Now to the point of this topic. Seeing as Skyrim got as popular as it is, theres no way of arguing that it has a "winning formula". I find it strange that they try to compete in online gaming with many of the same recipies as previous MMOs. There are endless possibilities going online, without it having to include the standard MMO-formula.
With Skyrim in mind, lets see some possibilities going online, without following standard formulas, such as MMO and co-op:
- Leader of the thieves guild? Its not impossible that the Dark Brotherhood would set a contract on you. This given to another player would force some 1v1, where you either defend your position as Guild Leader, or die, in witch you lose your position. Your survival could be based on you waking up (start Dark Brotherhood quest style), with a healer/dragon/dragonpriest/whatever fits your current gamestatus.
- Big fights? Imperial vs Stormcloaks. Have NPCs aswell as players.
My point is that PvP doable, without having to go the traditional routes. In a game where 100-1000 players fight over one position (leader of guilds, clans, maybe even jarl or emperor), in its traditional setting it would be caos. Therefor you have to downgrade every characters importance. In this setting you could still be a noticable character, even without playing hundredes of hours, and still implement PvP.
Theres also endless possibilities regarding co-op, but imo that could end up making the balance of the game very hard. Watching TES online trailers, the co-op fighting is very similar to WoW in regards of how it looks. I guess its every players (TES-fans) fear that this game will be to much like WoW. In a straight up battle, WoW will (probably) win on experience. This is why they should try to improve on whats clearly working, rather than go into a whole new field.
The point of making this as a seperate thread, and not post it in one of the threads bashing how TES goes online, is because I would find it interesting to see how this forum would like TES to go online (or even if they prefer the way it seems to be going). I've given some of my oppinions, lets see yours!