Elder Scrolls Online - Editorial @ Pixelgate

Pixelgate is the next site to compare Elder Scrolls Online with another MMO. They wonder if the game will follow the same way as The Old Republic.

Given the alleged development costs of Elder Scrolls Online, a fate similar to The Old Republic would be disastrous. The one major advantage Elder Scrolls Online has is the fact it will be the first major MMO to hit consoles. Sure, the likes of DC Universe made their way to consoles as well, but that is not on the same scale as Elder Scrolls, as the lack of marketing for DC Universe on consoles reflected. Perhaps the key to potential success for Elder Scrolls would be its console market rather than the PC. Nevertheless, there’s a huge risk being taken with Elder Scrolls Online in the same way Old Republic was a huge risk.

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More information.

I never trust the predictions of people who aren't millionaires, because you see, if you are good at predicting, you gotta make a fortune with it.

Depending on how they go ahead with things I think the game has potential to have a stable player base, mainly due to the name and the fact that it's a mix between traditional elder scrolls game and an mmo game..which I guess makes it an half untraditional mmo. Err something.
The easiest way to kill an mmo is to make everything easier, hello old republic.
Another easy way to kill an mmo is to get greedy..yeah, old republic.

Another thing that really flabbergasts me is how poorly mmo's tend to set their target marketing. One would think that people that work for huge companies would have more common sense than marketing a game for "everyone". Took me one year of school and a little bit of sense to realize that everyone is not a realistic target marketing. If ESO can avoid this trap then they can succeed.

So Final Fantasy XI wasn't a "major MMO"? Huh.

Another thing that really flabbergasts me is how poorly mmo's tend to set their target marketing. One would think that people that work for huge companies would have more common sense than marketing a game for "everyone". Took me one year of school and a little bit of sense to realize that everyone is not a realistic target marketing. If ESO can avoid this trap then they can succeed.

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WoW did it quite well, though

The thing is that you need something substantially new and innovative to get "everyone" - and that takes a lot of talent and drive. Beyond that, you need quality and polish on top.

It's not something you can count on your marketing department to realise.

As for ESO, we agree it has potential. Thankfully, it doesn't seem to make a grab for everyone and it seems to steer reasonably clear of attempting another WoW takeover.

ESO is just a bad idea for a game, IMO. The world doesn't need yet another generic, crappy, casual, solo-heavy pseudo MMORPG. And ES isn't something suited to MMORPG.

If you love ES games, is this what you want? A watered down version of ES jammed into a generic (or worse due to console ties) MMORPG format?

All of the best elements of ES are NOT suited to MMORPGs. Immersion? Not gonna happen. Freedom? Doesn't happen in tiny zones with linear/generic quest lines. Impact on game? Doesn't happen when thousands of people on your server are doing the same quests. And on and on.

Plus, ES is known as one of the best RPGs ever...but to clarify, it's known as a SINGLE PLAYER PVE game. Not multiplayer. Ever. Not PvP. Ever.

So how does ESO go from some of the strongest PvE in all of RPG history to being a watered down and generic MMORPG that's emphasizing....PvP? Say what!?

ESO will sell a bunch of units - because there are a lot of sheep out there. FFXIV, which is a horrible MMORPG and ultra weak game for dummies, proves that people will buy anything.

But, as with every other crappily post golden age of MMORPGs (EQ/DAoC/FFXI days - the originals), where instead of being hardcore and group-focused, the games are solo focused for casuals, ESO will fail to keep subscribers and will ultimately be a failure as an MMORPG.

Why?

Because single player games aren't worth a sub and every MMORPG worth discussing since WoW has followed the same pattern - tons of solo, tons of casual, very little and optional grouping, meager endgame at release.

And what happens is, people buy, people play 3-6 months, people bail and never come back. Because once they get thru the single player portion of the game, they are done.

Good MMORPGs are games people can and do play for years and years, and that's not a "casual" thing and usually revolves around grouping activities, and it's not something that's going to happen when the bulk of your design and content is focused on disposable single player content.

DArtagnan said:

WoW did it quite well, though

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That's one game. Out of many. Bliz does (or used to, I feel like D3 is pretty weak for a bliz game and that they've been running WoW into the ground for some time now) create excellent games.

And at the time WoW hit, there wasn't a lot of competition from other MMORPGs or a hyperactive web with a bazillion entertainment options - gaming and not.

IMO bliz got someone lucky because when WoW hit MMORPGs were just getting to be a mainstream idea, the interweb hadn't fully exploded (social media wasn't quite there yet, high speed internet was just getting to be the norm, there was an opening for bringing casuals into MMORPGs and even a lot of MMORPG vets of the time were looking for something new/else.

Due to lack of competition from other MMORPGs *and* the just getting rolling online gaming scene as a whole, Bliz had a lot of time to patch and ultimately xpac to fully hook their WoW players.

This is a luxury companies making MMORPGs now do not have.

Now there are more MMORPGs but even moreso, there are tons of online entertainment and gaming options. There are so many more fully online games now that are more mainstream - the minecraft, battlefields, LOLs, and tons of others, tons of co-op, tons of MP, tons of hybrids - online gaming has exploded since WoW.

The whole make an MMORPG that's almost all single player content, with optional grouping and sparse endgame options and promise to patch in stuff to keep you busy at some point in the future thing doesn't really work out so well - as pretty much every MMORPG worth discussing has found out since WoW. They all end up going F2P and can't retain clients - because - single player games aren't worth a sub and players have so many options these days that they have zero reason to stick with a game for 6 months waiting for miracle patches.

Summed up my own thoughts really well there in the first 1/3rd or so of your post. ES has nothing special to offer the MMO genre. All this game has going for it is the ES name (and lore, if you think that's any good, I personally don't) and $200M thrown at it. It isn't even made by the people who make ES, much less an existing successful or established MMO team. It'll likely be a huge disaster, as a recent Forbes article predicted. What I've seen of beta so far confirms that in my mind.