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Zombie MMO - First Person or Third Person?
kevin_123
Member Posts: 52
Which would you prefer and why? (Both would be actual shooters, third person would be similar to Gears of War)
First Person
++ More precise controlls and a better 'feel'
++ See everything from your characters perspective, become your character, don't watch him from behind.
-- Interacting with environment and viewing envronment is difficult.
Third Person
++ Better interaction with environment
++ Better view of both your character and your surroundings
-- Shooting doesn't 'feel' as good.
Comments
A mix, as seen in Rainbow Six: Vegas 1/2.
Where the main part of the game takes part in first person, but when you take cover behind things it'll switch to third person.
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I would say it would have to be first person. One of the biggest attractions of the zombie genre is that they can come at you from any direction. Being able to see in a third-person perspective means you'd rarely ever get surprised when someone came at you from behind or down a blind alley or whatever.
Besides, who doesn't want to feel like they're really taking a chainsaw to the closest zombie?
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Third person with a fog of war effect so you don't see things behind you. This way you keep your peripheral vision (losing that is the one thing I hate about first person games).
Have to agree on 1st person.
Zombie games are only really fun when they get your heart pumping and adrenaline rushing so bad that it makes you fumble to controls
There are 3 types of people in the world.
1.) Those who make things happen
2.) Those who watch things happen
3.) And those who wonder "What the %#*& just happened?!"
Most definately first person. As been said enchances the 'scariness' aspect of it. Plus you get a more visiceral feel of the combat. I find myself often hiding behind corners and camming around it to sorta peak into the next area. Plus third person cameras can sometimes get annoyingly too close, too far or start clipping into the walls or objects if coded wrong.
First person seems an eaiser and more asctetic choice considering the Genre.
First person is great for run and gun shooters like Quake, Unreal Tournament, etc. But for mmo third person is the best which is why you mostly see mmo in third person.
In your breakdown of postives and negatives for first person, you say more precise and better 'feel' and then as negative interacting and viewing environment is difficult which is a contradiction.
Also, first person doesn't help me get into character. It would be like pretending to be a wookie with my shorts, polo shirt, and baseball cap on versus a full wookie outfit. I like to see my character to get and stay in character. The visual cue of what my character looks like helps me to maintain the fiction.
Also from the rp aspect, I like to play dress up with my characters. I like to coordinate their outfits and admire the awesome gear that I have acquired in my adventures.
The other thing I don't like about first person is the blind spot. I always feel like I have blinders on either side of my head. In real life you have a wider viewing angle. This isn't so much of a problem in Quake style games because you are moving very fast. But mmo's first person view tends to feel very slow, plodding and kind of awkward in navigating through interior environments.
Ofcourse, there are lot of mmos so if they make one to appease the fps view crowd that is fine. I'd give it a try to just see how it plays, but it wouldn't be my preference that's for sure.
The option to have both first person and third person would be sweet.
I would say first person. Not being able to see your environment is actually a good thing in this case, especially if you're making a serious game because it makes you begin to feel afraid and check all around you. it really adds to the atmosphere of the game itself. Also, I'm not sure what you mean by "not able to interact with the environment as well"...can you explain that?
Not really a contradiction.. what I meant was that it's more precise as you can see things right in front of you where as with third person that has always been a problem, close range combat tend to suck. Whilst the negative means that interacting with the evironment and viewing the environment isn't the same, managing your equipment and inventory would have to mean toogling between the locked First person and somehow 'Releasing' the mouse and bringing the menus up, could be done very effectively but could also be done in an annoying way.
I see your arguments for Third Person, but I have to agree with most others, shooters just don't feel right in third person, having third person would close the target audience a lot, I'm sure there are a LOT of FPS players that would like a game that has the gameplay of a FPS but you actually get something out of it, there are no legends in FPS, there is no epicness, it's just join a server, play for a while, even if you're awesome you don't tend to get a reaction as everyone seem to have lucky days when they get 20 kills in a row. Also FPS tend to be, join and start playing instantly, there is no time to check other people's score and see what they're doing (At least not in Deathmatch).
Oh and Zombie atmosphere would be better in FPS, having to constantly turn around, slowly going round a building corner taking a small peak, in third person people would just run around paning the camera in circles, round corners, through windows etc.
AW
What I meant was things like your inventory, in MMOs you tend to move your mouse around organising your loot, items, inventory etc. in a FPS it's just run and shoot, your mouse is 'locked' as the crosshair, which means there would need to be constant toogling between them, I suppose this could be solved relatively easy..
AW
Every game should have both. The player can choose his preference. Why force one or the other? I can understand the atmostpheric appeal of first person, but I've never played a single game in that mode and felt it offered me as much field of vision as my first-person rl vision does.
Problem with both is that having third person gives an advantage as it allows the player to have a wider view, see if someone sneaks up behind him, and in most cases allows to zoom in/out and pan the camera around.
This means that people that prefer to play First Person (I think the majority) would be at a disadvantage, meaning that they either play the way they think is the most fun and get a disadvantage, or play so that they don't have a disadvantage but end up playing in third person which they don't enjoy as much.
It would also mean implementing them both which takes extra time, unless you have WOWs zoom in/out thing but lets face it, it sucks.
AW
Unless you're playing PvP, what's wrong with having a wider view? If you want to restrict yourself to first person only, go ahead, no one's stopping you. But why remove the option from others? Also, many MMOs other than Wow allow for both. In CoH, for example, it's the 'B' key by default to jump back and forth between views.
Over-the-shoulder or above the head - you can't zoom out, but you can still see your character. Aiming is like first-person. Holding down a key would make the mouse release control of the crosshairs and a new cursor would appear instead, meaning you could move around to click on UI elements.
Or, honestly, have both. I don't have a problem with that (providing there's no PvP).
If there is no PVP then yeah sure, but if there is PVP then I think there should only be one, or if you want it to be first person orientated, then there can ONLY be first person.
Think of it like this, if someone proposes that jetpacks are implemented in WOW and some think this is a good idea and some think it's a bad idea. The people FOR backpacks say "Hey, no one is making you use the jetpacks" but using the jetpacks give you an advantage over people that don't use jetpacks. So now people that don't want to use a jetpack have to use it in order to compete with the people that do.
An extreme example but hopefull you get what I mean. If there is no PVP what-so-ever then it's fine but very few games don't have pvp...
Or think of a FPS like counterstrike or CallofDuty.. then letting some people play in third person, people playing in Third Person will have an advantage. It disrupts the variables which much be kept constant for fairplay.
AW
Since you said they'd be shooters, I voted First Person. It depends more on the gameplay than the setting. If the combat was heavily based on melee, I'd probably vote 3rd person. For shooter combat, I much prefer first person.
First person is more ideal for a zombie game for the immersion and fear factor it adds, but it only makes sense if the gameplay works well in first person.