[Megathread] Elder Scrolls Online

[Caiada]

The elder scrolls is first and foremost a single player experience.

I can see an argument here.

In order to make an MMO the current leveling system really isn't going to work.

Why?

The game seems to be taking place before the events of most of the games in the franchise which leaves it open to major lore destruction.

How would their own writers destroy lore for a game that's basically writing history into something that has very little of it? Defining 'lore destruction' would be nice as well, since if it turns out terribly, they can just declare it not canon, cancel it, and pretend it didn't happen.

In order to make an Elder Scrolls game into a MMO you would first have to completely gut it and dumb it down to be very simplistic for a wide variety of reasons, balance being the biggest.

Why? Why does balance need to be a design goal? Why does the amount of people I'm playing with somehow preordain all these elements to exist as though developers have no free reign? Bethesda's large as hell, and ESO doesn't preclude them cancelling the single player series either.

[PBitt]

I'm kind of dissapointed by this, to be honest, assuming they are not going to continue on with the single player games...if not, then I will just shut up and keep an open mind about it, I guess. For myself, I guess I could go with a co-op function, but I'm otherwise perfectly content with my world being my own to explore and no one else's. It's a great single player game and there are times when I don't feel like dealing with other people in any way shape or form. Additionally, the world already has about 10,000 fantasy-based MMOs. I don't doubt the combat might be very nice, but at the same time I don't see many people caring unless they are really into the series.

[Tuqui-tuqui]

Only, none of those would have to change.

People have a very strict, very stupid definition of what an MMO is. And people then wonder why developers keep making WoW clones.

Everyone in here knows what a MMO is. And we are not talking about the countless wow clones because they are after all original IPs for all intents and purposes. We are talking about an established IP that has been around for quite a while, its lore is well known, and whose focus has always been single player experience. Again, that's what this thread is all about.

The elder scrolls is first and foremost a single player experience. In order to make an MMO the current leveling system really isn't going to work. The game seems to be taking place before the events of most of the games in the franchise which leaves it open to major lore destruction.

In order to make an Elder Scrolls game into a MMO you would first have to completely gut it and dumb it down to be very simplistic for a wide variety of reasons, balance being the biggest.

Jebus only knows how Bethesda plan on doing that.

[Xeones]

I can see an argument here.


Why?



How would their own writers destroy lore for a game that's basically writing history into something that has very little of it? Defining 'lore destruction' would be nice as well, since if it turns out terribly, they can just declare it not canon, cancel it, and pretend it didn't happen.



Why? Why does balance need to be a design goal? Why does the amount of people I'm playing with somehow preordain all these elements to exist as though developers have no free reign? Bethesda's large as hell, and ESO doesn't preclude them cancelling the single player series either.

Not sure if you're serious. The current system allows one to be a master mage, master theif, and master warrior all at the same time assuming they spend enough time. That isn't good for balance and will need to be substantially changed.

Also are you really going to ask why balance is needed? I don't even know how I'm taking your comment seriously, any game with pvp needs balance or it becomes practically unplayable.

[Deleted]

people need to really read into this before they post, TES online is not being made by bethesda, also it is set ages before the TES games. This means it should have a reasonably small effect on the current lore and also there will be single player games developed still, YES THERE WILL BE A TES VI.

[Caiada]

Not sure if you're serious. The current system allows one to be a master mage, master theif, and master warrior all at the same time assuming they spend enough time. That isn't good for balance and will need to be substantially changed.

Also are you really going to ask why balance is needed? I don't even know how I'm taking your comment seriously, any game with pvp needs balance or it becomes practically unplayable.

Balance is in degrees. There are a lot of degrees between 'balance at nearly all costs' (i.e. WoW) and 'enough balance to be relatively fun for a few hours of play at a time' (i.e. D3 and a number of older PvP games.)

The Skyrim system does not allow you to do everything all at once. The system could remain fundamentally the same for an MMO. The concepts absolutely would not have to change. Neither would the class system. It could still be first person, and there's no reason I can think of the combat couldn't be reasonably similar either.

---------- Post added 2012-05-03 at 04:48 PM ----------

Everyone in here knows what a MMO is. And we are not talking about the countless wow clones because they are after all original IPs for all intents and purposes. We are talking about an established IP that has been around for quite a while, its lore is well known, and whose focus has always been single player experience. Again, that's what this thread is all about.



Jebus only knows how Bethesda plan on doing that.

