Elder Scrolls Online?

[cliff_burton]

Elder Scrolls Online MMO? Great news. Thank you Voodoo Extreme (http://ve3d.ign.com/articles/news/35170/Elder-Scrolls-Online)

While doing a little domain crawling, we noticed that ZeniMax Media, the parent company of Bethesda Softworks, recently purchased ELDERSCROLLSONLINE.COM. Combine this little acquisition with the fact that it recently opened up a online game division headed up by Mythic co-founder Matt Firor, and I think we might have made a love connection. We contacted Bethesda about this, but have yet to get an official response.

How does a massively multiplayer version of The Elder Scrolls strike you?

[Gorvi]

Well, there would go my life if that is brought to consoles.

[Crowe]

Agree with Gorvi...life would fall to a standstill. Who knows how god damn long before we see it though.

[TrackZero]

For fucks sake, I thought we'd proved by now MMOs aren't working for the majority of developers, only a few turn out to be profitable. God damnit, stop making them.

[Ranhert]

Very interesting idea indeed. I have never been much of a Elder Scrolls fan and I think the main reason why was because it felt like a MMOG but wasn't. I can't say I'm a huge MMOG fiend (I play other things) but the fact that I had a hard time playing those games and not wishing that all of those NPCs were real people.

That being said, ironically, to me what would make an Elder Scrolls MMORPG work would be the immersion of classic ES NPCs as well as Player Characters working as one in a sandbox environment. How cool would it be if you could actually buy property in a city and open up a blacksmith shop and have to monitor competition/location to take advantage of the market? You would need to be cognizant of your locks though as you obviously don't want to be robbed (there would have to be some sort of limit as to how many items/money amount in worth of items that one person could steal at a time). Meanwhile NPCs will come and buy items based off of price and location (that would be a neat AI algorithm to come up with) to keep people in business regardless of Player trends.

That's just one scenario and it doesn't even involve the combat aspect that most people are interested in. The possibilities are pretty endless and I think that is really what the Elder Scrolls series brings to the table.

[jeffool]

I'm with TZ. And, I may be wrong, but are the hardcore Elder Scrolls fans the type who enjoy the grind in the endless pursuit of gear that everyone else already has?

[drakkarim]

how does an Elder Scrolls MMORPG strike me? about as fun as Halo 3 singleplayer. good for a few hours of gaming and then worthless.

[Crowe]

For fucks sake, I thought we'd proved by now MMOs aren't working for the majority of developers, only a few turn out to be profitable. God damnit, stop making them.

Yeah but its Elder Scrolls....and it will be online.

[TrackZero]

How cool would it be if you could actually buy property in a city and open up a blacksmith shop and have to monitor competition/location to take advantage of the market?

You an I sir, have VERY different ideas of "fun".

[jeffool]

Very interesting idea indeed.Love your take on it Ranhert, that'd kick ass. But I think it brings up a problem that many MMOs face; they want to put tons of people on the same server to fight over copies of the same 'rare' items. With huge servers everyone couldn't own a shop, or adventure (in a fashion that made sense within the story,) or be thieves, etc. But with smaller server sizes, individuals could do just what you explain. Of course, the problem is making smaller server populations just as profitable as the larger. I'd say put just a few hundred people on a server, or even let people/groups rent individual servers, and then only let those people be on there. Assign one or two DMs to a server to run things, and be done. I mean, imagine how kick-ass an EvAv server would be on an Oblivion-like MMO where all the property was purchasable.

Okay, I'm rambling. Fine ideas, though, Ranny.You an I sir, have VERY different ideas of "fun".Well, I thought they were good, Ran.

[menage]

Groan, no thanks. I loved IV, but I really don't need it online. It would suck a lot of things I like about it out of it. Like strolling the landscape on my own, exploring unkown territory. That won't work when I run into Kevin the Dwarf and Britney the NightElf every 10 seconds.

[Stupid Fat Hobbit]

Oh sweet, a fantasy MMO! I can't remember the last time we had one of those. </sarcasm>

[pearle]

Bah, give me more single player RPGs. Enough of these RPG lite grindfests. I can never manage to play an MMO beyond two months without becoming bored.

[ldi222]

Bah, give me more single player RPGs. Enough of these RPG lite grindfests. I can never manage to play an MMO beyond two months without becoming bored.

