Is this even a TES game? I want it to be . . .

Post » Mon Dec 24, 2012 11:26 am

I've been thinking about this since I heard about TESO.

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I've been eating up, reading up, every little bit of information I can find on this game; from the lore and combat to the visuals and factions along with the races, classes, and everything else that's out there right now. So, let me jump right into it:

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The combat isn't what I've come to expect from TES. Someone could claim that it's just not possible in an MMO, but I'm seeing modern MMO out there do some amazing things. Yeah, I've read up on the combat system as they've presented it so far and . . . it's neat, sort of, for another setting and game entirely. It's just not TES. I've experiences TES combat enough to know what I'm looking for in a TES game, and I'm not hearing anything about the things that actually draw me to the series.

The races, especially the elves, don't look like the races in the main Elder scrolls series, so far as we've seen. The Altmer lady we keep seeing looks like a Human with pointy ears. Ever look at what Elves in TES look like? Ignore that mods that try and change that, and just look at the base. Elves in TES have very particular facial elements.

The Factions. Just. The factions. Really?

This nonsense about 'practicality' and 'realism' has anyone else read their reasoning behind Altmer architecture? Not practical? I'm sorry, long standing ideas of wha these races do in the world are practical for this setting. We use glass weapons and armor in this universe. Yes. You can make buildings out of it. And you can, in TES and in reality, make buildings out of pottery, we have actual examples of it. What next? Are you going to get rid of all the wonderful, near alien, fantasy elements that made Morrowind, its architecture and its peoples so visually interesting?

The visuals do not look like a TES game, they look more like something from 'that other game'. I love the art in TES, even at its most bland, well, TES bland is breath taking, and their breath taking would knock other game visuals flat on their butts. The architecture in Morrowind, the beautiful forests in Oblivion, the jagged misty, snow capped, mountains in Skyrim. I'm not seeing any of this. I'm not even seeing the same style. I'm seeing a completely different style, 'sometimes' trying to make something I sort of recognize . . . but it's just not there.

Open exploration. Open character advancement. Open combat. Open mixing and matching of abilities. Complete soloability. The ability to steal everything that's not bolted down. The ability to murder and cheat and steal from everyone even people that think you're on their side. The ability to wear and use whatever you want and be viable. The ability to advance in any manner you want and be viable. The ability join in game factions and move through various story archs. All these things and so many more are a part of the very 'base' of a TES experience, and, some of these things, quite simply, are not there.

Classes. I liked the ability to choose classes in TES from the perspective as a starter point for skills, or to make my own personalized class. In Skyrim I was happy too, no classes, just skill and perk advancement via use. I'm . . . just not feeling what I've heard so far from TESO in comparison.

Yes, I realize it's a different team, but when I see them outright changing both new and longstanding TES lore to make systems work (such as factions), systems they didn't have to include, I wonder if it's really TES at all. The Lore is not the TES lore I've come to love and know when they start fiddling with it. The Orcs? Moon Sugar? Skooma? Architecture? Issues of what's practical or realistic on our terms in a universe that is not on our terms? So many things just seem wrong.

Yes, I realize it's an MMO and single player elements simple aren't sensible. However, if you take all those elements we've come to love out . . . is it still TES?

What is this nonsense with the Orcs and their lore justification for being in that faction? What is with this faction nonsense at all? Why are there racial restrictions on some of the factions such restrictions make no sense for? Why do you not understand moonsugar? Why do the Bretons in your concept art look like Nords? Why do the Altmer in your art and game look like Humans with pointy ears instead of like Altmer? Why are there dozens of other visual and lore changes that do not, at all, fit in with the themes of TES? These aren't even things you should be able to get wrong. You can visually see what an Altmer looks like in TES. Open up Skyrim and look for God's sake. And the lore mistakes? You can see the actual lore well recorded in and out of their various games. Go look. No, you don't know better than Bethesda and the, "Things might have happened differently in the past that recorded" is amongst the weakest excuses I've ever heard, when some of these changes aren't things you can mistake - the lore surrounding the Orcs in the Daggerfall faction are a great example of this. No one got that wrong in the time of Skyrim. This litterally did not happen.

Is it? Or is it just an MMO with the TES name? If so, because that's what it seems, even worse an MMO with the TES name that is changing things about TES I love, including lore. When they start changing existing lore, especially lore I like, as well as gameplay elements and visual elements and mechanical elements I liked . . . or just plain removing some of them . . . why am I interested? Without the TES portion what's the point? Without the TES portion it's just any other given MMO, so why should I care about it rather than any other given MMO out there? The TES portion has to be there. If it's not, why even bother slapping the TES name on it? Because, so far, it seems like it's just to make money off a recognized name . . .

And this talk of a monthly fee from the community? Where have you all been lately? The Monthly Fee model no longer works. Every single recent pay to play model, out there, has converted to buy to play or free to play with cash shop. The monthly fee model is no longer viable unless you are WoW or one of the long standing MMOs lucky enough to not be a new MMO. Every. Single. One. A monthly fee is no longer, at all, a viable option. Every single recent release converting away from a monthly fee model is the only needed proof of that. No matter what game may want to be successful like a long standing MMO of a particular name that can still get away with a monthly fee . . . you, any of you new MMOs out there, are not that game. You never will be. Every single recent release has proven that, beyond all doubt. No, you will not be an exception. If anyone tries to tell you differently THEY ARE DELUSIONAL. More importantly, I don't want you to be that bloody game. At all. Stop even looking at that game. Drop the visuals and give us TES style visuals.
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JAY
 
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Post » Mon Dec 24, 2012 1:30 pm

I'll have to start with an apology, because I didn't read most of your post. It's just very late and I have a headache (and ADHD from which reading it all would cause me a headache even if I didn't have one).

