The Elder ScrMMOlls

[mikemariano]

Just what we've all been asking for!

The Elder Scrolls Online

The only game I have played all year is Oblivion, yet I share the angtsy sympathies of the Rock Paper Shotgun commentors.

It's set a millennium before Skyrim! That means we get to battle against the onset of the Knahaten Flu!

I can't wait to pay monthly for this!

[Erkki]

I'm like

[elmuerte]

I'm more like

Not into MMOGs

[brkl]

I expect this to combine my least favourite parts of Elder Scrolls games with everything I hate about MMORPGs.

[Roderick]

I'm curious how they'll reinterpret the worlds we've already visited. Will Morrowind, Cyrodiil and Skyrim be like the lands we already explored or different? Though I tend not to have time for giant MMO's, The Elder Scrolls is always of interest.

[Murdoc]

As long as it's an Elder Scrolls games + online, rather then whatever cookie cutter mmo with an elder scrolls art theme applied to it, I'd be okay with.

Honestly though the Elders Scroll universe is pretty uninteresting, so its really the fidelity of the combat, some of the quests, and the immersion of the world I enjoy from it... I don't expect that to be applied to the same degree as an mmo, so really I'll just wait for the next sp.

[Corelli]

I can't imagine anything less interesting.

This actually makes me like the previous Elder Scrolls games a little bit less. I realize that is irrational.

[Brannigan]

Yea it's really going to depend on if it's elder scrolls plus online play or it's WoW 18: Darkness Risening

[elmuerte]

As long as it's an Elder Scrolls games + online, rather then whatever cookie cutter mmo with an elder scrolls art theme applied to it, I'd be okay with.

In BethSoft RPGs you are always the guy that the whole world depends on, and you save the shit out of the world.

Now there will be 1000s of others who are the same savior?

[Orv]

It's the first MMO from a new* company, set in an established mythos and we have no information as of yet. I'll reserve judgement, but I'm already sold on GW2 so we'll see.

*ZeniMAX Online, drawing from BethSoft

[Raff]

Right now I'm picturing a 1-0 hotbar at the bottom of the screen, a zoomed out orbital camera and a horse that ceases to exist when you're not riding it. And a storyline where every player is actually the same character. An auction house. Raids.

We shall have to see how Fuck Ol' Scrolls: BreckOnline turns out. Prove me wrong!

[thespambot]

I'm enjoying Skyrim, but I don't know if I'd enjoy it if w3edp0calypse420 was in my face yelling racial slurs while I was trying to fight a bear.

[Brannigan]

I'm enjoying Skyrim, but I don't know if I'd enjoy it if w3edp0calypse420 was in my face yelling racial slurs while I was trying to fight a bear.

so you're saying you sided with the Imperials...

[circadianwolf]

I'm curious how they'll reinterpret the worlds we've already visited. Will Morrowind, Cyrodiil and Skyrim be like the lands we already explored or different? Though I tend not to have time for giant MMO's, The Elder Scrolls is always of interest.

I (don't) look forward to Morrowind being a smoking crater and Cyrodiil being a puppet state of Nazi Elf Wizards.

[Orv]

I (don't) look forward to Morrowind being a smoking crater and Cyrodiil being a puppet state of Nazi Elf Wizards.

Hey guess what, people should read info. This is a millennium prior to Skyrim, which is 260-ish years after Oblivion, which is 25 or something after Morrowind.

[TheLastBaron]

I won't play the game, but as long as it's a good game I have no problem with them trying to make it, it seems like a logical decision.

[Sno]

I will almost certainly not play this, because fuck MMO's, but i am fascinated to see what this game is.

It's kind of been one of those "industry's worst kept secret" things given that it's been rumored for so long, and i think it was just kind of assumed that it was vaporware.

So yeah, it's not Bethesda Game Studios and it has no bearing on the future of Skyrim or whatever follows that. Additionally, Zenimax Online has no track record to speak of, i don't believe they've done anything outside of tooling away on this thing in secrecy for many, many years.

Anyways, if it's just WoW, they've fucked up.

