Bethesda Announces The Elder Scrolls Online

[Saulkar]

I'll be watching with interest to see if Bethesda can manufacture the fabled WoW killer the peasantry has spoken of in whispered legends for the last 8 years.

Short answer: No.

Long answer: No, because while this is a fantasy property beloved by gamers (an excellent seeding ground for an MMO, to be sure), TES Online is up against WoW with 8 years of content upgrades, streamlining, and development under its belt. That is quite literally an impossible hurdle to surmount. If *Star Wars* couldn't kill WoW, what chance does TES have?

WoW will slowly decline on its own over time. At this point, I remain skeptical that any game could ever dethrone it via force - maybe not even Blizzard's own "Titan" project.

Agreed 100%

I don't think even Titan will be the 'next' WoW. If Blizzard are smart they won't be approaching it like that. WoW's success was unique, and noone, including Blizzard, thought it would take off the way it did. Trying to go toe to toe with WoW has been responsible for a litany of bad MMO design decisions over the past five years or so.

On the other hand:

Although my immediate reaction to this news was "this is going to be TOR all over again", it's possible this could work. Unlike Bioware, Bethesda* 'get' the idea of an open world and sandbox gaming, and a high profile big budget sandbox MMO is something MMO players desperately want - even more so following the demise of Star Wars Galaxies.

If an Elder Scrolls MMO can deliver on that it could be huge. EVE is probably the biggest sandox MMO out there, but it's so ludicrously hardcore it'll never attract the numbers an Elder Scrolls game could.

If they go down that route this could be a major player. If they don't I'm fairly certain it'll be yet another also-ran.

[sub]*I know it's not being made by Bethesda as such, but you know what I mean.[/sub]

If they can pull this off while keeping it unique and maintaining enough core elements that define the gameplay of the Elder Scrolls then they just might have something fresh enough to potentially attract an admirable fanbase.

 

[Meight08]

The engine their using allows for real time creation of buildings which could be interesting if thats used

 

[GaltarDude1138]

My reaction:


We'll have to just wait and see, I suppose. This has got to be a huge undertaking for Bethesda, I'm not sure we'll see a proper TES game for a while when all they can do is just update the MMO. PLUS, with KOTOR 3 still nowhere in sight after it's MMO, I have a sinking feeling it'll end up just the same.

 

[Ukomba]

And thus Blizzard shat its collective pants. I'd been unable to think of any property that might be able to eclipse WoW in MMO success. I believe that TES is that property as it has alot of the same things going for it that WoW had at the start.

• [li]A rabid fanbase[/li]
  [li]A robust mod community[/li]
  [li]A developer with a long history of high quality games[/li]

I'll be watching with interest to see if Bethesda can manufacture the fabled WoW killer the peasantry has spoken of in whispered legends for the last 8 years.

Generally speaking, MMO's aren't very welcoming to the mod community. Now if they could find a way to work that in...

*pictures the fans modding the factions to be Ponies, Jedi, and Hylians. All throwing exploding cheeses and fighting Macho Man Randy Savage dragons.*

 

[burningdragoon]

Do I want to play an Elder Scrolls game with other people? Yes.

Do I want the Elder Scrolls to remain a completely single-player franchise? Yes.

Wait...

 

[elilupe]

I'm skeptical at what the end-product's quality will be, but, who am I kidding, I'm going to play it no matter what, at least for a short time, and if only to explore Elsewyr a bit.

 

[SajuukKhar]

Bethesda is going to try to program a functional MMO with balanced PVP? Yeah, that's gonna turn out well.

since Bethesda isn't making it....... no they aren't going to try anything.

This is gonna turn into another Vew Vegas scenario, everyone is gonna say Bethesda instead of Zenimax just like people keep claiming Bethesda made New vegas when it was really Obsidian.

 

[Tanakh]

That is quite literally an impossible hurdle to surmount. If *Star Wars* couldn't kill WoW, what chance does TES have?

To be fair though ToR failed to kill WoW because it is around 8 years behind in design. ToR seems to have taken vanilla WoW as their blueprint, then took away a couple of features focused at player interaction and added a couple focused at single player; not to mention made the PvE faceroll EZ and the PvP a joke. They did had a legit shoot at killing WoW, but released a single player game with some MMO features here and there...

So another company tries to compete with World of Warcraft. I think Extra Credits already explained why this is impossible.

Funcom and NCSoft seem to disagree with you, they both do WoW flavoured MMOs, they both are successful, NCSoft actually is VERY successful.

OT: I won't expect a thing of this MMO. My bet is that Bethesda will spend years and millions only to cancel or release a very crappy MMO, but if i happen to be wrong, good for them.

