[Megathread] Elder Scrolls Online

[Val the Moofia Boss]

TTH has produced a conspiracy theory that Zenimax was planning to go F2P from the start - they launched big as a fleeting sub MMORPG, put out a bite-sized update every month and a half to keep the subs happy, and then decided that it was time to go to their long term, sustainable F2P model once the burst of income from the sub dropped.

For once, I agree with them.

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It really isn't. LFR seems to be tuned easier than normal dungeons.

In normal dungeons, you can stand in the fire and live. In LFR you can stand in the fire and die.

[Lane]

I don't see what it matters. I personally received a lot of enjoyment for my $15/mo. in ESO, certainly more than other MMOs. If anyone thought it wasn't worth the money then they should have canceled, no one was forcing them to sub.

[Edge-]

TTH has produced a conspiracy theory that Zenimax was planning to go F2P from the start - they launched big as a fleeting sub MMORPG, put out a bite-sized update every month and a half to keep the subs happy, and then decided that it was time to go to their long term, sustainable F2P model once the burst of income from the sub dropped.

For once, I agree with them.

Honestly, it had been a while since I last read TTH but I have no clue what the fuck is going on over there anymore. They do next to no editorial, and what little there is is generally awful opinion pieces written that reek more of some highschool blogger than anything else.

As to the article itself...

No, no MMO launches as a subscription based MMO with the intent of going F2P afterwards. The whole reason to launch with a subscription is because they want to try for that elusive "big hit" that will net them millions of subs and a massive revenue stream. They want the subscription to work.

But now that F2P transitions are a thing for games that either do poorly or just underperform (compared to expectations) as subscription MMO's, they have a fallback plan if the sub doesn't work out. They can have a loose "contingency" plan in place (or at least should) so that if the business guys decide the transition needs to happen, they have a framework to work from and aren't caught scrambling to put something together.

As for the "bite-sized" updates, they've released a decent amount of content and some pretty major overhauls/improvements/additions to the game since it launched, with more scheduled to hit in the next few updates. The only other MMO that's kept up a release schedule anywhere near this fast paced for more than a few updates in recent years has been Rift (GW2 as well, but its bi-weekly updates are far smaller and their feature patches come during long breaks in content), so if anything ESO is a very rare example of a MMO developer actually holding up to their promises for content/feature updates for the better part of the first year (many like SWTOR, WildStar, or TSW keep up that pace for 1-2 updates then end up falling back to much slower schedules for new content) and doing a pretty solid job of responding to a lot of the criticism/community feedback since launch.

Seriously, I think that whoever is running the editorial at TTH nowadays (I think Sardu, forget when he took over though) is an escapee from the loony bin and has rounded up all his loony bin buddies to write for him. And I'm not talking about the interesting, funny, silly people from the loony bin. I'm talking about the ones that are really depressing to see : (

[Deleted]

I see you say 'better part of the year' I still think ESO holds on to that promise. While update 6 lasts longer then usual (roughly twice the time of an update before) it does have 2 x as much content ánd the holiday season was in between.

So imo they are allowed to take a bit longer, one can't expect content every 6 weeks in the holiday period in my opinion.

[Edge-]

I see you say 'better part of the year' I still think ESO holds on to that promise. While update 6 lasts longer then usual (roughly twice the time of an update before) it does have 2 x as much content ánd the holiday season was in between.

So imo they are allowed to take a bit longer, one can't expect content every 6 weeks in the holiday period in my opinion.

Yeah, I write December off for MMO developers. Most are closed down for at least 2 solid weeks, and even before that they're working with skeleton crews because a ton of the studios take their holiday that month. So when I'm calculating time between updates, I go "November, January, February etc."

[Lane]

Bought a month of eso to try it again. It says a lot about an MMO when it feels even more boring than WoD.

Game's not for you then.

[Therec]

Bought a month of eso to try it again. It says a lot about an MMO when it feels even more boring than WoD.

Yeah ESO is a niche game. They're not trying to make a decent game for millions of players, they're making a great game for a much smaller crowd. Definitely not for everyone, and in their case it's a good thing.

[Edge-]

Yeah ESO is a niche game. They're not trying to make a decent game for millions of players, they're making a great game for a much smaller crowd. Definitely not for everyone, and in their case it's a good thing.

This is not true at all. It's very much a mainstream focused game aimed at getting millions of players. That's why they use the Elder Scrolls IP (which has seen mixed responses from fans), why they sank hundreds of millions into the development of the game, and are releasing it on PS4/Xbox One in addition to PC.

