Elder Scrolls: Online

[Crispy]

Not much info yet. It exists. It will be released in 2013.

http://www.gameinformer.com/b/featu...-cover-revealed-the-elder-scrolls-online.aspx

Developed by the team at Zenimax Online Studios, The Elder Scrolls Online merges the unmatched exploration of rich worlds that the franchise is known for with the scale and social aspects of a massively multiplayer online role-playing game. Players will discover an entirely new chapter of Elder Scrolls history in this ambitious world, set a millennium before the events of Skyrim as the daedric prince Molag Bal tries to pull all of Tamriel into his demonic realm.

 

[agricola]

as well as a peek at the player-driven PvP conflict that pits the three player factions against each other in open-world warfare over the province of Cyrodiil and the Emperor's throne itself.

It was at this point in the article that my heart sank. Why "player factions"? Why not just let people shoot whoever they want in the face with a glass arrow?

 

[ohmyliver]

I'm hoping it turns out to be a terrible game, so I'm not even remotely tempted to play it.

 

[Crispy]

It was at this point in the article that my heart sank. Why "player factions"? Why not just let people shoot whoever they want in the face with a glass arrow?

Me too. This could have been a fantasy EVE

 

[Voley]

I hope you can rename enchanted weapons (Ebony Helmet of A Massive Wanker, for example) and leave them for other adventurers to find.

 

[Shippou-Sensei]

I'm not sure if i like the idea

it has potential for a massive world with lots of races and organisations buuuuuut

MMOs kinda suck the uniquness out of games

 

[Crispy]

Details:

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012-05-04-the-elder-scrolls-online-preview-leaked-detailed

Yes, it's WoW in ES lore dressing. That can fuck off then.

 

[Random]

Has this period of Tamriel already been made into a game? When was Arena set?

 

[ohmyliver]

Details:

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012-05-04-the-elder-scrolls-online-preview-leaked-detailed

Yes, it's WoW in ES lore dressing. That can fuck off then.

*breaths sigh of relief* thank god for that, not tempted at all now.

 

[Stigmata]

Sounds like shit sauce. Rumours that one of the factions would be Nords/Dunmer/Argonians, ie three races that are supposed to hate each other. This reminds me of how much I used to enjoy the Warcraft games before WoW devoured the franchise.

 

[Vintage Paw]

Seems like it's been in development for some time now, so I'm hopeful that means it won't impact on any future development of the next TES game.

Not that I'm going to be done with Skyrim any year soon.

 

[Epona]

This has been in the works for fucking ages, but there was a bit of legal whatnots going on for a while (wrt Bethesda/Zenimax vs some other company, they sold the rights to someone else (Interplay? I could be wrong but that rings a bell) a few years back and fairly recently took them to court because they weren't delivering on the contract, or something like that) and the rights for an MP game reverted to Bethesda/Zenimax. This is just off the top of my head, stuff that I recall, not all details may be accurate.

But yeah it doesn't surprise me.

And I am not going to be playing any online MP game any time ever, even if it is Elder Scrolls.

It shouldn't interfere with any future Elder Scrolls games (or Fallout 4) because as far as I can work out, it's not being developed by BGS, but a different studio under the Bethesda/Zenimax umbrella - Bethesda Game Studio and Bethesda/Zenimax are NOT the same thing, the former is a games developer who write/program TES and Fallout games, Bethesda/Zenimax are a publisher with a wide range of interests/business concerns, including BGS, but they have a lot of other studios under their wing. This game is being developed by Zenimax Online Studio, not Bethesda Game Studio (who do the single player Elderscrolls games and the Fallout series) so I just tend to view this as a spin-off. I hope.

 

[Citizen66]

I don't think it will be any good. There's already wow and others for people who want that. If anything, i would like to see elder scrolls with a co-op option. Like you can in borderlands. Would probably be too complicated to implement though on games of that size.

 

[FridgeMagnet]

As others have said, what's the point if it's just going to be a wowalike clone of every other MMO? This is what happens when you reflexively follow market behaviour and dumb consumer requests ("omg where is the multiplayer") instead of having an actual plan.

 

[Buddy Bradley]

Beta tester signup is now open: http://signup.elderscrollsonline.com/

 

[Vintage Paw]

Aye, I signed up yesterday. I'll certainly be interested in trying it out.

 

[Bernie Gunther]

I know someone who should know who says that the faction warfare bit is currently shite and that the devs are in complete denial about the potential popularity of that aspect of the game, being much more PvE focussed.

 

[Vintage Paw]

Oh dear.

Well from my limited experience, you end up with different types of players. You have those for whom the whole game hinges on the quality of PvP, its balance, its rewards, its ability to stay fresh and interesting (and within that group of people, who have those who are so super l33t that they moan if they can't rule the roost with ease, and those who moan if it's not easy for everyone whatever the level). Then you have those for whom end game PvE is the most important aspect, where attention must be given to raids, dungeons, lewtz, with new content being brought out almost constantly for them not to whinge that the devs simply don't care about them at all. Then you have those for whom the most important part is the journey - although they tend to be far rarer - who basically want to enjoy the somewhat casual process of playing through the levelling content, maybe doing a bit of PvP for a lark, maybe teaming up for a dungeon or two, but who would quite like there to be more story and mission content added - this group tends to be the least loud and obnoxious.

