The Elder Scrolls Online Imperial Edition Gets Official Unboxing

[Waaghpowa]

First off, cool collectors editions. Whether this game succeeds or not, at least you'll have some cool collectibles.

Second, I played the weekend beta of Elder Scrolls Online and I enjoyed it..

[HEADING=1]BUT[/HEADING]

I don't think it's worth paying $60 dollars + $15 a month sub. Now before I start getting hate replies, let me explain my opinion.

NOTE: The following is based on my experience with with the Elder Scrolls online beta weekend. Things may be different, changed or I may have missed something during my time playing it.

The game very much feels and plays like an Elder Scrolls game, much like Skyrim, but aside from human interaction aspect of the game, I don't see much going for it.

I've played WoW since the game was released and, despite being in a Heroic Raid guild that only runs 3 hours 3 days a week, I play the game much like a single player game. I do my own thing and enjoy the story, the artistic style, music and gameplay on their own. Aside from my guild, my need to interact with humans is fairly minimal.

With Elders Scrolls games, I play it for all the aspects I described with WoW. Now you might say "Then what's the big deal? You'd enjoy the game". While you'd be right, based on my impressions from the beta, it will be lacking quite a lot of the aspects that make a Elders Scrolls game fun and that is freedom. The freedom to kill anyone, steal anything to name a few. Now don't get me wrong, there's quite a lot of things to do in Elders Scrolls online, but the reduced freedom that comes with making it an MMO is what's making me keep my distance for the time being.

Another part of what makes the Elder Scrolls games so great is the great potential for modding. Unfortunately, outside of UI addons, Elder Scrolls online will likely not have modding for the obvious reasons.

TL;DR Why would I pay $60 dollars + $15 a month to play Skyrim without modding, murdering, theft etc. When I can play Skyrim for hundreds of hours with the freedom to mod for a one time fee of, at the time, $60 dollars?

P.S A modder was successful in creating an online aspect of Skyrim wherein players could all be together in the same game instance.

 

[PuckFuppet]

Now I'm praying to the Divines for this game to go free to play. It's looking like it's going to cost so much money that I'm starting to get angry. The only reason they're going for such blatant cash-grabbing is because it's The Elder Scrolls, a series with a massive fan following. Why did it have to be my favourite game series that they're keeping me away from?

A bit more on topic, the statue is nice. But once again, the money is just not worth it.

Out of interest, what defines "so much money"?

Including the cost of the "Imperial" edition @ 100$ and the monthly subscription cost at 15$ (rounded up, including the "free" month) then you get a total of 280$. Maybe I'm coming at it from a different perspective but dropping that much on a game yearly didn't bother me with WoW when I was like 16ish and it certainly isn't a problem now.

That said this is obviously just from my perspective. Nonetheless dropping that much on a game has been broadly the norm for almost a decade now, and in recent years it has becoming common to drop four or five times that in a month (I know some really... dedicated LoL players), playing a card game like MTG easily eats the same amount in a year. I could go on.

 

[SajuukKhar]

Before we have a lore off, quick few points.

Pardon my autism in the following post, but I have to make some clarifcations.

1. The Bosmer and Altmer have actually gotten along quite well, in fact, the Bosmer are known to get along well with pretty much every race, to the point of being called pacifists by invaders, except the Kahjiit, who they share rare border skirmishes with, although that hasnt caused any true hated of the Khajiit. The Bosmer dont hate anyone, especially not the Dunmer.

2. The Imperials, Nords, and Bretons aren't actually hateful to each other either. It was the help of the Nords that allowed Alessia the slave-queen to found the first empire, and they have been rather steadfast allies of the Empire until the 4th era Skyrim conflict. The Breton-Nord conflicts ended centuries before even TESO begin, and the only real conflict between them remains in the form of the Nords and Reachmen, and even the Bretons themselves hate the Reachmen.

3. Redguards are traditionally anti-Orc, and have assisted the Bretons in leveling Orsinium every time it has been attacked. Though Breton-Redguard relations are hit and miss, they are usually OK with each other.

4.Orcs, while genuinely peeved at the Bretons and Redguards, don't really hate them, as they see their attacks as part of the Orc way of life, the path of the exiled and the pariah, just like their lord Malacath.

5. The Imperials have done almost nothing to the Argonians, since Black Marsh is considered a unlivable hellhole, no Empire has ever really conquered it, only taking Black Marsh via treaty. The Argonians greatest enemy is always the Dunmer, who have enslaved them for millennia.