What i think it needs to be is something that somehow conveys TES's feel of having a living world that reacts to your actions, something that when you push up against the limits can give way and sometimes push back, but doesn't break when you throw thousands of people at it. I don't know what that game is, but i think that's the ideal they need to be chasing.

How about a fantasy-themed EVE online? Heh.

Curious to see what becomes of this, probably won't play it.

[mikemariano]

Sno, that's really well-said, but I do fear that this will adversely affect any future Bethesda Elder Scrolls game.

Ultima Online is essentially the end of Ultima as a storyline. The Warcraft story has died with World of Warcraft.

The Elder Scrolls has played well with Redguard and the cell phone games, but an MMO will demand far more attention from both the audience and the "keepers" of The Elder Scrolls.

It's up to you, mod community, to keep The Elder Scrolls going!

[K-bohls!]

I hope there is an open beetle so I can piss people off with "Arrow in the knee" jokes. The only redeeming part of the Elder Scrolls series was the level of immersion they could sometimes produce on a good day, an MAMORPHAGA is going to quickly take that aspect away. I would describe the Elder Scrolls series as a one inch deep ocean, now with more shallowness.

Haven't seen anything yet but it already seems like a bad move...

[Sno]

Sno, that's really well-said, but I do fear that this will adversely affect any future Bethesda Elder Scrolls game.

Ultima Online is essentially the end of Ultima as a storyline. The Warcraft story has died with World of Warcraft.

Well, i think you could argue that EA was the end of Ultima as a series. The proper Ultima series ended around the time EA took control, there were other things happening there, it wasn't necessarily Ultima Online's fault.

Could probably make a similar argument for Activision and Blizzard.

Anyways, i'm going to be hopeful that scenario doesn't play out here, it has been stated pretty clearly that Bethesda Game Studios has no involvement with this game. (Which doesn't mirror Blizzard's involvement with WoW and Origin's involvement with UO.)

[Twig]

Could probably make a similar argument for Activision and Blizzard.

I don't think you could. Blizzard has been "Activisioning" since long before they merged with Activision.

At any rate, they better make the combat actually fun. It's already dull as hell, and MMOs rarely have good combat. U:

[Orv]

I don't think you could. Blizzard has been "Activisioning" since long before they merged with Activision.

At any rate, they better make the combat actually fun. It's already dull as hell, and MMOs rarely have good combat. U:

Guild Wars combat is pretty great. But I'd be interested to see Oblivion/Skyrim combat in a multiplayer PvP setting. I don't want more Skyrim combat, but you have to admit that it would be more interesting than most MMO combat.

[Murdoc]

In BethSoft RPGs you are always the guy that the whole world depends on, and you save the shit out of the world.

Now there will be 1000s of others who are the same savior?

We said that with Biowares MMO... which is pretty much why I'll be skeptical about this.

Honestly the saving the whole world thing in Elder Scrolls has been the LEAST interesting part of their games, so there might be hope.

[circadianwolf]

Hey guess what, people should read info. This is a millennium prior to Skyrim, which is 260-ish years after Oblivion, which is 25 or something after Morrowind.

I know the timeline; hadn't heard that there was a date for the game, since it's just been announced and all.

Hmm, according to the Imperial Library 1000 years before Skyrim would put the setting ~2E 500, several hundred years before Tiber Septim uses a giant robot god to conquer the continent. There's... really nothing interesting going on in that period, other than that there's no empire. I suppose it's a pretty blank slate. The Tribunal exists, but if it's just Cyrodiil they won't feature.

I wonder if Cyrodiil will be an actual jungle this time? Since they ret-conned that in Oblivion by saying Tiber Septim magicked it into an aggressively conventional Tolkien-esque fantasy landscape.

I know way too much about TES mythology.

[Orv]

What gets me is the utter stagnation of Tamrielic technology. TES games cover what, 450 years total? Literally no technological progress. I have to wonder what it was like 1000 years ago, since I assume the Dwemer were still around. Though if it's in Cyrodil, when did the Aeylid die out?