The Elder Scrolls Online Fails - Working as Intended

[Encaen]

The Elder Scrolls Online Fails - Working as Intended

The funniest part of The Elder Scrolls Online is that it's mostly working as intended.

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[rofltehcat]

Oh, a blind prophet in the Elder Scrolls universe? I can't begin to fathom what he might have read!

 

[SonOfVoorhees]

All MMOs are about the end game, making people play and pay to get to the good stuff. I had that with WoW, such a grind to play yet everyones says it gets good at level 60. Yeah, im not playing a game for 60 hours to get to the good stuff. Same with Guild wars 1 and that superhero MMo.

 

[Remus]

All MMOs are about the end game, making people play and pay to get to the good stuff. I had that with WoW, such a grind to play yet everyones says it gets good at level 60. Yeah, im not playing a game for 60 hours to get to the good stuff. Same with Guild wars 1 and that superhero MMo.

Actually the Elder Scrolls isn't just about the endgame. Just like the single-player games you gain a lot more enjoyment, and more quest opportunities, by exploring the world. Also, if you attempt to rush through the content, only burning through story quests and the occasional town quest, you'll quickly find yourself outleveled and getting squashed by trolls in 1-2 slaps. With multiple factions (more than 2), and the sheer volume of quests, it will be some time before anyone would actually tire of "the grind", especially since the quests are rarely of the standard fetch, kill, or escort variety.

I gotta spin my character around now. I did not know that animation was there. Ahh the odd things you find in MMOs.

 

[Arawn]

Spinning the character makes them sick? Very nice. Although it doesn't add anything to the game itself, it's worth a chuckle or two. But I'm sure a part of me wonders if that time/programing couldn't be better spent on the other issues....

 

[Bindal]

Spinning the character makes them sick? Very nice. Although it doesn't add anything to the game itself, it's worth a chuckle or two. But I'm sure a part of me wonders if that time/programing couldn't be better spent on the other issues....

That's assuming it does take much time. It's most likely just a basic counter, that checks how many times the character was turned in one go, then play an animation if the number of spins is equal or higher than X.
Seems to be something one guy could do in one afternoon, not counting the animation-part.

 

[Eclectic Dreck]

Spinning the character makes them sick? Very nice. Although it doesn't add anything to the game itself, it's worth a chuckle or two. But I'm sure a part of me wonders if that time/programing couldn't be better spent on the other issues....

That's assuming it does take much time. It's most likely just a basic counter, that checks how many times the character was turned in one go, then play an animation if the number of spins is equal or higher than X.
Seems to be something one guy could do in one afternoon, not counting the animation-part.

Plus that animation was likely added as an emote anyhow so throwing a check into the programming to trigger it at character creation really doesn't add much work.

On an unrelated note, I have had relatively few issues with the game all told. I ran into the exact quest in the pictures but I just went to the next person named orc hunter until I solved the problem. Basically I had to talk to six people or so rather than just three. I've managed to fall through the world once and I have no idea what causes it. I've also run into two instances where quests did not properly trigger or advance. This more or less mirrors my experience with any Bethesda product.

That said, as an anecdotal counter balance I have a friend who seems to run into exciting new problems every few feet. He's fallen through the earth a dozen times at least and he isn't following particularly odd routes to get from place to place. He also constantly has problems with quests breaking on him and quests not showing up in his quest logs. The latter problem I'm inclined to assume is the result of simply playing the game badly though as he more than once has realized the problem was he did not complete a conversation.

 

[Tanis]

So...it REALLY IS a TES game.
XD

I hope some kind trial comes so I can check it out.

 

[DarkhoIlow]

So...it REALLY IS a TES game.
XD

I hope some kind trial comes so I can check it out.

Don't think there will be a trial, but I guess you can wait until the point where they will eventually go free to play.

 

[mjharper]

I disapprove of this article. Not because I'm trying to defend ESO or be an apologist for its bugs, but because I can't recall (to the best of my knowledge) a similar article on The Escapist about other games. ESO is neither the buggiest game nor the worse launch in recent memory. But did we see 'Top 10 Diablo III bugs' or 'Most hilarious Sim City bugs'? No.

And that title is even worse. "Working as Intended". In all honesty, I came to this article expecting to see a piece about a representative of Zenimax defending the game in that way. Because, frankly, what other sense does the title make? No-one except the deluded would indeed claim that the game is working as intended. So who is doing that? Zenimax, or the author? Could we have a quotation, please, or stop making ridiculous assertions?

Just as a point of fact: the biggest current story in ESO is rather the frequent server downtimes - Saturday, Monday and Tuesday (today) in the EU - which is causing an understandable amount of indignation among players. But why are the servers down? A single (arguable) exception aside, because Zenimax is working hard to address precisely the bugs this article is 'reporting' on, along with duplication scams and the like.

