Elder Scrolls Online preview

The majority of Elder Scrolls players might be on consoles, but the majority of MMOs players are on the PCs and that is what Zenimax is after.

^ Very true, but wouldn't a mix of their core base (consoles) and MMO players (PCs) be a perfect mix that would attract the highest amount of players? I am sure there are at least a million current Skyrim players that would love an Elder Scrolls MMO on their consoles. Make it happen Bethesda! (I will continue to hope that the game sees a console release at some point).

From the video, I gather that it will be instancing quite a bit. Having that town change celebrate you after saving them from the werewolves indicates that if they didn't explicitly state it somewhere.

Not really sure if I'd play it unless it was like Guild Wars and online was baked into the purchase price given that it will lack what I love most about TES games which is modding.

I'm surprised that they are not going after PS3 or XBox given their success on those platforms and it should be great distinguishing feature. PS3 seems to only have DCUO and XBox has FF XI outside of Japan. But maybe those platforms just suck for MMOs and they are waiting for the next generation.

^ I played Final Fantasy XI on the 360 and thought it was great. Didn't suck at all. My dad played more than me and he had a blast playing it. Got quite a few of his job classes leveled up high. And the graphics were good enough, too. It ran smoothly overall and was a really good experience.

I honestly don't see why more MMOs are made for consoles, but I have a feeling it has to do with a sort of mentality that says, "MMOs are working on PC, let's not try to rustle the nest, let's just do what works best". The reason there aren't more MMOs on current gen consoles is simply because the developers are satisfied enough with PC players, where the majority of MMO players reside. No one is trying to reinvent the wheel.

But I have a gut feeling that this game is going to make it's way to consoles. It just makes too much sense not to. And with the technology that will be present in all next-gen consoles, technological limitations are not really a good enough reason anymore.

We shall see. I have hope

Zero chance of ESO on Wii. Seriously? Not insulting you for wanting it, but nothing in the history of the series/company suggests that its even vaguely likely.

The reason I said Wii U is because of the touch-pad capability of the controller. It has been said by MMO developers that having a touch-pad capability would make MMO development on the Wii U a possibility. So what better MMO to start with then this one?

Originally Posted by Fluent
^ I played Final Fantasy XI on the 360 and thought it was great. Didn't suck at all. My dad played more than me and he had a blast playing it. Got quite a few of his job classes leveled up high. And the graphics were good enough, too. It ran smoothly overall and was a really good experience.

I honestly don't see why more MMOs are made for consoles, but I have a feeling it has to do with a sort of mentality that says, "MMOs are working on PC, let's not try to rustle the nest, let's just do what works best". The reason there aren't more MMOs on current gen consoles is simply because the developers are satisfied enough with PC players, where the majority of MMO players reside. No one is trying to reinvent the wheel

It's not because of developers being too complacent or lacking a certain kind of mentality, it's due to the hardware limitations. If it were easier to achieve with the previous generation consoles, I'm sure there would have been more of them.

However, since the PS4 and next iteration of the Xbox will both be based on 64-bit PC architecture, essentially they are small form factor PCs with proprietary operating systems, so I imagine you will be more likely to see MMOs on those new platforms.

Well, the problem with MMOs on consoles has also been about the controller - and a touch pad would hardly make the difference. MMOs tend to be very demanding in terms of what you need to do with the interface. I have a very hard time seeing games like WoW, EvE, Rift and so on being played comfortably with a controller. Guild Wars 2 might work, though, but it's also a very shallow game.

So, it would take a very different mindset to develop a console-oriented MMO - and though there's no doubt we'll eventually see a big hit in that genre on that platform - I doubt it'll happen in the next few years.

I watched the video linked above, and I must say this looks a lot better and more ES-ish than the Promo material I saw previously. Very imaginative landscapes, loved the views of Dagoth-Ur. I am not an MMO player really, but I guess I'll keep half an eye on it regardless.

I think, since many of us, myself included, in general aren't that happy about consolization of our beloved games, I for sure don't want even more games consolized. So from an egocentric POV, I hope it will remain a PC/Mac only game.

pibbur

Originally Posted by pibbur who
I think, since many of us, myself included, in general aren't that happy about consolization of our beloved games, I for sure don't want even more games consolized. So from an egocentric POV, I hope it will remain a PC/Mac only game.

pibbur

Personally, I'd prefer that we take advantage of modern technology as much as we can - as long as the design follows suit.

But the audience on consoles is said to be enormous - and it's really only a matter of time before one of the major publishers succeed in bringing a strong (read popular) MMO to the platform.

Frankly, I'm surprised it hasn't happened yet - and I guess that controller problem might be one of the primary reasons.

Originally Posted by DArtagnan
Personally, I'd prefer that we take advantage of modern technology as much as we can - as long as the design follows suit.

But haven't one of the critizisms against the latest ES games have been that consolization is a major factor in dumbing down the games, so I'm a bit surprised by the sudden hope for a console TESO

But, in all honesty, I don't know if you or any of the other "mmo console advocates" are the same as those blaming consolization for the downfall of RPGs. So my argument may indeed be moot.

And anyhow, MMORPG's (those I have played at least) have never been known for being deep and complex games. So maybe it doesn't matter, and again my argument is moot.

But the audience on consoles is said to be enormous - and it's really only a matter of time before one of the major publishers succeed in bringing a strong (read popular) MMO to the platform.