I totally agree, I do not like grinds and half assed quests for the sake of achievements to show how uber you are online. I can never compete for time to be the most leet on a server and that kills the fun. Even Guild Wars with no subscription fee would be much better imo if they made more involved quests with a good storyline and not a lot of random text that no one cares about on their mission to get green items and titles. Even Halo3 has been turned into something of an MMORPG with its ranks, achievements and medals and its all but killed customs as a result.

What I would love though is another Oblivion type title that allowed something like 8 or 16 player co op and instanced modules like the old D&D books.

[Codicier]

Let me break down the MMO market: Blizzard won.

Seriously, that's it. Stop trying to emulate their success because it won't work. They'll crush your puny MMO under the might that is WoW. Then you'll be out millions of dollars and thousands of hours time that could have been spent making money instead of losing it.

[rein]

I'm not sure I like this idea. One of the best things about Elder Scroll games is that they have an ending and eventually release you back to the real world.

[Johan]

I will never play an MMO. Ever. Period.

[Abednigo]

So pretty much just a regular Elder Scrolls game taken online. The world in the single player games are big enough already for that. That's not a knock it, I always thought it would make a great MMO. I haven't played Oblivion, but I thought during most of my time playing Morrowind that it would be nice if all those NPCs were other players and it was an online world.

[LarsenNET]

I will never play an MMO. Ever. Period.

Agreed. It's pretty tough for us working folk to justify a monthly payment but have little time to spend on them.

[Klunka]

No sir, I don't like it.

The thing I personally like about Elder Scrolls is the freedom I get. The world is literally mine. I choose who dies and who lives. I can lead any faction the world has to offer. If there's a house, I can ransack it.

Taking this game online they would HAVE to limit the choices you can make. Otherwise by the third day public, every NPC in the game will be totally wiped out.

[Ranhert]

You an I sir, have VERY different ideas of "fun".

Well actually TZ I wasn't exactly saying that it would be successful or necessarily fun, but was just taking a look at what the Elder Scrolls series could bring to a somewhat stagnant market. If we take a look at all the MMOs that have "revolutionized" and been successful they have all done something other then just improve the graphics, the biggest in recent time being WoW and opening up the "fun" to gamers that normally wouldn't play MMOs. So my ideas were really just Elder Scroll staples that (to my knowledge) are not available to be experienced in the current MMO market. However if they just open up a more expansive Elder Scrolls experience then we have a Guild Wars knock-off with a name brand associated to it which, since it has already been done, will most likely be short-lived.

[Zawath]

They need to change a lot of things if they want to make a succesful MMO. First of all they need a new combat system, the current one is boring and too basic. Second of all they need dungeons and other areas that look unique and aren't clones.

[Telefrog]

No sir, I don't like it.

The thing I personally like about Elder Scrolls is the freedom I get. The world is literally mine. I choose who dies and who lives. I can lead any faction the world has to offer. If there's a house, I can ransack it.

Taking this game online they would HAVE to limit the choices you can make. Otherwise by the third day public, every NPC in the game will be totally wiped out.

Exactly my feelings. It's cool when I'm the tinpot dictator of Cyrodil. It's not cool when there are 1000 asshats just like me trying to steal every guard's horse and knock over everyone's dinner.

[zipR]

The thing I personally like about Elder Scrolls is the freedom I get. The world is literally mine. I choose who dies and who lives. I can lead any faction the world has to offer. If there's a house, I can ransack it.


Meh. I already have that in the real world.

I think it's interesting (and telling) how there seems to be a lot more talk about old RPGs like Baldur's Gate and the like than Oblivion.

[Atorak]

I will never play an MMO. Ever. Period.
You are missing out. Seriously. Even if it's just for a month or two.

And as for an Elder Scrolls-based MMO? I'm all for it. Although, I would like to see them go the route of smaller servers, rather than servers with hundreds of thousands of people on them. I think taking some of the ideas that Ranhert had is the type of direction that Bethesda should move in.

I'm of the firm belief that when you try to entertain hundreds of thousands of people on one server, the benefit of a player being able to interact with that many people is outweighed by the negatives. You get less of that "I'm the hero" mentality, less feeling that your character actually matters, and less of a personal connection with the world. Entertaining hundreds of thousands as opposed to thousands is obviously a much different animal. Instanced player housing as opposed to static player housing, instanced dungeons as opposed to world dungeons, etc.

