[XPidgex Jefferson]

http://pc.ign.com/articles/106/1063081p1.html

I want to smack the [censored] out of whoever wrote this article.

Whoever this is doesn't deserve the elder scrolls.

EDIT: I think the reason I'm most upset is because of the whole "WoW style" comment, why can't they just make it the same as the Morrowind or Oblivion in gameplay?

[KiiSsez jdgaf Benzler]

Hi guys, first post

Hi have a fishy stick. (watch out for the zombie)
http://i115.photobucket.com/albums/n316/DaMuncha/FishyStickZombie.jpg

[Sheila Esmailka]

I think people are putting way too much emphasis on the quote from the legal documents quoting the lawyers as the game being a "WoW" type game.
Think court room, think judge, jury of your average joe, think none gamers. Think lawyer trying to get a point across easily without getting into gaming mumbo jumbo as they would see it

Best well known MMO??? To the mainstream public it will be WOW

oh, btw, there have been attempts since the statement from Zenimax laywers to distance them selves from the WOW thing. Read that in a few artricles. However, not seen anyone link back to where Zenimax said that but anyways

[Chloe Yarnall]

Why does an MMO have to be like that? Whats to stop a TES MMO being completely about the players?? Why not have all factions run by players. When you join a faction you can raise to the top with enough effort. Why not have the King elected by players and have the King be a player. Why not have governments run by players and have them control the towns and NPC's? Why not have the ability to have factions fighting where NPC's are added to the mix in a war or skirmish? Whats to stop one area being invaded by another and having towns and provinces lost to one faction or political entity or another. Why not take that to continents??? Why not have Vampires come out into the fore front and take over governments covertly. Why not let a faction or 2 be wiped out, or at least be sent underground.
This is all possible. MMO's are only limited by the imagination of the developers and the likes of you and me. There have been a lot of knee-jerk MMO's coming out trying to cash in on the windfall and its sullied the rep I think. But who better to make a mark than Bethesda? Sure most of the games (especially the TES ones) have broken ground in one way or another at release. Why not now?

Again, what you mention here is of absolutely no interest to me when it comes to a TES games. I really don't care about factions run by players, or a player elected kings or doing anything what so ever with BobbyR235 and [azn]clover007, or trying to catch up to that guy that lives in Chicago that logs in 17 hours a day 7 days a week since the first minute the game came out, or anything like that at all. Not with TES.

When i want something like that i go play another game, TES however is about the single player experience, what makes it special for me is the ability to immerse myself completely into that world and my character, and have that character become the focus of the story. That's TES for me, it's about the story and the character, Everything MMOs are not.

This isn't a rant about MMOs, some of them are fun to play, and i've enjoyed a few, but TES is a different kind of game altogether, it's not the type that would be well suited to becoming an MMO, not while keeping what makes it TES and what has made it so successful and good. The two are just very different types of games, and in my opinion just don't mix.

[Adam Baumgartner]

Honestly I think it would be interesting, BUT I'd surely stay loyal to the singleplayer games. An MMO would really get a lot more people's attention who are more into MMO's than singleplayer RPG.

[Chase McAbee]

Again you talk about the Single player experience with its ever changing storyline. And while I do agree that some, only some, feel imersive (mostly just the Elder Scrolls and a few other exceptions) most other single player games are restrictive, linear and scripted and not only are they that way but they feel that way too.

The thing that attracts people to MMO's I suppose (cause most of them are not open-ended sandbox games) is that there is simply more and when you get bored with PvE there is PvP. What I am hoping for is a mix between the great MMO's and an TES game. I was talking about a totally player run environment where the actions of players (like in the singles player games) affect our environment, permanently. The only thing stopping the developers is time, effort and imagination (well bundles of cash but we know there is that kind of cash in the games industry, they have been milking us for years lol)

[jodie]

There'll always been some means of control in place. Otherwise, that wiseass who thinks it's a good idea to kill everyone in town will permanently damage an aspect of the game for everyone else.

