Elder Scrollls MMO very likely

[Tanakh]

I'm not a big MMO player (or at all). Why is it everyone seems to be jumpin' into the MMO pile? Last I heard that was a money pit since WOW dominated the genre. :\

Whoever told you that is the worst kind of ignorant guy, the one that deludes others, let me list MMOs that have made a profit:

- WoW
- Aion
- Lineage
- Lineage II
- Runescape
- Second Life
- Age of Conan (horrible launch, but now they are doing decent, even growing!)
- Rift
- LotR
- FF XI
- Everquest
- Everquest II
- Dofus
- EVE
- Ultima
- City of Heroes
- DaoC
- Aherons Call
- Anarchy Online
- Puzzle Pirates
- The Realm Online
- Maple Story
- GW (GW 2 OMGOMGOMGOMG!)

SW:TOR will join that list unless the world ends soon. And those are only the big ones that have gotten serious money, there are a bunch of smaller ones like WWII and such, and also the Asian MMOs that also reap serious cash (but I am ignorant about those).

To summarize, WoW alone is making hundres of millions in net profits and there is a bunch of others making good profits. It's acutally hard to fail there, you must work to hype the community and then release a buggy game with shit servers and broken mechanics (Tabula Rasa, FFXIV, Warhammer); so really doing a MMO you are buying a ticket to a (very low proability) money printing machine, to a (very high prob) small money farm or to a (low prob) waste of money, sounds like an amazing lottery to me.

OT: Not trilled, single player RPG companies seem to deliver the less interesting MMOs, FF and SW:ToR come to mind; a shame, ToR could have been much more, but with Bioware developing it they showed old habits that are fine for a RPG, but not an MMO.

 

[Deathmageddon]

I don't know how to feel about this, actually.

Neutral?

I'm there. Honestly, who cares what anybody does? If you don't want to play it, then just don't. The world won't end if Bethesda makes ONE game that doesn't follow their usual, massive single-player sandbox RPG formula.

 

[ExileNZ]

Bethesda's games are like single player MMO's anyway. Shouldn't be too much of a transition.

Yes it is, because an MMO requires a constant internet connection, which is a pain in the arse (and an expensive one, at that) to provide.

Got 6 hours to kill on the train/plane? Hope you've got your $200 /month wifi key.

High-speed internet is not so cheap or easy to get outside the States.

 

[Best of the 3]

If they did they'd have to hopefully make a Console version too as my PC really just can't handle this. Furthermore they'd have to make this optional. More like Co op rather than MMO. If it went to be something like WoW I'd be pissed off. Grinding and quests that hold no real meaning in a world that wouldn't be all that special (as you'd be sharing it) would be a real turn off for me.

 

[The Funslinger]

anc[is]
Because being instakilled by obnoxious 12 year olds and a shoehorned in two faction system is what the Elder Scrolls really needs.

Two factions? Really, you just jumped to that conclusion?

I get that it'd be a fantasy MMO, but that doesn't come anything close to equaling another shitty WoW clone.

I, for one, am cautiously optimistic about this. If it was one of those MMOs that's going to also be on consoles (like Guild Wars 2 will be) that'd provide more hope for them keeping it first person with similar mechanics to what they have now, so I hope that's the direction things take.

 

[The Funslinger]

snip

There was an MMO called Tabula Rasa?

If it'd been me, I'd have been sorely tempted to make it a white screen and nothing else for the joke.

 

[Crazy Zaul]

I don't see this working.

 

[ImmortalDrifter]

If it's F2P I'll gladly check it out. If it's sub based then it can go fuck itself.

 

[drivebymessiah]

Bethesda can't make a dynamic, balanced(relatively), and compelling combat system to save it's life. Combat in Morrowind sucked. Combat in Oblivion sucked. Combat in Skyrim sucked. Combat in Fallout 3 had a small window of being non shitty and did so by ignoring all precedents and simply modelling after every fps ever.

What content would Bethesda possibly make to engage a party of players?:

- Landscapes and architecture? No. I hate to rain on the parade of some of the most diligent graphic/texture artists to ever ply their trade, but no matter how impressive the landscape it will be the first thing to fade into taken-for-granted background.

