Now that the game is out - would someone be able to advise me as to whether you can play in 3rd person? I hate the first-person perspective in most games and the ability to play in 3rd person is somewhat imperative to me.

As far as I know, you can't currently.

That's quite a shame. The reason I ask is because first person perspectives make me nauseous and are hard for me to play. This is part of the reason why I pay Ark, Conan, etc. in 3rd person. I guess I'll just have to go back to them for now. I was really looking forward to trying this game =\ . If they implement a 3rd person perspective I will buy it immediately but, until then, it's a no-go for me.

Yeah, Third Person perspective is high on the list for update suggestions for me. It's quite fun playing in third person in my opinion, but until now, there hasn't been that update.