Without NPC's, the developers can't give quests or tell the story. So they either make them unkillable or they respawn.

In either case, you have a situation where there's going to be some constant you can't control and some linearity. Person A will always be there to give this quest, which will always lead you to location X.

And that's a good thing, because I'd rather have Bethesda write their version of the next ES than Joe Blow and his lame fan fic interpretation of the events....probably about how some super awesome lone-swordsman came into town and butchered everyone (played by him).


Since I think most people would agree with that sentiment, the question becomes...why do we need Joe in our game at all? Why not just make it single player?

[Dylan Markese]

Again you talk about the Single player experience with its ever changing storyline. And while I do agree that some, only some, feel imersive (mostly just the Elder Scrolls and a few other exceptions) most other single player games are restrictive, linear and scripted and not only are they that way but they feel that way too.

The thing that attracts people to MMO's I suppose (cause most of them are not open-ended sandbox games) is that there is simply more and when you get bored with PvE there is PvP. What I am hoping for is a mix between the great MMO's and an TES game. I was talking about a totally player run environment where the actions of players (like in the singles player games) affect our environment, permanently. The only thing stopping the developers is time, effort and imagination (well bundles of cash but we know there is that kind of cash in the games industry, they have been milking us for years lol)

Let's hope this never never happens.....

[Jesus Duran]

I hope they don't make a TES mmo. Even a Fallout mmo is a bad idea IMO. They're going out on a limb that it will do better than WoW and not flop like every other MMO that has came out. Plus SW: The Old Republic is coming out and I'm sure that's going to pull in a ton of fans. It just seems like too much of a gamble to me.

[Stacey Mason]

Hi guys, first post

I'm generally against MMOs. I tend to play single player even when there's a multiplayer option, like with Fable 2. I think I know how a TESMMO could work, though.

1: Not zero to hero, average to average-plus

Instead of going from the prisoner nobody to the mythic hero, as is the style of the single-player games, maybe a low-level blades agent going to a higher one? I think this because it would be odd if at one point every prisoner suddenly became a hero instead of one. That also ties in to the next idea:

2: Distant, historical past.

Instead of making a new story, maybe go back to some of the old lorebooks like 2920, or maybe in the war of the Red Diamond. Sure, that means we'll all know how it ended, but we'll also get to live it. It also makes for an easier time because then no need to worry about player actions conflicting with new games.

3: Navigation

An open-world game might not work so well. However, maybe instead of that we have a sort of (don't kill me) Fable 2 system, where there are areas instead of an uninterrupted world, but with free roam within each. This would allow for parts of every country, but without needing to tackle the enormous task of making it be in a numbered game.

That's really all I can think of. I probably won't play it myself anyways, just saying how one may, theoretically, work.

The Prison start is a tradition, you can't break that.....

Nah.... although it would be cool, you may not have the freedom you have now in a tes game, plus new is better

NO, what's wrong with open world?

[matt white]

Honestly I believe the possibilities are endless in an Elder Scrolls MMO since the series has such a deep history.

Bravo,
Bethesda has the talent and money to ensure that something work well true to the series. It's not like they are going to actually try and do anything to jeopardize their franchise, they more than any of the fans value and cherish the ES brand. I think they can come up with something that is amazing and also manage gameplay within the mmo or another separate ES to satisfy most parties/fans.

[Jacob Phillips]

Bravo,
Bethesda has the talent and money to ensure that something work well true to the series. It's not like they are going to actually try and do anything to jeopardize their franchise, they more than any of the fans value and cherish the ES brand. I think they can come up with something that is amazing and also manage gameplay within the mmo or another separate ES to satisfy most parties/fans.

Bethesda Will have nothing to do with an MMO. Zenimax Online would be the department in charge of an MMO. So I wouldnt set my expectations to high.

