1. Player housing in a neighborhood type setting. Give the players a reason to go visit friends houses, give us a reason to sink time and money into our homes other than personal satisfaction.

2. Raid content from beginning to end.

3. RvR action! You copy DAoC's RvR code line by line if you have too .. players need a reason to be out in the battle areas 24/7 .. protecting what is theirs! Keep and Realm relics that give your realm buffs when you have them, and additional buffs when you have the ones from other realms! I miss the old days of DAoC when your guildies would call you on the phone at 2am yelling "GET ONLINE! MID'S GOT OUR STRENGTH RELIC!!"

4. To hell with class balancing, this has gotten SO far out of control in the current MMO genere. Anytime a company boosts that they will try and maintain class balancing it always ends the same .. all tank, healer, and DPS classes end up being the exact same with different special effects, its sad really.

5. No customizable armor PLEASE! I like to be able to glance at someone running by me in town and know exactly what level that person was, and what content they had completed. I think it's rediculious that you can look like an end game raider at level 1 in most MMOs these days ... What happened to starting as a peon in rags and rising to a god-like state by end game in shiney matching armor? It should take time to look that cool.

6. Combat needs to be 100% smooth, when I hit a skill it needs to go off that instant (with the exception of some skills that have casting times, such as spells), not 3 seconds later because i need to wait for some kind of animation. LOTRO did this and their combat system was a flop .. they actually ended up revising the entire system about a year after release and its still too slow.

7. The Holy Trinity Works! To hell with the flavor of the month, this is an MMO, i want to tank, while my wife heals me and my buddies DPS.

8. Crafting needs to be beneficial but not to the point that it overwhelms the hard earned loot you get through either PvE, or PvP. The best way I have seen this happen is from crafting items that augment, or change your current gear in some way. I.E.: Blacksmithing could make armor plating to increase the defense bonus of plate and chain armor. Crafting skills like Alchemy have always been popular with the majority of players because they knew when they started getting raid gear that they could still benefit from the 10s or even 100s of hours spent leveling the crafting skill up.

9. Weapons and armor need to be Over The Top in design when you start getting to end game. Enough of this "realism" junk. People want to look badass, they want giantic 2 handed swords so huge it causes graphics clipping on the ground under their feet. I know this does not speak for everyone, but after nearly 20 years playing and creating games I feel I knowthe current culture well enough to speak for the majority on this issue.

10. World Dungeons. Open world dungeons give such an amazing sence of community, even if it may have negitive side effects sometimes .. those that played EQ1 may well remember getting a group of mid 30s together to venture into Lower Guk only to find every named spawn down there being camped by high level necromancers. It was not this way all the time, but it forced people to communicate, which in todays games you rarely ever have to speak to anyone. Hell in WoW you could easily go from level 1 to raid geared without ever typing a single word into your chat box.

There is my top 10, sorry if I upset anyone, I feel pretty strongly about TES series, and I am also an avid MMOer .. some of my views may seem strange to the younger MMO croud.

1. There will be no player housing implemented in ESO at launch.
2. Can't answer your question in regards to raids but I wouldn't expect it until endgame. There will be plenty of instanced and heroic dungeons for smaller groups before then.
3. I'm sure there will be plenty of incentive to participate in RvR. It should also be noted that one can enter RvR at any level, and at any time. They will be scaled to an appropriate level so that they can be somewhat competitive in regards to everyone else in Cyrodiil.
4. This is a common issue with every and all MMORPGs as you will always have a class with a spec that is just better than everyone else. I'm sure ZOS will do their best to try and address these issues as fast as they can.
5. I agree it doesn't make a lot of sense for lowbies to have amazing armor due to a vanity slot. As long as there is a lot of variety, a lot of gear, and I can essentially wear what I want, I'll be happy.
6. Hopefully this is something ZOS has down as the game will have real-time combat and timing blocks and such will be pivotal. I'm not too concerned as more recent MMOs seem to be better about smoother combat.
7. The holy trinity will certainly still be present, and it will definitely play a role at endgame (particularly raiding). As far as that though, most of the game can be completed by any group and ZOS is taking a moderate break away from the trinity by making players a little bit more well-rounded. Ultimately if you want to focus on a particular role, for example tanking, it should be supported according to what Matt Firor has said in interviews.
8. No word on crafting from ZOS so it will definitely be interesting how it's implemented. Whatever they do, crafting must matter and have a purpose, otherwise there is no point to the system.
9. As long as the armor doesn't look completely ridiculous I'm fine with ZOS being as creative as they like (especially in regards to Daedric armor). I would definitely like to see some elements of iconic armor sets retained in the gear placed in ESO though personally.
10. Public dungeons are in ESO and regardless of if one is in a group or not, if you help kill a mob everybody gets credit. Kill stealing is a thing of the past and the entire point of public dungeons to encourage socializing, build friendships, creating stronger faction ties, and make the overall community that much better.

