Third Person, since you have decided already to implement it, should be a separate game. It should include none of the players of First Person, as THEY do not WANT to be in Third Person games. Separated, you will need separate forums for the Third Person group to avoid them being trolled and chided as playing a different gaming experience, in essence a "game" and not a "simulation".
You will need to design a different FOG of War system and HUD display, as First Person view is altered by line of sight, ECM, HEAT vision and the like. It will probably involve a more intensive display set for the Third Person folks and unless you "dumb down" the game or the controls, Third Person will not appeal to the casual gamers you intend to attract. Again, you now have a separate game. Experienced players will be allowed to "pug stomp" if the ELO is not transferrable, but weighted to the experience in either view. Will experience in Third Person transfer to First Person? There will be complaints that time spent on an easier game does not equal time spend in the First Person, and either switching from the former to the latter will involve a complete retraining and restart for the Third Person folks, who may resent that they do not have the skills needed, or you will "buff" their experience an hope they can compete. Either ay, you have two games and as the proficiencies needed are VASTLY different, applying EXP or module development to Third Person players will NOT help them should they chose to switch modes.
It's a different experience, thus a different game, thus transfers and mutual games will not equate to corresponding player development. More time spent in either will increase the separation.
My advice is to split the two games, keep the Hard Core as you promised, and make a separate casual game for those you do not have playing now. It's going to be separate anyway, why not develop it as such??
Bryan Ekman, on 21 March 2013 - 04:39 PM, said:
Honest answer.
The analysis on those who voted, showed that the majority of votes came from a very narrow demographic of our player base. And while they represent some of core players, they did not necessarily represent the opinion of the general user base. The majority of our players never visit, post, or read the forum content, so the poll could be considered weighted in favour of a specific demographic.
Since the majority of players who have an issue with 3rd person come generally from the core players, we elected to address this issue via this forum post to collect all of the concerns and ideas that this group faces or has with 3rd person.