[Floor Punch]

Fundamental question but what exactly is the attraction of multiplayer online RPGs? My daughter and a few of my younger co-workers do WoW and Eve and try to draw me in but honestly I can't fathom what they get out of it. And my son will play nothing but multi-player shooters. Is it a generational thing? What is the psychological motivation? Is it more of a social need that a gaming need? Is this a trend that will lead to the extinction of the single player experience? Please explain.

[JUDY FIGHTS]

Fundamental question but what exactly is the attraction of multiplayer online RPGs? My daughter and a few of my younger co-workers do WoW and Eve and try to draw me in but honestly I can't fathom what they get out of it. And my son will play nothing but multi-player shooters. Is it a generational thing? What is the psychological motivation? Is it more of a social need that a gaming need? Is this a trend that will lead to the extinction of the single player experience? Please explain.

idk honestly, when i played everquest I was only addicted because I wanted to keep up with everyone plus it was basically a giant chatroom.

[Rudi Carter]

Fundamental question but what exactly is the attraction of multiplayer online RPGs? My daughter and a few of my younger co-workers do WoW and Eve and try to draw me in but honestly I can't fathom what they get out of it. And my son will play nothing but multi-player shooters. Is it a generational thing? What is the psychological motivation? Is it more of a social need that a gaming need? Is this a trend that will lead to the extinction of the single player experience? Please explain.

I think you can get a greater sense of achievement by working well as a team. Most games are far too easy nowadays and are designed so single player can be completed by anyone, so sometimes the only way to test yourself and increase the game's longevity is to play multiplayer. That's all well and good for shooters, sports games etc... but I find rpgs, more than other games, are a form of escapism. It would be wonderful to take part in a mmorpg where everyone is in character, but that never happens and it tends to break immersion when your healer and warrior keep talking about monday night football.

[Sun of Sammy]

The Prison start is a tradition, you can't break that.....

Nah.... although it would be cool, you may not have the freedom you have now in a tes game, plus new is better

NO, what's wrong with open world?

A: How would it make sense, story-wise, to suddenly have thousands of prisoners escape/be released and become heroes all at once or in such close proximity? This is the big issue,having it make sense. It would if you have a bunch of Blades initiates or sodiers begin to rise in rank.

B: Not better here it's not, because of ongoing story and plotlines. How to reconcile that with the continuing numerical TES games if they happen at the same time? It kills two birds with one stone, lets us experience firsthand the series history without interfering in the numbered chapters.

C: Nothing is wrong with open world, in single-player games. But the logistics of making a fully realized open-world game for an MMO are mind-boggling at least. Not to mention neither of the other spin-off games were open world. Redguard was a Zelda-style adventure game and Battlespire was a linear dungeon run.

Fundamental question but what exactly is the attraction of multiplayer online RPGs? My daughter and a few of my younger co-workers do WoW and Eve and try to draw me in but honestly I can't fathom what they get out of it. And my son will play nothing but multi-player shooters. Is it a generational thing? What is the psychological motivation? Is it more of a social need that a gaming need? Is this a trend that will lead to the extinction of the single player experience? Please explain.

No idea, honsetly. I can say from experience it's more fun to play shooters or adventure games with friends, either split-screen or online, but RPGs I always find more fun flying solo.

[Claudz]

There'll always been some means of control in place. Otherwise, that wiseass who thinks it's a good idea to kill everyone in town will permanently damage an aspect of the game for everyone else.

Without NPC's, the developers can't give quests or tell the story. So they either make them unkillable or they respawn.

In either case, you have a situation where there's going to be some constant you can't control and some linearity. Person A will always be there to give this quest, which will always lead you to location X.

And that's a good thing, because I'd rather have Bethesda write their version of the next ES than Joe Blow and his lame fan fic interpretation of the events....probably about how some super awesome lone-swordsman came into town and butchered everyone (played by him).


Since I think most people would agree with that sentiment, the question becomes...why do we need Joe in our game at all? Why not just make it single player?

