I love almost everything about Skyrim, but there's one thing that bugs me about it: the fact you're "forced" into third person view while riding a horse or playing as a werewolf or vampire lord. I've been playing TES games since Morrowind, and the one thing that set TES games apart was always the first-person perspective - it made you feel like you were the character, as opposed to other RPGs where you were watching the character. I know that I could just avoid those forced third-person situations (and believe me, I avoid 'em like the plague), but these are things I WOULD utilize had I been given the option to play them in first-person. I've never once heard Bethesda address this issue, probably because they don't consider it to be an issue at all. But has anyone ever heard Bethesda's reason for doing things this way, and more importantly, do you think it'll ever be addressed with a patch?

Sadly no, Because of riding a horse up the hills/mountains you can see some crazy clipping from 3rd person. Trust me when I say I want that back though.

I know a mod has been made for first person on horses, but not sure about werewolf or vampire lord.

But I don't think Bethesda will just add these small things in.

Well they did add horseback combat, which could be considered a "small thing" along the same lines.

All I want is to have 1st person horse archery. The game that does it best is mount and blade. Is it seriously that difficult to copy and paste the simple controls and allow for a first person prospective? Maybe in TES VI, VII, or maybe even VIII I'll finally be able to play the way I've always wanted. Maybe I'm asking for something far too technologically advanced for any developer to accomplish.

No.

Yes, we'll see it - in TES VI.

Sadly, I can only see Bethesda adding more third-person only features (dragon mounts most likely being the next example).

There's been a noticeable shift towards third-person with every release in the series, and I don't think it's any coincidence that this shift coincides with consoles becoming the primary platform. Third-person tends to suit a controller with anolog sticks to control the character, while first-person tends to suit the precision of a mouse for aiming and directional attacks.

For some reason 3rd person archery works much better in Mount & Blade than in Skyrim, probably work nice in Tes 6 or Fallout 4 as it work better and better since Morrowind.

Think part of the problem in Skyrim is the fixed first person camera, unlike oblivion I understand its hard to change dynamically in the game, you jump on an horse and the camera goes up 50 cm.

With 90% of their user base on console this makes sense.

I'm a first person player so I'd love this to happen. I used the horse much more in Oblivion.

That's bull, where did you get those numbers?

That's highly exaggerated.

Game Director Todd Howard and Vice President of PR Pete Hines are quoted as saying that.

No it doesn't make sense because TES is meant to be a customizable experience, you can choose to play in 1st or 3rd so they should be equally developed. I can understand technological constraints, but don't even try to explain why one view should be given priority over the other because it defeats the freedom of TES gameplay.

I would also like to see this added in.
Granted playing in third person would be better for riding, but still I would like the option myself.

I know that quote but it has never been confirmed in sales figures, Steam is never taken into account and its sales are very consistent.

Not a chance...

There's no way Beth's top two figure heads claim those numbers and potentially alienate an entire user base of theirs (PC) without it being fairly legitimate. Especially with one of them being the VP of Public Relations. Thatthe would just be bizarre.

I think the problem is, there's only so much they can do with first-person on consoles. Do they keep releasing games with average at best first-person combat and clunky third-person as an afterthought? Or do they take third-person which is more naturally suited to consoles, improve it, and gradually make it the focus of the series?

It's unfortunate for first-person players like myself, but the latter makes the most sense given that console gamers make up a huge chunk of their fanbase.

I believe the estimation was more wishful thinking than verified facts, they are well known Xbox supporters. Let's also not forget the interview was pre-Skyrim, so the sales in discussion were Oblivion's, not Skyrim's. Skyrim is very popular on PC according to Steam peak players and, as it's known fact a lot of the sales have shifted to digital.

Well known xbox supporters? How so?

Show me statistics and I believe you.
Otherwise? Nope. Even without the steam sales the numbers I know are more than 10 percent on the PC.

Even if I was remotely interested in showing stats I wouldn't care. I'm not trying to prove anything. I believe our game director and VP of Public Relations. That's good enough for me.

I've often wondered why we are forced into third person whilst riding a horse. I mean, I can't see any logical reason for why this is? Technical limitations maybe? Seems unlikely considering everything else happens in first person. Seems an odd design choice as well - why limit POV on something so specific?