The Elder Scrolls Online

[The Laughing Man]

Graphics don't make an Elder Scrolls game great, for most anyway. The sense of scope, character customization, and vast exploration do. Morrowind--to this day--is still considered, by a great many, to be the best Elder Scrolls game; even better than Skyrim. It's combat is lackluster and graphics...meh. However, just how large the world felt, how deep the character customization was, and the amount you could explore is what made the game truly great.

[KaizokuJinbei]

*waits for another legal dispute*

[The Laughing Man]

*waits for another legal dispute*

Why would there be another legal dispute? lol

[Sakonosolo]

I'm pretty sure he's talking about Notch's whole Scrolls game. Doesn't have any bearing on this though since this is a liscened game.

[DarthAsthma]

After seeing the screens meh. I'm normally a huge advocat of having stylised graphics over photorealism, but in my opinion striving for photorealism in elders scrolls always seemed to me like a concious design decision which helped up the immersion in this "do what you want simulator" by heaps and bounds.
So I really don't think going all of a sudden stylised meshes well with Elder Scrolls at least if we distill the things people like about the series and try to retain them as best as possible in a MMO enviroment.

The screens give the impression that only the lore will be kept intact which just doesn't make a Elders Scrolls for me.
It's inherent that it just being an MMO takes a huge chunk of one of the ES defining hooks out of the equation "the freedom to do what you want".
You won't be able to steal everything you want because it would destroy economic systems (which are important in an MMO) as enviromental impression (every player has to be able to see things in a original state, just imaging players walking into empty taverns because other players robbed them empty doesn't work really well).

The list could really go on for a while extending to things like factions and class systems. All in all this will probably not be an Elders Scrolls game besides in name it might be a good MMO thought. But I'm not sure if we need one more of these if it doesn't innovate heavily on the MMO conventions.

[KaizokuJinbei]

Why would there be another legal dispute? lol

Fallout Online a game not being made by Bethesda had a big legal despute. Figure if this is the same situation Bethesda would do it again

[DarthAsthma]

Fallout Online a game not being made by Bethesda had a big legal despute. Figure if this is the same situation Bethesda would do it again

You're kind of ignoring the fact that Zenimax owns Bethesda Game Studios and with that probably the rights to all it's franchises.

[KaizokuJinbei]

You're kind of ignoring the fact that Zenimax owns Bethesda Game Studios and with that probably the rights to all it's franchises.

Can't ignore what I didn't know

[Hiroy]

Looking at the screens. It does not look too bad, but I'll wait it out. Screenshots are normally different from what the final build actually looks and play like.

I think as an online game, TES has the potential to expand on things it could not have done otherwise before. Like giving developers the initiative to make more armor sets due to player demand, and if we are lucky... we might see such sets in the next Elder Scrolls game. But it all depends on how well this game holds up and how loyal the community is.

I'm not interested in playing this, but it would be interesting to see what TES can bring to this already huge MMO market.

[Nolus]

Graphics don't make an Elder Scrolls game great, for most anyway. The sense of scope, character customization, and vast exploration do. Morrowind--to this day--is still considered, by a great many, to be the best Elder Scrolls game; even better than Skyrim. It's combat is lackluster and graphics...meh. However, just how large the world felt, how deep the character customization was, and the amount you could explore is what made the game truly great.

Am I the only one who likes Morrowind's graphics to this day? I don't know, but it has a certain feel for it that suits the rest of the game perfectly. Of course there are some wonky things going on once in a while, but I still find it appealing. My brother showed me a pack that gave the game a whole different look. It was retextured, many things were improved, but in the end, it didn't feel like Morrowind to me even though I didn't look half bad.

I do agree that the fighting system in Morrowind is kind of... well, meh, but there are plenty of things that makes it better. Like Crassius Curio. Who can hate that guy?

I'll soon be able to compare Morrowind to Oblivion though and see the differences. I know Morrowind will always be my absolute favourite ES game however.

