Update: Beta Tester Leaks Elder Scrolls Online Gameplay Footage

[Rawbeard]

The Elder Scrolls transition into a classbased MMO, while Pathfinder (D&D) transitions into a skillbased MMO. Some weird shit right here.

 

[Lunar Templar]

it's shaping up to be another run of the mill MMO?!

as many have already said. 'called it'

 

[Alandoril]

I never understand why people say "It's only beta, things will change." I've played several MMOs during beta and after launch and literally nothing changes about the core of the game.

 

[Parakeettheprawn]

sadly, I must agree: generic MMO pretty much right here.
why are people so afraid to stray from the WoW formula?
why the HELL can't they just make it more like the other TES games, just scaled to MMO level (slower leveling, harder prices/etc.)? not to mention the apparent inability to bring graphics to a niveau that doesn't scream like "from 6 years ago" (or at least make the graphics more scalable so people with hardware from 10 years ago can still play it)
*sigh* will give it a try either way. Maybe gameplay and graphics is not everything to a game : O

...get rid of the graphics and gameplay, and you've basically got a MUD. You can find MP MUDs for free, there's even a Counter-Strike MUD.

Honestly though, this is one of the few games where I can genuinely say that whoever wanted this has to purely be a very niche audience, because nothing they have presented so far looks substantial in any way.

 

[MorganL4]

I played WOW for a month and it was mind numbingly boring, have no idea how people get hooked on it.

What it comes down to is guilds...... Yes the gameplay is horribly tedious and repetitive. But the game is there to supplement the social interaction between the players, the same reason card games exist ( something to do while sitting around a table having a conversation). Through the social aspects of the game you develop friendships and rivalries that cause you to want to improve your character, which means you have to play more.... and more....... and more...... THAT is how it happens.

I know because I played WoW for 2 months, and like you couldn't figure out what the big deal was, then I decided to go back and give it another shot with a different class and race, this time I fell in with a guild and was hooked. I left to go to another MMO, came back the guild was totally different, so I went back to the other MMO that had the guild I had been with since before the game had launched.

The Elder Scrolls transition into a classbased MMO, while Pathfinder (D&D) transitions into a skillbased MMO. Some weird shit right here.

In fairness, only Skyrim didn't have classes.

 

[Rawbeard]

Yeah, that's not what skillbased means. Pathfinder will also have classes, similar like Morrowind had classes. It's still a skillbased MMO. TSO looks like classchoice determines the skills you can have, ever, not which skills you start out with.

 

[Chessrook44]

Is it so bad to want a fantasy version of EVE online?

YES.

Waiting days to upgrade one skill at a time... bloody idiocy for an MMO, that's what I say!

Plus we're already FILLED with fantasy MMOs. We need more sci-fi MMOs out there.

Meh anyone who has played eve knows that 'leveling up your skills' is not the primary goal in the game. Your skills are just things so you can be better at a particular aspect of the game. Sure having low skill points sucks but once you're competent in what ever area of the game you're interested in you typically are just training for an extra few percent in something.

The problem is most people don't know how to focus on a goal and work towards it, instead they bounce all over the place and generally end up sucking at everything.

Actually, with me, I'm a completionist and I play hard. I do everything, and I complete games quickly. So when my completion is forced into limitation... i.e., say, stuck at level 3 for 2 days because there's a time limit, when I could have gained 10 levels at my natural progression speed in that time... frustrates me.

 

[Imperioratorex Caprae]

sadly, I must agree: generic MMO pretty much right here.
why are people so afraid to stray from the WoW formula?
why the HELL can't they just make it more like the other TES games, just scaled to MMO level (slower leveling, harder prices/etc.)? not to mention the apparent inability to bring graphics to a niveau that doesn't scream like "from 6 years ago" (or at least make the graphics more scalable so people with hardware from 10 years ago can still play it)
*sigh* will give it a try either way. Maybe gameplay and graphics is not everything to a game : O

10 year old hardware? Seriously? Thats like asking for games to be produced for the PS2/XBOX/Gamecube. Technology moves ahead, game developers won't waste time making games to work with aged hardware because its just not profitable to them.

 

[Vrach]

sadly, I must agree: generic MMO pretty much right here.
why are people so afraid to stray from the WoW formula?
why the HELL can't they just make it more like the other TES games, just scaled to MMO level (slower leveling, harder prices/etc.)? not to mention the apparent inability to bring graphics to a niveau that doesn't scream like "from 6 years ago" (or at least make the graphics more scalable so people with hardware from 10 years ago can still play it)
*sigh* will give it a try either way. Maybe gameplay and graphics is not everything to a game : O

WoW sells like crazy; people "clone" what's popular.

