The Elder Scrolls Online

[finalark]

Yep, they're making an Elder Scrolls MMORPG. Its not being made by Bethesda, but by Zenimax Studios and the project is headed by Matt Firor who co-founded Mythic Studios which made the MMO Dark Age of Camelot.

Apparently the game will be the cover of the new issue of Game Informer.

More details here: http://www.1up.com/previews/elder-scrolls-online-mmo?pager.offset=1

 

[Master Xanthan]

Meh, I really don't think Elder Scrolls should jump to MMO. They should just stick to single player IMO, plus paying monthly to play sucks.

 

[Yuna-Maria]

I couldn't be more excited! This is going to be great!

 

[Claire Diviner]

I'm actually quite enthusiastic about the idea. So as long as the gameplay stays true to The Elder Scrolls series, I will have no problem with this.

 

[theeboredone]

Makes me wonder...what happen to the Fallout mmo?

 

[Spire]

This looks awful.

 

[#HBC | ZoZo]

How so, Spire?

 

[Master Xanthan]

http://pc.gamespy.com/pc/elder-scrolls-online/1224380p1.html

this is why

 

[theeboredone]

Wow, that really is underwhelming.

 

[Mic_128]

Makes me wonder...what happen to the Fallout mmo?

Absolutely nothing, hence the lawsuit to take back the licence from Interplay.

Bethesda stated in its complaint that Interplay failed to meet the conditions of the license. Those conditions required that Interplay secure $30 million in funding and begin development of the project within 24 months of the date of the agreement (April 4, 2007). Interplay would also need to launch the MMO within four years of the beginning of development, as well as pay Bethesda 12 percent of sales and subscription fees for the use of the Fallout IP.

Under the terms of the settlement, the license granted to Interplay is now null and void, with all rights granted to develop the Fallout MMO reverting back to Bethesda effective immediately.

 

[finalark]

First trailer: http://pc.ign.com/articles/122/1224248p1.html

First screen shot:

Third person with a cartoony art style and an emphasis on factions. I smell a WoW clone.

I was really hoping for same old Elder Scrolls but with tweaks to make the game more multiplayer friendly. But I got a generic, cookie cutter MMO with pretty much no respect for what made the series what it is.

Lame.

EDIT: You might as well just download a multiplayer mod for a normal ES game and it would be twice the game that this will be.

DOUBLE EDIT: The worst thing about this is that this was an opportunity to create an MMO that's truly unique and feels like its own thing rather than generic WoW clone number 271. I mean, ****, even Old Republic, the all mighty best alternative to WoW borrows it's cartoony art style and has many very similar mechanics and features. Jesus, we finally had a chance for an MMO to break out of the cookie-cutter "cartoony graphics and two factions" WoW formula that MMOs have been emulating for years. But **** that, its all about being WoW, right?

 

[Master Xanthan]

Not only that but this WoW clone is going to give TES a bad name.

 

[Claire Diviner]

Okay, now I'm not very enthusiastic. My hope was for a game that plays like Oblivion, or Skyrim, whilst being able to play online with a massive amount of people. If what we get in the end is what's shown in the above screen shots, then I don't think I'll be interested in the least.

 

[finalark]

The biggest shame is that Bethesda green lit a project that clearly didn't give a **** about ES' fans in favor of a cookie-cutter money generator.

 

[Claire Diviner]

The biggest shame is that Bethesda green lit a project that clearly didn't give a **** about ES' fans in favor of a cookie-cutter money generator.

That's exactly what it is. It's proof that they're starting to milk The Elder Scrolls if they haven't already. Though futile wishful thinking, I can only hope they either scrap this project altogether, or rebuild it from the ground up.

 

[finalark]

Though futile wishful thinking, I can only hope they either scrap this project altogether, or rebuild it from the ground up.

Agreed. If you were to show me that screenshot and asked me what game it was from, I'd probably say some generic no-name mmo that will be quickly forgotten.

Sadly it would be very money inefficient for Bethesda to scrap the project and rebuild it from the ground up unless the game bombs really hard. In that case it they're more likely to just shut down the servers and sweep it under the rug like it never happened.

 

[#HBC | ZoZo]

Hey, I enjoyed Warhammer Online for the week that it was alive :<

 

[theeboredone]

I get the feeling this MMO is gonna suck, and receive the Square treatment of trying to make it better through patches and updates. Those graphics look horrendous though. I mean, FF Online and DC Universe are better looking than that.

Doesn't matter, GW2 is my main interest.

 

[Claire Diviner]

I get the feeling this MMO is gonna suck, and receive the Square treatment of trying to make it better through patches and updates. Those graphics look horrendous though. I mean, FF Online and DC Universe are better looking than that.

I dunno about DCUO being better-looking. I mean, I own DCUO, and the visuals are pretty "meh" to me. Thankfully, the gameplay's pretty fun, if a bit repetitive... but I digress.

 

[finalark]

FF Online and DC Universe are better looking than that.

Are we talking about FFXI or FFXIV? Because XI has some of the worst graphics I've even seen.

IDK, the graphics look like they're pretty much on par with old republic. Clearly its there to make running the game easy on lower-end computers.

Doesn't matter, GW2 is my main interest.

Agreed.

 

[theeboredone]

I was definitely not talking about FF11 lol. That game is really old. I just think given how far gaming in terms of power on both consoles and PC have come, there's no reason why Elder Scrolls shouldn't look clean and polished at least. I'm probably taking too much from that image, but that's how I sort of feel in regards to DC Universe. Very polished. That image on GameSpy seriously does look like WoW running on high settings or something. Old Republic definitely looks better than that.

 

[Kal]

I honestly don't like Elder Scrolls. You spend most of your time traveling to do stupid bull ****, then you arrive at your destination, and the fighting mechanics are even less exciting. It's like a really long, slightly interactive, boring *** movie.

So I'm expecting the MMO to be better, honestly.

 

[Claire Diviner]

I was definitely not talking about FF11 lol. That game is really old. I just think given how far gaming in terms of power on both consoles and PC have come, there's no reason why Elder Scrolls shouldn't look clean and polished at least. I'm probably taking too much from that image, but that's how I sort of feel in regards to DC Universe. Very polished. That image on GameSpy seriously does look like WoW running on high settings or something. Old Republic definitely looks better than that.

While I can agree with that, my biggest concern wasn't the graphics more so than it was for the gameplay. I mean, if they're not going to make it look as great and as detailed as Oblivion or Skyrim, then fine, I can forgive that. But when it plays like your vanilla MMO, be it WoW or Guild Wars, that's when I have a problem, because it wouldn't be recognizable as an Elder Scrolls game.