They're absolutely aiming for millions of players. To do anything else with the budget, company, and IP they have would be financial suicide and a big blemish to the integrity of the company/IP.

[Tierbook]

This is not true at all. It's very much a mainstream focused game aimed at getting millions of players. That's why they use the Elder Scrolls IP (which has seen mixed responses from fans), why they sank hundreds of millions into the development of the game, and are releasing it on PS4/Xbox One in addition to PC.

They're absolutely aiming for millions of players. To do anything else with the budget, company, and IP they have would be financial suicide and a big blemish to the integrity of the company/IP.

They were going to be making an MMO one way or another the choices were ESO or WO, Westeros online, I'm pretty sure that was the only point of the studio.

[Therec]

This is not true at all. It's very much a mainstream focused game aimed at getting millions of players. That's why they use the Elder Scrolls IP (which has seen mixed responses from fans), why they sank hundreds of millions into the development of the game, and are releasing it on PS4/Xbox One in addition to PC.

They're absolutely aiming for millions of players. To do anything else with the budget, company, and IP they have would be financial suicide and a big blemish to the integrity of the company/IP.

That may have been what they're aiming at but its not the current state of the game. Maybe that will change if/when the console version is released and most of the core system updates are finished.

I guess the best way im seeing it is "Im a player who just hit VR14, tell me what i can do and why its better than what other similar MMOs already offer."

[wombinator04]

As long as meaningful content gets rolled out every update, there's no reason to go B2P/F2P other than trying to milk money out of as many people as humanly possible.

At the moment meaningful content has been getting released and a lot more of it is coming next update.

[Edge-]

As long as meaningful content gets rolled out every update, there's no reason to go B2P/F2P other than trying to milk money out of as many people as humanly possible.

There is if it's not making money, or more specifically making enough money for Bethesda, and their numbers folks project higher revenue with a different business model.

At the moment meaningful content has been getting released and a lot more of it is coming next update.

I agree, ZMO has done a fantastic job supporting the game since launch. But I can't help but shake the feeling that they're running in the red for most of the time to get the game in-shape for the console launch, which will be the real test to see how the game performs.

[Tierbook]

As long as meaningful content gets rolled out every update, there's no reason to go B2P/F2P other than trying to milk money out of as many people as humanly possible.

At the moment meaningful content has been getting released and a lot more of it is coming next update.

Supposedly they are remaking the Introduction of the game in cold harbor, I guess they plan on making it closer to what was in beta. Another minor thing that will be nice to see is the completion of updating the delves, so far they have update all the delves in Cold Harbor, and the final 2 leveling zones of each faction, they have also updated 1 delve in each factions first zone. Once all the delves in all the zones are updated it will add a lot more variety to the game.

[Lane]

It's very much a mainstream focused game aimed at getting millions of players.

It's still a polarizing game. People tend to either love it or hate it. Plus, I could argue there's no such thing as a "mainstream" MMO player.

I would never recommend ESO for the player who believes MMOs only begin at end game, for example. However, ESO has a lot to offer the player who's more interested in the journey than the destination.

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Supposedly they are remaking the Introduction of the game in cold harbor, I guess they plan on making it closer to what was in beta.

Other than reduced weapon choices I could barely tell the difference between beta & live so... ?

[Tierbook]

It's still a polarizing game. People tend to either love it or hate it. Plus, I could argue there's no such thing as a "mainstream" MMO player.

I would never recommend ESO for the player who believes MMOs only begin at end game, for example. However, ESO has a lot to offer the player who's more interested in the journey than the destination.

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Other than reduced weapon choices I could barely tell the difference between beta & live so... ?

They got rid of at least one room, also they are supposedly making lockpicking a required skill to escape or something

[Lane]

I miss lockpicking. Chests are worth a noticeable amount of EXP, probably another reason why I was usually overleveled in zones.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

I miss lockpicking.

*dies*

Never, ever bring up lockpicking again! It is a horrid, frustrating, agonizing, head-ache inducing mini game who's creator ought to be shot.

[Lane]

I thought it was a fun little mini-game. :P I often wished I'd get master locks more often, most of the others weren't much of a challenge.

[Valeron]

they took lockpicking away?

[Lane]

I haven't played ESO since WoD, hence "missing" it. As far as I know it hasn't been removed.

Good news is due to early and extreme onset of boredom in WoD I may have convinced my husband to give ESO another try, yay! How he's not bored with WoW yet, I have no idea. We may end up having to come to some weird compromise of alternating months for these two games. :P