The Elder Scrolls "Perfectly Suited" for MMOs
- Thread starter StewShearerOld
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Sound's like Bethesda are gambling quite a lot on their existing fanbase making the jump to an MMO; correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't Todd Howard - director of all the Elder Scrolls that matter - say something like ?if the install base really mattered, we'd all be making table-top games, because there are a lot of tables"?
I'm intrigued by this new foray into MMOs, but I honestly can't see it going well.
I'm intrigued by this new foray into MMOs, but I honestly can't see it going well.
Still cautiously optimistic about this game, it looks quite promising.
All of the people that have had hands-on experience with the Alpha build seemed very excited and surprised about the game. Whether that will remain for the final version is the question of course, but it's still a promising start.
Most of the hate coming at this game seems to come from people who don't have any interest in MMOs anyway so I don't really see that as a problem. CoD gets much more hate, seemingly mostly from people who don't play it, and I don't see it suffering because of it.
So yeah, I'll be following this one with interest but I'll reserve my final judgement for after it's released and the first reviews are in.
All of the people that have had hands-on experience with the Alpha build seemed very excited and surprised about the game. Whether that will remain for the final version is the question of course, but it's still a promising start.
Most of the hate coming at this game seems to come from people who don't have any interest in MMOs anyway so I don't really see that as a problem. CoD gets much more hate, seemingly mostly from people who don't play it, and I don't see it suffering because of it.
So yeah, I'll be following this one with interest but I'll reserve my final judgement for after it's released and the first reviews are in.
To me, the Elder Scrolls has always seemed very close to a single player MMO. Bland quests, terrible story, awful mechanics, but an amazing world. Now they just need to dial down the graphics and add in multiplayer functionality and hey presto!
Will it work? I doubt it. I see it becoming a new TOR.
Will it work? I doubt it. I see it becoming a new TOR.
Meh. Elder Scrolls has been going downhill since Morrowind, I guess this'll just continue that trend. No big change there, just wasted time and effort.
All i can say is DO NOT BUY THIS ON RELEASE, atleast wait a week or two, try it out first on your friends account or youtube it like a ************. Let's not have another age of conan,warhammer online, swtor etc etc etc. I still think that every new mmo dev has too high hopes. Everyone wants the same ammount of subscriptions that WOW has but that's impossible.
You know, I wouldn't be against MMOS not being made for at least 5 years. The problem that plagued the mmo world for so long is that the devs, or people at the head of these projects have all been creatively dead for a decade now.Kazedarkwind said:
We've all had this dance before, it basically repeated dozens of time: New mmo announced, it promises it will be better than it's predecessors, revolutionize a few things, won't repeat it's mistake.
Then it gets released, everybody sees that apart from a new coat of paint and some new minor features, it's the same old story: afterthought pvp, no lasting endgame, the pointless grind for gear that in the end will leave you empty inside because you'll realise there's nothing really left to do.
I wouldn't be against new MMOs if these devs understood that mmos are NOT singleplayer games with multiplayer lobbys, with a driving storyline. Because these ALL fail. They ALL have. Granted they stay afloat but they all lost a considerable amount of their subscribers, and are now just drifting in the sea of mmo mediocrity among a lot of others, unrecognizable from each other.
It's going to be especially glaring in TES since Elder Scrolls was always about freedom: freedom of choice, freedom of class, freedom of play. If you wanted to be a brigand that robs houses and attacks people on the road, hey you could. Want to be a wandering hunter that hunts animals and uses their mats for crafting ? You could. Want to be a strange mage/knight hybrid and buy a house somewhere in Skyrim ? Yep.
And so far, I don't think TESO will have any of that. It will be your standard MMO from start to finish with added action combat, some pvp to keep some people busy until the inevitable balance issues between factions ensues and devs have put no failsafe for that, and pve endgame which will consist in going to finish whatever dungeon with a boss that you gonna grind again and again to get that last piece of gear.
Yeah, and I'm pretty sure that's what Bioware said about Star Wars and The Old Republic.StewShearer said:
Besides, a TES game would be pretty interesting as an mmo. Why the hell was there a hotbar in here again? I thought people stopped trying to compete with WoW.
The game I was hoping for with the Elder Scrolls MMO was a game that utilized the UI, combat system, and other features of the series while increasing the interactivity of them. Also I can think of a few ways that being able to steal anything not bolted to the floor could work in an MMO setting: just have the items only salable to the black market like in Skyrim. Players are only going to be able to rob and pillage areas that are around their level or lower anyway. The shops would have to either be individually instanced or have their stock respawn once a day or something, though. They could even have the NPCs hire guards to protect their stuff in store if they get stolen from too frequently and make it so players might want to defend the stores to get access to better goods (a shop that gets stolen from would have less money to get better stuff). They could even throw in trade caravans! That would be entertaining.
Bah, I'm dreaming on this one. Can't imagine they'd ever try something like that in an MMO space.