I hesitate to call the article 'link bait', but please note that I'm hesitating. I expect better from The Escapist.

 

[Rellik San]

I disapprove of this article. Not because I'm trying to defend ESO or be an apologist for its bugs, but because I can't recall (to the best of my knowledge) a similar article on The Escapist about other games. ESO is neither the buggiest game nor the worse launch in recent memory. But did we see 'Top 10 Diablo III bugs' or 'Most hilarious Sim City bugs'? No.

I hesitate to call the article 'link bait', but please note that I'm hesitating. I expect better from The Escapist.

I believe the point is to be humorous and is presented in a tongue in cheek style, not too rag on a game with a ridiculous business model (and let's be honest... it is ridiculous and if you wanted too go for the jugular you'd do it with that), especially as it's a Bethesda game and they are notorious for their bugs.

I believe the "working as intended" byline is either meant too be a reference too Bethesda's (admittedly probably over worked) QA department, or a comment on MMO's having bugs at launch in general.

 

[mjharper]

I disapprove of this article. Not because I'm trying to defend ESO or be an apologist for its bugs, but because I can't recall (to the best of my knowledge) a similar article on The Escapist about other games. ESO is neither the buggiest game nor the worse launch in recent memory. But did we see 'Top 10 Diablo III bugs' or 'Most hilarious Sim City bugs'? No.

I hesitate to call the article 'link bait', but please note that I'm hesitating. I expect better from The Escapist.

I believe the point is to be humorous and is presented in a tongue in cheek style, not too rag on a game with a ridiculous business model (and let's be honest... it is ridiculous and if you wanted too go for the jugular you'd do it with that), especially as it's a Bethesda game and they are notorious for their bugs.

I believe the "working as intended" byline is either meant too be a reference too Bethesda's (admittedly probably over worked) QA department, or a comment on MMO's having bugs at launch in general.

Except the game isn't made by Bethesda, it's made by Zenimax. Also, your comment doesn't explain why there weren't similar articles for the other games I mentioned. We don't normally see this kind of article on The Escapist - so why now?

 

[Rellik San]

I disapprove of this article. Not because I'm trying to defend ESO or be an apologist for its bugs, but because I can't recall (to the best of my knowledge) a similar article on The Escapist about other games. ESO is neither the buggiest game nor the worse launch in recent memory. But did we see 'Top 10 Diablo III bugs' or 'Most hilarious Sim City bugs'? No.

I hesitate to call the article 'link bait', but please note that I'm hesitating. I expect better from The Escapist.

I believe the point is to be humorous and is presented in a tongue in cheek style, not too rag on a game with a ridiculous business model (and let's be honest... it is ridiculous and if you wanted too go for the jugular you'd do it with that), especially as it's a Bethesda game and they are notorious for their bugs.

I believe the "working as intended" byline is either meant too be a reference too Bethesda's (admittedly probably over worked) QA department, or a comment on MMO's having bugs at launch in general.

Except the game isn't made by Bethesda, it's made by Zenimax. Also, your comment doesn't explain why there weren't similar articles for the other games I mentioned. We don't normally see this kind of article on The Escapist - so why now?

Regardless it's Zenimax's first game and it's published by Bethesda so it does have that "it's buggy" trope in effect just for association. But that doesn't change the tone of the article which is clearly meant too be tongue implanted firmly and fiercely in cheek. As for similar articles for other games, well because bugs were just the tip of the iceberg with those other games; Simcity and Diablo III weren't working as intended, as a result got masses of serious discussion on here.

As for "we don't normally see this type of article on the Escapist"... when have we not seen the Escapist take a few easy humour pot-shots at various tropes and bugs? It's quite common for them too run this style of article.

 

[Mosstromo]

At least these are the problems people get while playing the game. I'd like to propose the inclusion of the considerable amount of people that simply have never been able to even connect to the game.
It's been 7 days since I purchased The Elder Scrolls Online, and I have not been able to even create a character.
That is truly one Fail to the knee.
q(-_-,)p

 

[Lightknight]

They had to pursue Mojang because they used the term scrolls. A failure to defend their namesake would have allowed any company after Mojang to use the term and site Bethesda's failure to protect their IP as them losing rights to it. Why a failure of the general population to understand law equates to a kerfuffle is beyond me.

This MMO is surprisingly bug free. I remember some doozies early on in WoW but I expected this game to be more like the bug failures of Bethesda games. But I guess Bethesda's parent company is better at battening down the bugs.

 

[Clovus]

They had to pursue Mojang because they used the term scrolls. A failure to defend their namesake would have allowed any company after Mojang to use the term and site Bethesda's failure to protect their IP as them losing rights to it. Why a failure of the general population to understand law equates to a kerfuffle is beyond me.

