Patrick,
Some more ideas to throw around are the camera views of Tomb Raiders and Battlefield 1942. Tomb Raiders often holds the camera behind the players character. In some cases the camera will take over for effect and show a zoomed out view or an animated camera path. The player can also press the Ins key in combination with the arrow keys to look around the room from the characters perspective. In battlefield 1942, the mouse is used to look around from a first person perspective while the ‘w,a,s & d’ keys are used to move with. In this case you are allways ready to look around or aim at a target. The game also has a ‘c’ button for tanks and such that allows you to change the camera perspective. Most people do not like the complexity of the Tomb Raiders controls (ie Ins) but It is powerful when you get use to it. There were several mech games where the view was also separated from the move.
It depend alot on the game. I like the third person perspective from high above in games like Ultima False Prophet. Mean Streets changed the perspetive depending on wether you were flying the car, side shooter, or in a room.
If I had to choose it would be where you can see the player and the camera follows behind them and slightly above.
There was also a boxing game in the days were your character was a ghost image. This ghost image can also happen in Tomb Raiders at times.
It is good to hear you are still working on something. If I can help let me know.
