Because I think that is 70% of my cynicism/ skepticism about it.
Were this game released around the time of WoW, I would have
been deliriously happy, along with lots of ES fans when the EQ,
wow style game mechanic still felt fresh.

Not six years down the road with games even like Biowares noblest
attempt failing to please. What's sad is that SW:TOR is
a decent, if not great game in its own right. It has gotten me interested
in an area of gaming I had long since left behind. Even worse, one of
SWTOR's bullet point of pluses is that for all of it's similarities to previous
MMO's, it has a sci-fi setting (which is refreshing) and has a stronger
focus on story and voice acting than any other MMO (also refreshing).

While ES:O may be fully voice acted and have a strong focus on
story, is their really anything else of note to expect from this? For me,
just that it's a fantasy MMO is a detractor. Even if it's technically
a good game, will just the draw of the Elder Scrolls lore set
in the 2nd Era be enough for most people?

Remember The Elder Scrolls Adventures : Redguard?
That game was an "also can do" in the style of PoP. Aside from being
unoriginal, it hurt the company. The problem wasn't that ES:A was
bad game, it just wasn't what a lot of fans wanted.

Here we are again with, no matter the spin you put on it, another
"also can do." Will this go down like The Elder Scrolls Adventures?

Time will tell.

That it's fantasy isn't a detractor for me, it's a plus. The detractor for me is that it sounds like it's going to be the same as almost every other MMO released in the past few years, whether they be fantasy MMOs or not.

For me the killer is that the Elder Scrolls are an original RPG that has a style all it's own that opens up RP possibilities most other RPs will not achieve. The move to the MMO is going to create another in the crowd and take the features that are what make the Elder Scroll series unique and great and dumb them down to create an MMO that will be based on pretty much every other MMO out there.

For me it's that its art style doesn't suit a TES game, and the gameplay, as far as GameInformer describes it anyway, is completely and utterly not TES-like.

It seems to me that they've taken a generic fantasy MMO, given it factions and a story that don't make sense, and slapped on an Elder Scrolls paint job.

This. I dont suffer from any form of MMO fatigue because I generally HATE them.

wow ruined all mmos for me XD

played it to death and I'm beyond sick of its style of game play

its sad the TES online won't be 1st person for a change, oh well it might be a nice game like you said but I'm too burned out from wow to EVER play another mmo unless its TOTALLY fresh and more BF3 and less grind fest

I don't think so, cause after a few months of SWTOR I'm ready to get back into an awesome fantasy setting. This game looks great to me

The Elder Scrolls has been the only fantasy world I've ever really played in, besides Jade Empire. I have generally stuck with Sci-Fi and modern day settings.

And I would support more games from Bethesda like Redguard. Shorter games that flesh out the franchise lore and focus on creating quality storylines? Count me in. There's so much they can do: Mannimarco and Galerion's war, Pelinal Whitestrake's campaigns, the original Bal Malogmer, Battle at Red Mountain, Sacking of Orsinium, etc. Not every TES game needs to be a sandbox-style game. The main series obviously does, but I'm fine with adventure-genre spin-offs.

I may well feel like this when more info is released. Maybe they did an awful job in presenting it because so many of us,
the first thing we thought was "Oh great yet ANOTHER EQ, WoW clone."

Lol. Nuff said.

Yes because its nothing new. Its just seems to be a generic MMO formula with TES lore added on. Then they say crazy things like they cant do player housing lol.

Hope this isnt the final draft of their game.

Nope, Elder Scrolls is a Dark Fantasy kind of game. The problem is the MMO looks like a Fancy Fantasy.

I haven't played anywhere near enough MMOs to be fatigued by them, so that's not the issue for me.

For me, the problem is not so much that the style they've gone for has been overdone in MMOs; it's that the style they've gone for really isn't suited to TES at all.

I've posted this before, but http://www.mortalonline.com/screenshots really is more the kind of style they should've gone for.

Good point. One of the first things I noticed. I prefer the Elder Scrolls with the Morrowind / Skyrim
style art direction and this looks, not just high fantasy, but washed out fantasy even.

Pretty much so, but I guess I could just darken my screen to make it look better when the game releases? Haha.

I wouldn't worry too much yet. Maybe those SS are from a sunny part of the realm - we might really recognize Morrowind and Skyrim when we see SS of those areas. Lighting and affects can change in different areas of an MMO, you know.

True enough, and I very much hope so. (Honestly looked like a sunnier part of Morrowind right off the bat, one of those pics anyway.)