Specifically on the political systems now, I was thinking more along the lines of having the same political system that is currently in the TES games and simply transplant it into an MMO. You would then instead of having them run by NPC's and scripted events by the developers you would give players the ability to take the positions of power within the political system of a particular house or organisation and become a guild (a structured one created by the game rather than the players but basically a guild) and give them access to the NPC's etc. They would, within reason, have control over the patrols, army and so on and would be able to control how things are run within their realm. For example you would have a voting system where if someone was taking the piss they would be deposed. So the guild of mages could be run by players and the NPC guards would be also, they would have control over the buildings and castles allocated to that guild. They could be aligned to one faction and that could change depending on whats going on. Think Eve Online 0.0 territory politics but more structured and less building of stuff.

Bethesda Will have nothing to do with an MMO. Zenimax Online would be the department in charge of an MMO. So I wouldnt set my expectations to high.

Some other people have also voiced a concern if someone else wrote the MMO it wont be the same and if they do we will loose out on the Single Player TES games. After reading http://bethblog.com/index.php/2009/08/17/clarifying-about-next-elder-scrolls-game-mmo-etc/ (and from articles written about this subject) I have gleaned that 1) they are working on Fallout 4 (as while they have said they are not currently, but will be in the future, working on TESV) 2) They are not working on a Fallout MMO 3) Zenimax is working on an MMO which could be what we think is the TES MMO 4) The relationship between Zenimax and Bethesda is quite close, closer than people are thinking. Read the bottom "When ZeniMax Online is ready to show what they are up to, we’ll let everyone know" we’ll let everyone know, to me that is Zenimax working on a game with Bethesda sitting on their back either controlling or helping but either way very involved.

Tbh I can see a bright future. We know there is an MMO, regardless of if its a TES game or not it will be good. Look at whats come from them so far. Its all been good. There will be a new game soon, possibly Fallout 4 and if not it will be a totally new project, either we win. And there will be a TESV in the near future.
I'm a happy bunny

Loth DeBonneville, I have played Eve online since it came out on and off. Its a great game and I keep going back to it. And its not a generational thing, well at least Eve is not. I was head of a 400+ man Alliance up until I left due to College pressures there before Xmas. We had people of all walks of life. Although I did not take anyone under 18 as a running policy as we have a tonne of people over 40 and 14-16 yr olds over Ventrillo... well you need to have a long fuse tbh. But we had anything from 20-63 or 65 if I am right. We had a good few females as well.

[Ash]

This shouldn't even be a topic let alone a debate. TES is a single player role playing game. If anybody wants to play an MMO they can waste their lives away playing WoW. The only reason they have this thread is to get people to stop talking about in all the other forums and topics b/c bethesda knows it's a retarded idea.

[REVLUTIN]

Specifically on the political systems now, I was thinking more along the lines of having the same political system that is currently in the TES games and simply transplant it into an MMO. You would then instead of having them run by NPC's and scripted events by the developers you would give players the ability to take the positions of power within the political system of a particular house or organisation and become a guild (a structured one created by the game rather than the players but basically a guild) and give them access to the NPC's etc

Loth DeBonneville, I have played Eve online since it came out on and off. Its a great game and I keep going back to it. And its not a generational thing, well at least Eve is not. I was head of a 400+ man Alliance up until I left due to College pressures there before Xmas. We had people of all walks of life. Although I did not take anyone under 18 as a running policy as we have a tonne of people over 40 and 14-16 yr olds over Ventrillo... well you need to have a long fuse tbh. But we had anything from 20-63 or 65 if I am right. We had a good few females as well.

This is way i hate MMOs... People play for the felling of POWER they get and it sounds to me that you want an MMO TES for that kind of felling.. And why did you not take anyone under 18???
I don't say this to insult you or anything like that.. This is only an impression i get from what you said..

This shouldn't even be a topic let alone a debate. TES is a single player role playing game. If anybody wants to play an MMO they can waste their lives away playing WoW. The only reason they have this thread is to get people to stop talking about in all the other forums and topics b/c bethesda knows it's a retarded idea.

