babblerock

Because they've decided to call this a TES game and that comes with the expectation that you can have a real effect on the world. But they've also decided to call it an MMO. If you're looking for just an MMO it probably doesnt matter that this thing is (or was) not at all an experience like the games. This game was in development for ages and when it first showed it looked like Warcraft or something. They got a bad response and alllllllllll of their press since then has been aimed at them convincing people this is a legitimate TES game. So when you ask me why things that are a staple of the series are important, I ask what you're coming to this game for at all if not for staples of the series. Cus that's all it has going for it in an environment with much more stable, better playing games with more content as its competition.

If you're being reductive, yeah killing NPCs is an arbitrary addition. But its in service of the larger goal, making a game where you can make enemies of factions, even whole kingdoms or races, to the effect of winning over another faction (like the Brotherhood). The best moments from any Elder Scrolls game are the ones where you have the option to make unconventional choices and its reflected in the world. If you want to make a paint by numbers MMO called something else, that's fine, but its not unreasonable to have baseline expectations of a game when it takes the franchise name.

The only reason a thing like this can exist when much better balanced and better playing MMOs exist is because its called The Elder Scrolls. That's the only reason its survived its first year, and only barely which is why they switched their model. Put this against most other big MMOs, even something newer like Tera and it looks like a bit of a joke, except people have a fondness for the TES universe. If it wants to survive much longer they're going need to continue adding things that make this feel more like the actual TES games. What they've done in the revamping so far is a good start but its not enough.

I know a lot of people playing Splatoon, its all relative to the number of consoles total. As a percentage Splatoon still feels like a big success compared to similar multiplayer focused games like, say Evolve. Witcher 3 doing well is certainly a good thing but its at a time when not a lot of things are coming out. Part of me wants sales to reflect when a game with a lot of bugs ships but unlike some other devs they've been pretty vigilant about addressing most of those issues. Framerate drops are still way more common than they should be. Unity looked better (opinion) and eventually ran better than Witcher 3 is currently but it took months.

@karkarov: I actually didnt know that, interesting. So if Im bothered by the community at large I can kill a few random NPCs and be in a zone with like 3 other people? Are there repercussions of any kind beyond killing quest lines? I guess if you do it enough the brotherhood might pay you a visit? If the game is layed out this way then they can do some really interesting things, but I understand NPC killing is fairly new so I wonder if I should wait a couple months for them to build more stuff based around that. The problem with the game now is I didnt feel like I was shaping anything really which is why I like TES games, but maybe the quests they make from here on out will take more chances in that way. Fingers crossed, I'll keep an eye out.

I think its entirely reasonable to expect a game on the level of Skyrim or Oblivion when you consider this game exists because people played those games and thought some online components would make a lot of sense in a world this big. And I agree, an online component would do something interesting in those games. But more like Borderlands or something, crewing up for real missions but you can still alter the world in irreperable ways. An MMO can't by its nature actually reflect your choices. Even as I understand you can kill people now, you'd probably still see people hovering around this invisible questgiver you killed.

Without the TES name attached, I feel like this game is something that brings nothing new to the table and also doesnt recognize some of the meta things successful games like WoW and FF14 did to keep people coming back month after month. With the TES name comes TES expectations that can't be delivered in a traditional MMO. So it cant really deliver on either level. Maybe plenty of people are fine with playing a kind of mediocre MMO if it takes place in the world they like, certainly did the trick with KOTOR (but KOTOR at least has a fully voiced story mode that's different per class and they're actually well told). And I played through KOTOR for a story and moved on and a lot of people did that and I think a lot of people might think powering through the story mode here would be worthwhile for similar reasons. But I've seen no sign of that either.

WITH NEW HD GRAPHICS filters you cant turn off

This game wouldnt be better modeled after Fury Road. Fury Road was a convoy trip to nowhere then the drive back. You can't make what that movie did well into a game that makes sense. That FTL looking game with a convoy is your best bet basically. They had plenty of good stuff to mine from the existing 3 movies and from the sound of the preview coverage they did a poor job with it. Doing a poor job with the Fury Road story wouldnt make it better.

I still have to finish the main story but I imagine I'll become a machinist and mess around with low level quests in the new city.

That has the potential to happen yeah. FF14's solution is it recognizes your class and if the item in the chess isnt something for your class you have to dice roll for it. You still have those people who've run the dungeon a dozen times and they're going to roll for every chess, even if they're overleveled and probably dont need the item themselves (to sell on the market). First come first serve in an MMO is just bullshit, the person who needs upgrades the least can get to everything first. Sounds like this game isnt looking close enough at MMO economies and making something that works. I've yet to play an MMO that was free to play (after initial purchase) that had a working economy. They're all broken because they want to "reward" people who choose to pay more for some higher tier membership and remind people who arent paying more what they're missing. Which is more repellant than just asking for a monthly fee, for me at least. I couldnt finish SWTOR because it kept constantly reminding me what people who payed a monthly fee were getting that Im not. Its just gross, ask for a monthly fee or be all the way free dont create grades of user.

The buzz on this game is like an AC on low. Feel like if this were a thing worth looking into, I woulda heard something about this or that, some crazy raid boss, some dwemer revelation, a nutty daedric quest where everyone turns into a pig. Havent heard a thing, I imagine because they took no chances at all and made the safest game possible. No thanks.