If they don't go after WoW, they might be fine.

[Teh Super King]

I'd hope that they do something like Two Worlds, over a MMO.

If they just took the Two Worlds MP and put it into Oblivion I think that would be awesome.

[Johan]

You are missing out. Seriously. Even if it's just for a month or two.

That's exactly what my local crack dealer told me, as well; "Just try it; you can quit after a month or two!" :D

No thank you. I don't have the time, nor the inclination.

[abso]

I'm sure they could pull off a great MMO, but at $15/mo for each of these interesting games, plus the $45-55 cost of the initial purchase, developers are putting a strain on what I can and am willing to play. Now, were they to make just an online version, with 2-4 person coop, then it might work out ok.

[thatlukeguy]

By the power of grayskull.... i've waited along time for the ability to play Elder Scrolls online...

[NationalKato]

Part of my love of the Elder Scrolls games is not having to deal with griefers and non-roleplaying player characters.

[Voodoo]

Damn! A jump straight from single player only to MMO. I think I would have advised them to make the next ES multiplayer and then take it from there for a future version. I could see a MMO made though due to the huge amount of land present in the world of ES.

[Demo_Boy]

So it is teh Oblivion engine with more landspace and massive multiplayer feature. Sounds like a no brainer, but at this point I can't imagine paying more than 2 bucks a month to subscribe to it. Cause I can play Oblivion if I want the world and WOW if I want the player interaction.

[Ancalagon]

It could be good. Oblivion didnt hook me, so probably not for me, but I think Bethesda could definitely make an online that world that everyone would enjoy.

That being said, I wonder what the total market for an MMO is.

I mean, the more MMOs they make, the thinner the population will be. Now, we have the various guild wars builds, WoW, EQ, EVE, that Final Fantasy MMO, a few Korean ones which wont get much play time out of the Orient, a few others.

If the total number of big name MMOs is increased to 100, while the total gamer population doesnt increase linearly (which it probably cant), then each MMO is going to have a much smaller population. Wonder how that will affect play.

Suppose, at least in the case of WoW, they would just have fewer realms.

[rhagen]

I think more developers need to use the old Diablo II Battle.Net strategy. Oblivion would be horrible filled with hundreds of real people running around the map, but having 4 to 6 people in the world in your own game would be really fun.

[Disgustipated]

You guys have to realize that most Elder Scrolls fans would jump on an MMO like a cheeseburger. Have you seen the Elder Scrolls forums? Hugely popular. They'd be guaranteed a big fanbase.

[Flatpicker]

Just like with the KOTOR MMO, no sir, I do not want that.
I play an RPG to enjoy the writing and the overreaching story arch. MMO's don't have that.

[Generation ABXY]

You guys have to realize that most Elder Scrolls fans would jump on an MMO like a cheeseburger. Have you seen the Elder Scrolls forums? Hugely popular. They'd be guaranteed a big fanbase.

That is the most stupid line I've ever heard - I'm an Elder Scrolls fan and I wouldn't jump on a cheesburger; I'm lactose intolerant. Now, if you had said trampoline, that would have worked...I'd totally eat a trampoline.

Also, on-topic: I think an ES MMO could be neat. There are plenty of people who would enjoy it and, like the Wii you own even though you said you never would, nothing says you HAVE to play it.

[Gorvi]

That is the most stupid line I've ever heard - I'm an Elder Scrolls fan and I wouldn't jump on a cheesburger; I'm lactose intolerant. Now, if you had said trampoline, that would have worked...I'd totally eat a trampoline.
Thank you, that gave me a good laugh. :)

[KingGorilla]

Snapping up domains is not an indication of future business ventures. It happens all the time just to create redirect pages for people who type the wrong things.

[Xerxes]

I'd hope that they do something like Two Worlds, over a MMO.

If they just took the Two Worlds MP and put it into Oblivion I think that would be awesome.

But they need better net code. Two Worlds seemed sloppy.

