Escapist Podcast: 106: Elder Scrolls Online & Moon Computers

The Escapist Staff

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106: Elder Scrolls Online & Moon Computers

This week, we discuss proper frosting to cake ratios, and also something about Elder Scrolls Online announcing subscription fees.

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Hoplon

Jabbering Fool
Mar 31, 2010
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FROSTING IS THE DEVIL

I have no reason to expect this to be the popular opinion.

Also there should be less shitty ports this new gen since the underlying hardware is the same, all x86.

WoW has never had 12 million subs, only active accounts, as far as I am aware the Korea/China/etc block don't really do subs for games.

Light of Day? wut? Time of day, wouldn't give you the time of day.
 

KazNecro

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Jun 1, 2009
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Two points... 1) You are wrong Janelle, more cake than frosting. 2) A former senior editor once said, "Cake must be cake, in order to be cake!" If you got a crumb, with a mountain of frosting on it, IT'S NOT FLIPPIN' CAKE! STOP THE MADNESS, JANELLE! EAT MORE CAKE!!

On second thought, no! Don't eat more cake. My theory is that you're so incredibly bouncy because of all the sugar you ingest from cereal and frosting. Just send the cake you're not eating to the rest of the cake eaters, like Jon.
 

DrRockor

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Jun 24, 2008
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I would like to give my WoW experience. I played for 3/4 years, between burning crusades and cataclysm and I didn't do what Janelle do with grouping consistently. I would play everyday for most of the time and 80% was alone. I really enjoyed questing and I would play with some friends sometimes. We had a weekly thing were we would go do instances. I defiantly didn't raid hardcore. The highest level raid I did was the first few bosses of Ulduar.

Also art books are awesome! I love them. Seeing alternate designs for characters and some of them have writing from the artist on why they designed it that way its awesome but I think game development is really interesting too
 

Floppertje

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Nov 9, 2009
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More cake than frosting, definitely. As for ESO: I'll happily pay a sub for that. If I look at how many hours I've spent on Oblivion and Skyrim, I'd say that's enough for people to stick around and form a community. I was always sharing experiences with my friends (and complaining how there's no co-op). even if it's just skyrim with a chatbox, i'm gonna be all over it.
 

Vie

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Nov 18, 2009
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Icing should occupy no more than a thin outer layer of a cake, maximum thickness of 0.8cm.
Good cake doesn't need icing at all.

And some cereals are best when soggy - Weetabix being the obvious example.

Microsoft is big on proprietary equipment, it's just usually in the software arena than hardware. Classic example would be MS Office long standing lack of support for file formats from other companies, and in turn its secrecy around its own formats that necessitates reverse engineering on the part of competitors if they want to avoid major issues. And don't get me started on the mess that was NTFS file system support on other OS's due to MS's polices. Thank god it's resolved now.

As for December 15th shopping, going out to buy a next gen console and there's no PS4 available... ..I go home. I don't have the extra £100 to spend, and I just don't want the xbone regardless.
 

puff ball

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Mar 14, 2011
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my solution to getting players to stay longer in mmo's is equipment degradation (it should then be easier to get said items)so imagine it if the blacksmith could actually make the best sword in the game but to make it truly epic you need to get an enchanter to add plus 50 strength so you have to make him a helmet this creates both user interaction and a reason to continue exploring and fighting. so it should take 1 hour to make the most awesome weapon in existence which is good for 10 hours of gameplay.
 

AkaDad

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Jun 4, 2011
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They say you learn something new everyday, and today it was cock weasel.

Now I need to go eat something with frosting.
 

Chemical123

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When you guys bring up the information that Microsoft has the capability to manufacture and flood the market with Ones, I always wonder why did that not happen this generation? Xbox 360 came out a year earlier, PS3 had supply issues in the beginning and Wii's were being sold on ebay for double their price. However, in the end PS3 and Xbox 360 sold nearly identical amounts (even with Sony piling mistake on top of a mistake this generation) and Wii emerged as a clear winner sales wise. In fact, I remember people making fun of "piles of PS3s" that were sitting unsold in stores, I even bought my 40 gig model for 300USD as the store was actively trying to get rid of them to free up their inventory.

People who buy consoles in the first year are the most dedicated people, first year is the time when console costs the most, has highest amount of problems, lowest amount of games. These are the people who have made their decision, just because the store doesnt have one they will go and find it or wait, piles of an available different console is just going to make them feel smug about their choice. Wii's were being sold for almost double their price on ebay and nintendo couldnt keep up with demand for a long long time, but they were doing so well that people had conspiracy theories about nintendo shortsupplying on purpose to keep the hype up.

I agree 100% with Janelle on MMOs, if I wanted a single player experience then I would play a single player game if I want massive multiplayer experience then anything that puts me in my own little instance for hours at a time simply detracts from the rest of the game.

