[mysteriousmage09]

Not sure if anyone's paying attention anymore, but GI has a video of Matt Firor discussing the game for a few minutes here.

Just watched it. Really deceiving footage throughout that vid seeing as the combat won't be a thing like the previous games. Also sounds like a confirmation that Cyrodiil is not going to be a Jungle seeing as they want direct familiarity to the previous games for those that don't know jack shit about the lore. Also laying it on thick that Tod Howard himself is green lighting every decision they make.

Best thing from that whole vid was the Morrowind music.

[Valhelm]

Best thing from that whole vid was the Morrowind music.

On that note, TES Online has absolutely got to have a great soundtrack. If it doesn't, the outrage will be limitless.

[vaelic]

http://massively.joystiq.com/2012/05...ch-with-a-sub/

Analyst predicts The Elder Scrolls Online will launch with a subscription fee

[AB12]

Free horse armor for everyone.

[mysteriousmage09]

http://www.gameinformer.com/games/th...o-players.aspx

Lol @ Hero Engine being modern and "sections" of provinces.

And this http://www.gameinformer.com/b/featur...ls-online.aspx

Will there be a familiar composer (Jeremy Soule) coming back to work on certain themes? MF: Uh… we're still working on that.

Are they fucking kidding me? LOL!

[Sotha Sil]

Are they fucking kidding me? LOL!

No Jeremy Soule would be beyond pathetic. Last nail in the coffin, right there.

[Darklord]

http://www.gameinformer.com/games/th...o-players.aspx Lol @ Hero Engine being modern and "sections" of provinces. And this http://www.gameinformer.com/b/featur...ls-online.aspx Are they fucking kidding me? LOL!

ESO has lock-on targeting and a hotbar, but it shakes up quite a bit within that framework. Limiting the number of available skills to a handful (currently six, but that number could change) but making each ability awesome sounds great.

YEAH! Like WoW but with way less skills and abilities so...err, innovative. :|

Edit:LOL out-sourced music. This isn't even close to an Elder Scrolls game.

[Sotha Sil]

YEAH! Like WoW but with way less skills and abilities so...err, innovative. :|

"Awesome" generally translates as "streamlined into ether" in PR newspeak.

[Jac_Solar]

"More fully voiced story. Does anyone want to go back to walls of text after Bioware showed the world how it’s done with Star Wars’ dialogue and story? No, no we do not. And we won’t have to in order to play ESO with its full voice acting."

http://www.gameinformer.com/games/th...o-players.aspx

What are they doing? Most of the decisions they've announced for the game sounds bad, but this decision is just ridiculous.

Haven't the Star Wars TOR players already announced their distaste for voice acting, and the extremely long development time it requires?

And now they are going to fully voice an Elder Scrolls online MMORPG. Bioware said the development time was extreme for voice acting quests.

And it's very expensive and time consuming; focusing on 'all voice acting' for an MMORPG is absolutely WRONG, pointless and it should not be done. It's a waste of money, time and potential for a good game. Instead of spending money on voice acting, spend it on perfecting the world, hire more artists/get the artists to do more art, animations, music, gameplay, mechanics, graphics, physics,.

Focusing on all voice acting will put an extreme limit on the amount of quests as well; instead of 3000 quests, there are 30 or 300 fully voiced.

Star Wars TOR cost 200 million dollars to make. I haven't played it, and I'm not interested at all, but there have been some talk about how the 'all voice acting' policy worked out -- content patches are very, very slow to come out, and when they do, it's very little content compared to other mmo's. People have said, I think, the game suffers from performance issues, the world is bland, graphics are bland, animations are stiff, etc. Not necessarily cause of voice acting, but, if not, where did they spend the 200$ million dollars -- that is something many people wonder about I believe.


And the decision to offer full on voice acting for a game like TES MMO is ridiculous. A game like this depends on TONS and TONS of content, just like the single player games (If they plan on doing something different, they might as well make a different game under a different name.) -- Skyrim offered full voice acting more or less, but it's a single player game. An MMO TES has to be atleast 10x the size of Skyrim, and once the game has been out for awhile, they have to start doing monthly content updates.