Same reason for the influx of CoD-like FPS' in the recent years.

I still might check it (TESO) but only because it's Elder Scrolls.

I still don't get it though. Yes, WoW is popular, but the utter failure of any MMO that tried to copy it is so blatantly obvious, I'm amazed that people who pitch these ideas don't just get smacked across the face with their severance package. Hell, even WoW itself is dying and losing players and the only reason it's still kicking is that people made too much of a connection there with others to just leave it for good. Basically every game that copies WoW tells their potential customers "hey, how about leaving that game, all your progress and the majority of friends you have there for a cheap copy of the game you're playing right now?".

 

[sid]

I still don't get it though. Yes, WoW is popular, but the utter failure of any MMO that tried to copy it is so blatantly obvious, I'm amazed that people who pitch these ideas don't just get smacked across the face with their severance package. Hell, even WoW itself is dying and losing players and the only reason it's still kicking is that people made too much of a connection there with others to just leave it for good. Basically every game that copies WoW tells their potential customers "hey, how about leaving that game, all your progress and the majority of friends you have there for a cheap copy of the game you're playing right now?".

Well, the fact that it'll flop isn't entirely a problem. The ultimate goal of making an MMO is getting a profit out of it, so if you come out in the positive by the time you close doors, you're good. I don't condone the attitude, but that's pretty much the reason MMOs, modern FPSes, or apparently MOBAs, even exist. It's not about winning, it's about not losing.

 

[Vrach]

I still don't get it though. Yes, WoW is popular, but the utter failure of any MMO that tried to copy it is so blatantly obvious, I'm amazed that people who pitch these ideas don't just get smacked across the face with their severance package. Hell, even WoW itself is dying and losing players and the only reason it's still kicking is that people made too much of a connection there with others to just leave it for good. Basically every game that copies WoW tells their potential customers "hey, how about leaving that game, all your progress and the majority of friends you have there for a cheap copy of the game you're playing right now?".

Well, the fact that it'll flop isn't entirely a problem. The ultimate goal of making an MMO is getting a profit out of it, so if you come out in the positive by the time you close doors, you're good. I don't condone the attitude, but that's pretty much the reason MMOs, modern FPSes, or apparently MOBAs, even exist. It's not about winning, it's about not losing.

So you're saying these things actually make money? If so, I'm genuinely surprised. MMOs are among the most expensive of games and they cost money to keep going. I can't see how a failure of an MMO (as most MMOs are these days) would even break even.

edit:
Also, I'd be willing to put money down that if they came out with a crappy MMO that tried a different formula than WoW, they'd make more money. Considerably more people would be willing to try something that is new than something that they already know is going to suck.

 

[Rainforce]

sadly, I must agree: generic MMO pretty much right here.
why are people so afraid to stray from the WoW formula?
why the HELL can't they just make it more like the other TES games, just scaled to MMO level (slower leveling, harder prices/etc.)? not to mention the apparent inability to bring graphics to a niveau that doesn't scream like "from 6 years ago" (or at least make the graphics more scalable so people with hardware from 10 years ago can still play it)
*sigh* will give it a try either way. Maybe gameplay and graphics is not everything to a game : O

10 year old hardware? Seriously? Thats like asking for games to be produced for the PS2/XBOX/Gamecube. Technology moves ahead, game developers won't waste time making games to work with aged hardware because its just not profitable to them.

you misunderstood, I implied the graphics look like from 10 years ago at parts, so I pointed out how they should improve them or at least make them more scalable, if the context requires them to be that..."bad".

 

[sid]

I still don't get it though. Yes, WoW is popular, but the utter failure of any MMO that tried to copy it is so blatantly obvious, I'm amazed that people who pitch these ideas don't just get smacked across the face with their severance package. Hell, even WoW itself is dying and losing players and the only reason it's still kicking is that people made too much of a connection there with others to just leave it for good. Basically every game that copies WoW tells their potential customers "hey, how about leaving that game, all your progress and the majority of friends you have there for a cheap copy of the game you're playing right now?".

Well, the fact that it'll flop isn't entirely a problem. The ultimate goal of making an MMO is getting a profit out of it, so if you come out in the positive by the time you close doors, you're good. I don't condone the attitude, but that's pretty much the reason MMOs, modern FPSes, or apparently MOBAs, even exist. It's not about winning, it's about not losing.