Didn't Bethesda just get 300 million from their parent company for this project? I think are serious and not trying to make a WoW clone. I would like to know for what platform. If it was on 360, I'd be like Gorvi. I was soooo afraid what would happen when True Live Fantasy came out, but it just disappeared. Redgaurd for life. :rolleyes:

[Atorak]

I'm sure they could pull off a great MMO, but at $15/mo for each of these interesting games, plus the $45-55 cost of the initial purchase, developers are putting a strain on what I can and am willing to play. Now, were they to make just an online version, with 2-4 person coop, then it might work out ok.
Even if you buy one game per month (on average), playing one MMO is significantly cheaper than buying other games, even with the monthly fees.

One MMO ($60) + One Free Month + 11 Paid Months ($15x11) = $225

Twelve Games ($60x12) = $720

Obviously, this is simple math, and a crude example, but playing one game with a monthly subscription is so much cheaper than buying tons of other games. The real question, is whether or not you get the same enjoyment out of the one MMO compared to the tons of other games you can play. But that's a whole other discussion in itself, and is really personal preference.

[roboninja]

That is the most stupid line I've ever heard - I'm an Elder Scrolls fan and I wouldn't jump on a cheesburger; I'm lactose intolerant. Now, if you had said trampoline, that would have worked...I'd totally eat a trampoline.


Hilarious. Post more :D

[miah]

Very interesting idea indeed. I have never been much of a Elder Scrolls fan and I think the main reason why was because it felt like a MMOG but wasn't. I can't say I'm a huge MMOG fiend (I play other things) but the fact that I had a hard time playing those games and not wishing that all of those NPCs were real people.

That being said, ironically, to me what would make an Elder Scrolls MMORPG work would be the immersion of classic ES NPCs as well as Player Characters working as one in a sandbox environment. How cool would it be if you could actually buy property in a city and open up a blacksmith shop and have to monitor competition/location to take advantage of the market? You would need to be cognizant of your locks though as you obviously don't want to be robbed (there would have to be some sort of limit as to how many items/money amount in worth of items that one person could steal at a time). Meanwhile NPCs will come and buy items based off of price and location (that would be a neat AI algorithm to come up with) to keep people in business regardless of Player trends.

That's just one scenario and it doesn't even involve the combat aspect that most people are interested in. The possibilities are pretty endless and I think that is really what the Elder Scrolls series brings to the table.

Market watching, competition, its all established in EVE Online, but seeing it in a fantasy setting rather than SCI-FI would be very cool. Its one of the things that annoys me about WoW, you die and its not really a punishment. Oh boy i gotta wait 10 minutes for death sickness to go away, i don't lose gear, skills, levels.. You really start thinking about your actions when you lose things you've spent hours gaining.

[miah]

Love your take on it Ranhert, that'd kick ass. But I think it brings up a problem that many MMOs face; they want to put tons of people on the same server to fight over copies of the same 'rare' items. With huge servers everyone couldn't own a shop, or adventure (in a fashion that made sense within the story,) or be thieves, etc. But with smaller server sizes, individuals could do just what you explain. Of course, the problem is making smaller server populations just as profitable as the larger. I'd say put just a few hundred people on a server, or even let people/groups rent individual servers, and then only let those people be on there. Assign one or two DMs to a server to run things, and be done. I mean, imagine how kick-ass an EvAv server would be on an Oblivion-like MMO where all the property was purchasable.

Okay, I'm rambling. Fine ideas, though, Ranny.Well, I thought they were good, Ran.

You're wrong, EVE does it and they do it in *one universe*, not seperate shards,instances,etc. Yes I'm on a EVE kick lately, but thats because it does the things that the other MMO's still don't.

[Ancalagon]

How about a game where there were no NPCs?

Everyone plays in one realm, and the maker puts "tickets" into the system. These tickets make events happen, such as getting one player to offer a quest to another, lower level character. granted, there are difficulties with that - NPCs tend to stay in one place for a large amount of time, tend to not die, tend to not be dicks.

but, could be nice - you have so many thousands of people, make them do something! make them make up the world, instead of acting on its periphery (eg no amount of players in WoW can permanently change anything in the game. About the most you could do is get 100 level 70 players to camp in or near an enemy territory and kill all players, which would only work on a PVP realm)

[KingGorilla]

That mmo has been tried, and it sucked.

[pearle]

What I would love though is another Oblivion type title that allowed something like 8 or 16 player co op and instanced modules like the old D&D books.

Yep. Give us more RPGs using the NWN/NWN2 model. I bought NWN1 upon release and I'm still playing it today for the exact reason you described above.

