Sorry if this has been posted before, i came across this article from a few days back on RPS:
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2013/03/20/zenimax-elder-scrolls-online-will-become-more-open/


I haven't been following TES:O too closely lately, but from what I read much earlier on was that TES:O was meant to be a sandboxy world, where , like in TES, you could explore and weren't tethered to following "quest chains" and other such theme-park mmo tropes but rather it was going to play out like TES games, where you basically are free to explore and find random quests and things rather then following a pre designed theme-park.

HAs this changed? The above quote sure sounds like it, and from other hands-on from PAX that I've read it also seems like the combat is going more mmo-style, with fireballs that curve to hit you and you can't move out of the way, etc.

If this is the case then it seems that Zenimax doesn't quite understand why so many people love TES games, it'st he open world, the freedomt he player hast o explore and make the game of it what he wants, not be hand held through a pre designed path doing crappy "go fetch x/kill y" quests and the like.

This info is really disappointing, I had some sliver of hope this might turn out to be more like TES and less like "Generic mmo 101," Which I am sick and tired of to death, it got old 10 years ago, and it's still old today.

Never changed, was always supposed to be a themepark.

But just one point of contention (keep in mind I love sandbox games) TES games do have quest-lines you can follow and become tethered to and most of them are fairly linear. On the other hand, you can simply progress without doing a single quest. I don't see why the same wouldn't be true for ESO. Most MMORPGs you *could* grind on mobs or PvP all the way to max level without doing 99% of the quests but that just isn't nearly as interesting.

I think ESO needs to be Theme-box or Sand-park hybrid personally, but right now it is more on the Themepark side.

From all that I have read and watched I think ESO will be a nice blend of sandbox and themepark. With comments like, "we need to make sure there are plenty of things to do besides the traditional MMO content of PvE and PvP" Which I think means "mini games", at least I hope it does. What I think and hope ZOS has done is create enough things to do in the game world of ESO that you don't need to login each time and just PvE or PvP, that there will be lots of other activities to do. I have no idea what those things will be but I am hoping for things like for instance in the MMO Vanguard Saga of Heroes there is a mini game called Diplomacy and it is so vast that it is actually a game within the game. By using diplomacy in Vanguard you can buff yourself, buff your raid groups, and even put semi permanent buffs on whole cities that benefit crafters. I am really hoping for things like this...

ESO was never going to be a sandbox game. From the beginning it was suppose to be pretty much a theme park type MMO (with a spritz of sandbox in there).

There is a soft-lock system in place. We've known that for a long time now. And it's needed honestly. In the SP game it's fine actually having to aim, but you have to realize that people will have high latency in this game. If you played any kind of FPS before with high latency you know it's almost impossible to actually hit something. In one of the videos you can see a fireball curve to the target that he was aiming at, but it's not like you can't dodge it. Strafing away won't do it, you actually will need to use your dodging ability to do it.

I always laugh when people bring up the, "collect x item/kill y number of things." I can recall many missions like that in the single player games too. Anyways, if you listen to many people who have talked about some of the quests most of them don't even sound like any of those at all. And there's nothing wrong with getting a mission that tells me to clear out a cave of bandits, or collect some Nirnroot.

But, I'm going to go and point out the first sentence you make in this post. Go and actually look up some of the new things about the game before you criticize it. Nothing aggravates me more than people who just complain about the game but yet no nothing about it.

Edit: @Rahl I read an article that said there was going to be some type of mini-games in the game (fishing was an example I believe.)

A thempark mmo doesn't have nearly the freedom.

In TES games you can pretty much just explore the world and come across quests all over the world, yes some quests have quest-chains that have multiple parts fo them.

However a "theme-park" mmos is very rigid, you can't usually "explore the world" at all and have to stick to specific zones as they are designed specifically to filter players from one area to another. This isn't how TES games are, you are free to wander and go about anywherea nd still find quests and things to do.

As with most MMOs the common threads come up and the classic arguments emerge of Sandbox vs. Theme Park and what is better for the game. Sandbox does not mean there will be a lack of content to explore. What is has meant in the past, though the meaning is somewhat lost over the years, is player created/generated content and a very open do what you want as you wish type of game. GTA is very open, and many consider it to be a sandbox type of game, and in some aspects it is but not in a true form in a way that an MMO like SWG was.

Theme Park type games also do not mean you have to do quest X,Y,Z in that order to progress, you generally have a lot of choice in how you progress or go from one zone to the next, be it quests, PvP, exploring and getting XP, etc. A guided experience is not a bad thing, and in an MMO it is typical. Players need direction and need some for of content being produced for them if the tools are lacking to create their own content. TESO would not do well being a full "sand box" MMO and most that have tried to go down that path really have not succeeded in the past ten years. Yes there are some exceptions to this rule (Like SWG before it was shutdown or EvE in which players are the content).

You can have elements of both, and most games and MMOs do to an extent, which is not a bad thing at all.

all i ever wanted from TESO was an open world sandbox game ... im in agreement with you that this news is a very big disapointment

Yes there will be "leveled" zones so you just won't be able to travel all over the place and all that jazz. But ZOS, and many people who have tested the game so far, have said that you can just do what you want in the zone. And some quests are only rewarded to those that actually go exploring, not having anything actually leading up to them.