[Fine Ham Abounds]

I didn't want to care at all, but seeing a DAoC producer and 3 faction PVP has me vaguely interested.

[06nbarnhill]

buggiest MMO of all time?

My first thought when reading this.


Going to be a train wreck for the first couple months on a FF14 like scale..

[WhyMe6]

Goddamn, this could really turn out to be so awesome. I cannot wait to go back to Cyrodiil. Totally remaking my Oblivion character, which I am super attached to.

What does it look and play like? If the answer is "Like an MMO" then: thanks but NO THANKS!

Yeah, this is my big question. I think they licensed the The Old Republic's engine for this. I sure hope it feels like an Elder Scrolls game rather than an MMO :/

[maabus1999]

Remember when someone found Morrowind and Cyrrodil land assets in Skyrim? Even though they are different development houses, it is possible they share assets and I wonder if this was some kind of early adoption and/or test of expanding the game for online purposes?

http://ppsh-41.tumblr.com/post/13145...lt-into-skyrim

I'm still standing by my guess that this game won't be using a normal hero engine and may be using some from the creation engine.

[Reuenthal]

So I guess this explains partly why Skyrim felt more like a MMOG with several of its quests. And that part was disappointing. I am not really looking forward much to this.

[PatMcAtee]

Remember when someone found Morrowind and Cyrrodil land assets in Skyrim? Even though they are different development houses, it is possible they share assets and I wonder if this was some kind of early adoption and/or test of expanding the game for online purposes?

No.

[Metalic]

I am okay with this as long as they don't abandon the Single-player RPGs like what EA did with Ultima.

[cametall]

Doesn't Darkfall Online use the TES system of leveling? At least when people describe it to me that's how they describe the leveling.

I would think (hope?) it works like that, minus the community of 20 people and required macroing in Darkfall Online.

The SWTOR engine (Hero I think?) though?... I'm uninterested now.

[dr_rus]

Another studio busy doing something I don't give a fuck about. But I have to admit that out of all franchises of our time TES is probably the one that should have a MMO version. Hope that doesn't mean that we'll have to wait ten years for the next single player TES though.

[Hobbestetrician]

This is why we got no information about Dawnguard.

[maabus1999]

No.

Did they ever say why they put in so much extra land mass (Bethsada)?

EDIT: Seems I found an article saying they put it in as "eye candy" only.

[Lucius86]

We need a decent first-person MMO. Make Skyrim style gameplay fit an MMO, win for everyone.

[Arcteryx]

Hero Engine? uhhhhhhgh

TBH, I don't personally see myself getting this, unless it has something REALLY cool up its sleeves. Elder Scrolls games have always been a VERY personal and unique experience, I just don't see how that can happen with an MMO and the "Barrens" level of users that will abound.

[Evolved1]

This game will have the worst combat anyone has ever seen.

[-Yeti]

Did they ever say why they put in so much extra land mass (Bethsada)?

The extra landmass doesn't mean anything.

In Oblivion, you could 'break out' of the game world and travel into Skyrim and Hammerfell. It wasn't detailed or anything, but the landmass was there.

[FieryBalrog]

For everyone saying it's not developed by Bethesda Softworks, it doesn't matter unless they learn how to work actual rigorous QA testing into their corporate culture.

After all, Zenimax Online Studios is presumably going to be using a lot of resources that are shared by everyone under Bethesda's parent company. Zenimax IS an extension of Bethesda, it was set up by the Bethesda peeps to act as the publishing arm of the dev house.

[GodfatherX]

if it plays like Skyrim but bigger and with a Borderlands style PvE (obviously with many more players) I would be all for it. If it plays anything like WoW or the countless other MMORPGs I have zero interest.

[kewlmyc]

I'm confused. Why are people saying this is going to be shit? I admit, the combat might have to be tweaked, but people writing it off already seems a tad bit excessive.

[BlueTsunami]

I'm confused. Why are people saying this is going to be shit? I admit, the combat might have to be tweaked, but people writing it off already seems a tad bit excessive.

Probably PS3 owners

[IceDoesntHelp]

Will it have a clunky combat system like the rest of the Elder Scrolls games?

[06nbarnhill]

Probably PS3 owners

More like people who are aware that even the developers with the MOST experience at producing finished....polished....bug free games often struggle with very buggy and unstable MMO's. If you combine that with a developer that has a history of making buggy unstable games to begin with its a disaster waiting to happen.

[Xilium]

We need a decent first-person MMO. Make Skyrim style gameplay fit an MMO, win for everyone.

I'm just not seeing the bulk of Skyrim players paying $15 a month...to play Skyrim.

[kittens]

Will it have a clunky combat system like the rest of the Elder Scrolls games?

You don't like swinging your blade wildly in the air with no sense of feedback?

That's why I only ever roll an archer.

[chickdigger802]

Is it even possible to have WoW like 'streaming' with minimum loading using Heroengine?

SWTOR does have pretty large planets/zones, but man does my 'mid range' rig struggle like a motherfucker.

[Tu101uk]

OK, about the HeroEngine...

