The Elder Scrolls Online

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

The Elder Scrolls Online is a real MMO being developed by ZeniMax Online - Joystiq

More details soon, but Game Informer said Molag Bal (that nice voice that told you to torture someone with a mace in Skyrim) will be the daedric prince to set things in motion in the early days of the third age. That and the MMO will span all nations of Tamriel.

A trailer is said to be coming soon.

[Ketaru]

Re: The Elder Scrolls Online

Bah, I don't think my PC is gaming-ready. Haven't played games on my PC in a long while. Final Fantasy XI in the beginning of January, but that's an old game of course.

[cidbahamut]

Re: The Elder Scrolls Online

I don't know enough about the franchise or this specific project to form an educated opinion, but my gut reaction is that this will be an ambitious flop.

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: The Elder Scrolls Online

All I do know is that Todd Howard's team at Bethesda Game Studios was rumored to only have an advisory role. They've historically been adamantly against making multiplayer games. Zenimax wants to make one, though.

Setting this in the early third age also keeps this game from really having anything to do with the others as those are all late third age and early fourth age..

[Raydeus]

Re: The Elder Scrolls Online

(Hmmm.) (That's interesting.) But it will depend on how good the gameplay is and whether or not they retain the first person view instead of going 3rd person like everyone else.




PS > It's a shame those morons from Interplay got the rights for Fallout Online, I'd be 100 times more interested in that game if it was being developed by a Zeni team instead.

/wait "Fallout 4"

[DakAttack]

Re: The Elder Scrolls Online

Interplay doesn't have the rights to the Fallout MMO anymore, and will lose all licenses to anything Fallout-related within the next two years.

[Raydeus]

Re: The Elder Scrolls Online

That's probably the best news I've heard since ZOE HD.

[Yellow Mage]

Re: The Elder Scrolls Online

If you think about it, The Elder Scrolls is perfectly set up to be an MMORPG. In what other genre could you easily justify a kleptomaniac interface and myriad necessary bug fixes?

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: The Elder Scrolls Online

I'm actually iffy about the whole thing. Just for the sake of argument, I would hope TES VI: Elsweyr would happen before an expansion related to that region for an MMO, otherwise knowing the general geography (though different for the MMO's period) might make things a bit less fun.

There's clearly a lot of lore to capitalize on here, many events you could build out of that and the gameplay style of the series could make an MMO interesting to me again, but there's also that thing about how god-like you character becomes. Would there be fixed job classes, are we stuck with the constellation/signs we start out with, would we be able to custom class - that sort of thing.

I fear they might bring back some of the mindless tedium of the older gamers, such as Arena, Daggerfall and Morrowind. Going to those places would be nice, but I don't want to have to grind out a spell class to be able to apply that class of magic to an enchantment again. Leave that bullshit behind with Oblivion and Morrowind.

[DakAttack]

Re: The Elder Scrolls Online

If you think about it, The Elder Scrolls is perfectly set up to be an MMORPG. In what other genre could you easily justify a kleptomaniac interface and myriad necessary bug fixes?

The game will have bugs, undoubtedly, but they wont be "the usual fare". I can't say why, but I hope it's nearer to obvious than not. I don't want to say much until the magazine hits and I've seen what they've essentially ok'd for PR.

[Taskmage]

Re: The Elder Scrolls Online

A game that's Elder Scrolls or an MMO already has the power to eat all your time. A game that's both is going to start devouring the time of people around you and unborn children. "Yeah, I had a bunch of stuff I was going to do today, but my neighbor was playing that Elder Scrolls MMO and suddenly it was 4 am and I still hadn't had lunch. My kid flunked out of college, too. He's not even in high school yet!"

[Firewind]

Re: The Elder Scrolls Online

Personally I'm going to reserve judgement until there's more information out. While I for one would love some sort of Co-Op mode for Skyrim, let's face it, GTAIV and Red Dead Redemption showed us how ridiculously fun adding multiplayer to a sandbox game can be, my gut feeling about an Elder Scrolls MMO right now is is "Eeeeeeh. This might suck horribly if they handle it poorly".

I felt the same way about SWTOR until I tried out the game and loved it. Same might happen here, the opposite might happen.

[Icemage]

Re: The Elder Scrolls Online

Wait, wait, Bethesda, historically the game studio with the largest amount of bugs in their games, now wants to make an MMORPG?

Excuse me while I step outside and laugh hysterically for a few minutes.

(Hahahahahahahahaha!)

Get ready for a record-breaking MMO launch with hundreds of game-breaking bugs.


Icemage

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: The Elder Scrolls Online

Wait, wait, Bethesda, historically the game studio with the largest amount of bugs in their games, now wants to make an MMORPG?

Zenimax Online Studios is heading up the MMO, Bethesda Game Studios is not developing it. As I understand it they have Skyrim expansions to worry about and Fallout 4 to plan.

[Icemage]

Re: The Elder Scrolls Online

Zenimax Online Studios is heading up the MMO, Bethesda Game Studios is not developing it. As I understand it they have Skyrim expansions to worry about and Fallout 4 to plan.

Sure, sure. But let's call a spade a spade, shall we? Every Elder Scrolls game ever released (aside from the first, TES: Arena) as well as Fallout 3 and FO:NV has had a list of bugs a mile long.

Why is this?

Is it because it's so monumentally complex to create a huge sprawling game world that it becomes unmanageable? Xenoblade Chronicles and Kingdoms of Amalur tell us otherwise.

Is it because the Gamebryo engine (which ISN'T being used for TES Online)? Nope. Dark Age of Camelot was created under Gamebryo, and while it had its share of quirkiness, it was not significantly worse than other MMOs in terms of technical flaws.

The answer lies in attitude: Bethesda (and by association, their parent company Zenimax) simply do not care about producing a bug free product.

My original statement stands: I expect this game to launch with a hilarious amount of bugs.


Icemage