Straightforward Discussion of Features

Post » Mon May 14, 2012 4:38 pm

At least they are leveling with us from the beginning, rather than just letting us think something may be in only to find out only right before launch, if even then, that it won't be.

Look at the spin surrounding TOR. They kept saying that all the things people would expect in an MMO will be there, along with the story, and yet TOR launched missing many staples of MMOs, and instead of the four pillars, it was more like two: Story, an oh yeah, we tossed in some other things too.

Star Trek Online? All through development, when all they kept showing was Starfleet stuff and people were wondering if the Klingon faction was even real, and they assured us that they'd start revealing the Klingon stuff "next month". Only to find out in closed beta that the Klingon Faction was only about 20% complete. But Cryptic never gave any official statements, just letting people believe that it would all be in place by launch.

Star Wars Galaxies, all through its development they hyped the hell out of player cities, the ability to ride mounts, and drive vehicles. They waited until two weeks before launch to reveal that those three things, which were THE main selling points, would not be in at launch, but would be patched in as soon as possible afterward.

At least Zenimax Online Studios is being straightforward with what TESO is not at this juncture rather than just leaving us to speculate.

Many ES players do not understand the degree that most MMO companies mislead the community by not saying anything at all. I've heard less "we can't talk about this yet" statements from ZOS than I have from any other MMO developer. They are talking about it. We may not like what they are saying, but they are at least talking about it. And in terms of MMO development discussion, it's refreshing to say the least. I would rather have a developer deal honestly and say that this or that isn't in the game, than have them say nothing about it and let us assume it will be when it isn't.

Beleive me, ZOS is off to a more positive start as a developer than a lot of the others. It actually makes me want to give them a chance. I get it that some of you don't, but then some of you do not appreciate what most MMO fan communities have to endure in terms of lies by omission on the part of developers. ZOS has made claims that this or that feature is too difficult to do in an MMO, and they are BS, especially when those same things already exist in other MMOs. But at least they have made no attempt to hide the fact that those features are not there, for whatever reason.
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michael flanigan
 
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Post » Mon May 14, 2012 1:04 pm

Agreed. Using (lame) excuses is nowhere near as bad as your examples. They've been, as of now, completely transparent about what the game is. Nothing makes me like a dev. more than when they're honest with their fan base about the important things.
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Red Sauce
 
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Post » Mon May 14, 2012 11:23 pm

Agreed. Especially Paul Sage's statement that this game wasn't aiming to be a good Elder Scrolls game, it was aiming to be a good game. It's, basically, aimed to be a standalone. And that statement really cut deep, but at least it's an honest one. Now the community can react in all honesty back and show what they want from this game and how, realistically, this game could be more what they want it to be.
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Melissa De Thomasis
 
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Post » Mon May 14, 2012 1:49 pm

I've edited your topic title, as threads about other threads, or threads about other forum members, etc., are not permitted topics.
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kiss my weasel
 
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Post » Mon May 14, 2012 6:43 pm

Agreed. Especially Paul Sage's statement that this game wasn't aiming to be a good Elder Scrolls game, it was aiming to be a good game. It's, basically, aimed to be a standalone. And that statement really cut deep, but at least it's an honest one. Now the community can react in all honesty back and show what they want from this game and how, realistically, this game could be more what they want it to be.
That statement was in line with what Bethesda said before Skyrim's release, though. They don't care about previous TES titles, they always start over and just "make the game we want to play themselves". I think that philosophy is not specific to Zenimax Online, but to all their studios.
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HARDHEAD
 
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Post » Mon May 14, 2012 10:19 pm

Regarding the lame BS excuses, I would like for them to explain them. What makes feature X so hard to implement in TESO when other MMOs have already done it? I won't demand that Feature X be put in. For one thing, I do not have access to the big picture. I don't know how the inclusion of Feature X would mesh with features W and Y, to say nothing of features A - V and Z.

Adding features to an MMO is not the same as adding them to a TES game through a mod. If I download a mod for Skyrim that mangles the functionality of another mod, or breaks something in the core game, I can just remove it and relaod a previous saved game and all is well. But throwing a feature into an MMO just to have it could have DIRE consequence on several other features and systems. And a lot of times those consequences don't even rear their ugly head until the game goes live, because I don't care how many beta testers you have, until the full playerbase is in there monkeying around with everything all at once, there is a chance that a major issue gets missed because the different function calls just didn't stack the same way durring testing.

Sometimes fixing it is like removing a piece of hay from the bottom of a needle-stack.

I'm not trying to make excuses for anyone. MMOs are the most pain-in-the-butt types of games to develop. Anyone who would suggest otherwise has no clue. I've been following MMO development since Ultima Online was still in production.

There is a general rule of thumb concerning MMOs that we would do well to all familiarize ourselves with from the start: No MMO is ever finished. Show me a single MMO that has been operational for more than a year that has not been added to or significantly altered in some way. We may not like it, but it may be a good thing that some of what we ES fans consider to be staples are held back until after launch. I would rather have to wait for a feature to be added and be given full attention so it isn't just something that feels tacked on. ZOS would be stupid not to pay attention to what the community is most wanting to see added. But I can tell you right now that attacking them over whatever core design decision that has been made is not going to make them sit up and take notice.

Civility is out greatest asset. The minute we lose it, is the minute we lose credibility.

That's just been my experience in many different MMO communities. Disagree with me if you will. It's no skin off my nose...
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kitten maciver
 
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Post » Mon May 14, 2012 7:11 pm

Agreed. Using (lame) excuses is nowhere near as bad as your examples. They've been, as of now, completely transparent about what the game is. Nothing makes me like a dev. more than when they're honest with their fan base about the important things.

Totally agree with you on this.Gamers especially MMO gamers always ask devs to be honest and up front and when they are just that people complain.Way i see it is,you might as well get all the neg out of the way now and then we who are prepared to give them a chance can sit back and enjoy the build up of the game.

Guess it's a case of: be careful what you wish for lmfao.
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Ria dell
 
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Post » Tue May 15, 2012 3:35 am

Guess it's a case of: be careful what you wish for lmfao.

Indeed... An MMO developer is damned if he does and damned if he doesn't. No matter what design decisions get made, somebody is going to be hacked off about it. No... A LOT of people will be hacked off. And they'll be divided into groups, each with a different reason why they are hacked off about it.

Look how bent out of shape a lot of us have been since the game was announced. We know next to nothing of what the game is actually going to be. even with what we know it likely WON'T be, we still do not have near enough information to go on to make a fair assessment. Who knows? Maybe some of the things that TESO will have will make up for some of the things it won't.

Even MMOs that svck by many standards have some redeeming characteristics. So until we are shown all the features that TESO has going for it, we just don't know for sure how it will turn out.
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Charlotte Buckley
 
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Post » Mon May 14, 2012 3:46 pm

Zeni is handling everything perfect so far. Great job guys and keep up the amazing work :tes:
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Emily Jeffs
 
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