I posted an entry on the http://blog.uesp.net/index.php/2012/05/05/elder-scrolls-online-initial-thoughts about my thoughts on the ES MMO announcement. I was a little hesitant to refer to myself as a "veteran fan" but since I've been playing ES for 18 years since Arena and running one of the largest ES fan sites for 17 years (http://www.uesp.net) I figure I just might be able to get away with it.

So as to not just copy-paste the blog post here the quick summary is:

• Excited to see another ES game with an experienced game/MMO developer.
  
• Worried that it is just another MMO clone with an "Elder Scrolls" sticker quickly appliedput on top.
  
• Worried about the feature set listed in the GI article and how non-ES and more generic it seems to be.
  
• Worried about the graphics, specifically the engine used and how the characters look.
  
• Worried about how the announcement was delivered (see more below).
  
• Holding my final opinion until the game is released as a lot can change in 12-18 months.

What has also worried me is the silence from both Bethesda and Zenimax Online (unless I've missed it), although I'll give them a little leyway in that it has only been a few days since the announcement at this point. If you had asked me a week ago "How would you announce an ES MMO?" I would have said "focus on what makes it deserve the ES title and how it is different than a generic MMO clone". Unfortunately, the Game Informer article almost does the exact opposite of this and seems to reinforce the idea of the game being just "another MMO".

What I would love to see next week are some (or a lot) of posts from Bethesda (i.e., Todd Howard) and Zenimax Online (Matt Firor and all the lead developers). The ES fans and myself need to be convinced that this game deserves the "Elder Scrolls" title and now is the perfect time to start doing so.

Its basically telling an artist how to paint, where to put what, what colours to use just so everyone will like his picture.

More like telling an artist to put what he has into his work instead of copying the ones that sells well.

I think the gameinformer article was really poor. I don't know whether the journalists are to blame, or the zenimax online team can't sell the strong points of their game really well, or the game is just not that good. But if I imagine the first article about Skyrim had broken so many bad news, the rage would have been quite the same. They were wise to keep no attributes / no acrobatics / etc a secret back then ...

First of all Dave thank you so much for the best ES website ever. I still use it constantly.

I share your general thoughts as well. There is also the possibility of some major changes being done after release that could make the game better. However I'll quote your blog here, "I'm very worried that this is just an generic MMO clone with "Elder Scrolls" attached solely for increased exposure and revenue".

At the time of initial planning and development of TES:O, WoW was red hot and could do no wrong. So much has changed in these past 5 years however. Unfortunately large scale MMO development is such a beast that design decision and more importantly execution cannot be agile enough to account for changes to the market without a serious reinvestment.

It would have required taking a larger risk to try to make something innovative, but it's hard to blame the investors. Since WoW is really just a well executed iteration of previous MMOs, it traps other companies in to thinking that is the only thing needed to be successful now. If a few years ago Bethesda pulled back the cover and had a look around with some fan input, I think it could have been a lot better. I do realize that game design it not done by committee but it does need to check its course occasionally to not run aground.

We needed change plain and simple. I love the new direction for this series and couldn't be happier. Hopefully this spawns more spin offs and becomes the main direction for Elder Scrolls

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lITBGjNEp08
I can accept some changes in mechanics for the MMO, but they said it would not affect the singleplayer games, and if this becomes the main direction, thet it has affected the singleplayer games.

TES-O is another MMO just with TES theme. I'll play it cause I always wanted to play an TES MMO.

I ain't expecting it to be just like the tradition TES games we are use to.

They gave us exactly what we should know. Purely 3rd person, hotkey combat, wow graphics and artwork. It's not exactly something you can hide, one screen makes those issues instantly apparent.

One thing that has me particularly worried that hasn't been mentioned much, and which you picked up on in your post, is that the character models and architecture/landscape look decidedly non-elder scrolls. Particularly the screenshots which look to be of elvish architecture, with pointed roofs and arched doorways, that look suspiciously like non of the elvish architecture seen in any of the other games set in the elder scrolls universe. Hope I'm wrong on that account.

Also, a cursory thanks for creating and maintaining one of the best elder scrolls infomation sites on the web, you are a legend!

You missed his point- they didn't tell us what we really need to know: how this game is different than other MMO's.

I'd say you're wrong on that one since it's what Almalexia looks like. Even if they changed the architecture a bit.

When a new Elder Scrolls game is announced I expect it to be good for one main reason; it will be developed by Bethesda. They created this series and have made it what it is, they have proven themselves to be great developers. Now, I'm not saying that Zenimax Online is a poor developer, I would know nothing about that, but they are not Bethesda. So far, I don't know that any other developer would be able to make a proper ES game, MMO or otherwise, so becuse of that I'm doubtful that this will be able to capture that special ES magic.

Unfortunately, there isn't any. The article is listing the features of TESO as how the game director wants it exactly: a comfortable familiar interface for someone coming from a typical MMORPG.

I too am an elder fan. Ive played TES games since the very first one Arena and loved them all. The only real fail game was Battlespire. In a way this game reminds me of Battlespire because many things they are trying to do are not TES and this is exactly what they did with Battlespire to make it fail so badly

The game needs to be a first/third person game like the single player games and it really needs to be TES focused and not DAOC 2.

I hope this isnt the final draft of this game. There is no such thing as too big to fail in the MMO market. Something like this could cause major changes in teh management of Bethesda if it fails.

Indeed, it almost seems like the bigger they (MMOs) are the harder they tend to fall and I hope having "Elder Scrolls" attached to it doesn't result in an unattainable goal for it.

I'm still being cautiously optimistic until more firm details are released which, unfortunately, won't be for a while yet. I'm also hoping that the powers that be will be saying something next week to at least help assuage some fears and concerns the fans are rightfully brining up.