Elder Scrolls Online's First Microtransaction Is a Horse

[Jandau]

To all the people saying they don't care as long as you get your single-player TES: Yeah, that's a great attitude to have! Look how well it worked out with Warcraft! After Warcraft 3 we got WoW and then when Warcraft 4 came out... oh, wait. Well, it worked so well with Knights of the Old Republic! After TOR came out the new KotOR games were... oh, wait. Yeah...

So far, MMOs are where franchises go to die (one exception being Final Fantasy, but that's more of a brand name than an actual franchise). Therefore, don't expect a new TES game any time in the next 5 years at least, perhaps longer - if the game is a success, they won't want a single-player game to draw away fans. If it's a failure, the blame will fall on the franchise (instead of terrible business models and bad development) and subsequent games in the franchise won't be able to get funding.

Oh joy...

 

[Lilikins]

Achievement: Old Spice - "I'm on a horse."

Look at your game, now look at me, now look at your game again. Sadly, it's got microtransactions. Look down, now look up again. It's your horse, the thing you use to get around, AND it's behind a paywall. Look away, look back. It's a a load of angry Elder Scrolls fans outside of a building, and you're helping them burn an effigy. Look down once more, and back again. You've returned to your home where you haven't bought this crappy game, money still in your pocket. Always vote with your wallet. I'm in a powersuit.

You my friend, win the internet for the day, I was grouchy after waking up this morning seething in rage that I have lateshift today which Im about to drive to...but you just brigtened up my day and made me literally laugh out loud.

'gives you your internet trophy complete with kitties,mlp stuff, and of course..most importantly..cookies and bacon.' (yes, that imo...is what is most common in the internet nowadays soooo I imagine thats how 'teh internetz' trophy award looks.)

Nevertheless, long story short, great job haha^^ you brightened up my day with that one.

OT: Im going 'meh' at this, aslong as its a mount and nothing that would be equivelant of leveling your character faster/better. For instance..donno, an experience potion that you can repeatedly use that gives +25% exp or something. Or any type of armor allowing you to breeze through the so and so many first levels. Most importantly, to me atleast, aslong as its not shoved down my throat i.e I get 'BUY THIS MOUNT NOW!!' during loading screens etc, Im not really too fussed about it. Sure the price for the game is steep, and I dont really approve of the sub cost being that high, but nevertheless, Id personally like to give it a shot seeing as it atleast 'looks' like an elder scrolls game where I can group up with some friends, which I dearly wanted to do in Skyrim. Not to make things easier by all means, but more along the lines of 'it would be fun if I had the option to do so' . Anywho, thats my take on it.

 

[Starke]

Is this the only way to get a horse?

WoW sells mounts in the store but there mostly just cosmetic upgrades, not something that drastically changes the game play.

If it's just a better looking horse then fine, if not then this game is going to fail faster then the Star Trek MMO did.

No, you can buy horses in game with gold.

 

[Starke]

You can lead a horse to water, but its gonna be $4.99 to make him drink

Actually... funny thing. The horses are very basic. Once you've gotten one, you need to upgrade it over time, by feeding it, which costs gold. So, players aren't really getting a horrifically broken item, unless they spend time upgrading it.

 

[Starke]

I'm starting to get The Secret World vibes from this game now...

I'm not... yet. Secret World actually pulled the most popular clothes in the beta, and moved them into the cash shop. We'll see in two weeks, but I don't see that happening here.

 

[Clive Howlitzer]

Queue the gamer misanthropy!
Honestly, I can't think of the last multiplayer game I played that didn't have pay shop of some kind.

WoW, Tera, Neverwinter, Borderlands 2 etc etc.. It is a common theme of games these days.

It doesn't make it right. Especially when they are charging you 14.99 a month just to have access to their game.

 

[Zac Jovanovic]

This is becoming much like anti EA blind hate. Getting crucified and singled out for things everyone else does too, and started doing it way before them.

Also way to write a non biased article.

 

[Flutterguy]

Queue the gamer misanthropy!
Honestly, I can't think of the last multiplayer game I played that didn't have pay shop of some kind.

WoW, Tera, Neverwinter, Borderlands 2 etc etc.. It is a common theme of games these days.

It doesn't make it right. Especially when they are charging you 14.99 a month just to have access to their game.

You really wanna see gouging? Look at the Blizzard store right now. You can BUY MAX LEVEL for WoW. Not to mention its a decade old game which has held it's 14.99$ a month model since its inception. I have yet to see thread complaining about that though. Oh right thats because the majority of threads are just people parroting the popular opinion, which right now is just how dissa-fucking-pointed they are with ESO.

 

[Karadalis]

Queue the gamer misanthropy!
Honestly, I can't think of the last multiplayer game I played that didn't have pay shop of some kind.

WoW, Tera, Neverwinter, Borderlands 2 etc etc.. It is a common theme of games these days.

It doesn't make it right. Especially when they are charging you 14.99 a month just to have access to their game.

You really wanna see gouging? Look at the Blizzard store right now. You can BUY MAX LEVEL for WoW. Not to mention its a decade old game which has held it's 14.99$ a month model since its inception. I have yet to see thread complaining about that though. Oh right thats because the majority of threads are just people parroting the popular opinion, which right now is just how dissa-fucking-pointed they are with ESO.

