Elder Scrolls Online - Editorial @ Forbes

Couchpotato

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Forbes has another article about the monthly subscription for Elder Scrolls Online.

Bethesda/Zenimax would be smart to at least try and adapt to the times. Yes, they should focus on fixing fan complaints with the game itself, and that should be priority one, but they also need to realize they’re going to have to get players playing in the first place, and the costs they have in place are just too prohibitive right now. Yes, there will be a select contingent of players who will buy and subscribe to the game no matter what, but at this rate, I think that’s going to be a much smaller enclave than they’d like.

I do believe at this rate, The Elder Scrolls Online is destined to have an incredibly rough launch, and they’ll be quickly forced into the sorts of changes I’m suggesting here, rather than having the chance to make those decisions willingly. I do not want TESO to fail, but I think it’s been a hard road from concept to execution to marketing to pricing, and all those elements are conspiring to throw up enormous barriers to success for the game
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$240 to play one game over the course of one year is an outdated model that only works for a very, very select few well-established MMOs.

Why is it an outdated model, per se? Because he says so? I hate editorial pieces built on one person's (mis)conceptions, talking out of their ass to meet an arbitrary article deadline.

I'll gladly pay $15/month for a quality MMO. That's not to say TES Online will be that MMO, but the subscription model is far from outdated…
 
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I don't agree one bit:Waiting for 1.5 hours to get in over the weekend doesn't seem like a business venture that is ready to fail. I think people are going to be all over this. Twenty million copies sold for Skyrim and I don't think the buzz was only for people who want a solo RPOG. The only way they can screw this up is if they also under project how much content they have vs how fast people go through it. I have played numerous cookie cutter MMO's in the last few years and I didn't get that feeling with this game. Saying all video games are way over priced is an old argument anyways.
 
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Why is it an outdated model, per se? Because he says so? I hate editorial pieces built on one person's (mis)conceptions, talking out of their ass to meet an arbitrary article deadline.

I'll gladly pay $15/month for a quality MMO. That's not to say TES Online will be that MMO, but the subscription model is far from outdated…

Well, the main point of the article is that the game is simply too average, and generating too little excitement at the moment, to be successful with that business model. He also explicitly says that if the game were great, and gamers would be more hyped about it, the business model would work.

He thinks that the best way to lure the currently non-excited gamers into the game, and get them addicted in the long run, is to make the game cheaper to play in the first place. And I have to admit, 60$ plus 15$ a month is a pretty expensive prize for a game which most seem to consider only average at this point.

Skyrim sold 20 million copies because it was great. If ESO is only average, it will probably struggle to to copy the success of the official ES series.

The logic of the article is sound, even if the game turns out to be more successful thatn the writer thinks it will.
 
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I think the game should do ok if not better but I do believe there will be issues during launch. Then again, is there a popular MMO that did not have any launch issue. I played a few hours during this weekends thought the game is fun and will look forward to the story and some of the world PvP that is be available. While I usually solo or play with a RL friend and family in MMO for harder quests and story, I do find world pvp where one side battle another side in a big battlefield to be quite fun. It is something not available on most MMO so this should do well.

Lastly, I rather pay $15 a month to play with all of the contents then having to pay a few dollars at a time to unlock something in order to continue.
 
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It's not the fee, this game is SO going to tank. Fee or free doesn't really matter. I don't know why everyone says ESO is too less Skyrim and too much an MMo. It's the other way around, it is WAY too much like a single player game and WAY too less of a MMO!
 
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All these "it has to be F2P" articles are forgetting one thing: ESO will be the only major MMO on consoles. And yes, the interface actually looks like it could work on consoles, so it might just attract a huge XBox and PS crowd.
 
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Before they ask others to adapt to the times, I'd like them to learn something about that which they talk - and perhaps think for themselves a little.
 
You MUST have a "good" MMO for the subscription plan to work. So if the developers are launching a MMO with F2P plan then the developers are effectively saying that *they* don't think their MMO is "good"! This is one of the reason why ESO is going with subscription.

Anyway, I don't believe ESO is a "good" MMO but I think its above average so I am really on the fence about the subscription plan thing.
 
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It's not a WoW clone, and most MMO mainstreamers are not conditioned to accept things that don't work a bit like WoW.

I think a lot of people will be surprised, because it can be sort of a slow burn - but we'll see.

For the moment, I consider 15$ for a month of strong content and exploration to be petty cash.

That said, their pre-order/CE bullshit is inexcusable from where I'm sitting.

However, they're making it hard for themselves by marketing it as an ES game, because ES singleplayer fans - who don't understand the concessions needed for thousands of players in the same world made to last for years - will likely expect Skyrim 2.0 - which it most certainly isn't.