Wanted to say something on this part though
...Someone could claim that it's just not possible in an MMO...

If you take killcams out (though I don't see why), how on earth is TES different from online FPS games? Maybe not making every aspect exactly the same like in the past games, but saying it wouldn't work is a bunch of crap in my humble opinion. :tongue:

Also


The races, especially the elves, don't look like the races in the main Elder scrolls series, so far as we've seen. The Altmer lady we keep seeing looks like a Human with pointy ears. Ever look at what Elves in TES look like? Ignore that mods that try and change that, and just look at the base. Elves in TES have very particular facial elements.

Also, again-in my humble opinion, the game looks like crap design-wise. It seems to be a modern formula that if one makes a MMO it needs to look cheerful and cartoonish like WOW looked. I didnt like most of the pics I've seen from TESO, it looks like something I'd buy my kids (says the 21 years old guy who still enjoys playing Spyro the Dragon, that probably means something :P ).

Well guess I read it all after all. All in all, I didn't read much about the game, since, as soon as I saw the monthly fee thing I knew I was not going to buy the game. Ever. I have been a Final Fantasy and Metal Gear solid fan for a lot more years than I was of TES, I actually bought ps3 solely to be able to play further FFs and MGS4, but I skipped both Final Fantasy XI and XIV for the same reason. Buying the game once is enough for me.

About the rest I'm not going to hate too much, aside from game's aesthetics that make me want to throw up, I'm not going to judge other features before I try the game (which I'm not going to try so I'll never know :P ). Who knows, maybe they do make the next WOW. TES currently has tons of fans, that's for sure, plenty of people are ready to pay for it, and this is a different team so there's no actual idea on what to expect.
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Hussnein Amin
 
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Post » Mon Dec 24, 2012 4:42 pm

This is a TES game in the sense that it is set in the same world. However, it is not a TES game in the sense of it fitting in preceisely with the lore of Elder Scrolls 1 - 5. Think of this more along the lines of how Redguard and Battlespire fit in the TES universe.

The Elder Scrolls online is examining an era of Tamrielic history that has never been explored before, which is why they picked a point on the timeline that has no specific recorded lore events, before the coming of Tiber Septim and the establishment of the Empire as we came to know it in the first four Elder Scrollc core series games.

What won't surprise me is when TES VI comes out, we start finding ancient books telling of events that will have unfold in TESO. These books would likely be heralded as ancient volumes surviving the revisionist history of the early Septim Dynasty, surpressing the truth about the era, specifically Molag Bal's involvement in the affairs of Cyrodiil and the the conflicting claims to the throne on the part of different factions.

It's just a matter of, when you are actually able to play it, thinking of it is something other than TES VI or TES Zero... It is a prequel to the events of Arena, but nor a prequel TO Arena...
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Tracy Byworth
 
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Post » Mon Dec 24, 2012 4:06 pm

First I want to say that I found your post, interesting, i do however want to snip out one big part...

...And this talk of a monthly fee from the community? Where have you all been lately? The Monthly Fee model no longer works. Every single recent pay to play model, out there, has converted to buy to play or free to play with cash shop. The monthly fee model is no longer viable unless you are WoW or one of the long standing MMOs lucky enough to not be a new MMO. Every. Single. One. A monthly fee is no longer, at all, a viable option. Every single recent release converting away from a monthly fee model is the only needed proof of that. No matter what game may want to be successful like a long standing MMO of a particular name that can still get away with a monthly fee . . . you, any of you new MMOs out there, are not that game. You never will be. Every single recent release has proven that, beyond all doubt. No, you will not be an exception. If anyone tries to tell you differently THEY ARE DELUSIONAL. More importantly, I don't want you to be that bloody game. At all. Stop even looking at that game. Drop the visuals and give us TES style visuals.

First, as you pointed out, WoW or "one of the long standing MMO's" it is viable, this disproves your earlier statement that it is not. Your follow up argument that TESO will never be WoW also doesn't jive well with me because WoW IS successful, something every MMO wants to be. It doesn't need to mirror WoW to be successful however, you go on to say TESO cannot be the exception, but yet you make WoW the exception to your previous argument by pointing out that is it fine with pay-to-play. Also I'd like to point out TESO hasn't even hit beta yet, even now the visuals are better then WoW in many ways. I also do not want TESO to be WoW, I do however want it to be successful, which also means it may miss some points that I'd like to see but I realize what i want isn't always realistic.

The reason I like pay-to-play is twofold.

1. My say matters at that point, if I am a subscriber then my cancellation and those of people who share my beef WILL get noticed. Money talks after all, and this helps push what has made WoW include features that have drawn players back to it.

2. Money means a healthier game, it means more dollars to the company which can get more staff hired, happier coders who may share in the companies prosperity and leads to TESO helping ensure players stick around.
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Myles
 
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Post » Mon Dec 24, 2012 11:11 am

The guys that played the alpha back in October stated the game pretty much plays like Skyrim, and in fact, there were points during the demo where they forgot they weren't playing Skyrim. That kinda says something, don't ya think?

http://elderscrollsotr.mymiddleearth.com/2012/10/26/eso-teso-skyrim-elder-scrolls-bethesda-zenimax-elder-scrolls-online-dragonborn-episode-43-hands-on-with-eso/
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Lauren Graves
 
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