Elder Scrolls Online - Preview @ Leviathyn

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Leviathyn has a new preview for The Elder Scrolls Online. Like the rest of previews this week they ask if the subscription is a good idea.
At Gamescom 2013, the creative director of the upcoming MMORPG The Elder Scrolls Online, Matt Firor, made an announcement regarding the payment model of the game. It is to have a set monthly fee of $15&£9. Almost immediately gamers took to internet to voice their dissatisfaction with the announcement. They were angry that they are going to have to pay over and over to play. But is a monthly subscription really as bad as people are making out?

Now, it’s absolutely no secret that the pay to play MMO model has not done well for a while now. A prime example of this notion is Star Wars: The Old Republic from Bioware. At launch, the game had 1.7 million subscribers. Not a bad number by anyone’s standards. Then, around three months later, it dipped to 1.3 million. Then, by the time July had rolled around only a couple of months later, it had lost around another 300,000 subscribers. Not so good.
I also have some screenshots thanks to zahratustra. So give them a look also.


More information.
 
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$60 for the box, $15/mo, and they're going to have a cash shop. All for a single player game that happens to be online. What a joke.

I love the idea of sub-based since F2P is utter trash for MMORPGs. But since TESO isn't going to BE a MMORPG and is going to be a massively single player online game like GW2, and since all of the ez-mode MMORPGs that feature heavy solo (wow clones) haven't been worth subs, no way is a single player game worth a sub.

Everything that's good about Skyrm and ES - high quality PvE, insane immersion, deep story lines - none of that is really possible when you throw thousands of players into the same world. The quality and immersion get flushed when xXDrizztXx goes screaming doodspeak naked across your screen and 20 other imbeciles are putzing around near you. And why...does a game franchise that's been around for over 10 years of doing some of the best PvE now shift to PvP? Why PvP? It makes zero sense. Here's some compelling PvP for you. Click. Click and hold a bit to hit harder. Click. Click. Click a bit longer and release. Oh yeah, that's GOOD PvP action there.

I have no idea why people are enthusiastic about this game. It's not going to be Skyrim 2 and it's not going to be an MMORPG. Everything about it sounds horrible. I can only surmise that most people are dumb as rocks.
 
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Everything that's good about Skyrm and ES - high quality PvE, insane immersion, deep story lines - none of that is really possible when you throw thousands of players into the same world.

I'm wondering if you're playing the same game the rest of us have been playing. Skyrim had pathetic storylines and lousy PvE.
 
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$60 for the box, $15/mo, and they're going to have a cash shop. All for a single player game that happens to be online. What a joke.

I love the idea of sub-based since F2P is utter trash for MMORPGs. But since TESO isn't going to BE a MMORPG and is going to be a massively single player online game like GW2, and since all of the ez-mode MMORPGs that feature heavy solo (wow clones) haven't been worth subs, no way is a single player game worth a sub.

I don't play MMO's much so I don't really know, but how does having the ability to play solo make it not an MMO? You can still play with other people if you want right?

Everything that's good about Skyrm and ES - high quality PvE, insane immersion, deep story lines - none of that is really possible when you throw thousands of players into the same world. The quality and immersion get flushed when xXDrizztXx goes screaming doodspeak naked across your screen and 20 other imbeciles are putzing around near you.

This sucks in every MMO I've ever briefly tried so I'm not sure why it would suck anymore or less in TESO.

And why…does a game franchise that's been around for over 10 years of doing some of the best PvE now shift to PvP? Why PvP? It makes zero sense. Here's some compelling PvP for you. Click. Click and hold a bit to hit harder. Click. Click. Click a bit longer and release. Oh yeah, that's GOOD PvP action there.

Exploration and modding are what draw me to Skyrim. Not story or PvE, although Skyrim's PvE is much better than Oblivion or MW 's was IMO.


I have no idea why people are enthusiastic about this game. It's not going to be Skyrim 2 and it's not going to be an MMORPG. Everything about it sounds horrible. I can only surmise that most people are dumb as rocks.

I assume you mean mainstream enthusiasm because I haven't seen much around here or in my circles.

I will give it a try if you can truly play it solo. Since exploration is my #1 draw to ES games I would think an MMO setting that can be updated often would be a good fit.

