The Elder Scrolls Online Will Finally Bring The Elder Scrolls Online

Damn. I don't like mmo's so this news does annoy me somewhat. On the plus side I guess I can save a bit of money not playing it. Like star wars the old republic. The thing I like about the elder scrolls series is the freedom and the fact that in this big world, I'm the hero and I don't have to bloody team up with people to do anything. I can do what i damn well want. Pretty sure an mmo would take all that away and charge me extra for the privalege.

I remember not long ago someone anncouning they had no intention of a multi-player elder scrolls game. Then I heard someone say it was. Not its confirmed. Booooo!

@Undead_Fiend said:

One thing that will possibly make or break this is how will the combat work, surely it cant be just the WoW style command prompts, that'd be really tedious theres too many of those type of MMOs

That's exactly what the preview describes it as.

Although it would be cool to have all of Tamriel to explore, I can't imagine going from TES levels of freedom to grindy MMO tropes. Let's wait and see.

The more I read on this subject the less I want of it. The idea of playing TES multiplayer sounds awesome, but reading the bullet points made my hart sink. Not a big fan of current mmo's or the mechanics involved and TES using the same cookiecutter model just makes me sad. The only good news I've gleamed so far is that the Bethesda Game Studios team will not be involved (hopefully) and will be working on other stuff. I've been a big fan ever since my first experiences in Vvardenfell and would hate too see the series end up as just another WoW clone.

One thing that will possibly make or break this is how will the combat work, surely it cant be just the WoW style command prompts, that'd be really tedious theres too many of those type of MMOs

People have been asking for it for years and it sounded dumb from the beginning. Elder Scrolls is not a very interesting universe to begin with, it's boiler-plate fantasy with men, elves, magic, swordsmen, thieves, etc. The interesting stuff comes from exploring this big world that's crafted for you. In an MMO, you're not the one hero, you're one among many, the game won't look very good most likely and Bethesda can't make a singleplayer game that's not very broken, I can't see them making a fuctional MMO.

@cyraxible said:

@President_Barackbar: Given that's it's not Bethesda Game Studios and is only a Bethesda property being done by a Zenimax dev it doesn't instill a lot of confidence.

Zenimax is the parent company of Bethesda. Elder Scrolls is a Zenimax property. Bethesda Game Studios is one of multiple internal developers at Zenimax. Others include id Software, Arkane Software, Tango Gameworks and Zenimax Online Studios. Bethesda Softworks is the publishing label behind all of these studios' games. All that said, no Elder Scrolls game has ever been made by anyone but Todd Howard and his team at Bethesda Game Studios. But this isn't outsourced, it's just a different team in the same company. Think of it like Bioware having the Dragon Age team and the Mass Effect team and the TOR team. All those teams are still Bioware but they are their own studios inside of Bioware. The only difference is that EA just calls every Bioware game a Bioware game instead of saying a Bioware Austin game or a Bioware Canada game. But those are all officially different studios inside the broader Bioware label just like this is it's own studio in the larger Bethesda label.

@Paul_Is_Drunk said:

@DrDarkStryfe said:

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=472749

Here are detail's from the GI article.

Here are some of my favorite bullet points:

• Third person perspective
• The game uses a hotbar to activate skills like other traditional MMOs
• Visually it looks like other Hero Engine MMOs like SWTOR
• Radiant AI will not be present
• There will be no player housing
• "It needs to be comfortable for people who are coming in from a typical massively multiplayer game that has the same control mechanisms, but it also has to appeal to Skyrim players."
• The game uses MMORPG genre standards such as classes, experience points, and other traditional MMORPG progression mechanics
• There is also balanced PvP for people who prefer eSports
• The combat model will not be real time due to latency

Well, fuck.

Like I said, if it was like an Elder Scrolls game with balanced combat & multiplayer, I'd be down. This sound like every other MMO in existence. Yay, more of the same.

Exactly what I expected. If true, this isn't the Elder Scrolls.

@Rirse said:

MMO are the most boring game series. Never played one, never will.

You've never played one. How do you know?

"The Elder Scrolls Online is currently in development at Zenimax Online Studios, and is designed to let players explore the full breadth of the world of Tamriel, 'from Elsweyr to Skyrim and everywhere in between."

