This story from Gamespy says it all. : Othor Games

» Mon May 14, 2012 3:39 pm

So let me get this straight...

you are using a graphic - PHOTOSHOPPED in a way to prove your point with stuff that has nothing to do with the actual game itself - to prove your point?

Bad logic is bad.

» Mon May 14, 2012 7:58 am

For further reading & enlightenment may I point you to

http://www.cracked.com/blog/the-7-biggest-dike-moves-in-history-online-gaming/

Not only gives you a good idea of what your in for, but also gut bustingly hilarious reading.

But, of course, I KNOW you guys already know all this. I admire your courage and pity
your anuses.

Also, since the mods keep locking my other topics,
In Before Lock!

» Mon May 14, 2012 3:58 am

http://pc.gamespy.com/pc/elder-scrolls-online/1224380p1.html

I lol'd when I saw this because this is so true, and is exactly
how I feel about ESO as of right now. Sure, Beth could make me
change my mind but the first screens aren't looking to promising.

They can show all the shots from the game they want but as
soon as you turn on the UI, it becomes :
Yet Another Generic Fantasy MMO.

(and yes I realize that 2nd pic was shopped)

I tend to agree after i saw the screenshots.Another MMO that will most likely go down the river ..nothing special it seems.Another clone of a clone.

» Mon May 14, 2012 5:02 am

For further reading & enlightenment may I point you to

http://www.cracked.com/blog/the-7-biggest-dike-moves-in-history-online-gaming/

Not only gives you a good idea of what your in for, but also gut bustingly hilarious reading.

But, of course, I KNOW you guys already know all this. I admire your courage and pity
your anuses.

Also, since the mods keep locking my other topics,
In Before Lock!

Oh my stars and gathers.
Is this [censored] what humanity has come to in the 21st century?
I dont think I want to go on..

Nothing wrong with any of my apertures, by the way.

» Mon May 14, 2012 8:26 am

http://pc.gamespy.com/pc/elder-scrolls-online/1224380p1.html

I lol'd when I saw this because this is so true, and is exactly
how I feel about ESO as of right now. Sure, Beth could make me
change my mind but the first screens aren't looking to promising.

They can show all the shots from the game they want but as
soon as you turn on the UI, it becomes :
Yet Another Generic Fantasy MMO.

(and yes I realize that 2nd pic was shopped)

Hello there OP. The Gamespy article basically says what most of us are thinking. The WoW mockup picture was hillarious

» Mon May 14, 2012 6:22 am

This story from Gamespy judges a book by its cover.

This comment I've never understood. If there's one thing I've learnt in life it's that you can, in fact, judge a 'book' by its cover. If it smells like you know what, and it looks like you know what, then you'd be right in guessing it's exactly that.

» Mon May 14, 2012 1:47 pm

This story from Gamespy judges a book by its cover.

They, like most of us, know how sh*t smells like. And yes, you can judge a book by it's cover.

Regards,
Eno

» Mon May 14, 2012 3:00 pm

This comment I've never understood. If there's one thing I've learnt in life it's that you can, in fact, judge a 'book' by its cover. If it smells like you know what, and it looks like you know what, then you'd be right in guessing it's exactly that.

that doesnt really apply to games, where the key difference is in how they play.

» Mon May 14, 2012 8:15 am

This comment I've never understood. If there's one thing I've learnt in life it's that you can, in fact, judge a 'book' by its cover. If it smells like you know what, and it looks like you know what, then you'd be right in guessing it's exactly that.

You would understand it if you were familiar with (modern) books*
On these titles quite often an artist would be put to make a cover that would gather the most customers, not unoften using scantily clad or quite naked girls, or young men, only to find that between the covers of the book itself all this tittelation was implied and the cover was just.. marketing.
Sort of not unlike how Skyrim was sold as the game that would hark back to Morrowind greatness while all the while being the most shallow thing to ever have sullied the TES franchise with its presence.

* 1950-1980

» Mon May 14, 2012 12:52 pm

You would understand it if you were familiar with (modern) books*
On these titles quite often an artist would be put to make a cover that would gather the most customers, not unoften using scantily clad or quite naked girls, or young men, only to find that between the covers of the book itself all this tittelation was implied and the cover was just.. marketing.
Sort of not unlike how Skyrim was sold as the game that would hark back to Morrowind greatness while all the while being the most shallow thing to ever have sullied the TES franchise with its presence.

* 1950-1980

...you're taking what I said literally. You're also using the quote literally. Neither of which should be. I'm familiar with the idiom and how it's used in the metaphorical sense. My point is that essence of what it's implying is wrong. Humans do judge almost everything at first glance. First impressions last and are often the most correct. I'd love The Elder Scrolls to prove me wrong, but how many MMORPGs since World of Warcraft which have followed in its footsteps have been a success?

» Mon May 14, 2012 3:14 am

...you're taking what I said literally. You're also using the quote literally. Neither of which should be. I'm familiar with the idiom and how it's used in the metaphorical sense. My point is that essence of what it's implying is wrong. Humans do judge almost everything at first glance. First impressions last and are often the most correct. I'd love The Elder Scrolls to prove me wrong, but how many MMORPGs since World of Warcraft which have followed in its footsteps have been a success?

I agree and I understand, but I used the literal meaning of the expression to demonstrate that sometime you cannot judge a book by its cover.
It may just all be marketing.
Now I may be an old hasbeen but I thought that in this day and age people were more conscious of this 'cover' than ever before, what, with all their implants and lifts and tattoos.
I am just pointing out that now, as it always has been, you cannot judge a book by its cover because people make a blasted hard effort to let the cover outshine the contents.