Hopefully it is something that will be implimented someday though. I just hope they do it differently thatn it has been done in the past and give players are reason to have a home, and a reason to visit other peoples homes, other than vanity.


There have been a few shining examples of how to do raid content in previous games, not to say they would work or fit into TESO. First being Guild Wars 2. Events that happen around the world that must be triggered to begin. These events may start out as a minor, "Escourt this trader from X location to Y location." then through a series of events it turns into a demonic boss mob summoning demon spawning portals.


I somewhat disagree with the level scalling. I know many people enjoy being able to jump right into things, but this leads to having a lot of "cannon fodder" from players that just do not know how to control there class yet. There is a very real sence of accomplishment when you can finally contribute to your realms war efforts, this may take weeks or even months to prepare for (i.e. leveling/gearing up). I have seen some indication that there will be realm wide rewards for the RvRvR, I just hope they make it as important as it was in DAoC. If the incentive is not there, it will not attract as many people.


I am fully aware that class balancing is a necessary evil in any MMO. The point I was trying to get across was that most games these days start out with very defined classes, then over time alter them to be practically the same class with different graphics for abilities. I fondly recall the Paladin class from World of Warcraft durning the Burning Crusade expansion. We were the underdogs of the tanking classes, but if you knew how to do it, you could accomplish some really amazing things! I am okay with not being the #1 tanking class in the game as long as I can fit a specific role.



Variety is great, as long as they follow an armor structure. Level 1-15 armor must appear ragged, level 16-30 looks better but still tarnished, no over the top graphics (still quite plain looking), level 31-45 armor starts to shine up, maybe add some spikey goodness, or some nifty glow effects to caster gear, level 46-60 this is where ebony armor should start coming in, players start to look very bad*** etc. etc..



The realism of the past Elder Scrolls games it what really concerns me. Lord of the Rings online tried to go for realistic combat and ended up with very poor combat controls. I love TES series, and even the combat, but I hope they brush up on past mistakes before they decide to impliment something that could be quite negitive to the game design.



I've read similar things and am still a bit concerned. Giving players the ability to be self sufficient can lead to a poor group ethic. There is a very good reason why the "Holy Trinity" works in social games, and I hope the devs realize this.


As I stated before, augments created through crafting to alter the gear you receive through raids/dungeons/PvP would make crafting worthwhile, but would not make either obsolete.


I do admit that some armor I have seen in other MMOs are a bit too over the top. I like that you mentioned the Daedric armor, this is a very good example of epic looking armor. I just hope they are able to do the same with cloth and leather armor.


I am really looking forward to this aspect of the game. Guild Wars 2 does this in a very similar way, and I am very pleased to see TESO adopt the idea. unfortunatly in GW2 this has done little to build friendships and create a stronger community. I will be very interested to see how this works out as we get closer to beta and release.



Thanks for your responces!

I have to disagree with your second one - I think raids should be a secondary focus. It's good to have a few big raids, and make them accessible, but I hope they follow a TES formula and have loads of small dungeons scattered around the world which reward teams of people for exploring.

Bravo, seems to me, is a magnificent phrase

And hopefully never.

Heres my suggestion: I would like to see truely unique cross faction attainable artifacts. What I mean is a group of players from one faction can get unique powerful items off of powerfull npc of another faction and it can constantly trade hands. Owning it grants your character extra power and grants a bonus to your faction when you log in , so your faction mates are compelled to protect you when you are logged in and you become a sort of mini emperor or captain/ arch mage whatever it may be. Theres only one on the server but there may be a handful of them like 10 maybe 15 per server. When you die, the group either rolls or free for all loots you and the item now is owned by a new player on another faction.. To encourage pvp you could have pvp only bonuses or more powerful bonuses when in the pvp zone etc. The item grants pve bonuses too but there would be some incentive to not hoard it and bring it into pvp somehow.

