This is the MMO we've been waiting for: great questing, stories, exploration, great graphics, flexible character development, great pvp, PUSH UPS, high fantasy, no cartoony stuff. etc.

But gaming media has already crucified ESO before it's even launched and they will nitpick every detail without realizing that every MMO since UO has had a disastrous, buggy launch. Expect a 7.5 and expect people to laugh and say "I told you so" "Ill play it when it's F2P in a couple of months". The same way that giving a Nintendo game less than a 9 even if it rehashes old formulae is sacrilegious in the gaming community, this same gaming community has decided that an ESO multiplayer game is equally sacrilegious. And they'll be damned before they'll let themselves look at all the things ESO does right and all the careful attention that has been paid to its design.

Sadly, this game has to be perfect, or it will get firebombed worse than Dresden. And let's face it right now even though ZOS has done an awesome job it's missing the polish. It needs 6 months, it's not ready

This lack of polish is most obvious in the grouping.

-Why can't I help a friend if I've already completed a quest?

-Autofollow where are you?

-Quest status for people in my group? I have no idea if the other people in my group have the quest im on...

-Why do I have to complete a task individually if im in a group, there should be group complete.

-Loot options should exist

-Why do I have to go into the main menu, go to the group section to join or leave a group?

Mix in the above, which are basic group functions in modern MMOs, with the fact that many quests bug or quest NPCs don't respawn for hours on end... and the same vocal people in gaming media that are sowing the seeds of doubt right now will key in on this.

Okay. So?

It has not been crucified. But you are right about there being grouping issues.

ESO will get mediocre reviews because there's a lot of cynics out there that want it to fail, subconsciously or otherwise, and Zenimax has the integrity not to resort to underhanded and dishonest marketing practices to create false ratings. (Looking at you, EA. )

I think what you're saying is more an indictment on game "journalism" than the game itself.

Even if this game was "perfect" (entirely subjective) it would still be crucified if it didn't throw some goodies at the parasites that infest games journalism these days.

To address why u can't help your friends, it's because you have to phase into him.. Meaning you have to open the group menu right click select "travel to player" and it syncs you with him now u can help and level together

There are grouping issues that need to be addressed before launch, I'll give you that. But assuming they're fixed, none of the legitimate outlets will review an MMO until a couple weeks in when launch issues aren't a factor and they've put in a significant time playing through more than 2% of the content.

Sure, some bloggers and vloggers will start putting up reviews on launch day to try to get some hits. But who cares about them?

I'd like auto-follow. Used it in SWTOR. Wife or I would go get drinks, while the other travelled to a location.

They dont have that here since its the tool that multi boxers use.

Multi-boxers?

Multi boxers are people that log in different accounts into the same computer or into different computers, they usually make their characters look alike the main controlled character with similar names. Its basically a small group of clones controlled via a 3rd party program by one user that some people use to exploit and farm in pve or to nuke in pvp. Many gold farmers use that method.

Perhaps it's with age that I say this, but reviews are just that. It's just one persons view on it, and while it might strike a chord with some people or help others make decisions whether to purchase or not, it won't change my mind.

I'm one of those "need-to-experience-myself" kind of people, I wonder now what the target demographic for this game is.

Ah, I see.

Actually, a lot of reviewers who posted negative first impressions have posted very positive second impressions, and a couple have become strong advocates for the game.

And reviewers may be idiots, but they are not such idiots that they don't realize that every game (not just MMOs) has issues at launch. That will be taken into account. Not every game launch can be characterized as "disastrous" though, and ESO's won't be.

Unless you're on the PTS, you have only seen a very old build of ESO, and even the people on the PTS won't be playing the latest in-house build, so you actually have no idea what bugs will or won't be in the release version

I think ESO will get strong reviews, but whether it does well depends more on how players react after they've been playing a month or two. We know that a LOT of people have already bought this game; for it to succeed, all that's needed is for them to keep playing.

Games live or die on the basis of word of mouth. Anyone who plays the game long enough to start exploring and discovering the core Elder Scrolls experience will be hooked and will play it, no matter what the reviews say.

Think it was smart for them to spam beta keys, and hopefully the final beta will be with the polished version now being used by the long-term testers.

-Why can't I help a friend if I've already completed a quest?

-Quest status for people in my group? I have no idea if the other people in my group have the quest im on...

-Why do I have to complete a task individually if im in a group, there should be group complete.

These are the main issues for me, I found them to make grouping with friends really painful. I ended up rolling 3 toons in one day just to go back and play with the 'new' person who wanted to try it. I really hope something changes there, as I ended up playing mainly solo because I got sick of rolling new toons.

SWTOR got grouped instancing right. All grouped players see the exact same interaction for a grouped mission or dungeon area, and loot is rolled for.

I don't know about mediocre reviews, but definitely lesser scores than TES fans are used to.

Just looking at Metacritic:

Morrowind

-metascore 89

-user score 8.9

Oblivion

-metascore 94

-user score 8.0

Skyrim

-metascore 94

-user score 8.3

i wonder if ESO can keep up and get generally favorable scores. I know many don't consider ESO a TES game or part of the Elder Scrolls saga, but it's still a game in the same universe so I think low scores and bad press will also affect the overall TES reputation.

Couldn't care less about reviews, 100% subjective.
The games merits stand on their own without so called 'experts' spreading their opinion as fact.

Yes, but you're talking about modern PC exclusive MMO's.

This is a console game. So you'll never get the depth you want in comparison.

To use the words of the great James Hetfield it's "sad but true". I will be very surprised if ESO gets higher than 7. That's because these days if its not a FPS or a game where you can beat up Granny's with a skateboard it's classed as ok. Personally I couldn't care, I've waited for this game for ages and I'm going to enjoy playing it, hopefully for many years.

It will get mediocre reviews because it's a mediocre game it's that simple.

Hooked... until end game and then they find out that they can either play recycled content or AvA. Until they prove to me that Adventure Zones are worthwhile and fun, ill reserve my critique and say "skeptical" with how many flops weve had the past few years.

-1 for you smart a** get the **** out of here jerking with your post hunts somewhere else.

That guy is actually woried about future of the game. You know what only game who survived monthly free is WoW noone else ... the history is pretty dark and I also think that ESO will be F2P in 6 months and bad revies and bad score on metacritics won't help it.