At first I was left feeling a little lost. I didn't know what to think. I kept going back and forth between hating the idea of it and loving it. More of me wandering if this will ruin the series. Then I thought. I thought if I don't like it then thats it. I can put it down and walk away from it and still feel satisfied when a new single player elder scrolls game comes out. Then I thought if I love it's gonns be awesome. My favorite series for me to really get into and have fun with.

Now I'm excited. If done right it will be huge. I'll go down to even say it will be one of the biggest and best mmo's in a long time. It just has to have that special something. One thing is for sure I can't decide that off of a few screenshots.

If one thing comes out of this and only one thing, a sure bet is someones pockets are gonna get huge..HUGE HUGE. I'll be filling those pockets either way.

1. People said that about Aion, Warhammer, etc

2. Because Zenimax is herding you like a cow with the promise of anything related to the Elder Scrolls

Not me, I've always DREAMED of an ES MMO because I knew that it would have the amazing mechanics of the single-player games! It would be the most amazing MMO ever! But then they killed it. You know what I think whenever I play Morrowind, Oblivion or Skyrim? I think to myself: "I love this! But if only it were an MMO!" I don't think: "If only they took some vague ideas of lore, some names, and mashed it into a crappy bog-standard MMO jello mold and threw it in my face!"

If it's bad, ie: doesn't live up to Skyrim game-play and immersion-wise, which by all indications it won't, then I will be devestated. if you never really wanted an ES MMO then yeah, you can just shrug it off and wait for TES VI, but for me, and I'm sure others out there, this is crushing.

This, exactly this.

If its horrible you really couldn't just walk away from it? You Honeslty think that you'll be playing TES VI and be saying "man if only they didn't release that mmo 3 years ago I'd be enjoying this much more". If it svcks then it svcks. Look at a movie series, most of them have many to it and only the first one is really good maybe the 2nd, just because 3. 4. 5. and 6 svck doesn't mean the first will be ruined.

I love your optimism... really, I do! But you said some pretty key words there. "If Done Right."

From the info available, its pretty obvious they are shifting away from the mechanics that have defined Elder Scrolls to mechanics more acceptable as the MMO Standard. I expected more out of them, and if I want to play Elder Scrolls Online, well... I want just that. An elder scrolls game with a bunch of players!... not a modification of an overused and tiresome formula.

Um, if TES is to be compared to a major 6-film saga, let's say Star Wars, then I feel like the MMO is the equivalent of the Star Wars Christmas Special. AKA: The beginning of the end. Remember when Star Wars was good? Yeah...

I certainly wouldn't buy or subscribe to the game if it isn't the MMO I always wanted from ES, but to see all that potential utterly squandered in a sad, pathetic excuse for a cash-in, when it COULD have been something truly incredible? Yeah, that svcks ass. And when TES VI comes out I will play it, and love it, but still always feel that nagging "what if THIS was an MMO" in the back of my mind.

I appreciate your positive attitude, and I think you have the right mindset that if it's not good, you just walk away and go back to playing games you do enjoy. I don't know why this is such a hard concept for people on this forum, and why they have to play the entitled victim role whenever a gaming company does something that doesn't 100% cater to them. I hate the whiny, spoiled brat syndrome that plagues internet message board game communities.

With all that being said, I was initially excited about the announcement - I think that an Elder Scrolls MMO has huge potential to be something great. I don't think that Elder Scrolls Online is going to be that game. As far as I can tell, they are not building on anything that makes Elder Scrolls special in my book. Instead of it being an Elder Scrolls MMO, it feels like a generic MMO that is named Elder Scrolls. I don't anticipate this to be anything special at all.

METALPUNKS is right. Just because the Star Wars Christmas Special exists, does that mean that the original Star Wars trilogy now svcks? Nope.

I love the Terminator movies. At least the first 2. I think Terminator 3 and Terminator Salvation are pathetic excuses at Terminator movies. I don't whine and cry about them, I just don't watch them and instead I watch Terminator and Terminator 2, because I love those movies.

I am (was) a huge Metal Gear fan, dating from the original game on the NES. I absolutely hated the Japanese anime direction the series took (I despise Japanese anime with every fiber of my being). I didn't whine and cry about the fact that the series became something I no longer enjoyed, I just stopped buying the games and moved on to a new series that offered me what I wanted (that's when I found the Hitman series).

Star Wars Galaxies was my favorite MMO of all time, and one of my favorite games of all time (I'd probably still put it on my top 10). When they changed it with the combat upgrade, and later the new game enhancements, I didn't constantly whine and cry that the game became something I no longer enjoyed, I just cancelled my sub, stopped playing, and stopped going to the forums.