- Engaging the same 10 voice actors endlessly giving wooden performances over a sterile story? Partially, sure, but this really doesn't translate well into a multi-player experience.

The only thing groups of players do in multi player rpg's is crack goblin skulls or each others' and/or preparing for the cracking of skulls. Can you imagine how shitty the mmo would be from a design team that has repeatedly brought us a combat experience where the pinnacle of effectiveness has always been "get a daedric weapon. power attack with it. you are god incarnate."

So no: do not want to play. If bethesda is making an MMO it will surely bankrupt them.

The elder scrolls series has been a good bit of fun. Always neat to feel that engagement with a bright shiny new world up until the moment that your 20-30 hours in and even though you haven't finished the main questline you realize the gameplay isn't that good and the fact this dark elf fellow supposedly from another continent sounds inexplicably australian just like that human bandit that was also inexplicably australian you met 15 hours ago and the whole thing is becoming asinine.

Bethesda does some things well, no doubt. But the elements of gameplay that they don't do well have a funny way of making their games go from hype darlings to most-overrated lists. And, fine, good for them. It's making them a profit, but the Elder scrolls experience absolutely cannot survive as an MMO and absolutely nothing that Bethesda has done would indicate they have any idea how to make an MMO.

 

[ChadSexington]

snip

So I'm a little bit (read: seventh generation, my family moved here in 1790 and I've spent all my life bar two years here) Australian and I'm yet to find someone who sounds even remotely Australian in ANY Elder Scrolls game. Nice argument dude.

OT: I really hope they don't make an Elder Scrolls MMO. I hate MMO's with a passion and I would hate for them to tarnish Morrowind by turning the series into endless fetch quests.

 

[jollybarracuda]

If they could find a way to make it so the game plays just like the single player games we have now, with hundreds of other people running around doing quests and stuff, i think it could be the best game ever created. However, MMO's generally have to make a lot of compromises in terms of consistency. I don't think people would be too fond of seeing the dragon they just killed fade back into existence for the next player to kill it. But the system Guild Wars 2 is implementing sounds a bit more organic, where a burning building is burning until a player(s) puts it out, and it stays that way; that might be something that could be further improved and perhaps used in an Elder Scrolls MMO. Just...please don't let it be hotkey based. Like i said, give me Skyrim's gameplay with other people in it. That's all i really want.

CAPTCHA: "Search, Find and Save Local" Where are you oxford comma?!?!

 

[Jiffex]

I think it could work if they use the free roam style of RDR and GTA IV, I just hope it doesn't try to be like WoW.

 

[Terminate421]

I don't think so, they just won the rights to the Fallout MMO so it wouldn't make too much sense to do an elder scroll one.

 

[TitanAtlas]

Theres the difference between having the possibilities for a MMO, and the fact that i doubt the developers of the Elder Scrolls WANTING to make a MMO.

Yes it's a great world and all, but i doubt they would ever want to make that happen. In the best of possibilities online multiplayer for 2 or 3 people playing.

I feel like they prefer to make a important single-player, with so many possibilities, then having to focus resources on a product that would only be half has good.

And i'm happy with the fact they focus so much in the world, from the big to the small things, detail, characters, even the goddam weather. I'm glad they focused on that and a good single player experience.

 

[Gatx]

If it's a sandbox, I'm all for it. If it's a theme park, then they can go to hell.

Edit: I just had a thought, maybe that's what the creation of the Thalmor was for, a set up for two sizable warring factions to split the MMO player community into, ala the Alliance and Horde.

 

[Lunar Templar]

nope, this isn't in any way both a bad idea and totally missing the point of those games, assuming they had one to begin with .... that bits always been fuzzy to me

I don't know how to feel about this, actually.

Neutral?

i have the feeling, with all the hype surrounding you, you just let a great many down.

also, where'd that even come from?

 

[Westaway]

I hope to God not, that would be horrible.

 

[Dimitriov]

I LOVE TES!

And I would have to contemplate killing someone if this is true. I won't believe it is true. Besides, that sounds like a financial disaster.