Elder Scrolls Online Impressions

Thrasher

Wheeee!
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Kind of what I was expecting: a cut & paste MMO from a third party developer, with TES "flavor" thrown in.

The only thing that makes TES worthwhile is the exploration (and modding). You toss that out the window in favor of typical MMO mechanics, and it immediately becomes forgettable. There's way, way too many sword & sorcery MMO clones on the market for such ploys to be profitable these days.
 
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Yep, my thoughts exactly. And the combat being even more dumbed down than Skyrim, with areas smaller than some of the Skyrim dungeons? No thanks...
 
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I wasn't excited about this game,and now I'm less excited.
 
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As i said before why do they keep hiring this guy?

Matt Firor shoudlnt be anywhere near MMO's
 
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MMO gameplay style never much appealed to me, so I really am not a good judge of what's a good MMO vs. a bad MMO. But, I know why I like the SP Elder Scroll games, and this doesn't seem to scratch the same itch as well as Skyrim, except for maybe more lore and more variety in locations.
 
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The linked column contains absolutely no commentary based on first-hand knowledge of the game; they are simply providing their (snarky and sarcastic) impressions of a newly-released trailer that provides some details on the character progression system. And the comment about zones smaller than Skyrim dungeons was pure hyperbole. You do start on a (decent-sized) island that you can't get off of until you complete some quests, and by the time you get to the mainland you'll probably be about level 6 or thereabouts. After that, you're free to go where you want. Of course, you'll be limited in practical terms from venturing very far afield, since there is no level-scaling. But I thought we all hated level scaling?

I still have some concerns about several aspects of the game, and probably won't shell out a subscription for it, but in my brief time over a beta weekend I found the character progression system to be one of the strongest points of the game. I particularly liked how I got very little xp for killing random mobs (only skill advancement); most xp gain was through quest completion. This allowed for some quests to be completed through means other than killing everything in sight. In fact, some quests could be completed in hostile areas without killing anybody at all. This also meant that I was never really at risk of getting over-leveled, which was nice for a change given my completionist tendencies.

(I should add that anything related to xp gain rate and leveling speed is likely to get tweaked continuously prior to launch, so everything I said can and likely will change. Which is why I don't feel too bad about bending the NDA to comment).
 
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The linked column contains absolutely no commentary based on first-hand knowledge of the game; they are simply providing their (snarky and sarcastic) impressions of a newly-released trailer that provides some details on the character progression system.

I question your veracity. Some comments were from people who said they HAD played the demo.

I was in beta and was disappointed. It's just a standard MMO. It's WoW with a different paint job and a bit more freedom to character progression. Having said that if you're not tired of the standard MMO experience like I am and you're a big fan of Elder Scrolls lore you'll probably enjoy this game.

During the beta weekend event, my buddy and I spent all Friday and Saturday playing the beta.

We both walked away extremely disappointed. It just felt like a very watered down, bland version of Skyrim. On several occasions we both wanted to log out and play Skyrim or Oblivion since a lot of the features we liked from the ES series were missing. The graphics were definitely a step backwards (somewhat understandable for an MMO) but the combat went the wrong direction.
I played the beta with a friend of mine. He enjoyed it, because he just loves the traditional mmo experiences and the world of Elder Scrolls. I however became seriously bored and turned off by the whole experience. Just another mmo to me, same gameplay and tactics.
The beta made me want to go play offline Skyrim because of everything ESO is NOT. You would not be paying for Skyrim….you would be paying for a watered down version of it. Just sayin….
 
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Yeah, after I posted that I finally noticed that you were referring to the PCGamer posters, and not the little blurb itself.

It's funny, while playing the beta, a popular topic of conversation on the zone's chat channel, not surprisingly, was what people thought of the game. And I noticed that it went in waves. There were times when people were just slamming the game mercilessly. And then there were other times (and other zones) where people were piling on about how great they thought the game was, which aspects they like best, how they couldn't wait to play it on release, etc.

Interestingly enough, I found that the beginning areas are where people generally slammed it, while the later areas (past the intro zones) generally had a lot more praise. And I can confirm that the game became a lot more compelling to me once I hit the mainland.

I think it's going to be hard to get a read on this game from other folks' opinions. People play Elder Scrolls games in lots of different ways, and people play MMO's in lots of different ways. And while I agree that ESO didn't feel exactly like an Elder Scrolls game, I didn't think that it felt exactly like a typical MMO, either. If somebody were to ask me whether they would like it, my response would be, I have no idea.
 