Is any game ever going to please them all?

 

[FridgeMagnet]

That just sounds like WoW players. Does it offer anything you can't get from WoW? (or any of the other clones)

 

[Epona]

Yes I know I posted earlier that I would never play an MMO - but I've changed my mind a bit in the intervening months.

Why can't I sign up for the beta? I complete all the details, and then when I submit I just get 'turn back, adventurer' (ha ha very funny).. have I missed the deadline or something? I'll be really pissed off if I have, given that I was on the bloody official forums regularly for months, as soon as I decide to give it a break they ask people to sign up for the beta....

Edit to add: managed it in Firefox, their sign up page doesn't work with Opera, not yet even been selected to take part in the Beta, but that is My First Fucking Bug Report - make sure your bloody site including your sign up page works with all popular browsers!!!!

 

[Shippou-Sensei]

i've signed up for the beta

i'm a bit "meh" about it all. i've played a lott of MMOs lately and they are all.... MMOs i know you could say the same about FPSs or JRPG but in this case it really does feel like all MMOs are the same. there are a few that keep some originality of story for a bit longer but i think ES:O will need to pull something special out of th ebad to get me intrerested

 

[agricola]

but i think ES:O will need to pull something special out of th ebad to get me intrerested

The sad thing is that it really wouldnt need something special - all they would have to do is make it as sandbox as the rest of the Elder Scrolls games have been, something which has been proved by EVE to be doable in MMOs.

 

[Random]

The sad thing is that it really wouldnt need something special - all they would have to do is make it as sandbox as the rest of the Elder Scrolls games have been, something which has been proved by EVE to be doable in MMOs.

A million times this. Medieval/magic EVE, with factions and high/low security areas.

 

[Epona]

My main concerns are: 1) that they are going to mangle the lore, and 2) that it's not going to be full/free exploration.

1) - We already know that Cyrodil isn't going to be a jungle, and the possibility of it ever having been a jungle has been handwaved by ZOS saying it was "a transcription error". We know that Nords and Dunmer and Argonians are in the same faction, which evokes a slight "wtf?" from me.

2) - Territory (other than the PvP province of Cyrodil) is going to be faction-locked, at least at release - if you think you're going to be able to explore ALL of Tamriel with one character, think again. You'll have to decide between Ebonheart Pact (Nord, Dunmer, Argonian - restricted to Skyrim, Morrowind, Black Marsh); Daggerfall Covenant (Redguard, Breton, Orc - restricted to Hammerfell, High Rock); or Aldmeri Dominion (Altmer, Bosmer, Khajiit - restricted to Summerset Isles, Valenwood, Elsweyr). You'll have to have Alts to explore the entire landmass. Having said that, I am quite happy to have more than one character, but I know not everyone feels that way.

 

[tommers]

How are they going to handle having thousands of players in each world?

AFAIK the main attraction of skyrim seems to be the exploration, which is fine when it's just you as the 'active' explorer but what about when every dungeon is found within an hour of release?

How does WOW deal with it? I suppose it's the same isn't it? I don't play MMOs.

 

[agricola]

How are they going to handle having thousands of players in each world?

AFAIK the main attraction of skyrim seems to be the exploration, which is fine when it's just you as the 'active' explorer but what about when every dungeon is found within an hour of release?

How does WOW deal with it? I suppose it's the same isn't it? I don't play MMOs.

It is going to be awful.

 

[tommers]

It is going to be awful.

Mate, I didn't even like skyrim, I'm not holding out any hopes for this.

 

[Bernie Gunther]

What I've been hearing from someone who should know is that it's a clueless company that's nothing much to do with Elder Scrolls, who have no clue about PvP and are ignoring the advice of testers with lots of DAOC, Conan, WAR, Eve, GW etc PvP xperience.

... driven to a large degree by investors who only really understand WoW as success.

 

[Stigmata]

1) - We already know that Cyrodil isn't going to be a jungle, and the possibility of it ever having been a jungle has been handwaved by ZOS saying it was "a transcription error". We know that Nords and Dunmer and Argonians are in the same faction, which evokes a slight "wtf?" from me.

The elves look shite too. The mad, crystalline fractal city of Alinor looks like bloody Rivendell

 

[agricola]

... driven to a large degree by investors who only really understand WoW as success.

Idiot investors, more like. There is no point in paying millions to bring out another clone of WoW because people will just go and play the real thing.

That said, the tragedy of WoW's financial success is such that even genuinely innovative games get crushed - as a game, there are large parts of WoW which are inferior to some of the other games that it has ended up killing. Take WAR for example, which had much better PvP than WoW has ever had (especially the keep sieges), and which has much better design elements to it, and yet its down to three servers worldwide now.