It's one thing to be a part of this community, hear an announcement, and be like "I think Elder Scrolls Online is going to be bad for reasons x, y, and z", it's a whole other issue to take personal offense to the very existence of the game, claim to be insulted by the developers, and throw a temper tantrum like this game's existence is a plague upon your life.

This game is going to be amazing

After much rumination, I have decided my opinion:
It won't be terrible.

Wait a minute, the XMAS special didn't ruin the original trilogy. No, but it started SW down a road that it never recovered from. So yeah, Skyrim, Oblivion and MW will always be great, but what if TES VI decides to adopt the mechanics of the MMO? You'll just brush your shoulders off and say: whelp, no more good Elder Scrolls games, time to move on. That's fair. But that's not how I operate. When SWG CU'd and NGE'd it meant something to me. Sure, I did move on, but I still miss the experience of Pre-CU SWG. There was nothing like it and hasn't been since. You may not really love this stuff, can take it or leave it, but many do love it and don't want to see their favorite series ruined.

There will never be a properly done Elder Scrolls MMO after this which is something I personally want more than anything else I can think of in the world of gaming. We have every right to express this in any way we like, whether we want to cry and scream and stamp our feet or make reasoned arguments against the direction the game is going (I prefer the latter).


As compared to what, Duke Nukem Forever?

Yes it is going to be awesome and I am glad that there is a post thats not all QQ

People fail to understand the technical limitations of an MMO, that's why they all have action bars, cool downs and such. That's why all their graphics are "cartoony".
Some of us love MMO's and we are going to eat this game all up, this game is for us. Do not like MMO's? Then do not play it.
Dont worry Bethseda will make more single players TES games its not the end times for crying out loud.

But then those of us who love MMO's are just as happy playing tabletop RPG's, we are the geeks of the gaming community.

Umm... how in the blue hell did the Christmas Special send Star Wars on a decline that it has never recovered from???

As far as your claim that I don't love this stuff - you couldn't be anymore wrong. I still miss the pre-cu days of SWG, and wish nothing more than for an MMO to pick up and finish what SWG started. Morrowind completely redefined my standard of what made a good game. Morrowind came during a time when I had nothing but Japanese RPG bullcrap being shoved down my throat at every turn, and totally opened my eyes to a new style and redefined video games so strongly that no other games can even come close - except Bethesda's own games in Oblivion, Skyrim, and Fallout 3. Check out my signature of top games, I put the Bethesda games (and I did add SWG in that as well) in italics because as far as I'm concerned, those games are on a level far, far above that of anything else. That top 5 is on a pedestal far above the rest of the list.

Thing is, if I don't like something, I don't like something, and me whining and [censored]ing about it isn't going to solve anything. I hate WoW with a passion - not so much because the game itself svcks (it does in my eyes, but that's another matter) but because that is now the only way people will try to make MMO's anymore. But I'm not gonna sit around on the WoW forums whining and crying about it. I don't like it, whatever. Other people do. Why do I want to go piss in their Corn Flakes because I'm bitter and pissed off?

When SWG went CU and later NGE, yea, I expressed my opinion on the forums, but ultimately, I left the game and the forums because it wasn't worth anyone's time for me to sit around pissing in everyone's Corn Flakes who did like the changes (and yes, people did). svcks that the developers changed their vision and it was no longer something I enjoyed, but quite frankly, it's a video game, and there are other things out there for me to worry about and spend time and energy on.

My worst attitude is probably on the Operation Sports forums when it comes to the subject of Madden NFL, and when I get on one of my tangents, I rightly get called out. That kind of incessant negativity has no place.

If you have concerns, absolutely, express them! Forums are certainly a place to express opinion, good or bad, we don't all have to kiss Bethesda's ass and say that everything they [censored] out is gold. But the constant victim syndrome is absolutely ridiculous, and has no place. It is a video game, it's really not that serious, and if TES is somehow forever changed and svcks from here on out, how exactly is that going to ruin your life? I'll be just as bummed as you are, Elder Scrolls is my favorite series ever, but there are other video games out there, and there are things way more important in life than video games to get so worked up about.

I am just hoping for the best, and will judge the game on it's own merits when it is either released, or I am in a beta.

There have been MMO's in the past that had live action combat and not action bars / cool down bars (Age of Conan), there have been MMO's in the past that had realistic and gritty graphics, and not the cartoony graphics (Star Wars Galaxies, Age of Conan). There have been MMO's in the past that have been completely open world, and not sectioned off (EverQuest, Star Wars Galaxies).