They also said they'd feature most of the world ingame, and you'd be able to explore it, which actually sounds nice, but I have very low expectations -- to the point where I don't really care. TES MMO game sounds like a bad idea, and it would take a lot to sway the opinion to get onboard with the idea -- but most of the ideas and 'features' announced so far are "out there ridiculous", totally going against everything that is TES, copying the WoW formula with no attempt to hide it.

Why are they even calling it TES? The TES world is basically normal with magic/fantasy added, and there aren't many good/great plot lines or large stories. It doesn't really make sense to risk botching up a brand, and putting a game in a premade world with its own laws, reasons, logic, stories puts a restriction on possibilities/stories/creative freedom -- but, what is the reward for this? A generic fantasy world with a decent/mediocre storythread.


The reason for wanting it in the TES gameworld can't possibly be a strong argument. The gameplay and gameworld in the single player games is what makes a TES game, not the story or lore.

How can the developers of this project defend against claims of taking advantage of the TES name just to make a quick buck?

[bill0527]

Finally got my game informer today and read through this.

All I can say is ...uh good luck with this.

You're about 5 years too late to try and ride WoW's coat tails.

The genre is stale, played out, and in dire need of some serious innovation.

This ain't it.

[Dresden]

full voice acting is pointless when you have shit writing and most of the voices are going to be about how you'll kill fifty rats for the Balmorran Sewing Circle

[disappeared]

full voice acting is pointless when you have shit writing and most of the voices are going to be about how you'll kill fifty rats for the Balmorran Sewing Circle

And I'm going to bet they use the same half-dozen voice actors ad nauseum.

[DTKT]

full voice acting is pointless when you have shit writing and most of the voices are going to be about how you'll kill fifty rats for the Balmorran Sewing Circle

Pretty much.

[99%]

full voice acting is pointless when you have shit writing and most of the voices are going to be about how you'll kill fifty rats for the Balmorran Sewing Circle

It would make much more sense only to have VO for certain questlines etc. To make it more special. Just like FFXI had cutscenes here and there and it really felt epic. Something to spice things up.

This game will be another trainwreck mmo. Hope that somebody will have the guts to make something as fresh as EVE again.

[FLEABttn]

Haven't the Star Wars TOR players already announced their distaste for voice acting, and the extremely long development time it requires?

No? I've not seen such consensus.

Going back to WoW from TOR is only hard in that the questing feels like a big step back. If voiced acted, interactive questing is the one thing Bioware brought to the table as a genre changer, by all means stick that in.

[BattleMonkey]

"More fully voiced story. Does anyone want to go back to walls of text after Bioware showed the world how it’s done with Star Wars’ dialogue and story? No, no we do not. And we won’t have to in order to play ESO with its full voice acting." http://www.gameinformer.com/games/th...o-players.aspx What are they doing? Most of the decisions they've announced for the game sounds bad, but this decision is just ridiculous. Haven't the Star Wars TOR players already announced their distaste for voice acting, and the extremely long development time it requires? And now they are going to fully voice an Elder Scrolls online MMORPG. Bioware said the development time was extreme for voice acting quests. And it's very expensive and time consuming; focusing on 'all voice acting' for an MMORPG is absolutely WRONG, pointless and it should not be done. It's a waste of money, time and potential for a good game. Instead of spending money on voice acting, spend it on perfecting the world, hire more artists/get the artists to do more art, animations, music, gameplay, mechanics, graphics, physics,. Focusing on all voice acting will put an extreme limit on the amount of quests as well; instead of 3000 quests, there are 30 or 300 fully voiced. Star Wars TOR cost 200 million dollars to make. I haven't played it, and I'm not interested at all, but there have been some talk about how the 'all voice acting' policy worked out -- content patches are very, very slow to come out, and when they do, it's very little content compared to other mmo's. People have said, I think, the game suffers from performance issues, the world is bland, graphics are bland, animations are stiff, etc. Not necessarily cause of voice acting, but, if not, where did they spend the 200$ million dollars -- that is something many people wonder about I believe. And the decision to offer full on voice acting for a game like TES MMO is ridiculous. A game like this depends on TONS and TONS of content, just like the single player games (If they plan on doing something different, they might as well make a different game under a different name.) -- Skyrim offered full voice acting more or less, but it's a single player game. An MMO TES has to be atleast 10x the size of Skyrim, and once the game has been out for awhile, they have to start doing monthly content updates. They also said they'd feature most of the world ingame, and you'd be able to explore it, which actually sounds nice, but I have very low expectations -- to the point where I don't really care. TES MMO game sounds like a bad idea, and it would take a lot to sway the opinion to get onboard with the idea -- but most of the ideas and 'features' announced so far are "out there ridiculous", totally going against everything that is TES, copying the WoW formula with no attempt to hide it. Why are they even calling it TES? The TES world is basically normal with magic/fantasy added, and there aren't many good/great plot lines or large stories. It doesn't really make sense to risk botching up a brand, and putting a game in a premade world with its own laws, reasons, logic, stories puts a restriction on possibilities/stories/creative freedom -- but, what is the reward for this? A generic fantasy world with a decent/mediocre storythread. The reason for wanting it in the TES gameworld can't possibly be a strong argument. The gameplay and gameworld in the single player games is what makes a TES game, not the story or lore. How can the developers of this project defend against claims of taking advantage of the TES name just to make a quick buck?