[CptTripps]

I have no love or hate for this at all, but I must say Mythic has made the best PVP style MMO to date imo. I will not pre-judge this yet until I see some ideas.

[Silverbaine]

would be interesting. I'd try it out, considering i never rly did the plot in the first games. alway got sidetracked by other missions lets see how this fleshes out.

[CptTripps]

Yes I'm on a EVE kick lately, but thats because it does the things that the other MMO's still don't.

Like not let you walk around?

[LongStepMantis]

I know I'm not the only one who played Morrowind and Oblivion and went..."You know what this game needs? Other people."

Hell, even coop with JUST 2 people would be like a miniature Christmas. In either title. I'd even start playing Morrowind again if it had multiplayer, let alone Oblivion.

So yea, I'm very interested to see where this goes.

[Ranhert]

Market watching, competition, its all established in EVE Online, but seeing it in a fantasy setting rather than SCI-FI would be very cool. Its one of the things that annoys me about WoW, you die and its not really a punishment. Oh boy i gotta wait 10 minutes for death sickness to go away, i don't lose gear, skills, levels.. You really start thinking about your actions when you lose things you've spent hours gaining.

I played EVE and found it to be a little hindering when it came to the mechanics. Sure I understand the market watching/competition aspect. But wouldn't it be quite a bit different in a ES environment? Take for example my hypothetical of the Blacksmith shop. Now perhaps as a blacksmith you can make horseshoes, armor, weaponry, specialize in a category (say weaponsmith) and lose some skill in the other areas, or specialize further (say swordsmith or daggersmith) and lose all aspects of the other areas (armor and whatever else) and maintain weaponsmithing but at a lower degree because of taking on a specialty. This should all reflect in your "store". If your store sells a wide variety of equipment then the NPCs (the everyday buyer) will purchase items from you (with no necessary interaction) but the chances of a player character to purchase from you is lower because you are not making leet specialty items. Well you use the money from the NPCs coupled with the money from selling quest items or whatever and you specialize in daggers. Now you can make leet daggers, good weapons, but no armor or other things. Now thieves and other dagger users might come to you for goods (at a higher price) and NPCs still might come buy the regular weapons you sell if you decide to create/sell them.

See the idea here is that the vast citylike environment that ES has allows for the ability to own a store and sell crafted items without getting away from the general scheme of the ES series.

Let's take it a step further. Your blacksmith sounds awful busy and probably doesn't have a lot of time to be away from his shop (doesn't want to be robbed either), so you create another character perhaps the blacksmith's son who is more of an adventurer since his dad has always made quality items. So there's your adventurer.

One more step, let's add age into the equation (damnit Ranhert age sucks). Well if your blacksmith is getting older he might want to start thinking about imparting his wisdom on an apprentice (another player character either owned by the same person or another). That apprentice works in the shop and learns the trades at an accelerated level (because you or someone else has already done it before) and before long you are crafting just like the old man, maybe even taking on a different specialty.

These are just some of the sandbox type ideas that I think the ES environment opens up, but obviously any MMO could follow this logic or other logic.

[TheFlyingOrc]

Elder scrolls is already an MMO you play by yourself.

[DeejayKnight]

Anybody else get the possibility that Elder Scrolls Online might not be an MMO, but a new Elder Scrolls with a multiplayer based system?

Another MMO added into the fold - even if from Bethesda - seems like MMO overkill...

[DeejayKnight]

Redguard for life. :rolleyes:


/agree words and whatnot

[Heretic Machine]

Generic Fantasy Online V

Sorry, but this doesn't appeal to me at all. Especially not after Oblivion. Hell, not being able to mod it will be crippling, have you guys actually seen the work these Bethesda guys do? Not exactly grade A material, despite the high ratings. That's why someone had to redo all of the character graphics in Morrowind shortly after it came out. That's why mods to fix various Oblivion visual issues showed up within days. Couple that with the sorry state of their dungeon designs, and the total lack of proper art direction, and you have a recipe for a boring game, unfun game.

Go play EQ2 or something.

[KingGorilla]

Who says you cannot have an MMO with mods?

[Gorvi]

Who says you cannot have an MMO with mods?
Other than interface mods?

[Heretic Machine]

Who says you cannot have an MMO with mods?