As for the MMO... I'm not fond of it, and I think it's not a good idea, but my opinion doesn't really matter. I'll see what it will be like when finished though as I'm curious

[Sakonosolo]

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/20...-per-cent-solo

Not happy paying a flat rate of $60 for a single player game? Well now you can pay $15 a month for one!

[Pirate Empress Kooh]

So Bethesda is part of it? Oh the loading screens...oh the horror...

[David Ludwig]

You go out there and you kill the dragons; You kill Mehrunes Dagon in Oblivion; in Morrowind, you're up there fighting the Tribunal

No, you don't.

....

[tatermoog]

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/20...-per-cent-solo

Not happy paying a flat rate of $60 for a single player game? Well now you can pay $15 a month for one!

"With a sixty dollar down-payment!"

[CosmicDebris]

Because Warcraft has 10 million+ subscribers. And they each pay roughly 15 dollars a month.

150 million $ a month, every month?

Yeah, people want a slice of that scam.

The problem is, nobody else has come even close to that.

[Leon]

Professional Opinions?

[Hinscher]

Professional Opinions?

the art style seems like its more looking like Guild Wars 2 than Skyrim.

The combat looks slow, imo. Also strange seeing it not in first person.

Very iffy on this game. The thing that makes the other games so great is more of the mod experience. The customizable armors/weapons people make, spells, monsters ect. I'm not sure if I want a Elder Scrolls where its set that only the dev's can do any changing.

The class system also is a big downer. The biggest draw of Elder Scrolls has been how you pick up a weapon and through use you become better at it. i don't like them making you choose a class

The only thing i think I like about this new MMO is that it says its going to be covering the entire world.


Bring me Elder Scrolls 6, not an MMO.

[Leon]

the art style seems like its more looking like Guild Wars 2 than Skyrim.

The combat looks slow, imo. Also strange seeing it not in first person.

Very iffy on this game. The thing that makes the other games so great is more of the mod experience. The customizable armors/weapons people make, spells, monsters ect. I'm not sure if I want a Elder Scrolls where its set that only the dev's can do any changing.

The class system also is a big downer. The biggest draw of Elder Scrolls has been how you pick up a weapon and through use you become better at it. i don't like them making you choose a class

The only thing i think I like about this new MMO is that it says its going to be covering the entire world.


Bring me Elder Scrolls 6, not an MMO.

I felt the same about graphics. It is more animated and looks more bulky. But its just in its alpha stage and graphics will improve, so says Zenimax.

In an online game, you cannot expect player mods. That's just how online games are.

Class system is disappointing, agreed.

A Big world means much to explore. Exploring the whole Tamriel sounds good. But i really hope they don't shorten Skyrim, Morrowind and Cyrodil.

[Jacko]

first impression:
- 3rd person view
- the graphic looks better then WoW, but imo not good enough for 2012
- class system (Hinscher named the problem)

+ mass server
+ covering the whole TES world
+ the content of the books from the games is in this game

After checking the content from the website:
--- 3 factions and every faction has three of the races:(

[DarthAsthma]

From a techincal standpoint I'd have to agree it looks rather guild wars 2 maybe even slightly weaker since it seems a little more toony.
From an art design standpoint well it looks super bland. The most interesting architecture in elder scrolls has been in morrowind the rest has been fairly standart.
Compared to the crazyness that the guild wars 2 art team is it doesn't stand a chance in my eyes.

This is going to be another mmo rpg just with elder scrolls. I don't think it will have anything in common beyond lore that makes people love the elder scrolls single player series, and for me that's not cutting it. To be honest I'm also tired of the whole genre mmo rpg. It's gotten as boring and stale as military first person shooters.
I'll be immensly surprised if this will wow people in any new ways.

I'll also wonder if people realize that exploring in this mmo will be a vastly different experience from the likes of skyrim and more akin to other mmos. I can see this only be any good if they're smart about their monetization program.
Pay to play mmo's are just saturated with having wow being the juggernaut of 8 years of refinement.