File this one under things we didn’t see coming: ArenaNet has just announced that it will fulfill a long-running fan request by adding a first-person point-of-view to Guild Wars 2. The new feature goes live on March 10th and will be accompanied by a field-of-view slider, over-the-shoulder vs. vertical position sliders, camera snap collision sensitivity, and camera tracking by character height.

First-person Camera: Zooming in all the way will allow players to experience a first-person view. First-person mode is available while standing in place, walking, running, jumping, playing PvP and just about anything else. There aren’t any restrictions on where first-person can be used. Field of View: A much requested feature, the field of view slider is a setting that will allow players to adjust how much can be seen in the game world. Players can use a slider to shrink or enlarge the field of view.

Position Slider: The Position Slider has been split into two different options, horizontal position and vertical position. The horizontal position slider will offset the camera to the left and right. An ‘over-the-shoulder’ view can be created as well to keep the center of the screen clear. The vertical position sets the maximum height the camera can go when the camera is at maximum distance from a character. The actual camera height will adjust the more you zoom in to ensure that your character is always on the screen. Collision Sensitivity: When enabled, this setting will adjust how much stuff (trees, walls, rocks, etc.) needs to be between a player’s character and camera before the camera snaps in. Character Height: No matter the race or size, the camera will now focus on a character’s head. This is going to give norn players a relatively taller feeling than their asura-playing friends. This change might affect players who frequent jumping puzzles, so to counteract this, there is an adjust camera to character height toggle. When unchecked, the camera will move to a consistent position above the character’s feet, regardless of how big or small the character is.

ANet has promised a demo of the new camera features during its 3 p.m. Friday Ready Up livestream. The studio is also in the middle of a new “app challenge,” during which $15,000 in prizes is offered to app developers who create Guild Wars 2-related apps. So get forth and make us some stuff!

[Source: ArenaNet press release. Massively Overpowered was given permission to run this piece early.]