Local content can only do so much when you're playing a highly social game online with hundreds of thousands of people.

[KingGorilla]

Local content can only do so much when you're playing a highly social game online with hundreds of thousands of people.

So put the mods server side. If all Bethesda has to do is QA and Hosting, rather than developing the new items, and can focus on balance and new realms, I see no issue with this. Let the modders think about armor, mounts, pets, etc. Let them do the coding. You were right, the mod community has a lot more ability to make individual pieces of cool kitch. Bethesda was a bit too busy designing the whole skyscraper when they made Oblivion to worry if that one piece of molding in the lobby was perfect.

Seems to me that we just came up with the most revolutionary crafting system in an MMO ever.

[WaltJay]

I think there are enough medieval MMO options out there that I'd rather have Elder Scrolls V than an online version. I'll admit when I first played Oblivion, I didn't quite "get it", and the world seemed kind of empty, almost like there was too much freedom and not enough linearity. It was like a one player MMO. But once I got the hang of it, I thoroughly enjoyed the game.

[Nerv]

While I don't think you could just turn say, Oblivion into an MMO, I think this has potential. They'd have to drop the YOU AM HERO AND CHOSEN ONE MESSIAH thing though.

Think of all the bandits, hunters, pirates, legionaires, blades, theives, assassins, mages, liches, archers, dremora and everyone else that you encounter during your adventures, and then think about actually playing as one of those characters instead.
If they can add battles on the scale of what you read about in the game, and if you can actually travel to the various provinces, I'm there.

[KingGorilla]

I think Oblivion would have benefitted from a more robust and better designed quest log and quest tracking system. That is one of Guild Wars's greatest strengths, sometimes the quest tracking is a little idiotic. But it is nice to get a quest, see the objective listed, and get a map marker from the quest giver. "See if my friend is still alive, he was last scene here <marks map>." It would have been just as open of a game, but would not suffer from fuck around-itis. Some times I just want to run dungeons and find lewt. But after a week of this I would forget the quests I needed to have done. Or you move on to a new game for a month, only to return to a tangled mess of quests and text.

[TrackZero]

Generic Fantasy Online V

Sorry, but this doesn't appeal to me at all. Especially not after Oblivion. Hell, not being able to mod it will be crippling, have you guys actually seen the work these Bethesda guys do? Not exactly grade A material, despite the high ratings. That's why someone had to redo all of the character graphics in Morrowind shortly after it came out. That's why mods to fix various Oblivion visual issues showed up within days. Couple that with the sorry state of their dungeon designs, and the total lack of proper art direction, and you have a recipe for a boring game, unfun game.

Go play EQ2 or something.

My thoughts exactly. Elder Scrolls online will turn out to be very close to EQII in playstyle.

[captainstrombosis]

Maybe something like random attacks on outlying villages or such. Scripted events that happen every so often, where several adventurers might show up to stop the brigands/monsters/LOLcats.

I would like to see the game focus on being solo... but with other people in the world. Instead of group content. Maybe duo centric content. With only very large events needing a handful of people.

Better...face...customization. If I have to run around like a constipated, sour skittle sucking darkelf. I will never play this game.

I also wouldn't mind a PvP aspect. With people deciding to go bandit or not. Quests from NPC guards to go hunt down "xXbackstabbingdipshitXx"... or whatever retarded name some guy comes up with.

[SeriousStu]

It'd be like Ultima Online.. but just like look Oblivion I guess.

[EL CABONG]

If I can still rasie my skills by doing things,not just getting xp it might be awesome. If its ends up like everyother MMORPG with raids and forced grping to get the best gear I am not very exicited about it.

They would need to keep the openess and fredeom of gameplay to make me hop onboard. A really good PVP system might help too.

[KingGorilla]

So, if they make an MMO that is exactly like Oblivion you will be happy? Color me perplexed that I may want to be with other people in my vibrant RPG world.

[jspeak32]

Anyone remember Battlespire?

[Zeal]

this would be great. elder scrolls has such a rich mythology that an online game would be awesome to play.

[balamoor]

I heard this was coming down the pike since ES:O was in development. So no big surprise, I do believe they will have Mod content just like ES:O, and that will be a major selling point. Being able to take user made content and run your guild or group through it would be awesome. I'm just wondering if we will see this for the 360 as well.