Well, I managed to get my first play on the game this Beta, and log in issues aside on Saturday, I was able to play a decent amount. So thought I would share my impressions, for what they are worth. Before I do, I should probably clarify a bit of my background with regards to ES games. I warn you now this post is long winded and if you have no interest in what a random geezer on the internet is blabbering on about, I advise you to skip my post now.
Overall, I am a casual ES player, I am not a huge fan of their games, I like their style, but ultimately, whilst being able to boast freedom and huge games, I found I get bored of them fairly quickly, one of my favourite things about gaming, especially RP games is that I like sharing the experience with friends. In ES games, fun though they are for a while, I find them to be very large, lonely worlds and I cannot imagine ever spending hundreds of hours in them. I didn't even bother with Skyrim after becoming very bored of Oblivion I figured it wasn't worth paying for anymore ES games.
MMO wise I am a hardcore casual player I spend a lot of hours playing, but am not all that interested in racing to end game and farming raids there endlessly for more gear in preparation of the next content.
So, onto the Beta. It definitely felt like ES games, they have styled the game well in hat aspect the way combat is, the way your map doesnt just show you all quests, the way you uncover quests if you explore, and even the levelling process all had the feeling of ES. Undeniably the amount of quests found and he way the quests are is diluted compared to normal ES games, but it definitely feels similar. Same goes for builds, while there are classes, it really seems you can build a role regardless of class, again, it is not quite the freedom of the single player games, but far closer than I ever expected, you can pretty much build any role out of all the classes to the point I am not even sure which class I want for building a tank. I cant help but feel you really must be the hardest of hardcore ES players to believe the game does not play like the single player ones.
MMO wise it has that familiar feeling of skills and special attacks and roles you can fill, the few skill slots available is very different, I think possibly even to few for my tastes as an MMOer (though weapon switch doubling your slots will help). While feeling familiar, it also is very different, and not just because of the slots levelling is MUCH slower, for modern day MMOers this will be off putting, but for me it was refreshing (getting to the end game is the part I dread in MMOs as this is when I rapidly lose interest), simply grinding mobs also is not a sensible option as you dont get much from it (this may be an issue later when sometimes all you want to do is have a good dungeon grind). The skill ups also introduce a whole new aspect, especially when you add in the morphing of abilities there are some trees I want to put a skill in just to open up so I can level it as a may be interested in some of the later abilities, but at lower lvl I cannot afford to spend the points yet. Again, you really must be a hardcore ES fan to feel this is some kind of WoW clone, or someone so burned out on MMOs that it feels the same.
My biggest concern with the game currently is just how well it will work as a multiplayer game, teaming up with the wife was no issue but was also not needed in anyway, the game feels like it could feel a bit to solo orientated for its own good, but to be fair, I consider this an issue with all MMOs too due to their desire to make games so easy and accessible that everyone can race to the end game easily and alone, obviously I only experience the early parts of the game and in reality you expect nothing less than to do it alone.
All in all I felt it was an interesting blend of MMO and ES, as someone who is without an MMO or any other game at the moment it is one I will be getting for the wife and I as it is a refreshing take on things Whilst overall it is not innovative in regards to either genre (MMO or ES) by combining them together they have brought a freshness to the MMO scene and it should bring me some entertainment for a decent while.
Having said all that, I do expect the game to be forced into F2P within a year for the following reasons:
1) Cost to produce. At $200M the game was just too expensive, it is the same error SWTOR made. When you blow that much money on making the game it is a huge ask to try and get that back and you need a lot of subscribers to do it. Unlike a single player game which has a MUCH wider audience, you really cant indulge in such costs for a game. In reality, with a Dev team of 20, at about $70k a year each, an audience of only 100k (tiny in the eyes of MMOs these days) you easily earn enough to maintain servers, the staff and can work on updates whilst still turning some profit. Whack on a $200M debt and it is a whole new ball game and you need to keep huge numbers to stay afloat, add that you want to make considerably more profit than what 100k subscribers would give you and you are asking for too much. FFXIV was remade and after a few months was at 600k subs, this is viewed as a huge success for the company and improved their profit forecast. Compare that to SWTOR who as soon as they dropped from 1M were already hitting panic buttons and eyeing up the F2P option, you can see why the hefty price tag is too heavy to cope with
2) What kind of audience is the game going to appeal too? Hardcore MMOers arent going to want it few buttons to mash, lack of rotations to master, too slow to level, it doesnt fit the modern gamers style. Clearly hardcore ES fans are also not supportive of the game either as it is not ES enough for them, but at the same time people who dislike ES games wont like this because it is TOO ES for them. I am pretty sure I am a minority audience for MMOs I like old school games, the WoW and beyond generation of MMOs tick none of the boxes for me and sol I cant last more than a couple months on them. I am also the minority ES gamer too not being a huge fan of the big worlds the single player offers yet liking the style of the game enough to want to play an MMO version.
3) Game cost and decisions made with it. £50 for the normal version is a crazy high price for an MMO, at least £20 more than it should be and is typical for an MMO. Add in the controversial Imperial race lock behind the Collectors Edition and you have people put off on principle. The reality is, the Imperial is going to be nothing more than Cosmetic (whatever role you want to make in the game already has a race ideal for it, so there is nothing the Imperial will have that will leave someone short changed by not being able to make them) but that isnt really the point, people feel shafted by this decision.
The excessive cost is clearly related to the games production cost, they want to scrape as much money as they can from sales to make their money back, as in reality that is the only hope they have of avoiding going F2P if the game sells about 2M PC copies (may be possible, initial sales are usually very good for an MMO) that gives them about $100M, likely more thanks to Collectors sales. Then if they were to sell 1M for Playstation/Xbox, that would be around $150M they would be on track to be able to survive the rapid attrition rate of post release (2 or 3 months post launch) and be able to support the game on much more reasonable subscription numbers. But it is a fair few ifs and buts.
For me, I will buy it and play and enjoy it for what it is an interesting love child of ES and MMOs, likely leaving once it goes F2P Like I said, I am a minority in the modern era and F2P quickly puts me off a game
. Suffice it to say I really enjoyed the game this weekend. It's coming along very well. I'm hopeful that beta characters will be carried forward from this point (as they were this weekend) so that I can continue into higher level content in later sessions. This session is on until 11:59PM tonight, so I am hoping to get a couple more hours in after dinner.
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