Everything that ZeniMax is saying is too hard to do has already been done by games long in the past. It is not a technical limitation, it is simply taking the easy way out and going the WoW way of MMO's. Which is ultimately why I won't like Elder Scrolls Online - not because it is an MMO, I love MMO's in theory - but because it is building itself upon every MMO mechanic that I hate, and ignoring every MMO mechanic that I have loved by calling them impossible, when they've already been done in the past.

This is how this idea got started, it's a bunch Nords(Nerd's) sitting at a table and they were asked to come up with some great ideas for the next edition to elder scrolls. One of the Nords at the table says i'm tired of playing wow online and another nord stands up and says i got it lets make Elder scrolls online. We will take all of Aion's users we will kill Blizzards users and we will end the war with guild wars 2 before it's even started. Oh and one more thing we nords are genius the phans have been asking for multiplayer for years in our game this is exactly what they want i know it.

We've made over 1 billllllllllllllllllion bagillion dr evil dollars, i don't care that skyrim crashes freezes black screens or even blows up the persons computer. Why do we care? we are filthy rich we have there money and there's nothing they can do about it. We will make it up to them with elder scrolls online and they'll love us and pay us 13.95 to 20.00's a month for it. But this will ofc end the original elder scrolls series because we will be ever so dedicated to the online customers who are makeing us blizzard class rich.

My name is Vlatko Andonov and i approve this message.

Nord idea's such as these is the reason why i joined the imperial army.

idk OP, they are gonna really have to pull a rabbit out of their hat so to speak to really differ themselves from the WoW comparison's. I mean from what I see so far, there is really nothing that makes me think that it will be any different than any other MMO.

Im on your boat I get angry when people say it has to be like that (WoW) because its a MMO. It could have been like TES. I wounder if at Apple if a dev said it cant be like that cos everyone else dose it like this they would be fired. From morrowind they had a winner it was a unique gameing style why couldnt they use that unique style in TESO I would have given them all my money

This won't be a big MMO.

They may have a lot of supporters for TES, but look- Its competition is much better MMO's, such as upcoming Guild Wars 2, World of Warcraft, another big game Diablo 3 (although not completely MMO).

I don't see this getting far, but that's just me....

Why do you think that Explain to me.

I also think it will be awesome. I think once ZOS gets rolling with a website and some trailers and gameplay vids some skeptical people are going to come around and see that they can enjoy TES in a different way. Let's be honest: Skyrim is nothing like Arena or Daggerfall, but we still like it. Just be a little open minded and you might see that the world of Tamriel can be enjoyed just as much with a different presentation. You are still going to get to explore a massive world - according to the leaked article a world that dwarfs the one in Skyrim. You'll still get to gain power with various guilds and discover new abilities and awesome items. On top of that, you'll be able to do it with friends, both new and old. When you've grown in power you can actually take the fight to the emperial seat and battle for your faction's future. All while ZOS builds more and more content for you to enjoy - this game will stay fresh and interesting for years and years - basically as long as there is enough interest in it.

You are overrating TESO.
Stop it.

Really?
On what did you base this opinion?
On the title of the game?
Please...

Good post!
Still, TESO is not a big letdown for me because I never had high hopes for it, really.
I also always thought that how great it would be if I could visit whole of Nirn with my friends and explore it, but I always knew that in case they do decide to make a MMO, it won't be anything like TES, and only thing it will share with the original series is the title.

OT:
Fan-boyism/girlism is strong on these forums, I see!

Funny thing; if all those people who are so positive about TESO were given to play the game (finished, not beta), but with title and all the names in it changed to something else, I can bet my sweet ass that they would say that it's just an another crappy MMO in the sea of crap and would never guess it's a TES game.

Like I said, even though I love the idea of having a TES MMO, I never had my hopes high because I simply knew that it won't turn out good.
I won't say it will be horrible, but the problem here is that it will not have anything to make it stand out, or anything which made TES special!

People who say that one should simply not play the game if they don't like it are kinda pathetic, tbh.
One should always fight for something he/she holds dear!
More passionate the players are, more passionate developers will be to deliver an actually good product.

What's horrible about TESO is the fact that a great opportunity has slipped here!
This was a chance to make a truly awesome and unique MMO, and now it's gone.
Up yours (to whoever is responsible), for ruining it!

But then again, I'll be somewhat optimistic and will wait until more info is released.
For now, it doesn't look good.

+1 If only everyone would share your view.

Game forums are filled with brats nowadays...

It also has become trendy to be a doomsayer and talk about how games will fail, etc.