So you're saying these things actually make money? If so, I'm genuinely surprised. MMOs are among the most expensive of games and they cost money to keep going. I can't see how a failure of an MMO (as most MMOs are these days) would even break even.

Honestly, I don't know. I tried googling around some MMOs, Guild Wars made a profit for sure, so did Perfect World, but SWTOR's production cost was higher than their profits and LOTRO seems to have come out almost evenly. I can't say for sure that it's a profitable business, but why would anyone keep making them if it wasn't?

 

[XandNobody]

Working video still up over at PC Gamer at the time of me writing this: http://www.pcgamer.com/2013/04/14/here-are-20-leaky-minutes-of-elder-scrolls-online-footage/

OT: Holy crap, I'm honestly really disappointed here. If this was alpha footage I'd feel better, but beta's these days being not much more than exclusive demos and server load tests, this is really kinda depressing. It's more or less a Skyrim with worse graphics and the questing system of every other MMO ever taped onto it.

 

[piinyouri]

What reason would I have for picking this up over that?

If you're an Elder Scrolls fan.

 

[Ringo_Plumen]

I still don't get it though. Yes, WoW is popular, but the utter failure of any MMO that tried to copy it is so blatantly obvious, I'm amazed that people who pitch these ideas don't just get smacked across the face with their severance package. Hell, even WoW itself is dying and losing players and the only reason it's still kicking is that people made too much of a connection there with others to just leave it for good. Basically every game that copies WoW tells their potential customers "hey, how about leaving that game, all your progress and the majority of friends you have there for a cheap copy of the game you're playing right now?".

Well, the fact that it'll flop isn't entirely a problem. The ultimate goal of making an MMO is getting a profit out of it, so if you come out in the positive by the time you close doors, you're good. I don't condone the attitude, but that's pretty much the reason MMOs, modern FPSes, or apparently MOBAs, even exist. It's not about winning, it's about not losing.

So you're saying these things actually make money? If so, I'm genuinely surprised. MMOs are among the most expensive of games and they cost money to keep going. I can't see how a failure of an MMO (as most MMOs are these days) would even break even.

Honestly, I don't know. I tried googling around some MMOs, Guild Wars made a profit for sure, so did Perfect World, but SWTOR's production cost was higher than their profits and LOTRO seems to have come out almost evenly. I can't say for sure that it's a profitable business, but why would anyone keep making them if it wasn't?

Actually I think a lot of MMO's (not just mmorpg's) are profitable, and especially after a lot of the ones that were struggling have switched to F2P models.

OT: I hope they manage to polish the gameplay before release cause it doesn't particularly good in it's current state and I think they're gonna need to shine on most fronts with this thing in order to make it long term, but thats what beta's are for and until (or if) it goes into public beta I will reserve my judgment.

Unfortunately Bethesda have quite a habit of releasing highly unpolished and even bugged games, so I'm not exactly optimistic at this point.

 

[duchaked]

seriously though...a co-op mode in the existing game(s) would be amazing enough. plus a lot cheaper than building a whole MMO :/

 

[Odbarc]

Its WoW in a elder scrolls face mask

Most MMO's suffer from being like the generic MMO. They all copy each other and there isn't anything significantly unique about any of them anymore. WoW was good for a short while because Blizzard actually made things better than the industry was offering in the genre, but now to compete, they all have to copy WoW at least. And most of them likely can't afford or afford to risk doing things better than what's already been done.

At best we can expect to see a different IP in the same clone and hope that we like that particular IP best. MMOs, I find, are horrifically grindy and merely stall players to the end-game content where they stagnant and require too much multiplayer cooperation to upgrade gear intended for PVP and potentially shorter jumps for new gear when expansions come out.

 

[Frostbite3789]

What reason would I have for picking this up over that?

If you're an Elder Scrolls fan.

From what I've heard, most TES fans aren't very excited for this. In fact quite the opposite.

 

[sid]

This kind of occured to me. Can you really blame an MMORPG for being similar to World of Warcraft? Isn't that kind of like blaming a company that makes tennis rackets for being similar in design to Wilson? It's not that they're blatantly copying anything, rather the main issue seems to be that they're the same genre. Sure, Guild Wars steps away from WoW, but only on surface level, more specifically, the art style and fluid gameplay. It still incorporates everything that WoW stands for. Just a thought, maybe the main issue with MMORPGs being shit is that MMORPG itself isn't particularly cool.