The Elder Scrolls Online Catch-All

Reaper81 wrote:
Michael Zenke wrote:

Beta keys are a foozle for down the line. I have absolutely no idea how they're handling that stuff, sorry guys.

I'd suggest applying out in the thing on the internet place.

I'm a bit late to this thread... but foozle? Do you just make up words?

It's a perfectly cromulent word.

Running Man wrote:
Reaper81 wrote:
Michael Zenke wrote:

Beta keys are a foozle for down the line. I have absolutely no idea how they're handling that stuff, sorry guys.

I'd suggest applying out in the thing on the internet place.

I'm a bit late to this thread... but foozle? Do you just make up words?

It's a perfectly cromulent word.

Yeah, embiggen your vocabulary, Reaper.

Thinking about the controller issue, I wonder how much they're considering the console crowd from previous TES/FO games which they would have been on the controller. It seems silly to no accommodate them if they can.

I'm new to the thread as well as digging for information about the game so forgive me if I am missing some information here but...

I wouldn't think they would be considering the console crowd nearly as much as the pc side of things. A controller system might only make sense if its a more action based game that would require less buttons as opposed to a more traditional mmo of multiple rows of hot keys while as opposed to something faster paced with fewer keys to worry about.

Again I don't even know what the game play is like. I signed up for the beta earlier today so I don't know if how it plays might still feel right with a controller.

Zembonez wrote:

A controller system might only make sense if its a more action based game that would require less buttons as opposed to a more traditional mmo of multiple rows of hot keys while as opposed to something faster paced with fewer keys to worry about.

In the most recent Bethesda Podcast they said they were trying to make the combat feel more like an Elder Scrolls game than a traditional MMO. They also said they were reducing the number of hot keys, though they didn't go into specifics (somewhere I got the impression that there would be 5, but I can't remember where and that's probably in flux anyway).

Well then that would make perfect sense to have a controller set up. I actually half wonder if they will attempt to implement a first person option to even further bait console gamers.

Its interesting to me that they seem to be backtracking pretty heavily on their original design of being a traditional mmo. Sure seems like they took all the criticism they got when they first released details to heart about it looking too much like WoW.

There was a rumour, speculation, or something (I couldn't find the source) going around that first person perspective was out.

I signed up and got "Excellent", so here's crossing my fingers.

Although I don't know if putting "FOR BOOGLE" in the free notes section will help or hinder my chances.

My brain refuses to remember the source, but I did read a preview where the writer said he could go to first person, but he didn't see his characters arms or weapons on screen like one would in the single-player Elder Scrolls games.

This is probably grossly inaccurate, but from my perspective it looks like the game started with a bunch of MMO people building a MMO, and now that they've got that baseline roughed out they're reworking things to make it feel like Elder Scrolls. That's probably a better approach than trying to take the fun-but-easily-breakable Elder Scrolls skill system and balance it for a massively multiplayer game.

The results just came back from an unofficial survey about preferences and expectations for ESO. Keep in mind that this is from reddit, and only about a 900 people participated (most of them veteran MMO players) so this probably isn't terribly representative of the eventual player base, but I thought it was interesting nonetheless.

Some of the results:

Most popular faction: Ebonheart Pact
Least popular faction: Aldmeri Dominion

Most popular race: Nords
Least popular race: High Elves
(I'm guessing these two are thanks to Skyrim)

Probably the most surprising, 42% percent said they preferred a monthly sub, with only 13% preferring f2p.

ruhk wrote:

Probably the most surprising, 42% percent said they preferred a monthly sub, with only 13% preferring f2p.

hehe that's not surprising... if you check other western mmo forums you'd see that there's a higher percentage that like monthly sub over f2p.

This is really the only forum I visit these days.
I guess I'm under the impression that subs were generally frowned upon anymore, as any new sub-based MMO being released seems to be greeted with a chorus of "fail," even before anyone's gotten their hands on it.
For example: this thread.

ruhk wrote:

This is really the only forum I visit these days.
I was under the impression that subs were generally frowned upon these days, as any new sub-based MMO being released seems to be greeted with a chorus of "fail," even before anyone's gotten their hands on it.
For example: this thread. :P

Problem is that we've had a string of mmos that essentially were not finished or polished enough to deserve the subs they were asking.

I don't follow... Some mmo devs were lazy/exploitative, so therefore all future mmo devs will also be lazy/exploitative?

I understand being gun-shy, but the amount of pre-judging going on with some of these games is ridiculous.

It's more a general thing.

From a developer point of view subscriptions are great, an ongoing source of income, probably in addition to an initial purchase. From a customer point of view it's an additional charge you must pay to get access, in addition to a cost to get in the door (in most cases a trial doesn't come for ages to see if you like it), and without paying the sub you lose access to everything. There's no obligation that they release content monthly or anything similar.

F2P schemes and variants (subscription as an option) on the other hand is balanced a bit fairer, developers have to keep working to keep you interested and playing, because without people playing there's no income. However they need to keep the balance at a point where it encourages paying for things, usually quality of life boosts, so playing without paying might be a drag.