6.The flu was never confirmed to have been made by the Argonians, that is just baseless speculation on the part of historians due to paranoia since the last great flu was made by the Sload of thras.

 

[PuckFuppet]

Before we have a lore off, quick few points.

Pardon my autism in the following post, but I have to make some clarifcations.

1. The Bosmer and Altmer have actually gotten along quite well, in fact, the Bosmer are known to get along well with pretty much every race, to the point of being called pacifists by invaders, except the Kahjiit, who they share rare border skirmishes with, although that hasnt caused any true hated of the Khajiit. The Bosmer dont hate anyone, especially not the Dunmer.

2. The Imperials, Nords, and Bretons aren't actually hateful to each other either. It was the help of the Nords that allowed Alessia the slave-queen to found the first empire, and they have been rather steadfast allies of the Empire until the 4th era Skyrim conflict. The Breton-Nord conflicts ended centuries before even TESO begin, and the only real conflict between them remains in the form of the Nords and Reachmen, and even the Bretons themselves hate the Reachmen.

3. Redguards are traditionally anti-Orc, and have assisted the Bretons in leveling Orsinium every time it has been attacked. Though Breton-Redguard relations are hit and miss, they are usually OK with each other.

4.Orcs, while genuinely peeved at the Bretons and Redguards, don't really hate them, as they see their attacks as part of the Orc way of life, the path of the exiled and the pariah, just like their lord Malacath.

5. The Imperials have done almost nothing to the Argonians, since Black Marsh is considered a unlivable hellhole, no Empire has ever really conquered it, only taking Black Marsh via treaty. The Argonians greatest enemy is always the Dunmer, who have enslaved them for millennia.

6.The flu was never confirmed to have been made by the Argonians, that is just baseless speculation on the part of historians due to paranoia since the last great flu was made by the Sload of thras.

All probably true.

I'm just basing what I said off of what I can remember from the books in Morrowind/Oblivion, despite Skyrim being more recent I have a hard time remembering anything from it.

Regarding point 5 though, the Dunmer may be heavily involved in the slave trade but unless I'm vastly misremembering the Empire did conquer/annex the Black Marsh, they did encourage the slave trade greatly and they did get driven out by that flu, regardless of its origins.

 

[SajuukKhar]

Regarding point 5 though, the Dunmer may be heavily involved in the slave trade but unless I'm vastly misremembering the Empire did conquer/annex the Black Marsh, they did encourage the slave trade greatly and they did get driven out by that flu, regardless of its origins.

The Empire has never encouraged the slave trade, and slavery has been illegal in every Empire.

However, Tiber Septim was forced to permit the continuation of the slave trade in Morrowind, though it was still illegal everywhere else in the empire, as part of the armistice with the Tribunal, but that only happened like 300 years AFTER TESO.

 

[Kargathia]

Spoiler: snip snap

I'm assuming he's referring to this quote from the "Loremaster" of TESO:

Spoiler

Which, of course, is the equivalent of saying KOTOR 1 and 2 were horseshit fantasies but SWTOR? Oh man, that's the real lore right there.

Makes sense. Except typically when the games talk about previous games they do tend to be quite vague. Don't say what guild they were in or what their gender was etc (though a couple were mentioned as males). I suppose it depends on how seriously someone will take what he said. "Fanciful Portrayals" to me is like when people exaggerate how spectacular a historical figure is. Not calling it a fairy tale.

I think what most people take issue with is with the word "fables" because I think most people would agree that the singleplayer games are fanciful portrayals. However, when you use the word fable, you're implying it's something akin to a fairy tale which may or may not have happened. He could've even just avoided that whole phrase of fable and fanciful portrayals altogether, and just talk about why the lore of the MMO will be good, instead of trying to juxtapose it with the main game like some sort of pissing contest.

That said, I don't really think the success of the game will hinge too much on its lore. If that were the case, Burning Crusade or Wrath of the Lich King would have been World of Warcraft's death knell. I mean, I dabbled in a few of the stress tests for ESO and the response in the map chat was so noxious that it was a bit disconcerting to watch. You'd have a group of people shitting all over the game, a group of people praising it to the high heavens, and a group of people just saying "meh". While you're going to get that with pretty much any MMO, it was pretty scary watching what I went through BETA testing SWTOR happening again.

I was one of those geniuses who waited years and years for SWTOR to come out, blinded by my fanaticism of BioWare who, at the time, were my favorite developer (they're still up there, don't get me wrong) along with my love for KOTOR. So, whenever someone would criticize the game I'd have to white knight it to hell. I quit it 6 months in because you can only defend something for so long until you realize it sucks. I'm seeing ESO going through the exact same thing. It's pretty horrifying.

