It the announcement that’s been the talk of the Internet over the last week. A lot of people are surprised, which surprises me. The Elder Scrolls (TES) is an RPG, so it’s not surprising to me that Bethesda and ZeniMax Media Group are interested in moving the franchise into the MMO space. There are subscription fees calling after all.

Of course ZeniMax Online has it’s work cutout for it. Skyrim, Oblivion, and Morrowind are massive open world RPGs with large modding communities and point-n-click combat. None of which works well in an MMO, or at least hasn’t yet. Plus, ZeniMax Online has apparently been working on TES Online since 2007. This means that they’ve probably not been able to incorporate the things that Skyrim did so well into their designs. Even more important, a lot of the recent innovations in story telling (SWTOR) or combat (GW2/Tera) or dynamic events (Rift) are likely not part of the design.

Still, it’s hard to tell much for certain yet since there’s very little official information out there. The few things I’ve watched or read mention pretty standard combat (which is disappointing) but three faction PvP which is excellent and makes me think of Dark Age of Camelot.

At this point I’m just curious. It’s way too soon to be worried or excited about TESO, but it looks like May and June are going to be full of news and videos about the game, so we should see soon if The Elder Scrolls Online is worth adding to my list of games to watch.

Elder Scrolls Online
Tagged on:     

6 thoughts on “Elder Scrolls Online

  • May 10, 2012 at 12:29 pm
    Permalink

    Point and click combat? ‘splain…

    Actually, it’s not too early to be worried or excited about TESO. It’s been in development since 2007. The GI interview flat out said it’s everything we’re already accustomed to, and nothing like Skyrim or Oblivion. In other words, it’s a “WoW clone” to use the popular derogatory phrase. Level up, gear up, linear progression, level-bracketed zones and thus level-segregated players. Same ol’ shit.

    I don’t mind this in TERA (well, I mind the level-segregated part because you guys can out-level me when I’m gone on a trip working) because I’m not there to take it seriously. But Skyrim was an awesome and immersive virtual world, something TES fans take seriously. TESO is none of that. I guess the good news is it doesn’t have the budget SWTOR did so when it “fails” and goes F2P it won’t be quite as big a deal.

    • May 11, 2012 at 12:44 am
      Permalink

      Point and click combat: aim mouse cross-hairs, click button to swing sword or sling spell.

      I’ve since found some leaks on Reddit of the upcoming Game Informer piece, not sure how accurate they are, but the more I find out the more it sounds like a standard MMO with some TES additions. SOS as you put it. That’s pretty disappointing, but who knows maybe ZeniMax will surprise us between now an 2013 (probably not).

    • May 12, 2012 at 1:31 pm
      Permalink

      Wow, quite the cynicism you’ve got there. The funny thing about WoW clones is that games were doing those same things before WoW, just not as good I guess.

  • May 10, 2012 at 12:40 pm
    Permalink

    I really think they shot themselves in the foot by saddling it with the Elder Scrolls IP. DAoC 2.0 sounds great to me. An Elder Scrolls MMO with none of the features that make ToS games compelling, not so much.

    • May 11, 2012 at 12:45 am
      Permalink

      Yeah, I would love love love an actual DAoC 2.0, so maybe a spiritual one won’t be so bad. Have to wait and see, I guess.

  • May 14, 2012 at 6:51 pm
    Permalink

    This game very much sounds like a bog-standard MMO run in the Elder Scrolls Campaign Setting. I got that issue of Game Informer and I can’t be bothered to read the article. Ugh.

Comments are closed.