It was even better than that. Mojang are the ones who started it by trying to get a trademark on Scrolls. Bethesda definitely had to respond to that. If Mojang hadn't filed for the trademark, Bethesda wouldn't really have had to get involved in order to protect their mark. Either way, the safest business decision for both sides would be for lawyers to work things out, which is exactly what happened. It was all just standard business procedures. The whole Mojang/Bethesda was just another non-story turned into a big kerfuffle because trademark laws aren't well understood and it generates a lot of comments.

So, having that dig against Zenimax/Bethesda for no good reason in a story that already seems to have a negative slant against them is a bit uncool.

 

[Gilbert Estrada]

I disapprove of this article. Not because I'm trying to defend ESO or be an apologist for its bugs, but because I can't recall (to the best of my knowledge) a similar article on The Escapist about other games. ESO is neither the buggiest game nor the worse launch in recent memory. But did we see 'Top 10 Diablo III bugs' or 'Most hilarious Sim City bugs'? No.

And that title is even worse. "Working as Intended". In all honesty, I came to this article expecting to see a piece about a representative of Zenimax defending the game in that way. Because, frankly, what other sense does the title make? No-one except the deluded would indeed claim that the game is working as intended. So who is doing that? Zenimax, or the author? Could we have a quotation, please, or stop making ridiculous assertions?

Just as a point of fact: the biggest current story in ESO is rather the frequent server downtimes - Saturday, Monday and Tuesday (today) in the EU - which is causing an understandable amount of indignation among players. But why are the servers down? A single (arguable) exception aside, because Zenimax is working hard to address precisely the bugs this article is 'reporting' on, along with duplication scams and the like.

I hesitate to call the article 'link bait', but please note that I'm hesitating. I expect better from The Escapist.

You're absolutely right, there were no cutesy tongue-in-cheek articles for those games when they fell down during launch. They were completely blasted with both barrels for their transgressions, rather than given the softball treatment that ESO has gotten here, but there are plenty of articles written in a similar vein.

You seem to be laboring under the impression that the Escapist is supposed to be hard-hitting, cold, factual reporting site where humor is verboten. I would suggest you take advantage of your premium membership and read more of the site.. you'll find that there's humor just about everywhere you look, though I can understand that it might not seem that funny when someone is taking the piss out of a property which you may be sentimentally attached to.

In summary I'd like to quote the esteemed Sgt. Hulka: "Lighten up, Francis."

 

[mjharper]

I disapprove of this article. Not because I'm trying to defend ESO or be an apologist for its bugs, but because I can't recall (to the best of my knowledge) a similar article on The Escapist about other games. ESO is neither the buggiest game nor the worse launch in recent memory. But did we see 'Top 10 Diablo III bugs' or 'Most hilarious Sim City bugs'? No.

And that title is even worse. "Working as Intended". In all honesty, I came to this article expecting to see a piece about a representative of Zenimax defending the game in that way. Because, frankly, what other sense does the title make? No-one except the deluded would indeed claim that the game is working as intended. So who is doing that? Zenimax, or the author? Could we have a quotation, please, or stop making ridiculous assertions?

Just as a point of fact: the biggest current story in ESO is rather the frequent server downtimes - Saturday, Monday and Tuesday (today) in the EU - which is causing an understandable amount of indignation among players. But why are the servers down? A single (arguable) exception aside, because Zenimax is working hard to address precisely the bugs this article is 'reporting' on, along with duplication scams and the like.

I hesitate to call the article 'link bait', but please note that I'm hesitating. I expect better from The Escapist.

You're absolutely right, there were no cutesy tongue-in-cheek articles for those games when they fell down during launch. They were completely blasted with both barrels for their transgressions, rather than given the softball treatment that ESO has gotten here, but there are plenty of articles written in a similar vein.

You seem to be laboring under the impression that the Escapist is supposed to be hard-hitting, cold, factual reporting site where humor is verboten. I would suggest you take advantage of your premium membership and read more of the site.. you'll find that there's humor just about everywhere you look, though I can understand that it might not seem that funny when someone is taking the piss out of a property which you may be sentimentally attached to.

In summary I'd like to quote the esteemed Sgt. Hulka: "Lighten up, Francis."

Obviously, I'm misinformed, and deserve to be insulted. Or then again, I might just have a different opinion to you, and actually have put some time into what I wrote.

You still haven't addressed the the issue of the title, I note. Interesting.

Also, on the supposed humour of this article, if it's meant to be funny, it fails. 'I fell through the world lol' is not humour, and neither is it a humorous bug. Cows falling from, or disappearing into, the sky, as they did in Skyrim at times, is humorous. The response to that is along the lines of 'WTF did I just see?' The response to falling through the world? 'Sigh.'