Tangent aside though, like I said: it was more his poor choice of words that gets people riled up more than anything. Nobody wants their experiences from the singleplayer games to be thought of as a cute little story told to kids at bedtime.

I'd indeed be inclined to think that the word he was looking for wasn't "fable", but "legend". Much the same as how Skyrim treated the actions of Oblivion's protagonist: tales of prowess, but no one's quite sure as to who it was, and it probably were multiple persons anyway.
Think the tales surrounding King Arthur. A King Arthur probably existed, but many of the Arthurian legends were probably quite unrelated, and tagged onto a conveniently available heroic figure.


That said: I would love ESO to be successful (enjoyed the stress test I participated in far more than I thought), but pricing and generally it being "yet another MMO" make me rather doubt its future.

However, if and when they go F2P, their crafting system would perfectly support it. One can only hope that transition goes well.

 

[Voulan]

Now I'm praying to the Divines for this game to go free to play. It's looking like it's going to cost so much money that I'm starting to get angry. The only reason they're going for such blatant cash-grabbing is because it's The Elder Scrolls, a series with a massive fan following. Why did it have to be my favourite game series that they're keeping me away from?

A bit more on topic, the statue is nice. But once again, the money is just not worth it.

Out of interest, what defines "so much money"?

Including the cost of the "Imperial" edition @ 100$ and the monthly subscription cost at 15$ (rounded up, including the "free" month) then you get a total of 280$. Maybe I'm coming at it from a different perspective but dropping that much on a game yearly didn't bother me with WoW when I was like 16ish and it certainly isn't a problem now.

That said this is obviously just from my perspective. Nonetheless dropping that much on a game has been broadly the norm for almost a decade now, and in recent years it has becoming common to drop four or five times that in a month (I know some really... dedicated LoL players), playing a card game like MTG easily eats the same amount in a year. I could go on.

That makes sense if you're already used to paying for subscriptions and things. But from my non-MMO-playing stance that's a lot of payments.

Considering I'm from New Zealand, which has similar pricing to Australia, normal games costing $60 in the US will set us back around $130. Even taking into consideration dollar rates, we are being overcharged already. Meanwhile I've seen special preorder packs for games which usually only costs the US $30-50 more be priced at a staggering $210 here. The subscription fee at $15 when converted to NZ pricing is around $30 per month. Add this to potential DLC costs and the in-game store, you're looking at a mind-boggling number.

It's too much. Play it for me and let me know what it's like so I'll know what I'm missing. Meanwhile I'll look forward to ongoing investigations here and in Aus as to why in the hell we're having to pay more than necessary for all forms of digital media.

 

[Belaam]

While I weaned myself of of WoW quite some time ago, I don't really have that much of a problem with monthly pay. Regularly played City of Heroes and Star Wars ToR when they were monthly and frankly, liked them more that way than when they went to FTP but had a million ads for all their little in-game purchases.

I'll play it for a while, get to end game content, get bored with that and move on. Might take a year or so. Call it $180 total for what will work out to a far better deal than $1/hour of entertainment. No problem with that at all. We keep hearing that the average gamer is 35 years old, and I assume monthly pricing is based on the idea that the average 35 year old can swing $15 a month without really sweating it.

 

[tangoprime]

Did I hear that wrong? You have to buy the imperial edition to be able to have access to a race and the online marriage system? That sounds like F2P crap, but in a full subscription model?

Please tell me I am wrong.

So now at character creation it will pop up a window: you don't have access to this, go buy the Imperial Edition?

I guess he was just rounding up when he said 100 percent?

The Imperial Race is playable for everyone. The only thing the limited edition does is make it playable for every faction. For a person playing the standard edition, Imperials would only be playable in the Ebonheart faction.

I don't know about the "marriage" system though. I have the impression that you can buy the rings in-game (with in-game currency), but the limited edition just starts you off with them. But I really don't know.

Do you have a source for that? Because this is the first I'm hearing of the imperials being playable in the base game, and I've been following development pretty closely.

The factions are:

Ebonheart Pact: Nord, Dunmer, Argonian

Aldmeri Dominion: High Elves, Wood Elves, Khajiit

Daggerfall Covenant: Breton, Orc, Redguard

and the Imperials got left out as a neutral faction.

do you have a source that proves otherwise?

snip

Just to clarify, as I didn't see that anyone has made it completely clear-
Imperials are ONLY playable for the owners of the Imperial Edition.
For people who pre-order from any retailer, you get the "Explorer's Pack" which allows unrestricted use of any race (aside from Imperial) with any pact, for example, you could play a Breton in the Ebonheart Pact, or a Dunmer who is part of the Aldmeri Dominion.

