Recently, Pete Hines posted http://elderscrollsotr.mymiddleearth.com/2013/07/31/oblivions-greatest-secret/?utm_content=bufferccb20&utm_source=buffer&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Buffer on his Twitter. In it, the author talks about how he played Oblivion works really well as a multiplayer game.
Check out the article, it's a pretty interesting topic, and he explains it in a much better way than I can.

I'm having issues with the article. I'll do my best to explain it. If anybody has a better link to it, please let me know!

I tried this when Skyrim first came out. My friend and I just came home from the Midnight Release and we played it for about 3 hours, switching off every 15 minutes. We created a Nord Warrior named Willy Walls. He was a 2-hand Barbarian and we got about to our first dragon encounter.

I really want to try this with Oblivion, but I don't exactly have friends who play Oblivion.





So my question to you is if you have ever played it like this in any TES game (not just Oblivion). How was it? Was it as good as the author says it is? What was the play style of you and your friend?

First, we have a thread for discussing MP TES games, see this

http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1366657-non-mmo-tes-multiplayerco-op-thread/

Since this is a thread about playing the single player game with others, I will let this one stay open. However, if it devolves into a MP thread and how the game needs to be, then it will be closed. So, keep this to playing the current games, as shipped to play SP with others.

Now, here is my response

Other than helping someone who is playing the game, which entails things like "Go to the right, no your other right, and click on the barrel. No, not the crate, the barrel. Now, take out the sword, no, leave the boots behind, you have better ones" I have only watched people play.

Switching out players would be like rotating quarterbacks for each play in a football game, it would just disrupt the rhythm of the game.

Last year my friend Pseron Wyrd and I set up second computers next to our main computers. These second computers are used solely for the purpose of running an always-on Skype connection. We have dubbed this our "hot line." We live on opposite sides of the US and work at home, so we use this always-on connection to keep in touch all day, instant messaging back and forth while we do other things on our main computers.

A few months ago we got the idea to use our hot line to simulate co-op play. Once or twice a week we arrange to play at the same time. We go through the same dungeons or do the same quests at the same time and we instant message each other while we play. It's almost, but not quite, like playing with another person. We send encouragement and advice (and a few taunts) back and forth and afterwards spend an hour or so talking about the game and about what we want to do in our next session.

Recently we have begun to get a bit more inventive. Pseron recreated his character as an NPC and sent the plugin to me to use as a companion in my game, and he recreated my character as an NPC to use as a companion in his game. So now we have each other's characters in our games as companions. I take his character through a dungeon and he takes my character through the same dungeon. We instant message each other about what each of our characters are doing.

We are discussing the possibility of setting up webcams so that we can see what the other is doing, as well as read about it. That should be interesting if it comes to pass. I really like doing this. Single-player games can get a little lonely at times. Being able to share experiences with another person, in real time, even if it is just over Skype, can make the games feel a bit less like an isolated experience.

You might try something like Team Viewer or similar. That could be ran in a window on the second PC and it would show you the other person's desktop.

No point in adding useless multiplayer function for a series which has flourished for their rich single-player experience.

Adding multi-player would only make the game suffer.

I think an Elder Scrolls with Co-Op would be interesting. I don't think it could work with two Dragon-Born types in the same game, but as a companion it could work. You could let people create their own companion and distribute an approximate amount of upgrade points as per player one's level.