Elder Scrolls Online

I might try it once it inevitably loses its subscription fee. Subscriptions have kept some older MMORPGs in good shape, but the model is so, so, so much on its way out.

Right now, it doesn't look like this game does anything different enough from other MMOs to make me waste my time on it, and justify a subscription fee. I guess I'd like to explore the other regions of the Elder Scrolls world. Not enough incentive to pay monthly fees.

Rub'Rum said:

but the model is so, so, so much on its way out.

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Sub-based MMOs will never go away, they'll just be the 'premium' niche. WoW has just been the juggernaut for too long - and all the gutsy devs who really want to stir up the genre don't have the budget to give it a proper go. I've been saying this for well over a decade now, but I'm still waiting for a real UO 2.0.

Maniacal said:

While I doubt it will be as big of a deal of a flop as SWTOR, if mostly just since almost everybody is expecting it to be meh if not fail, its not going to be a big success either and even if it is decent for an MMORPG that is an incredibly low bar. It will always be TES nobody asked for.

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This is what I'm guessing so far.



From what I heard, and seen, gameplay-wise it's not that bad, and if it were single-player (or at worse co-op) would work fine. But as others have said it's having the limitations and problems of mmorpgs tacked onto it. I can go running around doing my exploration or roleplaying or what not, and then some douches come around spouting nonsense and trolling me and there goes my fun.


Now, lore-wise (which is one of the main draws to the TES series for me)... eh, I guess I can say I'm ambivalent, but not enough I'm going to bother rattling out some substantial criticisms here (they've been posted elsewhere on the internet by more knowledgeable and rabid TES fans than me)

Rub'Rum said:

but the model is so, so, so much on its way out.

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I'd rather sub over F2P. I just don't like F2P, because in general, their entire method of making money with F2P is to exploit whales, people who spend far more than anyone else in the game, and I find that to be unethical. I also think it's a more unreliable method of income, although that probably applies more to the mobile market than PC.

If I ever develop a F2P game, I'll probably impose some kind of hard cap (by designing the game in such a way that there's no need to spend more) on how much any one user can spend per month, because it wouldn't feel right otherwise. Probably not much more than an MMO sub.


On the subject of ESO, unless they can maintain a subscriber base big enough to fund their dev team, I'm kind of expecting it to go F2P within a year at max.

I think that's true a lot of the time (most of the time...). But I've played Guild Wars 2 and didn't feel that way about it (although it's not really F2P since I bought it for like 40$). I think there are ways to make F2P MMOs less "cheap asian MMO"-like.

I don't get why they don't just lower the monthly fee to something around $5-7 a month. It'd be the best of both worlds, no gimmicks of the ftp/pay to win, yet half the prices or less than traditional monthly mmos. If guild wars and secret world can survive off only a purchase fee I think a good mmo could easily survive off $5 a month.

The issue with the mmorpgs I've played aside from wow (and I've only played a few of them, aion, age of conan, guild wars 1) has been items. In wow the items were so simple to obtain and so easy to see their direct impact to your hero. Oh this axe has more strength, sweet it's an upgrade. In age of conan you actually performed manual attacks with your weapon so there was no such thing as dps rating and they had piercing dmg vs other types, it was so damn confusing.

Also as much as people about it wow has been the most balanced class wise. Certain classes in those other mmos just sucked to level.

civvver said:

Also as much as people about it wow has been the most balanced class wise. Certain classes in those other mmos just sucked to level.

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Nowadays, but to be fair that game has changed a lot compared to launch.
I can still remeber the "good old" vanilla days where my druid took three times as long (and twice as much damage) killing a single mob compared to the rogue next to me.
...and the only reason why I was part of the Molton Core raid was my battle-rez plus innervate mana refresher. :/

Release WOW wouldn't stand a chance in today's MMORPG market. But I guess that also tells how far the genre has developed over the past few years.

As for ESO: I will probably give it a shot once the subscription fee is gone. Until then I have enough other games (including Planetside 2) to play.

Yes I suppose that's true. I leveled a warrior as my first serious character and I remember having trouble killing mobs my same level in the teens with all the rage issues. But I seem to recall it getting patched a couple months after release. But even way back then there was something magical about wow that kept you wanting more. I never got that same feeling from any other game. Art style probably had something to do with it as well.

For me the biggest thing was the open world and the free exploration of everything. With my friend.
Just walking around, discovering quests, secret locations or new enememies. First time at the Cavern of Wailing entrance: "Pfff... Elite... How hard can they OHMYGODMYHITPOINTS"
I didn't even use thottbot and the likes back then. Awww good times, standing in Straholme as heal druid and hitting mobs with my staff to get some damage on them.

It's quite funny: The world nowadays is completely pointless due to dungeon finder, raid finder and flying mounts. 95% of the zones are dead and useless and the game could as well be in a capital city with instanced zones where you teleport into. You have detailed walkthroughs for everything and everyone is expected to know all the important details. I guess a lot of that "mystic" aspects got lost as players became more professional at the game.
...at least, that seems to be the case for me.

I agree with GAGA. My friends and I have played one MMO after another. WoW is our home but it's grown stale over the years (and the PvP is god awful). Guild Wars 2 is great, but I needed a break from it. This time we're going to play ESO for the experience, not to rush to max level to get to the "real content," because - here's a hint - the real content is leveling up and exploring.

I didn't like ESO at first, and couldn't really pinpoint why. Then I realized I was playing the archetype classes as... well... archetypes. As soon as I went "elder scrolls" (so to speak) and rolled a melee sorcerer-battlemage, I had a blast.

When I first heard about this, I thought it was going to be totally awesome.

Then after a few months, more news and beta info came out, and it's just a WoW clone with Elder Scrolls IP.

Yawn. DO SOMETHING WORTHWHILE, MMO DEVS!

One of the closed beta testers is an admin on one of the LEGO forums I go to. While the screenshots she posted look really interesting and cool, I unfortunately already have too many commitments vying for my time for the foreseeable future...

It's out, is anyone playing it? So far most people seem excited to explore the world and compare it to skyrim but that's about it. Of course I don't expect much end game content for a brand new mmo, but it seems like just a single player game with other people right now.

More importantly: Any word when it will fo free to play yet?

I've been playing it. It is sort of lack luster but I've been sort of into it for the roleplay potential. I certainly play it more than WoW nowadays but there is the definite MMO feel to it.