Remember that it's not a complete engine out-of-the-box. TOR's engine merely uses it as a base, and is heavily "customised" for that game. (I won't use the word "tweaked" because that would imply that it actually runs well for most people, and as we've seen from the results, TOR's horrendous performance is not really giving the HeroEngine a good name here).

I'm hoping that, for a TES Online, Zenimax will actually tweak the HeroEngine properly, make necessary optimisations, make it run on a variety of different setups, and have smooth installation and patching processes (everything that TOR's version is not). There has yet to be a big-name MMO that has been successful at utilising the HeroEngine, it would be nice if Zenimax were able to do it. And seeing that the infamous Bethesda themselves are not getting their hands dirty with this, it would definitely be foolish to pre-judge without even seeing a single screenshot or gameplay video.

Also, TOR has First-Person view if you zoom in completely, so it can be possible to lock it to that (or an optional Third-Person view) for a more authentic TES experience.

I've barely played any of the games from The Elder Scrolls series meself, but despite this I have always been slightly intrigued by the lore, the scale and sandbox freedom of the series (even if the gameplay hasn't enticed me enough to keep playing with the entire series). I am a fan of MMOs in general, so I will keep an eye out on this.

O-O~

[Fine Ham Abounds]

This game will have the worst combat anyone has ever seen.

I hate to admit it, but imagining typical MMO combat crossed with Elder Scrolls combat makes me think of Witcher 2 combat. That would be encouraging to me, except in Witcher 2 there was plenty else to love, and in this I'm not sure what to expect.

[PsychoWARD23]

Buying.

[Tunic]

I am not very excited intially about it but I will follow news and updates about the development and see if my viewpoint changes. I am not a big fan of subscription based games so I am really hoping they do not go that route. Definitely a surprising annoucement though.

[Cygnus X-1]

Wowow.

Wait, what?

[Jako]

Hero Engine? Why?

I hated SWTOR for its engine, thinking it was one of the worst problems the game had...

[v0mitg0d]

http://www.gameinformer.com/b/featur...ls-online.aspx Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat!?!?

[Derrick01]

So it's definitely using hero engine?

Wrap it up folks it's over already.

[NBtoaster]

Please be free 2 play, please don't be a WOW clone

[balladofwindfishes]

The extra landmass doesn't mean anything. In Oblivion, you could 'break out' of the game world and travel into Skyrim and Hammerfell. It wasn't detailed or anything, but the landmass was there.

what makes this different though is the land mass is all correctly structured. Cyrodiil, for example, follows the same landscape details as Oblivion's Cyrodiil.

In Oblivion the outside borders were just randomly generated after a point. Skyrim actually has crafted outside land mass

[StarEye]

I'm going to assume this will be just like the other games in the series, just a dozen or so times bigger, and with more (generic) quests. Imagine a 100 hour long Dark Brotherhood or Thieve's Guild storyline.

And with that assumption, I have already bought the game in my mind.

[Mammoth Jones]

More the reason to not fuck up what makes Elder Scrolls different from the other rpg's of the bunch. If they stay true to the Elder Scrolls formula and ignore WoW then they at least have the gameplay to warrant sticking around and playing the game despite the garbage Hero engine problems. If they do another clone however, then they have a shit engine and a game that you've played before under a different name and they will fail.

Which is more likely: They are going to follow the precedent that WoW set in terms of what core gameplay features it used that pulled in 12 million subscribers or that they will take the far greater perceived risk and break the mold for the sake of the integrity of their game and do something original and unproven in the last 10 years w/ the MMO genre...?

While I'd love to see a fully sandboxed Elder Scrolls MMO w/ a full player economy, player created content, player run events and just a full sandbox of exploration and fun I have a very bad feeling that the game will be:

-Level in a linear progressive fashion
-Get to the level cap
-Run dungeons and raids for gear
-PvP in instances
-Poor RP support.

[Hoo-doo]

What's with these developers who are somewhat proficient at creating single-player RPG's, but are suddenly thinking they can apply that experience towards creating a MMORPG?

MMO's are a completely different ballgame. I hope they don't fuck it up like Bioware did SWTOR.

[NBtoaster]

What's with these developers who are somewhat proficient at creating single-player RPG's, but are suddenly thinking they can apply that experience towards creating a MMORPG? MMO's are a completely different ballgame. I hope they don't fuck it up like Bioware did SWTOR.

Bethesda Game Studios is not making this.

[SafeinSound]

Considered me interested.

[HiddenWings]

More like people who are aware that even the developers with the MOST experience at producing finished....polished....bug free games often struggle with very buggy and unstable MMO's. If you combine that with a developer that has a history of making buggy unstable games to begin with its a disaster waiting to happen.

What's with these developers who are somewhat proficient at creating single-player RPG's, but are suddenly thinking they can apply that experience towards creating a MMORPG? MMO's are a completely different ballgame. I hope they don't fuck it up like Bioware did SWTOR.

Clearly I'm not working hard enough.

In the list of studios on the left: other Elder Scrolls games are from that top one. This is from the middle one.

[sponk]

i don't need another wow clone and i cannot imagine bethesda coming up with anything else than that.