The problem with that quote is that the only province between Elseweyr and Skyrim is Cyrodiil. That's not quite the full breadth of the world. Maybe I'm just reading too much into it. Just sayin'.

Pretty tepid response so far, both here and on other sites. I'd hate to be the guys putting this out and trying to overcome the negative mindset.

That said, I think it's totally justified. I'd have more respect for them if they created a brand new universe for an MMO. Putting it in the Elder Scrolls universe just smacks of "WoW makes a shitton of money as an MMO - we should get in on that!" I truly don't understand why companies are willing to take the risk of going big budget in the MMO market.

Only if it's first person would I be interested but, it's running on the Hero on the hero engine so it's probably going to be lame.

IMMA GRIEF YOU FOOLS AS AN ARGONIAN MAID

No. Just no.

I might give this a try, since the only other MMO I was looking forward to is... suddenly not an MMO anymore. The idea of seeing the entirety of Tamriel with a few friends along for the ride is exciting -- I just hope they can manage to stuff as much attention to detail into every corner of the map as they've managed with their single-player offerings.

@Saganomics said:

@DrDarkStryfe said:

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=472749

Here are detail's from the GI article.

Yo, if the details in that thread are legit than I'm throwing in with the "no fucks to give about this" camp. There is absolutely nothing there to distinguish Elder Scrolls Online from every other current shithouse MMO minus the rad lore, which is already apparently getting (surprise, surprise) retconned like whoa. Ain't no self-respecting Dunmer gonna ally with some Argonians.

I hope that list isn't real, even though everything in it makes sense under the "durr hurr, WoW is successful so lets make a WoW clone" mentality of Publishers.

@DrDarkStryfe said:

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=472749

Here are detail's from the GI article.

Yo, if the details in that thread are legit than I'm throwing in with the "no fucks to give about this" camp. There is absolutely nothing there to distinguish Elder Scrolls Online from every other current shithouse MMO minus the rad lore, which is already apparently getting (surprise, surprise) retconned like whoa. Ain't no self-respecting Dunmer gonna ally with some Argonians.

@Korwin said:

@whyareyoucrouchingspock said:

@Korwin said:

I hope the player level system is freeform in the same way as a normal elderscrolls game. Classes will break that world.

But then it wont be balanced, like Skyrim and Oblivion.

Technically it would be the most balanced MMO ever since every player is equally capable of specing the same way, if your spec sucks that's on you not your class.

According to the leak, it will be class based. Third person only, classes, tab-target, hotbar combat, no Radiant AI, no player housing, can't transform into a vampire/werewolf, three factions with three races tied to each one, instances, etc.

Here's a list.

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=472749

@DrDarkStryfe said:

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=472749

Here are detail's from the GI article.

Here are some of my favorite bullet points:

• Third person perspective
• The game uses a hotbar to activate skills like other traditional MMOs
• Visually it looks like other Hero Engine MMOs like SWTOR
• Radiant AI will not be present
• There will be no player housing
• "It needs to be comfortable for people who are coming in from a typical massively multiplayer game that has the same control mechanisms, but it also has to appeal to Skyrim players."
• The game uses MMORPG genre standards such as classes, experience points, and other traditional MMORPG progression mechanics
• There is also balanced PvP for people who prefer eSports
• The combat model will not be real time due to latency

Well, fuck.

Like I said, if it was like an Elder Scrolls game with balanced combat & multiplayer, I'd be down. This sound like every other MMO in existence. Yay, more of the same.

"Visually it looks like other Hero Engine MMOs like SWTOR

-The general art style is kind of like RIFT or Everquest 2"

Holy cow, this game is going to appear dated in a major way. It would look dated if it was released today. Most TES fans look forward to the latest ES game being on the leading edge graphically. Isn't that a big draw for the game, how great it looks? This MMO is not going to look nearly as good as Skyrim. They better have the gameplay really fun. If it is just another ho hum theme park MMO, it will be a tough sell.

@whyareyoucrouchingspock said:

@Korwin said:

I hope the player level system is freeform in the same way as a normal elderscrolls game. Classes will break that world.

But then it wont be balanced, like Skyrim and Oblivion.

Technically it would be the most balanced MMO ever since every player is equally capable of specing the same way, if your spec sucks that's on you not your class.

