Having recently heard about the Elder scrolls online and been filled with both excitement and trepidation, I have been following it closely. Unfortunately the more I see the harder it becomes to keep that excitement.

My first experience with Elder scrolls dates back to Daggerfall, when an old friend and I ran a compression program on an old hard drive so we had enough room to install it. I remember the first time starting up a character and instead of taking the suggested path with took the hard route through the character sheets. I was already falling in love, finally a game where I can be what I want to be and not be set into the classic dungeons and dragons archetypes. Then we fired up the game and immediately got attacked by a critter we couldn't injure because we didn't have silver or better weapons, quickly we fled down hallways and into a room where several more things attacked. Seeing opertunity to escape we climbed a nearby wall with some tapestries on it and at the top we fell through the world and the game crashed. Point is... I was hooked.

Daggerfall was a sort of freedom. You didn't have to quest, you could do whatever you wanted and see the world and just be a part of it.
Then Morrowind, with its amazing cities and landscapes, the wizard towers that could only be levitated to and the places you needed jump or other skills to get around. Sure the character creation wasn't as detailed but it was still a freedom from classes and traditional boundries.

Oblvion was still solid, amazing looking for its time and class free, sure you could always play a prebuild, but you could also still make an archer with conjuration skills as well. By this point though the flying was gone, the wizard spires all had stairs or teleporters and the freedom was getting a little cramped.

Skyrim had well, dragons, and they were everything you could hope for in a dragon. Except maybe riding one. By the time we got out into skryim the UI was becoming almost too simple, and skills became both more simplistic and complex with the lessening of numbers and adding of trees. No stats? Well, I guess we can deal with that. Thankfully we still could make ourselves what we wanted to be. And the combat system was refined quite nicely with the two hand system, despite the dual wielding problems.

Now everything I hear about this Elder Scrolls online, seems like the freedom will be gone. No more will we be able to use a wabbajack on town guards, turning them into dragons to watch them run amok! (daggerfall for you young uns) No more can we climb the walls to escape the maddened ghosts of dead kings. No more will we be able to slay a whole town of guards just because they called us scum.

Elder scrolls is freedom. We start in jail so when we reach the real world its kind of like a transition from real life to our own little free place. Take away the freedom to be who you want to be and the freedom to do what you want to do, take away the classes and the combat and the freedom and its just a huge outdoor prison excercise yard for good behavior. I think I'll stay in prison thanks.

I have been hearing a lot of people yelling Halt halt halt halt! with this and even some Veannngeance...

I just hope that this will not effect the wonderful single player game legacy we all hold so close to us.

I feel entirely the same way.

The Elder Scrolls games have always been one of my absolute favorites. I hold them near and dear to my heart because of that freedom! Bethesda has always been my favorite game studio for making that a priority, keeping that throughout their games.

When I heard the announcement, I had mixed feelings.

If done right, it could be a game changer in the MMO market. it could be what I always wished for, playing the single player games, Tamriel, in its entirety, with the ability to romp through it with my friends. That freedom of character creation, of gameplay, would be an innovation in the MMO market, and a boundry pusher. One of the things I have always respected about Bethesda is the fact they weren't afraid to push boundries and do new things. ( Even if the last couple games, since they have had to be shoehorned into the console market, have really lessened that. ) I know when it's time for a computer upgrade when a new Elder Scrolls game comes out, heh.

On the other hand, the rest of me was screaming at how easily it could be done wrong. I understand the limits that an MMO imposes. You want to reach the largest market possible, so you lessen graphics (though I'd argue you have a large enough following that bought skyrim, obviously the computing power is out there). Real-time combat is HARD on servers (I play DDO. Enough said.). Get enough people in an area that all want the shiniest gear and want to spam spells and you're going to be hell on systems. So, to do it right would be really hard.. But so worth it!

Sadly... It doesn't look like they've done it right. Two of my fears, the whack-an-action-key gameplay, and the generic fantasy mmo graphics have been confirmed.

Just not feeling it guys. I really really really want to. But I'm not.

On a side note, it is interesting to me, to see how many of the fans are apologetic for hating what they're seeing. Most game companies would just get rabid hate mail. You guys still have the respect, the fondness, of your fanbase. Please, work to keep it.

/agreed

Don't get me wrong, I've loved all the core TES games, from Arena on up, and yes they have been getting simpler, but I did still adore Skyrim, one of my favorite games of all time. But this is such a drastic departure and not in a "let's push the genre ahead" way (like the transition from Fallout 2 to Fallout 3) but a "let's take the safest path of least resistance and create the most bland, mediocre version of TES since Battlespire.

I feel the same way. I just find it hard to get exited about in the same way I was for Morrowind, Oblivion and Skyrim (I was too young to see Daggerfall, but I went back and played it). Elder Scrolls is about YOU and YOUR actions, which shape the world! Not 2000 heros, just you. TES was about YOUR way of playing, you want to roleplay as a farmer, fine go ahead, you want play as an assassin, fine theres the Dark Brotherhood etc. This element, I feel, won't exist in a MMO. It just sounds empty, it doesn't feel like Elder Scrolls, it's WoW with a Elder Scrolls title.

OP. Well said, Muthsera.

I have a similar story except it started with Morrowind. Only 25, but I feel old with how things continue downhill.

Unfortunate, but this is the way things are going.

i truely agree with u man i play TES for that same freedom and even if it had been all hotkey and styalized graphics i would have played it if it held any kind of freedom there seems to be no freedom in this mmo no choice just an interactive mmo movie where we get a chat service to troll trolls and make fun of other peoples mums