'First of all, the game is relatively traditional MMO, with a hotbar, a third-person perspective, no real-time combat, player-versus-player, and character classes. However, the title will be fully voice-acted, with a story that apparently is planned to take about 120 hours to get through to the endgame. The 250-man team is also working diligently to ensure that many of the series trademarks are present, such as a sense of exploration and the constellation system.
For fans more interested in the way lore is being represented, it has been confirmed that Online is a prequel to all previously released games, and involves the machinations of the Daedric Prince Molag Bal, who steals all player character souls, allowing them to be reconstructed upon death without significant penalty. The continents of Skyrim, Morrowind, Summerset Isle, and Elseweyr will all be present, although future expansions will likely allow access to even more remote regions of Nirn. The players will be split into three factions of three races each, as follows:
-Ebonheart Pact: The Nords, Dunmer, and Argoninans
-Aldmeri Dominion: Altmer, Bosmer, and Khajit
-Daggerfall Covenant: Bretons, Redguard, and Orcs
Features confirmed to be absent from the game include dragons, romance, player housing, becoming a werewolf or vampire, and Skyrim‘s highly touted Radiant AI. Also of note is that there is “no aggro mechanic in the game.” Other details, such as the mechanics of sneaking, are still in development. The rest of the minor details that are currently known can be found here, while additional screens are available here.'
Looks like Bethesda is following Bioware in launching an MMO. Thoughts? Is this good? Shit? Will this stop Bethesda from making anymore single-player games like WoW did with Blizzard? Comment below.
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Last edited by Nephthys on May 5th, 2012 at 12:59 PM
From comments about the announcement is that fans of the series are not too high on the direction of the game because it's not really a Elder Scrolls. While never played and I'm probably wrong but at least TOR took an mmo and applied what people liked about Bioware games by adding a pretty in depth storyline.
Much as I disliked the 'you can become master of every craft and guild' feel of Elder Scrolls- which is not to say I hated the whole franchise- it's whole schtick was about being the definitive high fantasy RP where you played one guy in a super-detailed world of your own to explore and thrive in. A lot of people liked that.
As an MMO... it's just another fantasy MMO. You can't be the best in the world at everything because genuine other players would be competing with you for that.
That's not in itself a disaster, but what's clear is that this is being done because it CAN be done, and not because it thematically reflects the franchise in any way. That being so, it will have to do a heck of a lot to break out the fantasy MMO mold, and I really doubt it will. Still, we'll see.
(Much as I love Guild Wars, the fact that it is also just another fantasy MMO is a strike against it, but I think they've been distinct in enough other ways to justify it- plus, Guild Wars was built from the ground up to be thematically MMO-orientated, where Elder Scrolls has not).
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"We've got maybe seconds before Darth Rosenberg grinds everybody into Jawa burgers and not one of you buds has the midi-chlorians to stop her!"
Actually, having an Elder-Scrolls style combat system would make it a bit distinct, though TERA is already going down the action-combat direction (and Guild Wars 2, now I've played it, is a kind of action-WoW mix).
Other than that- yes, that is suspiciously similar to GW2. Not that I am complaining if MMOs are shifting in that direction.
Talking of which- one can only wonder if there is a monthly fee involved...
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"We've got maybe seconds before Darth Rosenberg grinds everybody into Jawa burgers and not one of you buds has the midi-chlorians to stop her!"
Voice acting is not a substitute for good gameplay. TOR sucks for that very reason.
Also, Ush: I can't see any of the gameplay vids so I dunno what the gameplay looks like, but I'm assuming that if there is no real-time combat, it probably won't play like a traditional TES game. More like a traditional point and click mmorpg.
In other words: lame.
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"The Daemon lied with every breath. It could not help itself but to deceive and dismay, to riddle and ruin. The more we conversed, the closer I drew to one singularly ineluctable fact: I would gain no wisdom here."
A fully real-time combat system like you see in TES games would be really hard to do in an MMO; imagine how difficult to play it'd be for people who don't have a really good connection with low ping.
And Ush, I do agree that I rather like the idea that more games are shifting to GW2's way of doing things. What bothered me was the constant claims of "We came up with this", as well as the fact that in the quotes posted they mention just about every other major MMO but the one that's already doing (and doing very well) everything they're doing.
Also, Neph, Bethesda's not actually making the game. It's being done by Zenimax. So maybe, at least, it won't be one massive bug-fest.
I do have to wonder just who they're aiming this game at, though. TES fans seem to be not hot on it, and non-TES MMO fans are going to be less likely to bite, I think; especially if it's subscription-based. Who do they really think is going to play?
All I can assume is that they were expecting TES fans to go crazy for it, after all the Skyrim hype.
Also, isn't Tera online's combat fully real-time?
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"The Daemon lied with every breath. It could not help itself but to deceive and dismay, to riddle and ruin. The more we conversed, the closer I drew to one singularly ineluctable fact: I would gain no wisdom here."
To be honest, I don't know a whole lot about Tera other than the fact that I've seen some really ridiculous artwork from it, and supposedly it's action combat. It didn't catch my interest in any way, so I've not followed anything about it.
I understood Tera had gone that way, yes. Likewise, Monster Hunter plays full action combat online, and was rather good. MH is not casual friendly though; I am not sure of Tera was more accessible.
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"We've got maybe seconds before Darth Rosenberg grinds everybody into Jawa burgers and not one of you buds has the midi-chlorians to stop her!"
Well, I had fun with Skyrim. It made me like TES series.
Now...I will probably never play an Elder Scrolls game, again. Sad, really. Why does everyone think that all gamers like online games. Skyrim sold so well that it shocked people: it is not an "online" game. So why would they move in a direction that is not similar to its success of the past? Makes no sense.
Maybe if they continue to create games like the "older" Elder Scrolls games, while nurturing the MMORPG, that would be okay. Then I could have my cake and eat it, too.
You are aware that Bethesda Game Studios gave this title to Zenimax so that they could continue to work on their own projects (Aka the main TES series and presumably Fallout), right?
I mean... Really, it's not like this game is signalling the end of the series.
Gonna just stick with single player RPG's I think. Done with the whole MMO thing most likely. As long as this doesn't affect any future single player Elder Scrolls games, I don't care.
No, I did not realize that. I did not know that that is what they were doing with this MMO. Thank holy hell that they are not converting to MMORPG. Remember Warcraft? yeah..........I do not think there is hope to get a and RTS like Warcraft IV. Based on that assumption, I thought the single player RPG stuff was going the way of Warcraft RTSs.
I admit I am curious. I was a big fan of Skyrim, and TES in general. The MMO sounds like it could be fun. Though I do think there are way too many fantasy mmo's out there. I'd like to see some different genres. Perhaps Secret World and World of Darkness online will be what we need. I would also love to see a western mmo, like Read Dead Redemption!
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May 5th, 2012 12:56 PM