11. an oceanic server pls have love for the aussies and the 3rd shift workers in the US !!

problem with that is that the player with the artificat will probably just sit in the factions territory so he can't be killed by the other factions. meaning his faction just gets a permanent buff with no drawback.

Current culture like Battlefield 3? Or Skyrim? Realism is always better.

I think they should go with realism even ONCE, AoC was last one I think... enough of this stupid stuff like GW2 or Tera, oversided weapons, metal bikinis, thats suitable for some comedy movie IMHO, alien races, God, help me pls, Rift looks badass though, which I personally like alot. Reason why [censored] goes down because everything looks so [censored] stupid. Someone should make a movie from GW2 and Tera, so people could realize how damn silly they really look, just use your imagination and laugh.

I had to take 5 minutes to compose myself I was laughing so hard at this. Let me assure you - you do not speak for the majority in this respect, especially not for TES fans. The weapons in the elder scrolls are typically practical and fit for purpose - more gritty "Game of Thrones" fantasy than high fanatasy. Besides, evident from the sales of Skyrim, the culture is one that favours realism.

Sorry if I offend, but I really would hate it if we had "swords so massive they cause clipping issues on the feet".

here is my list, in no real order and off the top of my head:
1- non-combat skills/activities, i ususally like to play bards (the kind that make music) in mmos
2- a smart combat system, maybe a better version of the classic combat triangle (maybe some weapons beat others [like sword->hammer->spear->sword) while some styles will beat others no matter what weapons are used [like range->magic->melee->range])
3- a large, constant world that is not split off into different hubs, i like my world to be more-or-less seamless. or at least very large hubs
4-> no vanity slots (at least, not during pvp or other combat intinsive activities), i like to know what im up against and those vanity slots are nasty tricks to fall for ("oh, look! someone in a weak looking outfit! let's fight! oh, they had the god-level armour under that outfit? screw you internet")
5-> good outfits other than armour and robes, i like to look good while im slaughtering my enemies or playing music
6-> crafting skills that can make you self-sustaining (or help you milk the economy for all it's worth), stuff like smithing, leather crafting and potion making
7-> a decent player-driven economy, hell some (one, that i know of) mmos go that extra mile and make a totally player-driven world, polyticks*, enviroment and economy
8-> support for the game, don't just throw out a game and leave it alone, update it regularly, more than just every once and a while with expansions
9-> lore friendly, keep the game lore friendly, plain and simple
10-> an interesting world, make the game world live up to expectations

*i know how to spell politics, that was a play on words

Why can't we post Images?! It's 2012!
[img]http://images.eurogamer.net/converted/pics/reviews/morrowind/03b.jpg[/img]

'Cool' is an entirely subjective aesthetic, and it kinda svcks when you have to choose between "looking cool" (according to your own tastes) or having competitive gear. But if there are tiered gears, and you don't like the look of the top tier, that's what you're stuck doing without customization.

Also, I like not advertising my level or achievements. I'm rather humble that way.


That's nice. I want to do something else for once.
(Especially because, as a girl I tend to get stuck with being the heal-[censored] anyway because sixist twerps think that's all girl mmo players can do/want-to-do anyway...)


I'm the exact opposite on that: looting should be beneficial, but not to the point where it overwhelms the player-driven crafting economy.


You certainly don't speak for me on that one.
Not that I"m against OTT design in general; what I'm against is blatant and massive paradigm shifts between mid and endgame. (This is also why I prefer shallow progression over either massive vertical progression or no-progression.) If you are going to go OTT at the 'end game' (which is actually a stupid misnomer, but whatever,) set it up from the beginning. Don't start with gritty pseudo-realism and then go to weilding giant-sized manga-style zanbato as the default endgame sword.



Hey, something I can sort of agree with.


Or the old-school crowd who still pine for a proper reincarnation of what was good about UO...
I'd list my own top-10, but #1 (ditch the class/level design) was shot out of the water from the start and that kinda left me demoralized.

Well I did not get flamed nearly as much as I thought I would.