But who knows, maybe they have something up their sleves. Considerung that it has been in development since 2007 and the AAA'ness of the name ... i highly doubt a f2p approach, which is not going to help. I honestly do not believe a traditional mmo can really be successful today.

[BoomBap]

I am very cautiously exited for this.Could be Bomba but I hope not.

[-Yeti]

Bethesda Game Studios is not making this.

OP needs to make a huge banner in the OP that says "BETHESDA IS NOT DEVELOPING THIS GAME!"

And then it must me posted near the top of every following page.

[Artanisix]

Gotta have more details until I can make a call on this one.

[Erasus]

Hero Engine? uhhhhhhgh

Yea thought the same.
This is going to be pretty awful.
Imagine the Hero Engine running Skyrim like landmasses... 10fps here we come!

[Tunesmith]

what makes this different though is the land mass is all correctly structured. Cyrodiil, for example, follows the same landscape details as Oblivion's Cyrodiil. In Oblivion the outside borders were just randomly generated after a point. Skyrim actually has crafted outside land mass

IIRC weren't the geometry used by the ingame map, an earlier version of it that is before they covered it up with clouds/zoomed it in.

[GuitarAtomik]

Depending on the combat system they choose for this, consider me interested.

[Mammoth Jones]

What's with these developers who are somewhat proficient at creating single-player RPG's, but are suddenly thinking they can apply that experience towards creating a MMORPG? MMO's are a completely different ballgame. I hope they don't fuck it up like Bioware did SWTOR.

There's TONS of money in pure profit *if* they hit millions of subs. Problem is Blizzard set the standard for success in that genre. No company will be happy with 500k subs or even a million. They will want 5+ million active subscribers. And they will try and get that by being a carbon copy of WoW. Why risk doing something different?

If this game ends up being a sandbox MMO I'll be shocked and hopeful but I seriously doubt any company would take that risk rather than just follow the WoW formula and hope it pans out.

[Allard]

What's with these developers who are somewhat proficient at creating single-player RPG's, but are suddenly thinking they can apply that experience towards creating a MMORPG? MMO's are a completely different ballgame. I hope they don't fuck it up like Bioware did SWTOR.

Zenimax Online is a new studio that was created with express purpose of hiring talent and development toward online games. Some of the people who are part of the development staff seem to have plenty of experience developing other MMOs. Of course that doesn't mean that much for the final end product, most of the crash and burn MMOs of the past 5+ years have come from MMO vets who were stuck in the old ways and couldn't make a proper finished product people will like to save themselves. (Vanguard and FFXIV being stand outs, thankfully at least the latter one actually has a new head developer that might succeed in pulling it from the abyss).

The big question is the Hero Engine. I know most people are quick to hate on the engine for all SWTOR's issues but at the same time its the one and only game we have to compare it to. They have been working on the game for several years it sounds like (as early as 2007) so my opinion remains reserved but optimistic something decent will come from it.

There's TONS of money in pure profit *if* they hit millions of subs. Problem is Blizzard set the standard for success in that genre. No company will be happy with 500k subs or even a million. They will want 5+ million active subscribers. And they will try and get that by being a carbon copy of WoW. Why risk doing something different? If this game ends up being a sandbox MMO I'll be shocked and hopeful but I seriously doubt any company would take that risk rather than just follow the WoW formula and hope it pans out.

No... MMOs do NOT need millions of subs to be profitable. Most MMO's just need 300k+ subscription (and some even less depending on development costs) to be profitable. FFXI was THE most profitable venture Square-Enix has ever made and continues to generate a constant profit despite being in its tenth year because of a consistent user base (Even if that user bases population has gone down over the past 4 years). It had at most 1 million subs at its peak around the 3rd expansion but most of the time it hovered around the 500k range. Its why so many companies are quick to go to the subscription model, there is something enticing about having a guaranteed month to month revenue once they hit the point of population stability.

[kodt]

Hope it doesn't just take the same old WoW/EQ formula and put a Elder Scrolls skin over it. Every game to try that has been a disappointment. Even games that tried to take some of the "features" from the series and add it to the MMO formula (SWTOR) have sucked bad.

Not saying they have to keep the same engine and combat game-play, but this can't be a WoW clone.

Part of the appeal in Elder Scrolls games is becoming the master of your craft. You can become the leader of any or all of the guilds. You get epic weapons or powers through the main quest line that only you have. You can do these things in MMOs if you are willing to make players compete for them. But most MMOs take the care bear strategy and just let everyone get the exact same gear, but no-one can have any real position of power, and there will always be NPC guards more powerful than you.

Zenimax Online is a new studio that was created with express purpose of hiring talent and development toward online games. Some of the people who are part of the development staff seem to have plenty of experience developing other MMOs. Of course that doesn't mean that much for the final end product, most of the crash and burn MMOs of the past 5+ years have come from MMO vets who were stuck in the old ways and couldn't make a proper finished product people will like to save themselves. (Vanguard and FFXIV being stand outs, thankfully at least the latter one actually has a new head developer that might succeed in pulling it from the abyss).

I see that as a good thing from the technical side of things, but a bad thing from the gameplay side of things.