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I question your veracity. Some comments were from people who said they HAD played the demo.

You realize that you can't verify if they really played the beta right? Count for everyone making the claim.

There are people out there who are hating on ESO for various reasons (range from I hate Matth Frior to I hate subscription based games). These people go around making claims the game will be crap. This create a hate-circle, because people who think the game might be crap will take these claims as being the truth because they validate what they are thinking. So they start to make claims that the game is crap as well. The haters win, everyone will think the game is crap without playing it. They will even say they are TES fans or played the beta to give more backing to their claims. There is also the opposite of this, people saying the game is going to be super awesome, but they don't get as much traction…

Of course, some really didn't like their beta experience. Reason varies (from both the MMO and TES side of the spectrum). I've seen plenty of MMOers complaining about the game having quests in the beta forum. Their reasoning is that all the other MMORPGs also have quests, so it's not innovative… The TES side is more complaining about the class system restriction or exploration.

Fantasm is spot on with "If somebody were to ask me whether they would like it, my response would be, I have no idea. ".
 
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Honestly, I have my doubts about TESO, because all I've heard doesn't look that good for me. But, as my information is pretty old (stopped careing about TESO as soon as I heard the "3 Classes"). So if I would get insight information or Beta Access, I wouldn't say no.

But would I pay for it? Or would I pay a subscription fee anymore? No, to both.
There are enough MMO's out there, with pretty good story/gameplay that aren't sub based, and I'm not willing to pay "in advance" to AAA companies anymore.
 
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@azarhal

I prefer a simpler explanation, that doesn't require some sort of group think mindfuck. Some people who played it didn't like it, and for good reasons. Is that so hard to accept? :)
 
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I think once people accept that it's not Skyrim Online, they will start to like the game more. That's what happened with me.
 
Yep, I think people who crave a new ES experience will have to decide if they want a watered down ESO MMO they can get in a few months or wait for a richer single player experience in the next ES installment (which will be quite a long time away, I imagine).
 
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I think once people accept that it's not Skyrim Online, they will start to like the game more. That's what happened with me.
Probably but it doesn't help with the hype trying to make it sound like it is. As for me I'm not a fan of MMO's but I play them sometimes when I'm bored of other games. I may give it a look, but not on release.

Though I will more than likely wait for the next sp game as Thrasher said. They better make one. I don't want another company going the online route for all future games.:shakefist:
 
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@azarhal

I prefer a simpler explanation, that doesn't require some sort of group think mindfuck. Some people who played it didn't like it, and for good reasons. Is that so hard to accept? :)

The group think mindfuck is called "banking on confirmation bias".

Also, I've seen way more negative comments in the beta forums in the last 6 months than what popped online in the last two weeks. At least I know these people have played the game and what they had access to.

Lets take some comment fro the PCGamer article, because I'm bored.

Mako482: His comment shows me he didn't like the tutorial section of the game and probably never made it past level 5.

Atoxx : He wants Mount&Blade as a MMO.

TheTrueObelus, coppernaut and a few others: They claims the game is a standard MMO. ESO have quest, a chat window, character progression with levels and a story. I wonder what they expected...

3lfk1ng: Watered bland version of Skyrim because the game is missing features he likes but doesn't mention them (the only one I can think of is housing and shouts). He also complains that the game might as well be a single player game something I only see hardcore MMO players say (about every MMOs released since 2004). I'm suspicious of his Skyrim comment based on the MMO comparison. I'm wondering if he is a "people who want to solo in MMO should play single player games" guy...

stoopidhead: troll.

BlackCompany: Says he haven't played the game.

There are also a bunch of people not liking the game because it's sub-based.

All and all, these comments are rather tame compared to what I've read on the beta forums...
 
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The game is a day-one purchase for me. It's not the perfect TES game, and it certainly won't replace the single-player experience, but it's enough TES for me to be left wanting more of the exploration of TES lore and history.

Where else could one interact with Vivec, Almalexia and Sotha Sil in their prime? Not talking about the beta, I just heard it from a little bird…
 
Haha. Yeah that's probably the main attraction for me. But watered down MMO gameplay and character development is a deal killer…
 
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Haha. Yeah that's probably the main attraction for me. But watered down MMO gameplay and character development is a deal killer…

Are you saying that you think the character development is watered down too or you just don't like what was presented?
 
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Only 3 character classes? Fact or fiction?

No freeform open character development, unique skills / trees for each class? Fact or fiction?

In general, loss of flexibility in character development vs. elder scroll SP games? Fact or fiction?
 
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