Ewww, dear lord, not a monthly subscription!! I'm fervently hoping for a model similar to Guild Wars. I'll pay top dollar, and dip my toe in microtransactions, but a monthly subscription... That's a deal-breaker. It's not a comment on the quality of the game, but rather the pressure it puts on me to play it that bugs me.
The results of the survey really aren't surprising, I see a huge Skyrim influence...

It's impossible to look into people's minds and see their motivations, but I'm partially wondering how many people just want more elder scrolls.

That's an expectations management thing, but it's important when TESCO is long-term proposition, probably going to be side-by-side with at least one normal TES game (unless TESCO devours Bethesda like WoW did to Blizzard for a few years). I guess there's worse things that could happen than having a runaway success, but just as with the Blizzard games, it can't be the same as the single-player TES games they make, and hopefully they continue to make them and satisfy both markets.

Yeah Im also against monthly subscriptions. partly coz of my situation - living in a foreign country, no visa card registered to this country, need to use visa card i dont have easy access to paying off. bank charges $1 per visa transaction , just small annoying sh*te like that.

I guess I dont mind an episodic "campaign" style system, Game is 60 usd, comes with 6 month subscription for one "campaign" then after 6 months they release a new episode/campaign and you again purchase then get another 6 months. Kinda like a mini expansion meets biannual subscription.
Could tie in nicely with the PvP style alliance warfare, ie alliance with the most pvp kills/territory/whatever stat they use after 6 months wins the 2013 Summer campaign, then peace is signed, awards given etc then zenimax online starts a new campaign.

I think you have both options but not how TOR went about it. You don't charge people for hot bars or travel options. You charge them for sexy, sexy silver lightsaber crystals.

Bleh..come on.. an online forum with 900 respondents is going to of course favor a subscription model.. This is the EQ/WoW "semi-hardcore" crowd that views the F2P crowd as "MMOG-Mouthbreathers". No one doubts you can and will get a loyal paying subscriber base if your game is polished and "fun". The problem is that its not going to be enough.. you can' continue to support and scale a subscription MMOG in this market. You either design a very niche game that can be run with a base of 100,000-200,000 subscribers.. OR you got the Guild Wars 2 model and open up your game to Millions of potential players that play (and pay) at their own pace.

Hmmm... i originally heard that ESO was going to have housing, but just heard today that wont be the case.

Anyone else had the impression this was going to have housing or am i just getting my mmos advertising crossed?

ranalin wrote:

Hmmm... i originally heard that ESO was going to have housing, but just heard today that wont be the case.

Anyone else had the impression this was going to have housing or am i just getting my mmos advertising crossed?

Man, why do MMO makers hate housing? Just follow LotR. They did a pretty good job of it!

MMO housing seems to be one of those things 'lots' of people ask for, developers notice and say something like "We'd love to add player housing when there's time" and add it to the bottom of their list. Most games seem to do well enough without housing, so I guess on the priority list there's always something higher.

Oh wow, last time I had a house in a MMO was when I played The Realm Online...
I haven't been paying a whole attention, but I don't recall anything about housing in TESO... Might be just me, though.

Eleima wrote:

Oh wow, last time I had a house in a MMO was when I played The Realm Online...
I haven't been paying a whole attention, but I don't recall anything about housing in TESO... Might be just me, though.

OMG! You played The Realm Online? I used to play that too, I even beta tested it. And, of course, I was in the game as Cragmyre, and as my alt Erymgarc - still, never heard of anyone that knew about that game

(( sorry for the off thread ))

Cragmyre wrote:
Eleima wrote:

Oh wow, last time I had a house in a MMO was when I played The Realm Online...
I haven't been paying a whole attention, but I don't recall anything about housing in TESO... Might be just me, though.

OMG! You played The Realm Online? I used to play that too, I even beta tested it. And, of course, I was in the game as Cragmyre, and as my alt Erymgarc - still, never heard of anyone that knew about that game

(( sorry for the off thread ))

Knew about it but never jumped in due to a friend bad mouthing it and got us playing something else. (grats on the tag)

SWG has had the best housing system i've seen. Everything else that's had it since then just doesnt seem to qualify. I know Wildstar is going to have housing, but i could've sworn i originally heard TESO was too. Since they're kinda on the same time frame i may have got them mixed up.

Last time I had a house in an MMO was the Ultima Online beta.

Rift has the most interesting and unique housing that I've seen in an mmo... Essentially, you purchase keys to pocket dimensions that you can teleport to from anywhere in the world. In your pocket dimension you can build using objects and components that you craft/loot, and since you can place objects freely along any axis, you can (for example) build a house entirely out of cat statues. Or have a house that floats. Or build a normal log cabin, but upside down.

I know it wasn't popular among a lot of people for various reasons. But Phantasy Star Universe had a great housing system and player store in it that I loved. Final Fantasy 11 had player housing in it too but it was horrid from what I remember, granted I disliked that game anyway.

Anyway to get back on topic I'm sure it wouldn't be too hard for them to having housing in ESO. There's been housing in every other ES game so hopefully it makes it in. And I'd love to have a home again (as I played PSU for many years as my first mmo type experience) I always felt homeless in games like WoW or other games just logging out in a city rather than my own place.

Saddly, Oh side note...I didn't get into the beta.

Bah! Double post.