Lil_Rimmy said:
Kakulukia said:
NO! Any form of multiplayer would ruin the Elder Scrolls series.
You keep saying this but HOW?!?! HOW!!!???!!!
You wouldn't HAVE to play it.
ITS A BLOODY OPTION IF YOU DON'T WANT IT!!!!
EDIT: Whoops, forgot witty comment
HOW?!?!?!?,
Rimmy
Hmm, this would be a spot to add a face palm picture. Simple question for you: there are many games with MMO or smaller scale co-op play built into them, how come none of them can capture the sheer amount of immersion and depth that a purely single player game like The Elder Scrolls series does?
When you say "if you don't like co-op you don't have to play it!" you show a severe lack of understanding of game design and development. Co-op play or multiplayer isn't something you can just tack on at the end of an RPG. It requires serious consideration to design, development, and play testing right from the very start. In the early planning stages developers have to decide if the game will have multiplayer or co-op, and they choose to do so then it automatically shifts a significant portion of the budget away from the single player element. This is why people who prefer single player don't want it, because they know that experience will unavoidably be watered down to accomodate co-op.
Consider the following options/features from Oblivion:
1. In game time - resting and fast travel lets the player move things along instantly while ingame time is fast forwarded. With multiple PC characters in a game world this feature will not work unless they're restricted to being linked.
2. Story line - Every TES game (except maybe the very first?) sets the PC up as some sort of destined hero or chosen one. Story changes and PC interaction would need to change if there were more than one PC.
3. World interaction - technically, when you're playing a TES game most of the world is static and only becomes 'alive' as you enter the area. You're PC is only processing the environment for the zone you're in, like a sphere of influence, and gameplay and graphics processing is optimized for within this sphere for a single PC. For multiple PC's to be in the game world at the same time, unless your buddy has a powerful server you're all going to have to stick within a single zone centered around one player or significantly scale down the graphics and processing of everything else.
4. Quests - The TES team puts a lot of effort into making unique and interesting quests for the PC which are scripted in a sequence of events. Obviously having multiple PC's will force a shift in design to accomodate.
That's just a couple of things I've come up with on the spot, I'm not going to put in that much effort when it's this late for this. Either way it all comes back to my opening question, why are there no multiplayer/co-op games with the same level of immersion and depth as a purely single player game?