I understand different people have different opinions, I mearly listed what I would personally enjoy seeing and what I have seen very large groups of people enjoy throughout years and years of gaming history. There are very specific aspects in MMOs that make them popular. I think we can all agree that we want this game to last a while, and not see this game go through the same progression as other games (i.e. server merges, free-to-play, non-existant economy). In order for this game to maintain a solid playerbase I think Bethesda needs to take into account what the majority would like to see, as well as catering to some of the minority crouds. From what I have see they are doing a very good job balancing this. Open World Dungeons, extravigant armor/weapons (i.e. daedric/ebony), DAoC style PvP (RvRvR), raid progression. I only hope they expand on these ideas to make us a game worth invensting some time into. There is nothing wrong with time sinks in an MMO. Some people (and I believe the minority) want to just jump right into a game and participate at an end game level with everything handed to them. Where does this really leave the game in 6 months, or 2 years down the road? Without several sigificant time sinks such as reputation grinding, gear progression through raids/crafting etc. we will see this game dwindle just like so many MMOs before it. Bethesda is new to the MMO genre and I just hope and pray they do not make the same mistakes that Bioware made with SWTOR.

I personally have never really enjoyed the non-combat (rp?) type skills/activities in MMOs. But I do know there is a pretty good sized group of people that do!


Not sure where you are going with this ... I have never seen a game determine the outcome of combat based on weapon type, with the exception of armor resistances. I do however enjoy weapons being strong aginst specific armor types, such as Blunt vs. Plate armor, Piercing vs. Chain armor, Slashing vs. Leather armor. This is something that DAoC did very well.



I would love to see this too, but in an MMO it is quite a bit harder to do than a single player game. I do not think we will see a seamless world this time primarly because of the user end computer limitations. Bethesda needs to make a game that the majority can play on their outdated computers. To make a seamless world you are looking at technology that is still very recent, and beyond what most people can afford.


Agreed! Vanity armor/gear has spirled out of control in the last few years. I am 100% aginst it ... but feel we might be in the minority here unfortunatly.



I believe "good outfits" should come with level. Gear progression is very important. I really enjoy the epic journey going from looking like a homeless bum, to a demi-god by the end of the game.


Crafting has been a double edged sword for many games in the past. Some developers put too much emphsis on it, others, not enough. Either way can break an economy. I believe some of the best crafting systems I have seen in the past revolve around augmenting gear you get through PvE and PvP. These things may include magical armor reinforcements to give your uber plate armor a few more stat points, and increased armor. Thread made from a hagravens hair that you can embroider into your robes to make you more resistant to magic. etc. etc.



Quite a few of your prior points are directly related to this. To get a good feel for what a decent player driven economy may be like we need to look at what has worked in the past. What do people buy at end game, what are the major money sinks, and what do players have to offer other players in exchange for currency?

Lets go way back to Everquest 1 for a moment. One of the most player-driven economic boons I have ever seen was from the year 1999-2000. Players would run around with world with a character that had the ability to teleport all over and advertise that they would take anyone, anywhere for tips! This was pretty much the only time I had ever seen an in game currency change hands just for a specific class skill. Later in Everquest 1's life currency was used for specific class "buffs" such as mana regen, or Hit Point/Armor Class buffs. This was a major part of the game and some people would spend hours and hours per week sitting in a major city area buffing people for tips.

Another good economic booster is Bind on Pickup crafting recipies that make Bind on Equip gear/augments. This gave players a reason to level up their tradeskills, and made them quite a bit of money if they could get those rare drop recipies.


I think this is a pretty safe bet. zenimax and Bethesda wouldnt just leave us hanging.


Lore is another thing I do not think that Bethesda will skimp on. They are the lore masters when it comes to this world.

The trouble I have with that, is it's exactly what everyone who's gone through the progression you mentioned did as well.

I do, seriously, believe there is a better chance of succeeding by appealing to the minority that's being underserved than there is in trying to compete for the majority that's already being massively over-served. The potential dollars aren't as big going that route, but the odds of actually realizing the potential are much greater. And the costs much smaller.

It involves doing a bunch of things the (imo overserved majority) doesn't seem to want, though, so I don't expect to convince you that it's a good idea. I'm just throwing it out there because it's what I'd like to see, and on the longshot that I can convince some of the guys who've already got their games (or close approximations thereof) that it's not a bad idea either.

It's too late for TESO to go that route anyway, so it's a bit of a moot point for now but this is where the topics come up and maybe future developments will remember these discussions.


