My wife and I, like many experienced MMO players, have no single player gaming experience. We have never played Elder Scrolls, Doom, HALO or anything like that. The last time I played a game by myself was in fact in an arcade in the 1980's. We love social interaction and in particular miss the 'feeling" of games like the original EQ. If you did not play it then it cannot be easily described but there was a community, a set of behaviors, a feeling that is long lost in games today and that many search for with every new MMO download. We are almost always dissapointed.

My question is this. Those of you with experience with this company and this intellectual property would you please share why you think this will translate into a viable MMO, even perhaps a great one? I can tell you with complete transparency that I am longing for a new MMO love with all my gaming heart.

Recently we tried the likes of GW2, Rift and others and always they felt.......incomplete for us. I think they are good and all but not what we are wanting.

Give us your thoughts. We are most often a duo party though we guild up and group up when the situation allows or the opportunity presents itself. We like PvE and PvP, exploring and crafting and for stuff to be going on!

Thank you for any replies,

The main reason I am looking forward to Elder Scrolls Online is because I am a huge ES fan and have played all the Elder Scrolls single player games when they were new releases. The other reason I am liking what I see in ESO is the three faction war that will be the centerpoint of the endgame activity. I once played the MMO Dark Age of Camelot, and that might be the game that originally started the three sided war for MMO's, and it was without a doubt the best of those types of MMO's and I sub'ed to it for about 5 years. The fact that the lead game designer for ESO, Matt Firor, is the say guy who developed the three faction war for DAoC has my interest peaked because it was the PvP in DAoC that kept me paying the sub for so long.

well if they deliver on everything they say it will probably be a geart game.
and Bethesda do make great games but if they can make a great MMO is still to be seen.
Elder Scrolls got a rich lore and world that i think will work great for a mmo and I feel like they are inovating just the right
amount to make it feel new and shiny with some old stuff to oil the gears.
Also 1 mega server means you will never feel like the game is dead and that is just wonderful.

So hopefully this game will be just right and not plunge to it's death.

While I look forward to it and will play anyway for sure I wouldn't assume that it will be the 'one'. Firor himself said that there is nothing innovative for them to add the game so I doubt they are thinking that they are making a great one of a kind game either. And considering lack of features at launch, like housing, what we can hope (to avoid disappointments) it will be a good solid mmorpg with enjoyable pvp.

first of all I'd like to mention that I think it's really cool that you and your wife play mmo's like that!

and this might be the game for you! I'm more of a mmo player myself instead of the single player games, the only one I've played is skyrim, which I enjoyed.
but the devs of this game are real pros, and I can feel their enthusiasm towards this game, which gives me faith!
Good smart people, with good deep motivation, will be able to make this an awesome game!
if it'll turn out like they tell us it will, it WILL be one, if not THE top MMO/game on this planet.
Time will tell.

I agree regarding the three faction PvP, I consider it to be essential actually. Just last night doing some PvP in SWKotor my wife remarked that the two faction system was "lacking".

The thing for us is that hearing you guys describe the lore and the single player games it is so obvious that there is a potentially strong foundation.

It will be hard to find the same social interaction from EQ, mostly because we will have a Megaserver, so it will need a lot of time to build a community. And also the gamerbase shiftet a lot since EQ. (13 years if im correct)
I'm sure we will get a solid game, but if the community goes the right way, thats for us to manage.

Its NOT Bethesda making Elder Scrolls Online, instead its a company known as Zenimax Online Studios and so far they have release ZERO games so they have no track record other then some of the past accomplishments of some of the developers...like Matt Firor and his involvement with Dark Age of Camelot, and Paul Sage with his background on the Ultima Online development team...

I think it's pretty hard to say at this point whether this game will be 'the one'. This game is being developed by Zenimax Online Studios, it's their first title. However, it's being developed under the artistic vision of Matt Firor, and given what he's known for I think we can expect some very good things.

Once the closed beta happens, you'll have a better idea from these forums of whether or not TESO is going to be 'the one'.

If you love PVP? Maybe this is the one. The combat system seems intuitive and they are designing this with PVP in mind the entire time. Huge battles, big zones, politics, lots of cool PVP stuff. If you're looking for a server community similar to EQ1 and SWG? No. The megaserver while great for connecting established friends won't be a great system for making new ones or building new communities. There won't be as many familiar faces in chat and unless you add people to your friend's list it's not likely you'll see them again.

I very much doubt this game or any in the near future will provide the feeling of EQ, Ultima, Tibia or whatever, but I still think this game will be far better than any other MMOs released in the last few years. But no, that old feeling we had with the older games have gone to ruin I fear, maybe they'll rise from the ashes once more eventually.

Will this be the Neo of games? It wont be my Neo but I think it will be a really great game. Judging by the many and varied responses through out these forums there will never be "One Game to Rule Them All" as everyone will have different wants and desires.

It is how they add the features that make it "their game" and "their design" If they just copy and paste ideas from other MMO's they will fail I have no doubt about that. Instead they have to put each feature up on a white board and have the entire team write down ideas to consider and come up with something that is somewhat unique and better then the other MMO's. There may not be any innovative new things but there sure are things that they can add and put the ESO stamp on them to say, we improved that feature beyond what it ever was in MMO X....

Yes, after so many years of MMOs it's definitely hard to keep your hopes up!

I hope we get a little RP stuff to make the world feel alive. Like being able to sit on chairs and have a drink. Helmets not making you bald. Town clothes. Making campfires. Guild halls. Perhaps set up a tent. Pack mules, such things. Things not directly related to fighting and acquiring gear.
The gap between immersive tabletop RPGs and the current MMO design is still quite big.

hey! een nederlander, how rare!
and though I'm not a 'real' roleplayer I do like the little things in life that make gaming more interesting, drinking alot of beverages, and racing from one point to another to see who would get there first was always one of my favorites, lol :3

Fair and thoughtful thinking ya'll. It has been some time since we fully engaged with a game and like was said above, the community will be from the players. I do think that the right mechanics, story, questing system and even UI contribute to the flavor of the community.

For instance: In some games which are very fast paced one cannot even type between encounters and unless you are on a voice channel with the group there is little communication unless something goes wrong.

I know that for me some of my best gaming experiences were moments created by players, rarely come to think of it, by games themselves. There was this once though when I was pulling the plane of Hate on my monk.........

Depends on how much they copy from other mmos, if it goes too much like EQ/WoW then it will fail, if they do something new, innovative together with the tried and tested old systems then it can be The One. As much a I would like it to be successful, the odds are more for a fail.