Elder Scrolls Online release date 4-4-14

[Daverino]

After playing through the betas, it's the most fun MMORPG I've played in some time. Unfortunately, I don't have time for a MMORPG in my life, so I won't be buying it.

 

[Lil Frier]

I don't understand the whining about a 15.00 per month fee.

I don't understand why not wanting something means you're "whining." The game's $60 as it is, and they then add $180/year to the cost. It's an expensive proposition, when you consider that almost everything outside of the MMO realm is $60 and nothing else. If those non-MMOs offer DLC, it's $20-50 for a year of it.

MMOs get stale quickly, in my opinion. I stopped WoW because I couldn't justify $15/month when I'd get bored after 2-4 months. The content is highly redundant if you don't do PvP, and new stuff takes too long to come out (waiting 6 months for a WoW patch was awful).

 

[gus6464]

It's all about searching for Lycanthropy.

 

[Markbnj]

Oh I would expect rabid whining. Even if they manage to get some kind of balance.

One question. Will they be implementing a pvp leveling system like DAOCs realm rank? I always felt that was a great system for post 50 leveling.

They already have an RvR ladder system, with the ultimate reward being that you can be crowned as emperor. Have no idea what that actually means, since I only made it into a little rvr toward the end of the beta.

 

[IndyColtsFan]

Glad to see some positive news about the game. I'm really starved for an immersive MMO that will hold my attention for a few months. Leaning towards buying this one if my brothers and friends do as well.

 

[shadow9d9]

I don't understand why not wanting something means you're "whining." The game's $60 as it is, and they then add $180/year to the cost. It's an expensive proposition, when you consider that almost everything outside of the MMO realm is $60 and nothing else. If those non-MMOs offer DLC, it's $20-50 for a year of it.

MMOs get stale quickly, in my opinion. I stopped WoW because I couldn't justify $15/month when I'd get bored after 2-4 months. The content is highly redundant if you don't do PvP, and new stuff takes too long to come out (waiting 6 months for a WoW patch was awful).

Other games don't get content updates. WoW is a TERRIBLE comparison. I don't understand why people ever accepted Blizzard's slow turnout of content. Good games like AC have monthly content patches. WoW got boring after 2-3 months like you said. That is a boring, boring game.

Your choice not to do pvp. Might want to find a game without it then.

 

[shadow9d9]

Oh I would expect rabid whining. Even if they manage to get some kind of balance.

One question. Will they be implementing a pvp leveling system like DAOCs realm rank? I always felt that was a great system for post 50 leveling.

There are 10 veteran levels, but I don't know if these are pvp based or not.

 

[HumblePie]

I don't understand why not wanting something means you're "whining." The game's $60 as it is, and they then add $180/year to the cost. It's an expensive proposition, when you consider that almost everything outside of the MMO realm is $60 and nothing else. If those non-MMOs offer DLC, it's $20-50 for a year of it.

MMOs get stale quickly, in my opinion. I stopped WoW because I couldn't justify $15/month when I'd get bored after 2-4 months. The content is highly redundant if you don't do PvP, and new stuff takes too long to come out (waiting 6 months for a WoW patch was awful).

The subscription cost doesn't really only cover the cost of new development additions to an MMO. It's the cost to keep a persistent game world up.

A Call of Duty server goes down while playing? No problem, just hop on another server that someone else is hosting. Cheating is managed to a degree by the server admin if the game allows local hosting.

That's great for some games and not for others. There are MMO "lite" games that do such a thing for those people drawn to less than persistent world server.

F2P MMOs get away with their model because typically less people are playing a game that is F2P. WoW has millions of subscribers, where as most F2P MMOs have thousands. It's an order of magnitude that requires more money to function with the same consistency for all players to manage. That is what the subscription cost of games that have a huge amount of players and a persistent world to manage goes towards. Any extra content delivered is icing on the cake.

 

[ewdotson]

I don't understand why not wanting something means you're "whining." The game's $60 as it is, and they then add $180/year to the cost. It's an expensive proposition, when you consider that almost everything outside of the MMO realm is $60 and nothing else. If those non-MMOs offer DLC, it's $20-50 for a year of it.

MMOs get stale quickly, in my opinion. I stopped WoW because I couldn't justify $15/month when I'd get bored after 2-4 months. The content is highly redundant if you don't do PvP, and new stuff takes too long to come out (waiting 6 months for a WoW patch was awful).

On the other hand, I can't think of the last non-mmo that I played for 2-4 months, let alone longer.

 

[HumblePie]

On the other hand, I can't think of the last non-mmo that I played for 2-4 months, let alone longer.

Left 4 Dead 2
League of Legends

Those two come off the top of my head.

 

[xantub]

On the other hand, I can't think of the last non-mmo that I played for 2-4 months, let alone longer.

Paradox strategy games I play for years

 

[Dahak]

Dulfy.net has posted a summary of an AMA that the developers did on Reddit
http://dulfy.net/2014/03/20/eso-reddit-ama-summmary/

 

[Tequila]

Left 4 Dead 2
League of Legends

Those two come off the top of my head.

For me:

Everquest : 3 years from '99 to 02. Still the most memorable MMO for me. Subpar graphics but amazing dungeons and huge world.
DAoC: 2 years. Great freaking time doing RvR until ToA ruined it.
WoW: 2 years. Never liked it, just played because a friend of mine also played it.
RIFT: <1 year. Was very addictive, loved the soul system and loved how hard the t1/t2 dungeons were before all the nerfs. After too much raiding I finally burnt out 2/3 way through HK.