Bah, I'm dreaming on this one. Can't imagine they'd ever try something like that in an MMO space.
I do agree with the basic premise proposed: The Elder Scrolls IP intrinsically makes for good MMOing.
There are some issues, though.
1 - It is a game of freedom. It actually shuns players who want a directed experience (yes, even Skyrim). Putting restrictions on top of it without a VERY good explanation will alienate fans like me.
2 - The soul of TES is the modding community. It is a Frankenstein-like relationship: Bethesda is the Doctor, since it created the body, piecing it together (haphazardly). But the electricity that moves the corpse is the modding community. It transforms the TES experience into an engrossing, creative and thorough world.
3 - They can hit the nail on the head, but they can, for the first time, actually destroy the IP. There are huge swaths of land that are yet unexplored (no, Arena and Daggerfall don't count =P). We do not have an accurate, extensive mapping of, say, Elseweyr, or Black Marsh. We know their map, cities, some PoIs, but we do not have the Morrowind/Oblivion/Skyrim treatment of them. Will these landscapes be as elaborate as their already-explored brethren? I do have some serious doubts about that.
4 - One hero, no more. Now, we'll have thousands of Nerevars and Dovahkiins (used as examples, only) roaming around Tamriel. This will strain the storytelling of a world that gravitates around the single players, single hero experience. It can be done correctly (and they started that by choosing an adequate time frame for the game, kudos for that), but it can be a big problem for the narrative.
And narrative, internal or external, is what makes TES so alluring.
There are some issues, though.
1 - It is a game of freedom. It actually shuns players who want a directed experience (yes, even Skyrim). Putting restrictions on top of it without a VERY good explanation will alienate fans like me.
2 - The soul of TES is the modding community. It is a Frankenstein-like relationship: Bethesda is the Doctor, since it created the body, piecing it together (haphazardly). But the electricity that moves the corpse is the modding community. It transforms the TES experience into an engrossing, creative and thorough world.
3 - They can hit the nail on the head, but they can, for the first time, actually destroy the IP. There are huge swaths of land that are yet unexplored (no, Arena and Daggerfall don't count =P). We do not have an accurate, extensive mapping of, say, Elseweyr, or Black Marsh. We know their map, cities, some PoIs, but we do not have the Morrowind/Oblivion/Skyrim treatment of them. Will these landscapes be as elaborate as their already-explored brethren? I do have some serious doubts about that.
4 - One hero, no more. Now, we'll have thousands of Nerevars and Dovahkiins (used as examples, only) roaming around Tamriel. This will strain the storytelling of a world that gravitates around the single players, single hero experience. It can be done correctly (and they started that by choosing an adequate time frame for the game, kudos for that), but it can be a big problem for the narrative.
And narrative, internal or external, is what makes TES so alluring.
That's sort of a downfall of the MMO genre, though. It has built in DRM due to the nature of the game and the need to keep the experience level with everyone. I'm totally with you on the modding community: TES is just one of the most modding friendly game series that has existed out there, and they need to at least try to keep the MMO version open for modding in the UI, textures, and skins department. Any mod that requires it's own models and physics is going to be dead in the water though. =(StrixMaxima said:
Yeah, I don't see this going well. First off, since every player would need to be running the same version of the game, you can kiss mod support goodbye. Second, with a lot of other players making the rounds, you can't really have an equivalent to the Nerevarine or the Dovahkiin; it's hard to have a "chosen one" with more than one player. Third, actions have consequences in single-player that they can't online. Take the Stormcloak rebellion from Skyrim. In a MMO, there are two ways you could handle this:
1. The war goes on indefinitely. This robs the sideplot of any real payoff, and the players of any feeling that their choices actually mattered.
2. The war eventually ends. No matter which side gets the victory, about half your player base is going to be pissed about it, and any players who join after the event is over will have missed the whole thing.
1. The war goes on indefinitely. This robs the sideplot of any real payoff, and the players of any feeling that their choices actually mattered.
2. The war eventually ends. No matter which side gets the victory, about half your player base is going to be pissed about it, and any players who join after the event is over will have missed the whole thing.
I really don't see the appeal of an Elder Scrolls MMO. I mean what? everyone running around will be a dovahkin or nerevarine. I found the appeal being that I was special, ok oblivion I wasn't the chosen one, but I was the one doing all the important legwork and hacky/slashy/fisty stuff.
This didn't work with TOR and I doubt it will work with Elder Scrolls. When will these people learn to NOT try to make everything an MMO and try to improve the single player experience.
This didn't work with TOR and I doubt it will work with Elder Scrolls. When will these people learn to NOT try to make everything an MMO and try to improve the single player experience.
What, an already-large franchise is perfect for an MMO thanks to name recognition? Hold the damn phones.
It's not like the fact that it's a fantasy-themed open world RPG would make it any easier.
It's not like the fact that it's a fantasy-themed open world RPG would make it any easier.