You could split hairs on the topic all day. In the context of the conversation at hand, gamesas thought an MMO was the answer to the "large" group of people demanding a multiplayer-enabled TES game. They were obviously wrong.

Another ESO or a FOO may be a possibility, but I doubt we'll ever see a game made by BGS that has multiplayer features of any kind.

TES and to a large extent Fallout don't work all that well as multiplayer games. They're all about the personal Campbellian hero - it's your story, not someone else's.

ESO was an answer, most people see it as an elder scroll game, it pretty much feels like one too.

Note that taking an friend as follower might be possible however he would never be anybody than an smarter Lydia, That is if you pass an load door he will follow,

Either he is unable to interact with quests or he can do them for you. Letting the player and follower operate in different cells might be hard this is not an engine problem mostly, its how the game is designed.

And yes we here talk about TES 6 or perhaps Fallout 5.

Take a deep breath. You could say the same things without sonding irritated and confrontational.

There are many different types of multiplayer; MMO (massive multiplayer online) is one type; there are others that are neither massive nor online.

ESO was Zenimax attempt to use TES lore to compete in an industry that is dominated by WOW. It didn't work. I'm not surprised it didn't. I don't think this demonstrates people wouldn't like some other forms of multiplayer that are a) free and b ) doesn't involve thousands of people but some friends.

You seem to have misunderstood the reason why I'm talking about voiced protagonists. As you said, it was not requested by the community. If it happened, it was because Bethesda believed that gamers in general have come to expect voiced protagonists in AAA games. You say that this is a 'natural progression' for them yet other people in this very forums claim that a voiced protagonist detracts from roleplaying and that Bethesda is breaking their design philosophy of letter players 'be who they want'. See? different opinions. What is 'natural progression' for you is perceived as 'casualization' by others.

And again, I see Bethesda adding multiplayer in the future, and they can even use your 'natural progression' argument. "In past TES games you could recruit companions controlled by the AI. Now those companions can be controlled by your own friends in real time".

Time will tell.

Here's Todd Howard answering that question: https://youtu.be/bNgEO6ehqp0?t=300

Oh ok, now that's something I can wrap my head around. I had no idea it would take that much just to add multiplayer. Yeah I'd have to say just let Beth focus on their current formula.

This.