Except that so many MMOs before have done the exact same thing, focusing on rep-grinding and gear progression through raiding as their 'endgame.' Following the same path as the 'failures' before but hoping to do it 'right' is a very, very fine balancing act; especially with so many other MMOs out there (many of which have gone FTP) offering more or less the same gameplay experience - you're either hoping that the IP alone will hold interest, as that's the only real differentiating factor, or that you can pull off the miracle and find that 'sweet spot' where the rate of progression is fast enough to hold interest but slow enough for the devs to get the new content out before players have gotten bored with the current material.

And that's notwithstanding the (alleged) minority you've written off, who just want something different from the whole "raid for gear to do better raids for better gear" treadmill.

The only place I've seen a robust player-driven economy last, has been sandboxes like UO and Eve - games with full-loss systems, where staple items need regular repair and replacement.

Otherwise, once you hit endgame you're just paying for the last little bits you need to complete the last tier of your gear and maybe some convenience-factor consumables - token coins for fast-travel services (though modern games pretty much erased that from the player economy by offering it at the NPC/environmental level) and some temporary buffs.

The last little bits that the player needs at end game are what people spend the vast majority of their in game currency on. This is what helps drive an economy. Make the content tiered so that in order to progress, it takes a significant time sink. Drop recipies for end game gear modifications throughout the tiers which will keep people buying and selling. This time sink should be sufficient enough to hold the majority of the playerbase (with the expection of those that zerg content at an alarming rate) busy until the next content patch is ready.

I have never been a fan of full loss systems in MMOs, but single random drop systems in PvP have worked in the past. I do not believe a healthy economic system needs to have a full or partial loss system in place to do well. It simpily needs to progress slow enough (with enough time sinks) to allow for players who put that time in to sell their wares to those that are unable to put the time in.

That gear/progression treadmill works. Maybe not for everyone, but there are quite a few people out there that need that progression to keep playing. People need goals. Without those goals they will just hop to the next big thing and so on. We want this game to succeed, not dwindle and die, and I believe the way to do that is through significant time sinks, and raid/gear treadmills.

I have to chime in on #5. I don't want everyone to look exactly the same. I don't want to look like a WoW character with 6 different colors on 8 different pieces of armor.

Also, some people hate customization because they dismiss a lowbie in PvP only to get nuked from behind because someone "bleached" their armor. A buddy did this in DAoC all the time. When we teamed up I always used the gaudiest armor I could put together to get people's attention then he would blast them while I had their attention.

LOL I did the exact same thing in DAoC as a Friar. Plain brown robes, no one ever targetted me and then WHAM!

It's a crutch for games that couldn't otherwise hold people, because the gameplay without the skinnerbox addiction just isn't all that great compared to what you could find in a single-player or lower scale multiplayer game.

Meanwhile, outside the MMO genre there's a host of games - RTSs, FPSs, TBSs - doing extremely well with zero persistent progression.


What's this "we" crap? If it's not a game I care to play, I couldn't care less if it succeeds or dies. The TES IP isn't enough to hold my interest if it's just the same gameplay I could have gotten from practically any other MMO already out there, and by targetting the "general MMO player," ZOS is going after a bunch of other people who likewise don't give a rat's ass about the IP - so I don't see how offering them the same thing they're already doing elsewhere is going to hold them past the point where they realize it's mostly just starting over on the same thing they were already doing elsewhere.

Open world PvP

i personally love to be able to sit back and play some music (usually for money) in games




something like that, in fact, it could replace what i was thinking about, i was thinking making gear choice an important part of combat, not something that can decide a battle before it begins but something that can give an under-dog a boost



personally, i dont expect a large seamless world, but it would be nice


im all for personalizing your armour a bit, maybe with a crest or something along those lines, but not full blown vanity slots. those are just annoying. even worse when you are in pvp and you have no idea what armour someone else is wearing





with a playre driven economy the best looking outfits would probably cost money, but there would be pleanty of decent looking clothes for the noob with style


i personally like the idea of making things from scratch being an option, it gives people something to do and a good way to make money, as long as it is balanced. no ebony ore in a perfectly safe mineing area, no deadric without getting some hearts, ect





i always loved this concept, players driving the economy always beats out other kinds if the player-base does not screw around and mess it up drasticly. gear would be priced by supply and demand, players would have the chance to do what their best at for money and people could always gamble with the market. but, bots can hurt a player-based economy easily and cause a virtual great depression, i'v lost money pleanty of times because bots took my trade in other mmos




i know there will be expansions, i just hope zeni really gets into it and keeps the game fresh


never doubted this a second, but it is an important point none-the-less