@sixpin said:

Not what I wanted from the series, but cheers to those who care about MMOs I guess.

My Thoughts exactly. I'd rather have another Elder Scrolls game with integrated multiplayer to go cause havoc together with some friends. MMOs not my thing, (everyone can't be the chosen one) lol

Not really an MMO fan, but the Elder Scrolls name has me at least intrigued to find out more about it. At the very least, the idea of having all of Tamriel to explore is an incredibly neat concept, although it will be interesting how different places like Skyrim will look in this game vs ESV.

MDPS LFG Dragons PST.

If the leaked scans are anything to go by (and are in fact real) then fuck this game.

Calling it now, it's going to be a wow clone, it will be "different than our competition" and will have a "rough launch, but better than expected sales"

@Phoenix87 said:

Awesome, just what the series didn't need, and no one asked for. Thanks a bunch.

This man speaks the truth. I just can't figure out how a legit TES fan would ever wish to see the franchise go massively multiplayer.

Sure, it'd be fun to get across all of Tamriel in a single title, but they could do that in single-player game too if they really wanted.

The Elder Scrolls: A Game of Thrones. Sounds like an interesting direction for the series, but there hasn't been one MMO that has interested me. It always seems like you lose too much immersion just to accommodate a huge number of players. Something like Diablo III with four player co-op is more appealing.

I bet this one will be different from all the other MMOs, right?

If it is just Skyrim (with other countries) with a ton of players running around, it could be ok.

Hurry up and release it so it can fail horribly and you can get back to making real Elder Scrolls games.

I've been playing this series since Daggerfall, and love it. Having said that I have zero interest in a Elder Scrolls MMO.

hmmm i never wanted elder scrolls to go mmo i liked them as they were offline i'll get it and play the free trial hopefully it will feel like an elder scrolls game and be good.

Hopefully this can be as beautiful as skyrim, although probably not so they can reach a larger audience.

Edit: Just read that neogaf article. I really hope it doesn't look cartoony like swtor.

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=472749

Here are detail's from the GI article.

Imagine all the people running around yelling "HUN KAAL ZOOR!" and "SU GRAH DUN!" etc all over the place. GLORIOUS!

/dance

Man, there is an awful lot they have to get right in order for this game to be any good. Good luck to 'em!

I've always been against bringing the Elder Scrolls series online. Part of the greatness of the series is in it's isolation. Specifically, I've been against converting existing Elder Scrolls games to have some form of multiplayer, not necessarily a separate game developed specifically to be online. So, I guess i'll keep an open mind for this project. Although I'd rather see the resources going towards making a new (single player) Elder Scrolls game, or even a new (single player) Fallout game.

We'll see if this project will fare any better then the Fallout MMO that was recently cancelled. Probably will, just based on the popularity TES series is enjoying right now.

Because we know how those RPG-centric developers excel at MMOs. Right Bioware? Yeesh...

@Tidel said:

All the jank of an MMO with all the broken bugginess of a Bethesda game.

I don't think the world is ready for this combination.

You can almost always tell which articles Alex writes just from the headline.

i will place a bet saying that it wont be good.

While I always supported the idea that you could have multiplayer in an Elder Scrolls, Tamriel will likely be a horrible place as an MMO. They better have an amazing design concept for this game, because a standard MMO design will ruin the series.

I never thought this would actually be a thing, yet here we are. It's pretty interesting, this game has A LOT of potential to be great, it also has the same potential to crash and burn. I hope they are able to figure some new formula and not go by the current MMO archetype with different combat. The MMO genre needs a shock and no one seems to want to try to crack it, but this could. I probably won't play it, but I'm definitely interested to see where this ends up.

All the jank of an MMO with all the broken bugginess of a Bethesda game.

@Korwin said:

I hope the player level system is freeform in the same way as a normal elderscrolls game. Classes will break that world.

But then it wont be balanced, like Skyrim and Oblivion.

They better keep making single player Elder Scrolls games.

If this is not in 1st person I will murder several kittens. The prospect of exploring the entire continent of Tamriel is amazing. However that all gets thrown out the window if they slap on a generic MMO template with 3rd person view.

They REALLY need to create something original beyond fucking dice rolls also.