Elder Scrolls Online

[Grubbz]

Originally Posted by citizen1080 [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Havn't had much time to play this weekend, but enough to cement the fact that I have fun playing. Just bought 2 imperial copies.

Yeah i ended up buying 3, 2 for my marine buddies and 1 for a family member.

[Lune]

Have done a lot of cyrodil and some dungeons now.

There's so many design decisions they've made that I disagree with on paper and I want to bitch about it, but I find myself having shitloads of fun and looking forward to playing more. Definitely some feelings I haven't felt since vanilla WoW, which caught me by surprise given how cynical I've become, especially about this title in particular.

If you find the Cyrodil keep zergs distasteful, there are places you can go for smaller scale pvp. Just had a three-faction skirmish in Cheydinhal; two ebonhearts tried to gank me while I was getting a quest, and two dominions rushed in to help me. One covenant bystander got dragged into it. Then more people started coming and by the time I died it was a full blown streetfight. Carnage etc.

Relatively high stakes too because it put me about a 5 minute walk away at the nearest dominion keep we had just captured. Could have been much further.

Often you'll get people skirmishing on the periphery of a large siege, and smaller groups fighting over mines/farms.

[stormlord]

Looks like it could be a good game if it stays away from the open world pvp or mechanics that're too punishing. But honestly... what makes this game look like it'll be as successful or more successful than previous titles like SWTOR or Rift or Warhammer Online? Those titles started out big but aren't as big anymore.

What I think could be happening is the mmorpg market is saturated and players can't move on from older games they're entrenched with. I do see an open window because WoW is aging a lot and this could open the door for somebody else. Diablo 3 has also not done as well and this could mean the makers of WoW won't rule the next generation. It'll have to be someone else that takes what WoW did and makes it even more friendly and expansive and professional, but I wouldn't expect dramatic increases in the population, unless the game somehow taps into the console market too - an MMORPG that's both desktop and console friendly.

It could be making the game even more accessible is not hte key to a winning game. Maybe it's something else? My opinion is it'll have something to do with console gamers and desktop gamers coming together. Up to this time, with games like WoW and many others, they've been exclusively desktop-based. This will change.

Also have to consider the widespread use of portables and notebook pc's over traditional desktops. That combined with the continued success of consoles means desktop computing is old hat.

Some evidence for my statements:
http://www.pcworld.com/article/20685...-expected.html

Anyway, ESO looks interesting to me, but I think it's just abusing the Elder Scrolls name. Evenso, it may be successful anyway. All commercial activities in some form or another are predatory.

Remember how WoW came from a long line of World of Warcraft games? That reminds me of ESO. The "Elder Scrolls" name also comes from a long line of Elder Scrolls games. I once heard something to hte effect "The past doesn't repeat but it rhymes." Maybe ESO will surprise and do something similar.

Look what WoW did. It relaxed the mechanics by reducing punishments. It added more quests and moved the grind to the end-game, thus moving it mostly out of sight of most casual players. It stylized the graphics to make them age slower. It reduced the system requirements so older systems are viable. It spent $80 million which was huge back then. Many of its makers were previous EQ players - or previous gamers in general. It added more instances, not just for convenience but to set itself apart from older games.

WoW became more accessible to casuals while still having content for 24/7 gamers. Will ESO do this?

[Kayso]

Originally Posted by stormlord [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Looks like it could be a good game if it stays away from the open world pvp or mechanics that're too punishing. But honestly... what makes this game look like it'll be as successful or more successful than previous titles like SWTOR or Rift or Warhammer Online? Those titles started out big but aren't as big anymore....

I think Rift is a very good point to bring up as any new sub fee MMO emerges.

Rift launch was an overwhelming success. Other than not enough servers at launch, it was solid at release and played well. However, I think they were combining servers within a year and have gone F2P.

I played Rift at release. Enjoyed my ride to max level. Enjoyed farming half a dungeon set on expert level dungeons. Enjoyed killing a few bosses in both raid zones. Then, one day, I just never logged in again.

Isn't that ok? I'm just finally working on Bio Shock Infinite. I really like it, but I'll never play it again when I am done. If most people agree that BSI is a good game, why the standard that an MMO has to last 5-10 years in order to be a good game?

If my TESO experience goes just like my Rift experience, I'll be infinitely satisfied. And as far as the "success" of the game goes, as long as Zenimax doesn't loose so much money that we don't get another ES or Fallout sequel some day, who cares?

[Oogei]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JC4GVM1kCnA

[liveitup1216]

I tried to give the closed beta a fair shake, but I was so bored. I like their class/skill system, but its poorly implemented. Be and do and wear anything you want, but you'll be subpar unless you follow the cookie cutter setups and bonuses that are built into the trees and races. (This is an assumption, as I don't truly know the impact of this at higher levels. Though this is rather moot since the whole "suffer early game until you reach the real endgame" development mentality is still shitty design.)

I can see myself doing the usual MMO flow: buy it, play it until you've ridden all the rides, then never log in again. If they pull that off I'd call it a success for Zenimax, though still a failure for the genre.

[Tecmos Deception]

Originally Posted by Kayso [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Isn't that ok? I'm just finally working on Bio Shock Infinite. I really like it, but I'll never play it again when I am done. If most people agree that BSI is a good game, why the standard that an MMO has to last 5-10 years in order to be a good game?

If the time I spend leveling up, farming for tradeskills, grinding reputations, facerolling dailies, sitting around waiting on AFK/dumb people in raids... if that was all as fun as the campaign in a solid FPS then no, that MMO would not need to be running strong for a decade to be a "good game."

But that shit is not as fun as SP games. The ride in MMOs is generally not fun enough to only just reach the destination and then quit for good, or something along those lines. Half (or more) of the appeal in an MMO for me (and lots/most others, I'd wager) is looking back at what you've done in order to get to where you are. An MMO isn't worth the time if you spend a couple months playing to get to max level and a month pissing around on the same endgame mechanics that every post-wow MMO has at max level before you quit. You should have just played half-life again or something instead; it would have been more fun and cheaper/free.

[MrSparkle001]

Angry Joe is liking the PvP just like I knew he would:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I82pz60iGL0

[Kayso]

Originally Posted by Tecmos Deception [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

If the time I spend leveling up, farming for tradeskills, grinding reputations, facerolling dailies, sitting around waiting on AFK/dumb people in raids... if that was all as fun as the campaign in a solid FPS then no, that MMO would not need to be running strong for a decade to be a "good game."

But that shit is not as fun as SP games. The ride in MMOs is generally not fun enough to only just reach the destination and then quit for good, or something along those lines. Half (or more) of the appeal in an MMO for me (and lots/most others, I'd wager) is looking back at what you've done in order to get to where you are. An MMO isn't worth the time if you spend a couple months playing to get to max level and a month pissing around on the same endgame mechanics that every post-wow MMO has at max level before you quit. You should have just played half-life again or something instead; it would have been more fun and cheaper/free.

Other than in EQ, I never put in enough hours to get to the "top end" of a game. I quit EQ during early GoD when my guild was just starting PoT. At that time, looking back at what I "accomplished" did nothing for me other than make me sad thinking about all the time wasted. Spending that much time in a game isn't good for anyone.

That said, if it weren't for the hardcore players, the come and go casuals like myself wouldn't have any reason to ever play an MMO over a normal game. To the point you're saying that, I agree.

[MrSparkle001]

Funny, for me EQ was the one game I didn't want to reach the end game in. I just kept making new characters. The early levels were the most fun; the end game felt like a chore and sometimes a job requiring me to schedule time for. I no longer had the freedom to log in whenever I wanted and get things done in game and so low levels were what I played.