The Elder Scrolls Online

[Bad^Hat]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't the whole allure and charm of the Elder Scrolls the fact that it had the grandness and scope of an MMO but was a single player adventure one could get lost in? So by making it an MMO, they're essentially killing the very thing that makes Elder Scrolls what it is.

I agree with you in a way, but anyone who played MMOs in their heyday knows that they can be just as, if not more immersive than single player RPGs. Single player games have them beat for story, but getting lost in a huge open world can be even more powerful if you share that world with other players, since you notice when they're not around. You could be in a city centre one minute with hundreds of other people around, then scouting a remote location the next and not see a soul for hours. The fact that they're other players makes the world feel like less of an artificial construct, since they're all behaving just as organically as you are (more or less... MMOs do gradually turn people into automatons). Of course, this can be a double-edged sword, as there's no easier way to be taken out of a game than for another player to spin-jump up to you on a novelty mount, set off a bunch of fireworks and start spamming ni**erpenis in chat, but I still think traditional MMOs have a sense of scope and belonging that can't quite be replicated by single player RPGs, much in the way that MMOs can never quite match the plot delivery or poignancy that solo RPGs aspire to.

So... I guess I wasn't really disagreeing with you after all. Oh well.

Of course, most major MMOs have been doing everything in their power to quash out that sense of scope in the past ~5 years, with most "advancements" in development serving to make their worlds seem that much smaller, more guided, less daunting. If any developer still knew the value of exploration and discovery, you'd hope it would be Bethesda, but somehow I'm not filled with confidence. The way they're managing "servers" seems like a good idea on paper, but I can't imagine how the game will develop a sense of community if it lacks the persistence of regular shard-type servers. Not that they don't have their own set of problems (player retention being chief among them), but it's still a little worrisome. Can't help but imagine every group activity being relegated to a detached, impersonal "finder" tool. Blegh.

 

[William]

I signed up -- dunno if I would actually get some time to check it out though. Could be interesting I guess.

 

[Rorschach120]

At first I was like "Oh no, guy talking" but what he says sounds so awesome!!
If anyone says anything about being better than a certain game I will hunt them down! That's what ruins these games!

"WILL THIS BE THE ***-KILLER?!?!?!"

 

[BabyHeadCrab]

Hope this is finally the WoW killer ya'll!

 

[Rorschach120]

-1!!!!!!

(yeah I couldnt click it)

 

[BabyHeadCrab]

Just wait until the first public beta's most busy chat channel. Then we can rage.

 

[Rorschach120]

hmmm I miss trolling The Crossroads.

 

[BabyHeadCrab]

If one were to ever do an anthropological study of a game environment with near maximum ****tard density, Barrens chat circa 2004/5 would be the time and place.

 

[Mogi67]

hope they add item and stat loss, especially for pvp

bring back corpse runs!

 

[sixteenth]

I actually got to play this for about 30 minutes during a special PAX East related event. A couple of notes:

• The character customization is pretty intense. At the time I played, I was only able to select from a few available classes/species (in development still, I guess). But their were an abundance of options to mold my character as I wanted. I chose a mage (can't remember which species - I wanted to play right away, so I didn't spend much time during the character customization part).
• Environments were very detailed and beautiful (best looking MMO I have played, at least). Some graphical glitches were encountered (as expected), but it did not ruin the experience. I did not recognize the hardware I was on (some sort of LED changing micro-ATX), but I never encountered any frame-rate issues or pop-ins.
• There was no tutorial (also as expected). So I found myself asking the devs lots of questions throughout the playtest. Upon spawning, I was completely free to find NPC's to begin quests. Questing options were very simple (accept, deny, more information types of prompts), but included a lot of ES lore. The NPC's also looked horrendous, so I expect the textures are placeholders for now.
• Speaking of quests, they were very basic (kill this many x, put out these fires, go here and get an item, etc). But, like I said, they included a good amount of lore. I was more interested in playing (since I only had 30 minutes), so I skipped through most of the dialogue. Some of the quest dialogue was placeholder (as expected), but some was definitely done by vas. There were a few backend issues/latency concerns, but I kind of expected that as well. For example, one quest requested for my assistance putting out fires around a small village. Many times I would complete the action of dumping a bucket of water on a fire, but the fire would not go out or be registered as going out (it was a "put out x amount of fires" quest). I ended up attempting to put out twice as many fires as needed.
• Left-click was a basic attack. Action keys, like many MMO's, use the top row of the keyboard. There were about 5-6 action "slots" available. I was able to purchase individual actions (passive, offensive, defensive) using skill points available to me during initial spawn. Also a slot for health regen items.

The event itself was probably more entertaining than the gametest was, imo. There was some dude dressed passing out scrolls at the doorway to Pax East. To my surprise, it was an invitation to this ESO event. Upon entering this castle thing in central Boston, you were given 20 or so specially minted coins with the ESO emblem on them. You could use these for beer from the beer garden (with craft brews renamed to silly ES lore-like things (i.e. "Honeymead" or "Skyrim-ale")). There was plenty of themed food as well. If you were almost out of "currency", you could go to the gambling tables to win back some more money by playing a betting game involving dice and Blackjack rules. You could also use the money to purchase rare swag, but all of it sold out within the hour. I didn't feel like standing in line to buy that stuff; I spent most of my time there drinking craft beers, speaking to people, playing ESO, and eating caramel popcorn. I'll post some pictures below. Btw, pretty much real drunk off craft brews during the whole thing. Gotta love free beer.

Apologies for the blurriness of the first few; low-lighting, drunk, etc.

Right before some event staff put her hand over my camera.

Friend of mine who kindly refilled my beer numerous times as I was waiting to play ESO.

Another friend of mine "steal"ing a coins from one of the actors.

The "currency" they gave us in a knapsack thing.

 

[BabyHeadCrab]

That blonde looks absolutely knackered.

 

[Rorschach120]

Worst meme generator ever... what was that, like, one week?