Amen for that..

[Devils Cheek]

Nevermind

[maddison]

I think a large portion of the problem people are anticipating with a TES MMO could be solved by large worlds with relatively small population caps.

I think instanced dungeons/caves/ruins etc that scale to the number of people in your party (not to their level but the number of people). This allows for appropriately leveled players to clear content on their own if they choose, or bring a friend and the two of them still have a challenge ahead of them. But if you enter an area which is just tougher than you are (or your friend is) then like in Morrowind, you're in a particulalry dangerous situation. . . but of course, the rewards would be worth it.

Crimes should be punished and the punishments enforced (like in other TES games) with fines, resisting arrest, or jail time. Jail time, of course, would be measured in real time; if you murder a whole town, expect to spend some actual days in jail (time to play an alt for a while cause you're main is in the dungeon). As in all the Elder Scrolls games, they should try to maintain the aspects of freedom, but also reinforce the idea that decisions have consequences. Players should be able to report crimes to guards, or at least get a guards attention and lead them to a crime in progress; maybe players should even be able to become a guard of some sort able to enforce the laws (a player commiting a crime in view of said player would be tagged as a "criminal" and the player could attempt to subdue them, call for back up, etc.)

Towns and major settlements should be reset on a regular schedule, that way if someone does manage to kill a shopkeeper they won't be gone forever (maybe the shop closes down so it can't just be looted); of course rather than being the same character, deceased NPCs would be replaced by randomly generated NPC's with the same occupational role but a new name and a new look. This keeps towns dynamic without completely eliminating the feel of being able to make an impact. If someone manages to kill the guy who gave you a quest. . . bummer, but hey, maybe someone will buy that rare artifact you dredged up for a decent price and it won't be a total wash. . .

These are examples, of course, but there are ways to preserve the integrity of the TES games in an MMO format; what it requires is a little imagination and alot of scripting While I'm apprehensive about such a game, I have faith that the devolopers will do everything in their power to maintain the Elder Scrolls feel.

[bonita mathews]

Fundamental question but what exactly is the attraction of multiplayer online RPGs? My daughter and a few of my younger co-workers do WoW and Eve and try to draw me in but honestly I can't fathom what they get out of it. And my son will play nothing but multi-player shooters. Is it a generational thing? What is the psychological motivation? Is it more of a social need that a gaming need? Is this a trend that will lead to the extinction of the single player experience? Please explain.

The thrill and satisfaction of doing something difficult as a team. In WoW when I'm in a really tough raid and the DPSers are nuking a boss while it's totally focused on the tank, the healers are healing at the exact right moment, the crowd control is taking care of MOBS, and everyone is working together like clockwork there's really no other feeling quite like it.

There's a competitive angle too. When I'm playing Call of Duty on Xbox Live with my friends and we're all playing at the top of our game and completely dominating the opposition, that's a lot of fun. And satisfying too.

And yes there's also the social aspect of it. Getting to shoot the breeze with friends or other players while playing games is never a bad thing as long as you're in good company.

Multiplayer isn't a trend. It's here to stay. In fact if you look at the entire history of video games then you'll see that through most of it there has always been some kind of social element to it. The "solitary experience" is really the exception to the rule. But that doesn't mean single-player games are going anywhere. The success of Bethesda's recent games and others like Assassin's Creed and Mass Effect should prove that single-player games have their place and no-one is going to try and take them away.

[StunnaLiike FiiFii]

If there will be a TES MMO will there be a monthly subscription and will it release on xbox 360?

[Danny Blight]

If there will be a TES MMO will there be a monthly subscription and will it release on xbox 360?

We know absolutely nothing.

With that in mind... probably yes and almost certainly not.

[Silencio]

We know absolutely nothing.

With that in mind... probably yes and almost certainly not.

damn looks like i'm not getting this game then...................................... TES MMO will svck
TES V FTW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!