The first-person perspective has come to prominence over the years as the shooter genre has fully come into its own on consoles -- in no small part, I think, because developers realized it was far easier to work with than the third-person (remember all those tricky camera issues cropping up in the last-gen?)
There also seems to be an impression that it's the most immersive. You can look around a game world as if with your own eyes, you can see your own hands and sometimes even more (see the otherwise-lamentable Alone in the Dark's neato inventory system).
But there's something to be said for being able to see your character, right?
Japanese RPGs, which rely on rich visuals and groups of intricate characters, are almost exclusively third-person -- if there's such a thing as a first-person JRPG, please enlighten me. Western RPGs, on the other hand, are in the large majority first-person. How strange to see such a divergent approach in what is effectively a comparable genre.
Personally, I enjoy games that use the perspective in creative ways. EA told me that the reason for all the reflective surfaces in Mirror's Edge is to allow the player to see Faith, an interesting nod to the importance of self-visualizatoin. And remember how meticulously some of us arranged portals in order to get a glimpse of Chell? In BioShock, I think the first-person perspective is ideal -- your character lacks a sense of self as a narrative necessity, and is simply hands, weapons. Not to mention the fact that Jack might look like his dad, thereby spoiling some things.
Anyhow, I bring it up because my colleague, Game Developer editor Brandon Sheffield, wrote an editorial at Gamasutra pointing out why it's somewhat misleading to assume that first-person games are automatically more immersive, and he discusses some of the actual barriers to immersion he feels they can create.
Do you have a preference? If so, why? If it depends on the genre, which types of games do you think are more suited to one perspective versus another? Vote in the sidebar poll too, willya?
