http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/NicholasLovell/20140210/210427/What_The_Elder_Scrolls_Online_can_teach_us_about_tutorials_in_the_age_of_freetoplay.php

Ugh.

Unlike Forbes, this cannot be so easily discredited, as the publication is the foremost in the industry and the writer is IN the industry. These are the guys that put on GDC for Mephala's sake.

Some interesting points, sure, but I'm mostly posting this here so we can go there and post our comments on the article. Try not to rage, it is not a press site but an industry site.

First off, lots of players say the Ebonheart starting area is much worse than the others. But I think this is players who tried 2-3 factions during the beta.

I liked the one in AD, I agree that the starting areas should have an priority, they are more critical than say level 20-30.

The starting areas has weaknesses as you are inexperienced and have few abilities, so the only way to do it is fun quests, think something like a rat problem in Oblivion. Add some pretty epic one, the escape from coldharbor was pretty good and added some drama.

Just sounds to me like he didn't like the tutorial.

I can agree with his points. As gaming becomes more popular/mainstream, it becomes increasingly more important to grab the audience's attention. Competition. If the majority of games we played in the 90's were released today (with updated graphics, of course!) they'd all bomb. It is evolution, things change.

I also agree that 1. Tutorials are overkill in pretty much every game released in the last decade and 2. TESO doesn't avoid this issue. Starting on the island would be enough, no need for the whole Molag deal. You want backstory? You could deliver the same in a fraction of the time with a cutscene. I want to play the game, not spend 20 minutes running around a boring tutorial.

No reason to "ugh" though. These are problems that are affecting the industry as a whole, not just TESO.

As for his comments on payment models, I think players are more forgiving than he lets on. Sure, to get those record breaking profits and benchmarks you need to do everything just right, but simply being successful there is a lot of wiggle room. Hell, there are people that support the disaster of a game Diablo 3 and still placing faith in the expansion.

No, IMO the main deciding factor will be how often new content gets released and how good that content is. People will put up with a less than spectacular launch if the game eventually lives up to its promised worth. (Of course this, too, isn't necessarily a good thing because devs know this as well, which is why they are okay with releasing half-finished games and patching them later).

Well, although i enjoyed the beta a lot I can see their point. But I like it the way it is and having played ftp games before I am hoping teso will have a different crowd and a different vibe. If people are going to pay a serious entry fee they have to do it with their eyes open so it is good that there are a range of opinions out there. As soon as the nda goes there will be more. So i hope that people who do buy the game will be coming in knowing what to expect.

My opinion is that the long introduction gets you into your faction and gets you into the setting. It gives you plenty of time to learn and experiment with what is a different character development system, alongside crafting. I'm planning to spend a lot of time in the early settings, exploring the new game.

He's talking about coldharbour just FYI.