 

[Cyfu]

I'm not sure how to feel about this.
1) not a big MMO fan, but a HUGE TES fan
2) It sounds interesting, but probably won't be
3) I want it to be good, but it probably won't be


oh, who am kidding, I will buy this the second it's released.

 

[almostgold]

I wonder two things:
1. How modding will work. Modding is too huge of a part of TES to ignore. My guess would be players are able to mod aesthetically however the want, maybe create their own instance-like areas for them and their friends to enjoy.
2. Guilds. Rising up through the Mages/Fighters/Thieves Guild is another huge part? Will there be separate guilds for the three factions? Will one player actually be the head of a guild?

The engine their using allows for real time creation of buildings which could be interesting if thats used

That would be awesome, and damn do I hope its utilized. being able to buy a plot of land off another player, building supplies, and make a house wherever? Fucking awesome. Player-created towns anyone?

 

[Nurb]

>HERO ENGINE, SAME AS SWTOR
>300 MILLION DOLLARS -INITIAL- INVESTMENT
>BUDGET HAS PROBABLY BALLOONED SINCE THEN
>NOT COUNTING ADVERTISING COSTS
>6 YEARS IN DEVELOPMENT
>ONLY CYRODIIL
>PVP FOCUSED, THREE FACTIONS


I'm not getting my hopes up, it sounds like the titanic. When it's this big of a venture, It'll crash and burn or it will get a lot of subs up front, be disappointingly ordinary, then slowly fizzle out over a year or two like Star Trek, AOC, WAR, and most recently SWTOR.

The biggest red flag is being PVP focused, which is what WAR was advertized as and had a huge fanbase that was left disappointed.

 

[SajuukKhar]

>HERO ENGINE, SAME AS SWTOR
>300 MILLION DOLLARS -INITIAL- INVESTMENT
>BUDGET HAS PROBABLY BALLOONED SINCE THEN
>NOT COUNTING ADVERTISING COSTS
>6 YEARS IN DEVELOPMENT
>ONLY CYRODIIL
>PVP FOCUSED, THREE FACTIONS


I'm not getting my hopes up, it sounds like the titanic. When it's this big of a venture, It'll crash and burn or it will get a lot of subs up front, be disappointingly ordinary, then slowly fizzle out over a year or two like Star Trek, AOC, WAR, and most recently SWTOR.

The biggest red flag is being PVP focused, which is what WAR was advertized as and had a huge fanbase that was left disappointed.

It isnt only cyrodiil

the war is over Cyrodill, but we will get to go everywhere.

Also just because there are three factions doesn't mean its PVP focused.

 

[craddoke]

Another great single-player RPG bites the dust. Yeah?

 

[SajuukKhar]

Another great single-player RPG bites the dust. Yeah?

Considering Bethesda isn't making the MMO, it isn't like they cant continue making single-player Elder scrolls.

 

[Draconalis]

Story details are predictably sparse at this point, but Zenimax Online, the studio developing the game, has revealed that players will be attempting to stop/survive Deadric Prince Molag Bal's effort to suck the world into his demonic realm of demons for what is, most likely, some sort of demonic purpose.

Can't say you'll survive (but since it's an mmo, you probably will)... but given that it happens 1000 years before an existing game... I can only assume you did stop it.

I'm not a fan of the TES series... so I'll pass.

But then again... I'm not a fan of Star Wars... but I played that MMO...

And just like TOR I expect it will be over-hyped and implode.

 

[Tiswas]

So it's not being developed by Bethesda?

Wow. This one might actually work properly. Kinda interested now.

 

[NinjaDeathSlap]

Welp. I guess Elder Scrolls VI will never happen then, seem as Bethesda will now have to spend all their time keeping this running. I am disappoint.

 

[SajuukKhar]

Welp. I guess Elder Scrolls VI will never happen then, seem as Bethesda will now have to spend all their time keeping this running. I am disappoint.

ugh........................

BETHESDA IS NOT MAKING THE MMORPG ZENIMAX IS

How can people be this thick-headed.

This is the New Vegas was made by Obsidian not Bethesda thing all over again.

Its like people just read "Elder scrolls MMO" then ignore the entire article.

Next people will be saying doom is being made by Bethesda.

 

[noahpocalypse]

I'd love to play this if it's well-made. But this better the hell not mean the end of solo TES games.

The mechanics of this will need to be slightly different than most MMOs, methinks. A huge part of TES games has been exploration, and if Bethesda wants to keep their whole fanbase, they'd better not abandon exploration in favor of where you are being dependent upon your level.