Voice acting and such was the best part of TOR. The problem with SWTOR come from many other issues unrelated to the voice work. Voice work doesn't appear to have any part in the content delays in SWTOR either, they already have recorded the VA for all the content already going into next year.

[Clint Beastwood]

Finally got my game informer today and read through this. All I can say is ...uh good luck with this. You're about 5 years too late to try and ride WoW's coat tails. The genre is stale, played out, and in dire need of some serious innovation. This ain't it.

I said this to my friends, and they made the argument that innovation isn't possible yet because we don't have the technology for it.

Seems a lot of people are still content with the same shit.

[Bufbaf]

Wow, is there any way this will not end up to be a complete trainwreck by now?

[Slime]

I kind of expect every MMO to be a WoW clone these days, but jeez.

Such a disappointing direction for an Elder Scrolls MMO. Fingers crossed we still get the one we actually want someday.

[bill0527]

I said this to my friends, and they made the argument that innovation isn't possible yet because we don't have the technology for it. Seems a lot of people are still content with the same shit.

A lot of the same people are content with the same shit.

Nobody is doing anything groundbreaking to try and bring new people into the genre. The amount of people that will pay $15/month on top of paying $60 for the box has peaked, and likely gotten smaller. At this point, anyone bringing another swords and sorcery MMO to market is at best, only going to leech off subscribers of other games.

One thing I don't recall ever seeing in a TES thread is someone saying.."man this game would be great as a paid MMO". Nobody is clamoring for this and I would bet anyone already a fan of TES series either has or is playing WoW if they are interested in a MMO.

[animlboogy]

I said this to my friends, and they made the argument that innovation isn't possible yet because we don't have the technology for it. Seems a lot of people are still content with the same shit.

Such garbage, considering more meaningful online worlds existed in the 80's.

[FLEABttn]

Such garbage, considering more meaningful online worlds existed in the 80's.

It's a cop out answer anyways. They likely don't know what the innovation they want even is, so they blame a lack of technology.

[Pinko Marx]

Thats okay, theres plenty of other MMOs out there that are far more appealing.

[XANDER CAGE]

Has the reaction to this been almost entirely negative, or mostly just in the GAF/4chan/Reddit gaming echo chambers?

It's gotta be tough working on a product like this and getting a unanimous "meh" when it's finally announced - or worse, working on it knowing that's the reaction you're likely to get.

[Pinko Marx]

Has the reaction to this been almost entirely negative, or mostly just in the GAF/4chan/Reddit gaming echo chambers? It's gotta be tough working on a product like this and getting a unanimous "meh" when it's finally announced - or worse, working on it knowing that's the reaction you're likely to get.

Well don't those websites represent a lot of the "core gaming" market anyway?
Besides that though, the official forums have been shitting on it as well, as far as I've seen.

[FLEABttn]

Has the reaction to this been almost entirely negative, or mostly just in the GAF/4chan/Reddit gaming echo chambers?

FoH and Reddit have been down on it as well.

On one hand, I feel bad for the dev team, because Jesus Christ. On the other hand, nobody spoke up about this in the past 5 years there? Nobody had to balls to Robert Altman and tell him this game was fucking doomed? Not like it's in their control but I hope for their sake someone at least tried.