I still disapprove of this article, for the reasons stated, and merely accusing me of not having a sense of humour, or of being an in-denial apologist will not change that. To reiterate, this is a poor article because:

a) the title suggests a different kind of piece to the one presented
b) the bugs mentioned are nothing new
c) it doesn't at all reflect the current news or events surrounding the game
d) if it's meant to be funny, it isn't, because it doesn't even manage 'lol so random'

I'm well aware that Diablo III and Sim City were lambasted on The Escapist. My point was that there's barely even a story here at all.

 

[Gilbert Estrada]

I disapprove of this article. Not because I'm trying to defend ESO or be an apologist for its bugs, but because I can't recall (to the best of my knowledge) a similar article on The Escapist about other games. ESO is neither the buggiest game nor the worse launch in recent memory. But did we see 'Top 10 Diablo III bugs' or 'Most hilarious Sim City bugs'? No.

And that title is even worse. "Working as Intended". In all honesty, I came to this article expecting to see a piece about a representative of Zenimax defending the game in that way. Because, frankly, what other sense does the title make? No-one except the deluded would indeed claim that the game is working as intended. So who is doing that? Zenimax, or the author? Could we have a quotation, please, or stop making ridiculous assertions?

Just as a point of fact: the biggest current story in ESO is rather the frequent server downtimes - Saturday, Monday and Tuesday (today) in the EU - which is causing an understandable amount of indignation among players. But why are the servers down? A single (arguable) exception aside, because Zenimax is working hard to address precisely the bugs this article is 'reporting' on, along with duplication scams and the like.

I hesitate to call the article 'link bait', but please note that I'm hesitating. I expect better from The Escapist.

You're absolutely right, there were no cutesy tongue-in-cheek articles for those games when they fell down during launch. They were completely blasted with both barrels for their transgressions, rather than given the softball treatment that ESO has gotten here, but there are plenty of articles written in a similar vein.

You seem to be laboring under the impression that the Escapist is supposed to be hard-hitting, cold, factual reporting site where humor is verboten. I would suggest you take advantage of your premium membership and read more of the site.. you'll find that there's humor just about everywhere you look, though I can understand that it might not seem that funny when someone is taking the piss out of a property which you may be sentimentally attached to.

In summary I'd like to quote the esteemed Sgt. Hulka: "Lighten up, Francis."

Obviously, I'm misinformed, and deserve to be insulted. Or then again, I might just have a different opinion to you, and actually have put some time into what I wrote.

You still haven't addressed the the issue of the title, I note. Interesting.

Also, on the supposed humour of this article, if it's meant to be funny, it fails. 'I fell through the world lol' is not humour, and neither is it a humorous bug. Cows falling from, or disappearing into, the sky, as they did in Skyrim at times, is humorous. The response to that is along the lines of 'WTF did I just see?' The response to falling through the world? 'Sigh.'

I still disapprove of this article, for the reasons stated, and merely accusing me of not having a sense of humour, or of being an in-denial apologist will not change that. To reiterate, this is a poor article because:

a) the title suggests a different kind of piece to the one presented
b) the bugs mentioned are nothing new
c) it doesn't at all reflect the current news or events surrounding the game
d) if it's meant to be funny, it isn't, because it doesn't even manage 'lol so random'

I'm well aware that Diablo III and Sim City were lambasted on The Escapist. My point was that there's barely even a story here at all.

You may have an elevated sense of self-importance if you think anything I wrote was even remotely an insult. It's also possible that you may not be a very sophisticated reader if you assume that not explicitly naming the title means the idea behind it was never addressed (see the parts about humor for clarification).

Your assumptions about what the article 'should' have been about based on the title are yours alone, and the failure to see why those examples might be humorous to someone else is entirely your loss.

If you truly believe that there are more important topics to address and better ways to get that information across, then submit an article to the editors and perhaps they'll agree. For now I'm going to label you 'a person who does not agree with some things I found funny' and move on. I recommend you do the same.

 

[Rellik San]

Also, on the supposed humour of this article, if it's meant to be funny, it fails. 'I fell through the world lol' is not humour, and neither is it a humorous bug. Cows falling from, or disappearing into, the sky, as they did in Skyrim at times, is humorous. The response to that is along the lines of 'WTF did I just see?' The response to falling through the world? 'Sigh.'

I remember falling through the world on DAoC and finding it pretty humourous;
"VALHALLA! I'M COMING! LIGHT OF ODIN GUIDE ME!"

What you mean is that you didn't find it humourous, which is fine humour isn't a universal thing, but you really seem to have a chip on your shoulder about this.