Frankly, I'm surprised it hasn't happened yet - and I guess that controller problem might be one of the primary reasons.

I too am surprised by this. I only hope (until I realize the error of my ways) that it will still take some years before the games I'd like to play go that way.

pibbur who admits he's selfish

5

Originally Posted by pibbur who
But haven't one of the critizisms against the latest ES games have been that consolization is a major factor in dumbing down the games, so I'm a bit surprised by the sudden hope for a console TESO

But, in all honesty, I don't know if you or any of the other "mmo console advocates" are the same as those blaming consolization for the downfall of RPGs. So my argument may indeed be moot.

And anyhow, MMORPG's (those I have played at least) have never been known for being deep and complex games. So maybe it doesn't matter, and again my argument is moot.

I'm not sure what makes you think I'm an "MMO console advocate"? I most certainly am NOT

I just recognise that it's a highly desirable untapped market ripe for the taking, by a publisher with some vision and a bit of brains.

I too am surprised by this. I only hope (until I realize the error of my ways) that it will still take some years before the games I'd like to play go that way.

pibbur who admits he's selfish

5

We're all selfish in a variety of ways. It's a redundant statement

Originally Posted by DArtagnan
I'm not sure what makes you think I'm an "MMO console advocate"? I most certainly am NOT

I know you aren't. Which is why I (clumsily?) wrote "console MMO advocate" in stead of mmo console advocate.

We're all selfish in a variety of ways. It's a redundant statement

Well, I'm pibbur, ain't I?

pibbur who in some way is redundant. Which of course in itself is a redundant statement.

3

Originally Posted by pibbur who
I know you aren't. Which is why I (clumsily?) wrote "console MMO advocate" in stead of mmo console advocate.

You certainly managed to confuse me

AFAIK, an advocate is someone who speaks for someone/something or supports someone/something - where I'm simply pointing out that something is as it is.

It would be like calling me a cold weather advocate because I'm saying "it's cold today"

Well, I'm pibbur, ain't I?

pibbur who in some way is redundant. Which of course in itself is a redundant statement.

3

Which in itself is a redundant statement - like this, and like that - and like that….. AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

But, for the brainy, pointing out redundancy can be non-redundant if said redundancy was not apparent.

Originally Posted by DArtagnan
But the audience on consoles is said to be enormous - and it's really only a matter of time before one of the major publishers succeed in bringing a strong (read popular) MMO to the platform.

Final Fantasy XI was the 6th most played Xbox game in 2006 on Xbox Live (time wise). Right behind Oblivion. This is a popular MMO with over 200k concurrent players at his peak, but the number of sub never went over 600k.

Doesn't mean that a lots of console copies where sold though. Couldn't find numbers about that.

Final Fantasy XI was a fine game. I played it on the Xbox 360 and it wasn't dumbed down at all.

Consoles will eventually get more MMOs, because someone with some foresight will finally decide to tap into the console market. It's just a matter of time.

I'm hoping that Elder Scrolls Online is the game that's going to do it, and I have a feeling it just may be.

Originally Posted by DArtagnan
Frankly, I'm surprised it hasn't happened yet - and I guess that controller problem might be one of the primary reasons.

I don't think the controllers have too much to do with it - it is primarily the very limited memory (256MB RAM in PS3, for example) and slower processors in consoles that make them a much more challenging platform for developing this type of game.

I imagine over time, as the majority of MMOs were limited to PC, the UIs were simply better optimized for mouse and keyboard, because there were no console versions.

Originally Posted by CountChocula
I don't think the controllers have too much to do with it - it is primarily the very limited memory (256MB RAM in PS3, for example) and slower processors in consoles that make them a much more challenging platform for developing this type of game.

I imagine over time, as the majority of MMOs were limited to PC, the UIs were simply better optimized for mouse and keyboard, because there were no console versions.

I don't think it has anything to do with those things. Lots of MMOs out that aren't very demanding - and you can easily pull off a quality RPG with the hardware available in modern consoles. Just look at the games out there like Dark Souls, Skyrim and so on. For what happens on the client, technically, MMOs are a lot more primitive in most cases.

I'm sure there are other reasons, but the UI is most definitely a big part of it. For that same reason, you almost never see complex strategy games on consoles - and don't tell me there's no audience for them.

Originally Posted by DArtagnan
I don't think it has anything to do with those things. Lots of MMOs out that aren't very demanding - and you can easily pull off a quality RPG with the hardware available in modern consoles. Just look at the games out there like Dark Souls, Skyrim and so on. For what happens on the client, technically, MMOs are a lot more primitive in most cases.

I'm sure there are other reasons, but the UI is most definitely a big part of it. For that same reason, you almost never see complex strategy games on consoles - and don't tell me there's no audience for them.

There are no strategy games on consoles simply because their CPUs are not powerful enough to handle this type of game. The hardware also cannot handle multiplayer titles with dozens and dozens of players onscreen at once, or all the hundreds of thousands of persistent data objects in a huge MMORPG game world, not to mention how much easier it is for MMO developers to program backend systems on a platform like Windows. It's also great to have a UI that works with mouse and keyboard or keypad/numpad, but it's not the primary reason there is no Civilization V on Xbox, for example.

Considering the next generation consoles will be based on 64-bit PC architecture, with significantly more RAM and faster processors, it seems likely to open up more possibilities for multiplayer titles and MMOs, as well as strategy games.