SWTOR is 2/3rds a WoW clone, and in end-game, combat, and goals, so are many, many other MMOs. They don't have to be though. I think people here only know what one, maybe two, very specific MMO formulas are.

[Deleted]

Elder scrolls combat in a sandbox and we're going to have a great time.

wait, what, no bethesda?

'Developed by the team at Zenimax Online Studios,'

Oh. God. No.

[Razeo]

Make it a sandbox or it will be FAIL

^I'm with this guy, there's more than enough themepark MMO's out there. Though I would've preferred a Fallout MMO than ES.

[otro]

And a new MMO Train left station... I hope we get a good driver. Lets not crash again mmk?



On topic: it WILL fail, you heard first here!

[SirRobin]

I hope Matt uses the opportunity ESO gives him to make something different. Get away from classes, get away from the theme parks, make something both old and new. Well we'll be getting more info soon.

[Deleted]

It will be easier for people to get a better first impression tomorrow, there's a teaser trailer and screenshots being released so lets wait and see.

I have a feeling the game is far into development, GameInsider have a 12 page exclusive and a months worth of action apparently, now the game as been announced I expect to see alot of it in the comings months.

[Someudontno]

It's funny seeing all the hilariously closed-minded and pessimistic people coming out in full force, especially the people acting like an MMO would ruin the franchise or that Bethesda, the people who created the goddamn series and know more than anybody what it's about, wouldn't know how to make it good.

Aaaaanyway. Looking forward to that feature.

This so much. It might be fantastic, it might be horrible; we won't know until the game is released. I've played every Elder Scrolls game since Arena, and if this game sucks, it still won't ruin the franchise for me. Also, it isn't even being developed by Bethesda itself, if that's any contribution. I wouldn't worry about it.

[Drithien]

Interesting news, and I hope the best for them.

However, the "franchise" part worries me. This seems to be a game not developed by Bethesda, but ZeniMax Online Studios. While that is not necessarily bad, the names do not inspire much confidence for something breathtaking. Mythic, NCSoft, Sony Online Entertainment, are good origins, but not amazing. And considering Bioware's recent failure to create the next World Of WarCraft commercially-successful-levels game, or anything even close to it -which does not make the game a failure, the only failure is in their expectations-, despite the advantages of the intellectual property on which they based their game, the immense budget they worked with, and the amount of time that they had to create the game; it seems that creating something truely successful, both commercially and critically is a very difficult task. Other than the Blizzard of old -not the current Blizzard that is bleeding subscriptions-, and ArenaNet, there has hardly been any development studio to do anything of note in this genre. And understandably so. The creation of a good mmorpg is a massive undertaking, in design, mechanics, budget, management, community-building, etc, and still you have to pray to your favourite Norse god for some good luck, that makes all the difference.

So, since it is not Guild Wars 2 or a hypothetical project of the people that created the initial World Of WarCraft, but the credentials of the crew at ZeniMax Online Studios are of the " safe and mostly routine job" variety, I think it is going to be something good, but nothing exceptional. So I will probably stick to the single-player iterations for now. I do hope they do something amazing though. Please guys do something amazing.

[Moondance]

Rule 81: If it exists, people WILL complain about it.

[Velin]

Dunno if this has been posted here but if not here you are. http://xbigygames.com/the-elder-scro...ts-and-details

Edit: Thought I'd better add what the link is

"Only hours after the first announcement of the Elder Scrolls Online coming from Gameinformer, the full feature has been leaked to the internet, in which Zenimax Online speaks of the “bold new direction” they plan to take the franchise."

oh and there's a few screenshots

[Deleted]

Hmm interesting, nice find Velin, that article confirms the game will be played using a hotbar, I guess that's the general MMO style then.

I will wait for the official announcements and video's tomorrow before updating the first post.

[Deleted]

No, no, no ,no no.

Please can we just have one game that doesn't have to be/ have multiplayer.

Don't play it. There I fixed it.

I'd be happy with a 1-4 coop Elders Scrolls game...not sure about an MMO.

[Khelendros]

Super excited to see how this turns out. Why? One reason. Matt Firor. Those who played DAOC know him. And from the scant details we have gotten his influence is already obvious. Public dungeons sounds interesting though. Public quests ala Warhammer but dungeons instead?

[Byniri]

Not sure how I feel about this. I love the Elder Scrolls series, but I'm not sure how it will translate to an MMO. The Elder Scrolls is a single-player series, and that's the way it was always built.

[Khelendros]

Wow's combat is actually better and more skill based than Elder Scrolls- and that is saying something.

wut?