"I am a long-time Elder Scrolls fan, and have been enjoying the series since Morrowind was first released. I have sense played Arena and Daggerfall and have thoroughly enjoyed Oblivion and Skyrim. I am a modder, and have enjoyed hundreds of other mods. I've even read the novels. UESP.net is one of my favorite places to waste time. Needless to say, I am a hardcoe Elder Scrolls fan.

When I heard that the Elder Scrolls Online was going to come into being, I had immediate mixed opinions. Honestly, I will probably buy the game, because of how big of a fan I am. But I'm not sure if it will be an experience I will really enjoy like the single-player Elder Scrolls games. My first and primary concern comes with the roleplaying aspect of an MMORPG..."

"What made the Elder Scrolls so special to me was the immersive *single-player* experience. I got to be a character that I wanted to be, and my particular tastes in character development are vastly different from most people who play video games. I intentionally play a very weak character- someone who doesn't *want* to be the hero, someone who simply survives within the world as a farmer and alchemist, who loosely follows the god of Mercy, Stendarr. My Dovahkiin is a *wimp*. An absolute weakling, whose only strength comes from his grasp of the Restoration school. Any time he ended up killing a Dragon, it was near a city where many people could help him, and when he did, it felt like an undeserved achievement for him. My Neravarine was very similar- a reclusive mage who lived in Vivec and tried to avoid the struggles of the world. And any time he actually accomplished something significant, it *was* significant for him.

Lastly, I am a roleplayer. I am a *hardcoe* roleplayer. In the MMORPGs I've played, I am always in-character, and I actually rarely quest. I play them to interact with other people in-character. But the very fact that I roleplayed in MMORPGs led me to so many issues with the very nature of an MMORPG.

An MMORPG, in its very essence, cannot replicate an Elder Scrolls experience. By its very nature, all content in the game has to be open to everyone. Any accomplishments you make, any "heroic" achievements are open to *everyone* to do. How can you influence a world when it must be open to be equally influenced by *every* player? As a roleplayer- someone who wants to experience the world as a character within the Elder Scrolls lore, I will be talking with some people who claim to have done such-and-such, and that it should give them honor and respect... but the thing is, *everyone* can do that.

For example, in Lotro, I once roleplayed with someone who bragged about all his vast achievements throughout Middle Earth, and all his accomplishments for killing very renowned villains. But... how can you take credit for something that everyone can do?

Therefore, as a roleplayer in MMORPGs I have learned not to take such quests as something that happened in-character. Now, Paul Sage in this interview was asked something that has been burning on the tip of my tongue, as well: how can one handle "heroics" in an MMORPG? The only way it can be taken in-character is through interactions with other characters, not with the world itself... which defeats the very nature of the Elder Scrolls single-player games. Interactions with the world can be shared by everyone, and not every roleplayer will understand that. They will try to take credit for doing things that are really open for everyone to do, and that's the kind of roleplay I want to avoid.

Secondly, my ideal Elder Scrolls character isn't even a hero to begin with. He's just a wimpy mage. So if I were to play the Elder Scrolls Online, I really hope that there will be plenty of alchemy to mess with, and plants to harvest. If I were to play this it would be solely for the roleplaying experience with other players.

In the same breath, I desperately want to see this game with a very well-defined character creator. I believe that creating a unique-looking character that is obviously set apart from everyone else- not just in the gear they wear, but in their faces and body types- is *extremely* important for an RPG and especially an Elder Scrolls RPG. I will be sorely disappointed if the character creator ends up looking like WoW's or Lotro's. I am also big into the cosmetics of my character and I want him to look close to how I imagine him..."

"Also, the MMORPG-type experiences such as dungeon raids and PVP are also concerning to me. The very fact that an MMORPG is a community game is also in direct contrast to the single-player Elder Scrolls games, and I'm not a PVP fan, at all. I don't want to be exploring along enjoying my time and suddenly be murdered by another player. My character is not a warrior... he's just an alchemist. I don't have any interest in participating in a war. But again, this just goes back into my strange tastes in gaming and my concerns with the roleplaying aspect of this game."

"... Elder Scrolls games are RPGs that best fits the definition of an RPG in my opinion. You get to play a character you want to play and explore the world how you want to explore it. You establish your own story. An MMORPG will force a story upon you, a story that you might not want to identify your character with. This is the same problem "JRPGs" fall into. (I don't even think they're RPGs, but that's another rant for another time.) Your "character" is something someone else already made up and you just play through the game as though you're reading a book. The Elder Scrolls has always handed its players a pen and paper and said, "write your own story", and this is what I have always loved about them.

But an MMORPG? I don't think it will have that same roleplaying appeal. I have a fear that I'll have a character type forced upon me: a character who is forced to be a hero, forced to quest around, and forced to participate in a war and choose sides. This isn't my Elder Scrolls character... and I'm not sure if he can be who he truly is in The Elder Scrolls Online."