How about the 7 million players worldwide who think its a fun game?

The cash shop is also non intrusive, youre not given a quest to "fake purchase" an item from the money shop in a tutorial and what they sell is completly cosmetic and gives you absolutely 0 advantage over other players.

Unless riding a "faboulus" mount is somehow an advantage.

And to top it all off they introduced the cash shop YEARS after their initial run.

Oh and the pay for max level thing? Has existed for years too.. only before blizzard offered it you had illegal "leveling" services that if you where stupid enough to use them would likely end up with a stolen account. So blizzard is simply taking away the market from those shady "businesmen" in china.

Also the max level thing really is not a big deal after more then a decade and 90 character levels. People are just sick and tired of leveling up their twinks through the same old content they had for years now.

What i do agree about thought is that their subscription model needs its pricing cut... the game is so old it simply doesnt feel right anymore to still demand 14 euros a month.

 

[teebeeohh]

so you can buy a horse in game .... nothing to see here its just a bunch of qq about people getting things without major impact early. I remember old time wow players complaining about noobs getting mounts early as well and its all stupid.

what is qq? I have a strong feeling it's a new way to antagonize people.

QQ is actually pretty oldschool. While many people now believe the Qs represent crying eyes Alt+qq was the keyboard combination to quit out of warcraft2. So telling someone to QQ was basically calling him a noob.

 

[Bindal]

Let me get this straight. This game has
1. A one-time purchase requirement of the disc of 60$
2. A subscription required to play
3. Microtransactions

So, they use ALL three payment methods of an MMO at once while every other sets for one of them (maybe two if one is purely cosmetic Microtransactions)?
This has "going to bomb" written all over it. WHO WOULD BUY THIS?

 

[Remus]

Sorry but you cannot compare a game that almost ran over a decade with an upstart by the numbers mmo that wants to tripple dip your wallet before it goes f2p.

I absolutely can. As stated already, that is if you bothered to read my post at all, this mount s barely faster than sprinting speed, and that's if you are sprinting while riding the thing. I played the last beta, I rode the mount. It's not as impressive as you give it credit for. At normal speed you might as well dismount and run to the nearest battle. What advantage in PvP is there besides giving your opponent the ability to see you coming from a mile away, giving them ample time to set up defenses? It's there to look good, and again, I seriously doubt that Zenimax is going to charge anywhere close to the insane prices Activision charges for their mounts. It's a go-between for players not buying the deluxe edition.

 

[Guitarmasterx7]

So you have to buy the game, then you have to pay a monthly subscription, and on top of that they have the nerve to include microtransactions? Yeah, any chance of me actually getting this is gone.

 

[Kuredan]

I don't know if any of you Beta-players tried the Cyrodil PVP campaign, but you NEED a horse. Preferably one with Nitro Boosters. The map is huge and fast travel is limited to when you die and when your faction has connected outposts. The time I spent slogging from my factions closest outpost to the front lines of the battlefield was tortuous. Every death was disheartening because I knew I had a eight minute ride to get back. Yes, you can set up forward camps, but those are expensive and have a limited duration. So yeah, horses are awesome. I had enough money by the end of this beta to get one and while it did make travel faster, it was still too long on the Cyrodil Map.

 

[Mister Chippy]

Sorry but you cannot compare a game that almost ran over a decade with an upstart by the numbers mmo that wants to tripple dip your wallet before it goes f2p.

I absolutely can. As stated already, that is if you bothered to read my post at all, this mount s barely faster than sprinting speed, and that's if you are sprinting while riding the thing. I played the last beta, I rode the mount. It's not as impressive as you give it credit for. At normal speed you might as well dismount and run to the nearest battle. What advantage in PvP is there besides giving your opponent the ability to see you coming from a mile away, giving them ample time to set up defenses? It's there to look good, and again, I seriously doubt that Zenimax is going to charge anywhere close to the insane prices Activision charges for their mounts. It's a go-between for players not buying the deluxe edition.

Can I say that I think that WoW is horribly overpriced too (main reason I don't play it) and sink your argument right now? This monetization strategy is shit, WoW just manages to get away with it because they've somehow managed to convince people that they're worth it, but TESO hasn't. Plus, WoW has features such as a pre-existing community, a well known history of generally doing right by the players, and a reputation of being a decent game. TESO has none of these, so there's no fucking way it should be attempting to pull off a monetization strategy so bold. Really I don't think any game should cost so much to play.

Also, arguing that a mount in an MMO (or Elder Scrolls game) doesn't give any sort of advantage is pure, steaming bullshit and you know it. Feel free to offer up good points as to why TESO is worth the sort of money that I don't even think WoW is worth, but don't feed me crap like that. We've all played MMOs, we've all played Elder Scrolls games, we know that mounts are really fucking useful. Saying shit like that only hurts your chances of convincing anyone of anything and makes people think you're a fanboy for a game that isn't even out yet.

 

[xEightBitPlayerx]

I think they've gone insane, and it makes me sad that I may not see another single player game in this series if it bombs.

 

[Colt47]

My only complaint about ESO at the moment is that it needs to get bug fixes out and fast. The game might be okay after they get everything working properly, but I'd advise against buying into ESO on launch day. We also wont really know 100% if the approach the company is taking to mix and matching the online genre and the sandbox "do as one wants" approach until there's more people playing the game regularly.