[FieryBalrog]

No? I've not seen such consensus. Going back to WoW from TOR is only hard in that the questing feels like a big step back. If voiced acted, interactive questing is the one thing Bioware brought to the table as a genre changer, by all means stick that in.

Voice acting isn't going to get much further than Bioware. I mean they're not that good at making games but they are quite good at writing dialogue and storylines. Others will do a much shittier job of it and will spend a truckload of money for a craptastic result. It's not like Skyrim's voice acting is anything to write home about.

They also didn't mention any plan to copy the Bioware standard dialogue wheel and "shot reverse shot" conversations. It sounds like it would just be people reading quests to you.

[BigDug13]

Has the reaction to this been almost entirely negative, or mostly just in the GAF/4chan/Reddit gaming echo chambers? It's gotta be tough working on a product like this and getting a unanimous "meh" when it's finally announced - or worse, working on it knowing that's the reaction you're likely to get.

I'm betting the second one was more likely. There have been plenty of WoW clones that have come and gone. The market has not been kind. I'm sure the devs were watching every step of the way.

[DTKT]

I'm betting the second one was more likely. There have been plenty of WoW clones that have come and gone. The market has not been kind. I'm sure the devs were watching every step of the way.

It's probably too late to do anything though.

Which must be a terrible feeling for the team. It's like watching a train falling straight into a cliff without being able to do anything.

[evangd007]

http://www.gameinformer.com/games/th...o-players.aspx

From that:

Some things, like player housing, aren’t making the transition to an MMO because of the constraints inherent to an online game, but Zenimax Online is including everything that makes sense.

Constraints? Wasn't player housing in, like, Ultima Online?

And why do I get the feeling that these public dungeons they are talking up so much will end up being barren wastelands two months after launch?

[krystallinity]

It's probably too late to do anything though. Which must be a terrible feeling for the team. It's like watching a train falling straight into a cliff without being able to do anything.

That's the unfortunate consequence of bloated development times.

Because this market changes so quickly, I really think that any derivative game with a development time greater than 72 months (2.5 years) needs to be scrapped.

This game should have been out in 2009, not 2013. Back then it might have had a chance, considering the incredible strength of the Elder Scrolls brand.

[FLEABttn]

Voice acting isn't going to get much further than Bioware. I mean they're not that good at making games but they are quite good at writing dialogue and storylines. Others will do a much shittier job of it and will spend a truckload of money for a craptastic result. It's not like Skyrim's voice acting is anything to write home about. They also didn't mention any plan to copy the Bioware standard dialogue wheel and "shot reverse shot" conversations. It sounds like it would just be people reading quests to you.

I think you're right. I thought the spoken dialogue left a lot to be desired in GW2 (which I think is fucking terrible, but that's not the point), nevermind the dialogue wheel, which is key.

If people want to jack the interactivity between people speaking to me and me picking my response, sure. Yes. Please. That. But if you're just going to read me the quest text, that can fuck right off.

[Perfect Cha0s]

Have they announced if this will have a sub fee or not? I have a strong feeling that this game will live or die by that detail. It looks incredibly generic, not that is has to be said anymore.

[DTKT]

Have they announced if this will have a sub fee or not? I have a strong feeling that this game will live or die by that detail. It looks incredibly generic, not that is has to be said anymore.

Nothing official. But, if you look at when the game was actually started, subscription fee were the norm. It's probably going to start with one and then gradually switch to F2P.

Or they are going to rework the current game to support F2P.

[Bufbaf]

FoH and Reddit have been down on it as well. On one hand, I feel bad for the dev team, because Jesus Christ. On the other hand, nobody spoke up about this in the past 5 years there? Nobody had to balls to Robert Altman and tell him this game was fucking doomed?

Youtube doesn't look different, and YT's pretty big, too :/

Also, I'm sure pretty much everyone actually working on the game was aware of this for years now, and I'm also sure they tried to do something about it for around the same time.
The thing is, most execs have no idea who to listen to.

[Darkmakaimura]

Looking forward to this. The only thing is voice acting. Can they seriously get away with full voice acting for an MMO of this scope w/o spending SWTOR bucks?

[Atomski]

I forgot this was even a thing.. and honestly hoped it would have died. TES should stick to single player..

[Jay-B]

Nice bump.