I'm curious how that will turn out.

All I'm hoping for is a game that stays strong and uncompromised for 3-6 months. After that, I'm likely done with it for the most part anyway.

It won't be the first game ruined by the ignorance of the larger audience coupled with the weakness of moneyhungry suits.
 
and while doing so it'll deter many PC gamers ! For me, that console crowd isn't a welcome addition to the Elder scrolls world and the entry price is crippling. These two things go of pair.

The servers will be entirely seperate, but that doesn't change the ridiculous nature of your position.
 
It's not a WoW clone, and most MMO mainstreamers are not conditioned to accept things that don't work a bit like WoW.

I don't know what your definition of WoW clone is but ESO owes more to WOW than any other game..
 
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I don't know what your definition of WoW clone is but ESO owes more to WOW than any other game..

I don't know what you mean by "owe" - but if you compare ESO to games like GW2, Rift, SWtoR - and all the other mainstream MMOs released in the last few years - it's miles away from those core designs and art styles.

Obviously, it's still an MMO - and if WoW defines an MMO for you, then you could be right.

I don't agree at all though.

I always wanted MMOs to focus on exploration and an immersive world that takes itself seriously, which is exactly what ESO gives me.
 
I don't know what you mean by "owe" - but if you compare ESO to games like GW2, Rift, SWtoR - and all the other mainstream MMOs released in the last few years - it's miles away from those core designs and art styles.

I mean its on the rails theme park like WoW under its core and I don't mean that as bad thing at all. I really enjoyed early WoW a lot! Even GW2 and Rift brought something new ideas (dynamic events) to the MMO genre but I don't see ESO bring anything new at all...

I always wanted MMOs to focus on exploration and an immersive world that takes itself seriously, which is exactly what ESO gives me.
[/QUOTE]

This is where ESO fails for me since I just simply didn't get immersed in it at all. I guess this is a personal thing and you are very luck if you feel immersed in ESO!
 
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I mean its on the rails theme park like WoW under its core and I don't mean that as bad thing at all. I really enjoyed early WoW a lot! Even GW2 and Rift brought something new ideas (dynamic events) to the MMO genre but I don't see ESO bring anything new at all…

I don't think it's on rails at all - certainly nothing like Rift or SWtOR. It's a game that actively encourages you to step OFF the rail, because if you don't go exploring on your own - you won't be able to complete the quests associated with the main story.

GW2 tried to do something similar, but the writing was atrocious and the world, while technically sound, didn't have much in the way of variety - and everything was a silly joke. The quests were weak variations on a few themes - and the main story was beyond bad. It was infested with "toys" and gifts wrapped in christmas paper and all sorts of things that has nothing to do with an immersive fantasy world. Not to me, anyway.

GW2 has weak character progression as well, and classes were rigidly locked to their weapons of choice.

I'm not saying it's bringing anything "new" in terms of what gaming has done before. I'm saying it's bringing something to the MMO genre we haven't seen in a long time, which is a very immersive world that you can take seriously - and which rewards exploration to a very large extent.

Beyond that, it has a wonderfully free character development system, that actively encourages experimentation and it FEELS like you can do pretty much what you want.

It's not cluttered with bright lights and numbers, either - which I appreciate to a large extent. Again, this is good for immersion.

I don't need something new to enjoy myself, as I'm about execution.

Beyond that, people seem to really like the 3-faction PvP implementation, but that's not really something I'm too interested in myself.

This is where ESO fails for me since I just simply didn't get immersed in it at all. I guess this is a personal thing and you are very luck if you feel immersed in ESO!

Obviously - and I do consider myself lucky with ESO. I'm truly happy that an MMO is finally coming out that I'm not "meh" about.
 
Not sure how much you have actually played ESO lostforever, it's very different from wow. In fact, the only similarities between wow and eso is the fact that it's fantasy.
That being said, I've turned around and decided that I might not buy eso after all. It has a few features missing that I find crucial to keep me interested in playing mmo's, sadly. It does look like a decent game though.
 
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Not sure how much you have actually played ESO lostforever, it's very different from wow. In fact, the only similarities between wow and eso is the fact that it's fantasy.
That being said, I've turned around and decided that I might not buy eso after all. It has a few features missing that I find crucial to keep me interested in playing mmo's, sadly. It does look like a decent game though.

I'm curious, Nyx, what features are you referring to?
 
I'm curious, Nyx, what features are you referring to?

I'll keep refraining from talking too much due to the silly nda still in effect for whatever reason, but pvp is a major factor in it.
 
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