Well it's a single-player game with no actual hurry in combat, so it doesn't matter if your just a little less efficient in combat in 1st person compared to 3rd person. I personally only go to 3rd person when I'm about to sneak attack kill someone, because my 1st person stealth finisher looks terrible.

there is a distinction between an RPG where you are obstensibly playing yourself, such as i do in TES and Fallout games, and other rpgs where you are playing as someone else. i dont have an issue with the latter but it bugs me if im playing myself in third person view. im assuming its the same for some other people as well.

I have no trouble getting a total 3D spatial awareness of my surroundings in 1st person. I go to a place , I turn around 360 degress or side step, I know what the place is...

I don`t see why that`s so hard to do in 1st person.

But all to their own.

You have got to be joking right? Scary...Skyrim? Please. In my opinion 1st person is a jerky mess,except for archery. Ive played many first person view games over the years, my favorite being Riddike but the 1st person melee fighting in this game just feels off to me. Sorry but everyone doesn't play like you do, and the scared comment was just out and out moronic.

I use 1st person only for Archery and if i want to enjoy the landscape without the head of my char in the way...

The thing is when I play Fallout or Skyrim or Mass Effect I roleplay as me in that situation and they're all 3rd person.

the problem some of you have is in understanding EXACTLY what i wrote.

I asked what his real reasons for 3rd person was. I said some people find 1st person view scary, this is a fact as I`ve seen people post and say why they play 3rd person. I didn`t say you or he found 1st person scary, did I?

1st person view is more immersive, more immediate and much more like being in a real world...

I'm not saying you're wrong. I'm just saying that I understand what the poster was trying to say. What is this incessant need people have to argue about EVERYTHING?

This is true for most games...however Skyrim....I don't see it.

You`re doing it, why must you argue back??

I never said 3rd person was immersive. The truth is, with current technology, there really isn't any way to feel like you're really there. I guess if you try really hard...

I always used to play Everquest in 1st person too, mainly because the original game's non-first person cameras were pretty much useless for actual gameplay. Eventually, they included a "directly behind" camera angle that allowed you to see around you, yet still be focused in the exact same direction as your character. I still stuck to 1st person for a long time, because by then, I was so used to it. Eventually, after playing several other games, each of which had a much better 3rd person camera, I got to where I much preferred 3rd person, and have used that much more than 1st. It hasn't cost me any immersiveness.

I began playing RPGs with D&D back in the 70s. Imersiveness then came from your own imagination, with absolutely NO help from the computer. So to me, that's STILL the main source of immersiveness. I feel like I'm actually the character not because of what my eyes see, but what my mind sees. It's just as easy (actually far easier) to imagine that I am the hero fighting the dragon when playing a computer game with great graphics as it was to imagine the same thing when my entire vision of the dragon was the description given by the dungeon master, as well as my own preconceptions of what a dragon should look like.

As someone else mentioned, turning the mouse to see your periphery is like turning your whole body. Your character's head doesn't work independently from his feet, it seems, not to mention his eyeballs. I can keep facing the screen on my laptop to type this message as my eyeballs can pan left to look at my work PC, to see if I've gotten any new emails. Not only does my body not have to move, I don't even have to turn my head. The character on the screen doesn't have this capability, and it's really painfully obvious. Perhaps some people have the ability to overlook such a glaring problem, but I can't. That issue actually ruins immersiveness for me.

On the other hand, 3rd person doesn't add to the immersiveness, either. But it does have other advantages- it allows me to watch the beautiful animations that gamesas went to so much trouble to create, for one. It also allows me to get a much better feel of the situation in combat. I can better judge how close I actually am to the Draugr I'm fighting. And I know what you're getting at- you think I do it just because it allows me to "see" behind me. You can believe what you want, but I personally don't gain much advantage from that. Maybe it's just me, but I can really only focus hard on one thing at a time, and while it may register that there is another mob behind me, my brain can't really mutli-task well enough to do anything about it, because it's focused on the fight in front of me. In other words, I may be aware there is another mob beating on me, but putting that knowledge to use is somewhat beyond my capability.

I do find playing Skyrim in 3rd person more challenging than other games, mostly because the camera isn't directly behind the character. It's off to one side, a bit. (I wonder if a mod can fix that?) That's what makes using ranged attacks in 3rd person so difficult. I think I may start trying to master that as well, though. It will be a good challenge, and once I have it down, I won't have the issue with forgetting to change perspective.

Wow I can't people are actually arguing on which is more immersive....it's a PREFERENCE PEOPLE.

LOL! Good God.

I think it really boils down to how you play the game, not in which view you play it. When I play table top, I have drawings of my character, and I imagine how he would be best dressed for various occasions, I don't really worry about whether I see things in 1st person or 3rd person view when moving about. Sometime I picture him overlooking an area, and that would count as 3rd person I suppose, and sometimes I go into "1st" person and act like that. It all depends on the situation. Roleplaying in a computer game is really not roleplaying, but it's as close as you can come without playing actual table top. How you do it is entirely up to you, which is the real essence of roleplaying. Not whether it's more "immersive" (god i hate that word) to play 1st or 3rd person.

I like the third person view finishig animations.

I've probably used first person on this game once or twice. On Fallout 3 (IIRC) I did use it more, mainly for combat, but I prefer 3rd person much, much more to first person.

Melee = Third Person
Bows = First Person (it won't work otherwise)
Offensive Magic = First Person

No cut and dried answer for everything.

I'm in third person unless I'm doing some archery or magic tossing.

I'd love to get a mod that allowed locking onto an enemy so you can circle strafe, and another mod that automatically when to 1st person when you're talking to someone.

On the PS3 I never use 3rd person combat. It feels so clunkly and inaccurate.

On the PC I love it and cant get any sort of decent depth perception in 1st person. Go figure.

I only ever switch to 3rd person to see myself in my armor. Everything else is first person where I am allowed. In fact, I can't stand using a horse because of the forced third person view.

I can't even imagine using 3rd person for combat.

I prefer third person, I enjoy the experience a lot more and get to see how good i look.

A lock-on system like in Zeno Clash would be interesting. It would make you hit harder and dodge easier against the locked opponent but if there were others around you'd have to be light on your feet or at least tactful to not get your head smashed in from blows coming from a point you can't see because you're locked on someone.

I see what you did there...


And yes, I'm starting to like third person better simply because there isn't really a point to first person in the first place. There is no locational damage or blocking and now you normally have a crosshair in third person. In fact, third person lets you see more of the battlefield than first person.

I play 98% of the game in third person so yes, I do agree .

Depends on the type of the combat. For me, logically enoug, melee combat is best in 3rd person (no need for precision), and archery is best in 1st person (in need of precision).