Furthermore, I cant remember who exactly said it but why in god's name should i look at Elder Scrolls Online as a single player game for 75 USD and think of it as a good deal? I bought Skyrim for 40 USD (on release) and I played that game for several months and I expect to come back to that game every once in a while to try out a few more mods and try to finish some more sidequests. 75 USD is a terrible deal in that case, not to mention that every time I would want to come back to play that game I would have to spend another 15 USD and it is simply not worth it.

Once again, Janelle hit the nail on the head, if you want to charge subscription then you need to make a game that revolves around that, if you want to charge microtransactions then the rest of the game needs to be balanced around that and so on. Any company, blizzard included, that charges for the game, subscription and microtransactions is essentially spitting in my face. Blizzard can get away with it because they have a massive userbase and lots of content that offsets the negatives, no other MMO will be able to offset the negatives from the very beginning.
 

babinro

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Sep 24, 2010
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This podcast made me lose any remaining hype for Elder Scrolls Online.
- Subscription
- Single player centric experience
- Endgame experience that we've seen 100 times in the last decade
- No ability to mod (which was huge for Elder Scrolls longevity)
- You lose the wonder and sense of exploration when you have 10 people running around the zone with you

I never played an Elder Scrolls game to enjoy the combat system.
I never played the game for the special loot.
Yet this seems to be the driving force of Elder Scrolls Online's longevity.

I really hope this game somehow proves me wrong.
But it 'feels' like a complete and utter failure in the making.
 

dakkster

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Aug 22, 2011
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What happened to your podcast feed? My phone's podcast app isn't getting updates from you anymore. The last time was episode 104. I'm using Pocket Casts.
 

JonB

Don't Take Crap from Life
Sep 16, 2012
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Thread vindicates me. Frosting is the bane of perfectly good cake.

AkaDad said:
They say you learn something new everyday, and today it was cock weasel.

Now I need to go eat something with frosting.
Glad I could share my ample supply of cockweasels.

dakkster said:
What happened to your podcast feed? My phone's podcast app isn't getting updates from you anymore. The last time was episode 104. I'm using Pocket Casts.
We'll look into it. Thanks for the tipoff.
 

Briney-

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Jul 13, 2011
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Good cake doesn't need a ton of icing, and should be able to stand on its own.

I agree with Jon re: art books. I love seeing the evolution of game elements from "concept" to "final", and art books are the perfect vehicle for that.
 

prinnyzeta

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Nov 21, 2008
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My opinion on the whole cake to frosting ratio is to just eat muffins because any frosting is to much frosting .
 

-Dragmire-

King over my mind
Mar 29, 2011
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I get an extra filter for online interaction. While I understand that anonymity allows for actions to lack consequences, I never felt that draw. Arguments tend to stress me out so that's usually my incentive for not doing the violent word flailing dance. I'm far more free in my speech when talking.
 

Remus

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Nov 24, 2012
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Frosting to cake ratio depends on the kind of frosting. If it's the super-thick liquid sugar butter frosting, less is better. Or none at all. But if it's light and fluffy, a 50/50 cake to frosting ratio is ideal.
On consoles: I've played PS since day 1. I'm not exactly a fanboy but their controller is just more aesthetically pleasing and easier to use than the standard X-Box controller in my opinion. So if I'm buying on day 1 and I have to wait, I'll wait.

I personally like MMOs with a cosmetic clothing system. Sure looking epic is cool, but not cool if everyone looks that way. My character in The Secret World looks like Big Boss in a black trenchcoat. My warrior in GW2 is The Juggernaut, a huge, red shiny instrument of destruction. WoW added the transmog system just so players didn't all look alike. Granted, transmogging old armor from 3 expacs back is still armor from 3 expacs back, which looks less and less elaborate as it gets older. LOTRO has a rather slimmed down combination of GW2's system and TSW, where there are some cosmetic pieces and dyes but acquiring them can be tedious and/or expensive, which makes it less useful and robust.

If ESO has a solid story, I would be willing to pay a sub for it. Give me GW2's huge WvW battle system and branching paths on the main quest and I'm in for the long haul. Regardless, I will be at least trying it and if I don't like the direction the game takes there's always EQ Next on the horizon and a host of F2P titles. Whatever I play I will be looking for that huge chatty guild. The charm of MMOs is they're like Cheers. You can go where everybody knows your name.

Starz is the one trying to grab the GoT audience with White Queen. The problem is it's not fantasy, so much as it's based on an actual person so that removes a lot of the mysticism around HBO's offerings. Da Vinci is a bit different probably because it has a good writer, and wrapping the inventor up in secret societies isn't entirely implausible.

Creative cursewords - Sphincterweasel! I used that as a game login once. Much hilarity ensued.
 

Caffiene

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Jul 21, 2010
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Ive realised listening to this podcat that Janelle isnt actually an outgoing person at all.

Shes actually a shy, introverted type of person who is on a 30 year sugar high.

Also, Im not American so my cakes dont have any frosting. Sometimes they have some icing. But not too much that it overpowers the cake. Cake must be cake in order to be cake.