EDIT: nevermind. Didn't notice it said non-mmo

I'm hoping ESO can keep me entertained for several months at least.

 

[Genx87]

Heh why are cloaks so difficult to offer in these games? GW2 never had them while I played. Do they yet? This one doesn't have them out of the gate. DAOC, UO ect all had them over a decade ago.

 

[Markbnj]

Heh why are cloaks so difficult to offer in these games? GW2 never had them while I played. Do they yet? This one doesn't have them out of the gate. DAOC, UO ect all had them over a decade ago.

Cloaks, and underwater swimming/fighting are two features I wish were in there. I was sorry to see the underwater environment removed from the ES engine with Oblivion. It's even more fun in pvp. Just another way in which the environments in these games have become less exciting, along with the shrinking vistas and having basically everything in the world that matters laid out along paths so absolutely nobody can miss anything important.

 

[Genx87]

Cloaks are such a simple item to model. And it really makes your avatar look great in these games imo. Just baffling why they cant get them in.

 

[Markbnj]

That AMA summary honestly removed most of my desire to play this, which wasn't all that strong to begin with. I honestly am not sure Matt gets what the playerbase actually liked about RvR in DAoC. They had a winning combination from the get-go with the old frontiers and then basically proceeded over the next four years to dismantle it with gimmicky mechanisms. This doesn't seem like a change from that failed philosophy.

 

[ewdotson]

Paradox strategy games I play for years

CKII would probably be the closest for me (I swear I'm going to go back and play a Byzantine game one of these days), and I know there are people who play MOBAs or FPS games for ages, but still. I just can't bring myself to get worked up about the idea that I might "only" play a subscription-based MMO for 4 months. In the larger scheme of things, it's still pretty danged cheap entertainment.

 

[xantub]

CKII would probably be the closest for me (I swear I'm going to go back and play a Byzantine game one of these days), and I know there are people who play MOBAs or FPS games for ages, but still. I just can't bring myself to get worked up about the idea that I might "only" play a subscription-based MMO for 4 months. In the larger scheme of things, it's still pretty danged cheap entertainment.

Yes, I don't understand why people think an MMO sucks if they only play it for 2 months. I ask "but, did you have fun in those months?" and usually the answer is "Well, yes, but I ran out of things to do". My response then is "so, how is that different from a single player game that you finish in 2 or 3 weeks?". The reality is that, it isn't. If you have fun with a game (MMO or not) then you have fun with the game, regardless if it's 1 month or 1 year. Even if you play just the included month, it's already cheaper than a normal single player game that costs the same and you finish in 2 weeks.

 

[gus6464]

Playing Wildstar beta right now and its pretty damn meh. Also has a ton of performance issues as my GTX660 lags to all hell on high. I am glad I preordered ESO as I enjoyed the beta a lot more.

 

[jedolley]

Yes, I don't understand why people think an MMO sucks if they only play it for 2 months. I ask "but, did you have fun in those months?" and usually the answer is "Well, yes, but I ran out of things to do". My response then is "so, how is that different from a single player game that you finish in 2 or 3 weeks?". The reality is that, it isn't. If you have fun with a game (MMO or not) then you have fun with the game, regardless if it's 1 month or 1 year. Even if you play just the included month, it's already cheaper than a normal single player game that costs the same and you finish in 2 weeks.

That's kind of the problem with Betas with some people... People are super excited to try something out for free, but some of them forget it's a beta (i.e. performance/bug issues) and others forget that it's temporary and will be wiped. If I get into a beta I usually play just enough to determine if I like enough for launch so that I don't "spoil" the game for myself.

 

[Clemenza]

Playing Wildstar beta right now and its pretty damn meh. Also has a ton of performance issues as my GTX660 lags to all hell on high. I am glad I preordered ESO as I enjoyed the beta a lot more.

This. I've been trying the Beta today and I just cant get into it. It makes me look forward to ESO next weekend. Wildstar just isnt doing it for me. I must be an anomaly thought because all of my friends are lapping it up.

 

[StinkyPinky]

THe more I played the beta the more I enjoyed it. I've pre-ordered it. Even if I only get 50 hours out of it, that's still more than what you get from most single player games.

I'm gonna solo most of it though. Dead man walking.

Has anyone played in all three factions? Which environment was the most interesting?

 

[code65536]

Has anyone played in all three factions? Which environment was the most interesting?

Before the latest beta (in which they eliminated the starting islands), I did starting island runs with a Breton, a Nord, and a Bosmer (who I named "Higgs Bosmer"... hehe) to get a taste of all three factions. The EP's starting island--an island off the coast of Skyrim--was easily the most boring, esp. since I've played so much Skyrim.

I'm neutral about the AD's starting island. It was okay, but I was never a fan of either the Khajit nor the Altmer races, so the setting didn't work for me that well.

I had fun with the DC's starting island and felt there was good variety there.

But those starting islands are now optional, so that's... eh. Why not just create a character for each faction, play a couple hours of each, and then decide which one to use to push through to the end?

 

[Rinaun]

That AMA summary honestly removed most of my desire to play this, which wasn't all that strong to begin with. I honestly am not sure Matt gets what the playerbase actually liked about RvR in DAoC. They had a winning combination from the get-go with the old frontiers and then basically proceeded over the next four years to dismantle it with gimmicky mechanisms. This doesn't seem like a change from that failed philosophy.

I cannot agree with this outlook more. They took what was already proven to not work well, smashed some elder scrolls into it and are calling it good enough. It's a shame, too.