I love the Elder Scrolls series. Daggerfall was the first time I put down the paper and dice and picked up a mouse and entered into a 3D world. The rest was history. So now seeing the next step in this series is an MMO, I am simply curious as to what to expect. I have never played nor seen an MMO being played (save WoW for about 2 minutes). So here are a few questions...

1.) Can you wander around and mind your own business, or will people who come across your path simply "mow you down" if they want?

2.) Do you have to join one of the three factions, or can you do whatever you want like all Elder Scrolls games?

3.) What is fighting like? I've seen it compared to WoW. People describe cool down periods and turned base fighting. What can I expect?

4.) When you have dungeons and stuff to explore, are you constantly surrounded by other online players inside the same areas? If so does treasure respawn or is it a first come first serve type thing?

5.) What happens when you die? Do you respawn in the same area?

6.) Do MMO's have a (main) story line to follow or is it simply explore and grow into a bad ass?

7.) Do you buy the game for $60+ and then pay a monthly fee? I know this is unkown but what are other MMO models like?



Any other info pertinent to my curiosities? Thanks.

All of the answers will depend on the exact details of how ESO works, of which we don't have much information on at the moment. A lot of this is based on how existing MMOs work and the little details released in the Game Informer article so far.

• Depending on the exact level of PVP in the game there are varying levels of safety from other players. In non-PVP oriented games you are essentially completely safe from attack. In other games you can only be attacked in certain areas, like if you wander into enemy territory. It sounds like ESO is in the latter category.
  
• From the information released so far it sounds like where you are from chooses your faction, at least initially. There could be options to choose your faction during character creation or change your faction as you play.
  
• From the sounds of it they are moving away from the "live action combat" like in Oblivion/Skyrim and more of a "hot key combat". In this style you have several combat options (swing, cast a spell, use an ability) which you have to press during combat. In addition to this there may be special moves/combos for extra damage if you do things right to take advantage of them.
  
• The article appears to mention both regular and instanced dungeons. In a regular dungeon you share it with everyone else who happens to be there and you can either cooperate or compete for monsters and treasures. In an instanced dungeon you just share it with whoever is in your group (or whoever you choose to depending on exactly how it works).
  
• It sounds like they are using some form of waypoints so when you die you return to either the nearest waypoint or the last one you activated. I didn't see the exact consequences of death (losing equipment, gold, and/or experience, is typical).
  
• There is almost always an overall lore or story which players can contribute to either alone, in groups, or in raids. Since ES is lore heavy I would hope/expect a good storyline to be involved.
  
• Yes, typically for "big" MMOs you buy the initial game which comes with 1 free month (or something) and then there is a monthly subscription fee after that.

1) Depends. There may be areas where you are able to attack others and there may be areas where you can't.

2) As I understood this you have to choose which one you want to be in at character creation.

3) Well, you click on an icon then the skills activates (either on yourself, on the selcted enemie or wherever you are pointing). Then this skill goes into cooldown and yeah... That is it basically. There are also things like stuns or combos.

4) Depends. There are instances where just you and your group are in and public areas where everyone is in.

5) You usually respawn at the nearest respawning point

6) They have a mainstory and lots of sidequest. Usually a bad questdesign, though.

7) Guild Wars has a one-time buying price and no monthly fee. Free-to-play (f2p) models don't charge you at all unless you want to buy ingame items. Which at many games become necessary in endgame.

1. Yes you can wander around but areas are more restrictive with their enemy difficulty. Player versus player combat is most likely restricted to mutually accepted duels outside of designated PvP zones.
2. There are most likely many quests not explicitly connected to any faction but as it seems now you will be joined into a faction based on your race by default.
3. Go look at some videos but do note that TESO s will not be exactly like it.
4. There are both dungeons that are "instanced" (they exist only for you) and public in which other players can freely join in. Environment harvestables are generally firs come first served while enemy loot is reserved to the player/party that killed it.
5. You are most likely either resurrected by an ally in the same area or respawn at a wayshrine that also act as fast-travel locations.
6. Both.
7. Unknown at the time. MMO models wary from monthly subscription fee to one time purchase to free-to-play where you pay to unlock additional content.

1.) Can you wander around and mind your own business, or will people who come across your path simply "mow you down" if they want? - If you have PVP on or play on a PVP server and you run across an enemy, sure they can, and some will especially if you're on a low level, but in theory, yes it should be possible.

2.) Do you have to join one of the three factions, or can you do whatever you want like all Elder Scrolls games? - I think each race belongs in one of the factions to begin with, if you're a dunmer you belong to the Ebonheart pact or whatever it was called etc. Kind of like the Horde and the Alliance in WoW.

3.) What is fighting like? I've seen it compared to WoW. People describe cool down periods and turned base fighting. What can I expect? - from what I've read you can expect pretty much the same, but they mentioned some stamina and blocking and stuff so it might be a little bit different.

4.) When you have dungeons and stuff to explore, are you constantly surrounded by other online players inside the same areas? If so does treasure respawn or is it a first come first serve type thing? - They are probably instances, so it will be you and your group if you have one, but I don't know for sure.

5.) What happens when you die? Do you respawn in the same area? - I have no idea.

6.) Do MMO's have a (main) story line to follow or is it simply explore and grow into a bad ass? - It probably has some main story thing, but I don't know.

7.) Do you buy the game for $60+ and then pay a monthly fee? I know this is unkown but what are other MMO models like? - Probably unless they take the same route as Guild Wars where you buy the game and don't have a monthly fee.

They have the best online community.

i will answer the best i can

1) If the follow the standard MMO format, there will be Player vs Environment (PvE) and Player vs Player (PvP) servers. In a PvE server, no, people cannot simply kill you anytime they want, and players will only battle each other in clearly defined areas. If PvP, then yes, players can fight other players anytime they want.

2) Most major MMORPGs use 2 or more factions, and you almost always have to choose one of them.

3) Combat will either be automatic or action-based.
3a) Automatic combat system means there is an auto-attack button, so you will continuously preform basic attacks, but can use abilities, items, and spells at anytime, although many of them will have a cast-time or cooldown.
3b) An action based combat system can be either like DCUO, where you literally press button combos to attack, or SWTOR, where your basic attack is just like the rest of your abiliities.

4) there will probably be random chests in points-of-interests in the main world. there will more than likely be 'instances' which are copies of an area, with each player or group of players getting their own copy. Also, looting while in a group will usually have 'group loot rules' such as 'need over greed'.

5) Death is usually handled with 'respawn points'. the only question is whether you will choose one, have to bind to one, or if there will be a 'spirit mode' similar to WoW where you turn into a ghost have to either walk all the way back to your corpse or just revive at the 'respawn point'. There will also be 'revive' spells (and maybe items) so that other players can bring back to life.

6) MMO's usually are made of major and minor story arcs, and sometimes there will be a main story arc as well. The main story arc usually only gets minor interaction form the player. major story arcs usually start at low levels, but don't get revisited until higher levels. minor story arcs can be a single quest long, or a even a dozen, but are loosely related to other aspects of the story.

7) Most major mmo's follow that format. Initial purchase is $40-$60, with a free month before you have to pay $10-$15 dollars a month.

hope i helped answer this question.