t depends on the game and, in my mind, has a strong tie to the source of the narrative. In a third person game, like Mass Effect, you are playing as a character, which creates a bit of extra distance between the player and hero, but that mental distance allows the player to invest in the hero without identifying with him as strongly, and thus role play better. In a first person game, like Half Life, you are the hero, which makes it easier to become immersed in the environment, but makes role playing harder, because when "Gordon Freeman" is just a mask behind which the player looks out it makes it harder for the player to have Gordon do anything the player wouldn't do. Following this, third person works better when the player character is a fully fleshed out character in his own right (like Shepard) in part because of the distance and in part because of the subtle reminder that there is a character there which the player is watching only through a camera. When you have a silent protagonist like Gordon, or when the goal is for You, The Player, to be the hero like in the Elder Scrolls series, a game should have you looking out of the character's eyes. Similarly, in most multiplayer shooters the PC is barely characterized at all and is intended as nothing more than an outlet for the violent instincts of a player, which would make third person a generally counterproductive mode. On the other hand, I don't often get video game induced motion sickness, but when I do, it is from playing a first-person game. I have never vomited as hard as I vomited from pushing myself through the twisty, undersea corridors of Bioshock.