Source: UESP latest news story http://uesp.net/wiki/Main_Page
...and for the record, I think having both of these as options only for an elite group or behind a paywall is abhorrent.

 

[PuckFuppet]

Now I'm praying to the Divines for this game to go free to play. It's looking like it's going to cost so much money that I'm starting to get angry. The only reason they're going for such blatant cash-grabbing is because it's The Elder Scrolls, a series with a massive fan following. Why did it have to be my favourite game series that they're keeping me away from?

A bit more on topic, the statue is nice. But once again, the money is just not worth it.

Out of interest, what defines "so much money"?

Including the cost of the "Imperial" edition @ 100$ and the monthly subscription cost at 15$ (rounded up, including the "free" month) then you get a total of 280$. Maybe I'm coming at it from a different perspective but dropping that much on a game yearly didn't bother me with WoW when I was like 16ish and it certainly isn't a problem now.

That said this is obviously just from my perspective. Nonetheless dropping that much on a game has been broadly the norm for almost a decade now, and in recent years it has becoming common to drop four or five times that in a month (I know some really... dedicated LoL players), playing a card game like MTG easily eats the same amount in a year. I could go on.

That makes sense if you're already used to paying for subscriptions and things. But from my non-MMO-playing stance that's a lot of payments.

Considering I'm from New Zealand, which has similar pricing to Australia, normal games costing $60 in the US will set us back around $130. Even taking into consideration dollar rates, we are being overcharged already. Meanwhile I've seen special preorder packs for games which usually only costs the US $30-50 more be priced at a staggering $210 here. The subscription fee at $15 when converted to NZ pricing is around $30 per month. Add this to potential DLC costs and the in-game store, you're looking at a mind-boggling number.

It's too much. Play it for me and let me know what it's like so I'll know what I'm missing. Meanwhile I'll look forward to ongoing investigations here and in Aus as to why in the hell we're having to pay more than necessary for all forms of digital media.

That is reasonable enough.

Hopefully before the game releases they'll clarify what is and isn't in their "store" so people have a better idea of what it'll cost. That being said the place I draw the line is if there is anything in the store that isn't explicitly a service or something that allows people who haven't purchased whatever special editions there are to get those features.

Even if its 90% vanity, it'll still drive me off. I pay a subscription to avoid that nonsense.

 

[Riff Moonraker]

So...absolutely not caring what haters think, my boyfriend and I have preordered it. The rings will be fun.

Our single roommate wants to know if they'll also be releasing a So Ronery version, tho.

Now I'm jealous. I wish my wife would play so I could do the same! I also agree about not caring what haters think. I am preordering this puppy and paying it off in full once I get my taxes in. I am honestly EXTREMELY excited about this game, and cannot wait!!

 

[Riff Moonraker]

In-game weddings with rings to boot. Haven't seen those since my days in Everquest. This presents lots of RP opportunities.

You played EQ, too? What server, if I may ask? I was a necromancer on Prexus, here. I remember being in weddings on EQ, and all that as well. Fun times.

 

[Riff Moonraker]

The most hilarious things about eso's blinders are that its quite obviously a quick cash grab. Buy in, subscription, AND a cash shop. The fact that it wasn't even made by Bethesda. Blatant disrespect for the lore (one of the factions is norn, dork elf, and argonian... And this takes place immediately after the argonians got out of dork elf slavery.)
Captcha: a turbotax advert. Fuck you escapist stop trying to shove advertising in every little thing. I know Durham is a shithole. Move your HQ and maybe you won't have to try to money grub everything.

Somebody woke up fussy. Maybe a Flintstone's Chewable and a juice after a nap will help.

Or the inevitable mod warning...

Nah. Just have a mild concussion and had to drive to Durham today, so my general distaste of Escapist's money whoring, combined with my hatred of Durham, has reduced my tolerance for Escapist's shit.

Look, I am going to at least PARTIALLY cheer you up. You dont like Durham, and I get that. But at LEAST its not Rocky Mount. That should cheer you up, man.

 

[Remus]

In-game weddings with rings to boot. Haven't seen those since my days in Everquest. This presents lots of RP opportunities.

You played EQ, too? What server, if I may ask? I was a necromancer on Prexus, here. I remember being in weddings on EQ, and all that as well. Fun times.

I was a ranger on Tunare. I think my server's been merged since I left, back in the discord expac.