» Mon May 14, 2012 2:27 pm

I am just pointing out that now, as it always has been, you cannot judge a book by its cover because people make a blasted hard effort to let the cover outshine the contents.

I'm not exactly sure what you're implying here. Either you're implying that what we've seen is the cover and the contents will disappoint us even more, or you're saying that what we've seen is the contents, and the cover will dress it up to be something it isn't.

Either way, I think I agree with you; what we've seen isn't good.

» Mon May 14, 2012 12:55 pm

I'm not exactly sure what you're implying here. Either you're implying that what we've seen is the cover and the contents will disappoint us even more, or you're saying that what we've seen is the contents, and the cover will dress it up to be something it isn't.

Either way, I think I agree with you; what we've seen isn't good.

What Im saying here is not really about the game as it is about human nature.
Im cautiously optimistic about the game itself, probably because it hasnt been ruined for me by experiences with similar MMO's
What could drive me off the game in a terminal way is irrevocable bowdlerisation and disneyfication of existing lore.
I have not seen any of that yet.

» Mon May 14, 2012 6:19 pm

I'm not exactly sure what you're implying here. Either you're implying that what we've seen is the cover and the contents will disappoint us even more, or you're saying that what we've seen is the contents, and the cover will dress it up to be something it isn't.

Either way, I think I agree with you; what we've seen isn't good.

To the point, none of us KNOW for sure what this thing truly is going to be like. Given the information
supplied by reputable sources, and forming an initial opinion from that, it don't look good Batman.

» Mon May 14, 2012 1:51 pm

...Im cautiously optimistic about the game itself...

Then we're two sides of the same coin. I'm probably on the cautiously pessimistic side. :ermm:

» Mon May 14, 2012 5:16 pm

Nice article. Sums up my first impressions nicely.

» Mon May 14, 2012 7:49 am

Rather agree with the article

» Mon May 14, 2012 6:50 am

The core means it's just yet another Tank-healer-ranged DPS - melee DPS grind fest that we've seen a million times.It means you're still going to be standing around for an hour with 5 dudes but you can't do anything yet because you're still looking for healer. It means your group is going to be 4 hours into some dungeon and you're going to be screwed because the guy that can pick locks has to bail.

What most people wanted is skyrim with a friend of our choosing.

What you're giving us is yet another tired EQ clone.

Completely agree, couldn't say it any better.

» Mon May 14, 2012 10:16 am

I am wondering why it was apparently written somewhere in the game developer bible that MMOs need to have stupid cartoon graphics.

I don't think an MMO set in the elder scrolls universe is a bad idea--I've actually wanted it for a while--but I wish it was... y'know... more elder scrolls-y looking.

» Mon May 14, 2012 12:24 pm

I am wondering why it was apparently written somewhere in the game developer bible that MMOs need to have stupid cartoon graphics.

I don't think an MMO set in the elder scrolls universe is a bad idea--I've actually wanted it for a while--but I wish it was... y'know... more elder scrolls-y looking.

i think its about creating as many assets as possible and not having to take the time to model them and texture them to be realistic. the art style is a result of a few things, accessibility [mmos need large populations, so if everyone requires a gaming rig to play it then that cuts your player base a bit] and being able to pump out a ton of different art assets, landscape, ground cover and lod, buildings, creatures and npc, armor and weapons, dungeons.
think about it. it might not have been obvious at first, but its a good reason to go cartoon :/

» Mon May 14, 2012 4:52 am

I am wondering why it was apparently written somewhere in the game developer bible that MMOs need to have stupid cartoon graphics.

For obvious reasons, MMOs have inferior graphics to single-player games, so I think the idea is that if you go for a cartoony look, you can make the game look fairly modern while getting away with not having too much detail on characters and the environment. If you go for a realistic artistic style, then the lack of detail and mediocre quality of the graphics becomes more obvious.

But I agree - I hate the cartoony look. I'd much rather have a realistic art style, even if it's only on par with single player games from the early 2000s in terms of quality and detail.

» Mon May 14, 2012 1:41 pm

I am wondering why it was apparently written somewhere in the game developer bible that MMOs need to have stupid cartoon graphics.

I don't think an MMO set in the elder scrolls universe is a bad idea--I've actually wanted it for a while--but I wish it was... y'know... more elder scrolls-y looking.

Me neither and for a brief moment I was hoping they had at least made an attempt at carrying over what makes the single player aspect so
great. But such ain't the case.

I can understand the toony graphics as more of a necessity because of hardware limitations.

» Mon May 14, 2012 5:21 pm

I'll agree with some of the sentiment in that article. ZOS probably shouldn't have allowed their big announcement to be handled by a third party magazine article. I think a press conference with some developers present to address questions/concerns would have been better. Even more awesome would be something like an Apple event where they showcase the product a little on a stage.

Heck, maybe a more overt reveal is still coming. Let's hope so.

» Mon May 14, 2012 4:39 am

For obvious reasons, MMOs have inferior graphics to single-player games, so I think the idea is that if you go for a cartoony look, you can make the game look fairly modern while getting away with not having too much detail on characters and the environment. If you go for a realistic artistic style, then the lack of detail and mediocre quality of the graphics becomes more obvious.

But I agree - I hate the cartoony look. I'd much rather have a realistic art style, even if it's only on par with single player games from the early 2000s in terms of quality and detail.

I'd much prefer the cartoony look, which I detest, to the early 2000s graphics.
Really, it shouldn't be all that hard for them to make it look like vanilla Oblivion.