I will say though I am worried about running in to " xXDrizztXx" and if I do too often it will probably cause me to quit.
 
Only a handful of MMOs require group play for anything besides dungeons/end game content. The player has the freedom to decide how much solo or group play they want to do in most MMOs these days.
 
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I have no idea why people are enthusiastic about this game. It's not going to be Skyrim 2 and it's not going to be an MMORPG. Everything about it sounds horrible. I can only surmise that most people are dumb as rocks.

I'm not 'enthusiastic' about this game but I will probably try it out for a few months. So count me in the 'dumb as rocks' club.
 
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I have no idea why people are enthusiastic about this game. It's not going to be Skyrim 2 and it's not going to be an MMORPG. Everything about it sounds horrible. I can only surmise that most people are dumb as rocks.
I hang around a lot of people who are into Elder Scrolls, or MMORPGs (and in some cases both), and I don't know a single person enthusiastic about this game actually. But judging by the internet, they are out there.

I find the whole project a bit strange. I don't know who was clamoring for an Elder Scrolls MMO. Certainly not many Elder Scrolls fans. Not many general MMORPG fans either, since Elder Scrolls is one of the most bland and boring fantasy settings out there. They probably spent hundreds of millions developing this, and I imagine they will find out in the end that it would have been much better spent elsewhere.
 
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Not many general MMORPG fans either, since Elder Scrolls is one of the most bland and boring fantasy settings out there.

The settings for ES 4 and 5 were certainly generic, but Morrowind had a very interesting setting.
 
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I find the whole project a bit strange. I don't know who was clamoring for an Elder Scrolls MMO. Certainly not many Elder Scrolls fans.

I don't think that's true. Maybe not the longtime fans, but threads asking for multiplayer were rampant from the days of Morrowind, and never stopped as long as I followed the TES boards (I stopped visiting regularly about the time the formation of Zenimax online was announced).
 
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They say that Star Wars audience is shrinking. It was 1.7 million and it is now 1 million subscribers. Bruto income (assuming 15$ per month): 15*(1.700.000+1.600.000+1.500.000+1.400.000+1.200.000+1.000.000).

Whoa, that's a lot of money!
 
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They say that Star Wars audience is shrinking. It was 1.7 million and it is now 1 million subscribers. Bruto income (assuming 15$ per month): 15*(1.700.000+1.600.000+1.500.000+1.400.000+1.200.000+1.000.000).

Whoa, that's a lot of money!

I think your info is wrong.

SWTOR subscribers peaked at 1.7 million just after launch. It then shrank back sharply and stabilised at about half a million subscribers (where it's remained for a very long time now.) When they went to a FTP model last year, 1.7 million extra accounts were added doubling monthly revenue. Last I heard, the subsciber base was slightly increasing but not by enough to be worthy of attention (it's still around half a million,) and they are happy with their increased user base (because it's bringing them some more dough.) That was a few months ago.
 
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Only a handful of MMOs require group play for anything besides dungeons/end game content. The player has the freedom to decide how much solo or group play they want to do in most MMOs these days.

It's not "these days". AC and UO were solo-friendly way back too...as was WoW (it's almost 10 years old you know).
 
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I don't think that's true. Maybe not the longtime fans, but threads asking for multiplayer were rampant from the days of Morrowind, and never stopped as long as I followed the TES boards (I stopped visiting regularly about the time the formation of Zenimax online was announced).

^This

Since Bethesda operated forums via BBS and CompuServe the idea of an online TES has been talked about. In contemporary times it has been brought up over and over again on the official forums.

Before TES:O was announced, when people would bring the topic of an online TES, reaction would be about 50/50. Half the people would chime in 'GOD NOOOO' the other half would be 'GOD YESSSS.'

I can imagine a few ways that an online TES could be fun. Some of the announced features seem interesting so I will give the game a try. But it is more than likely that I will only be a 1 to 3 month subscriber and then be done.

All that said though, I do hope that the single player series will continue on as single player games are my first choice.
 
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I don't know exactly what people were saying on those forums, and I think you get a pretty small sampling of the player base on any given developer's forums. But it's worth pointing out that there's a big difference between online/multiplayer, and full-blown MMORPG. A good example of that today is Divinity: Original Sin.
 
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