure if ZOS told them they couldn't say anything exact on that because I haven't been able to find any for sure information about it not working completely. I guess we'll have to wait and see.

So true but the ability to be able to do this type of thing would really show how much ZOS is actually listening to their fan masses. If you've ever played an Elder Scrolls game then you know it is pretty cool to play in 1st person. Whether it is the best thing to do is irrelevant. ZOS doing this would be like having fan service for a TV Show or a Movie. And it would really make their fans like them even more and they would gain more loyal fans as well as a better reputation if they did this.

So if they do great for them! And I'll use it during solo play but if I am grouped I'll just move over to 3rd person, no biggy, no one loses and everyone wins.

indeed. Expect a lot of people to play this game in first person simply because that's how they played Skyrim. At least until they get tired of dying a lot from standing in the fire.

I am not sure I ever played a mmo that did NOT allow you to zoom into 1st person. Thing is that most people never use it because it is such a handicap. I like to use 1st for inside buildings and tight areas for better movement. But most times it does limit your field of view too much.

I have played a 1st person mmo but, durring alpha testing, the devs added a fixed close 3rd for mêlée combat because of how hard it can be to get a player off your back in pvp. Sometimes you can not know what is on your 6 when you have people in your face no matter how immersed you think you are. And that leads to a fast death and grumpy players.