THE ELDER SCROLLS ONLINE

[vivisectvi]

Re: The Elder Scrolls Online: Tamriel Unlimited

Sounds like I need to get that then until FFXIV relaunches.

If you do - let me know!

 

[ViciousFish]

Re: The Elder Scrolls Online: Tamriel Unlimited

Signed up for the beta. Hopefully I get in so I can download it, never have time to play and save myself $60 at launch.

 

[vivisectvi]

Re: The Elder Scrolls Online: Tamriel Unlimited

Time to get back on topic:

5 Reasons To Play The Elder Scrolls Online

I love the art style that this game is boasting. The design of the armor sets are especially nice.

 

[vivisectvi]

Re: The Elder Scrolls Online: Tamriel Unlimited

Beta invites are supposed to start going out toward the end of March.

 

[vivisectvi]

Re: The Elder Scrolls Online: Tamriel Unlimited

Looks like the site hosting the screens in this post is gone for good. Here are some updated screens from the ESO site.

 

[vivisectvi]

Re: The Elder Scrolls Online: Tamriel Unlimited

ZeniMax's Paul Sage on The Elder Scrolls Online's endgame, PvP, and crafting

Full interview behind the spoiler.

Spoiler

During my hands-on play session with The Elder Scrolls Online at the media event last week, I got a glimpse of the early game experience, and it was delicious. But most MMOs are judged on what awaits players at the max-level endgame, so I sat down with ZeniMax Online Studios creative director Paul Sage to ask about those areas of the game that I didn't get to see.

Specifically, I asked Sage to describe ZeniMax's strategy for keeping players occupied once they hit the level cap at 50. His reply included four main activities: questing in enemy alliance zones, four-player dungeons, adventure zones, and the PvP alliance war in Cyrodiil. Read on for all of the details I gleaned from the interview!

In ESO, you choose one of three alliances, each with different zones, quests, and stories to explore. Once you hit level 50, you can choose to journey to another alliance's territory and experience a more difficult (and rewarding) version of those areas. After you complete the story within in the second alliance, you can travel to the third faction and complete the content there.

According to Sage, this content is the endgame for a solo player or someone who plays with just a friend or two. Since the Elder Scrolls franchise has been a single-player affair up until this point, it's wise to include scads of content for that audience. It's also ideal for the player who wants to soak up all of the lore and learn the history of Tamriel 1000 years before the events of Skyrim. With each alliance area containing 120-150 hours of content, there's a lot of exploring to do.

The endgame for a small group of friends can be the instanced dungeons found in the world. There is a four-player dungeon in each of the game's 16 zones; most dungeons boast a second level 50 version with a different storyline. Small groups of friends can spend countless hours refining strategies and accruing rewards in the nearly 30 different dungeon experiences ESO will have at launch.

When I asked Sage about raiding, he said that ESO's adventure zones are designed for larger groups of PvE players. You can actually go into the adventure zones with a small group and accomplish some goals, but there are large areas in these maps dedicated to larger group experiences. There will be some warning when you're about to trigger one of these encounters (and they may even end up instanced), so a small group won't suddenly find itself face to face with a Daedric Prince!

The last pillar in ESO's endgame is the Alliance War, which is designed with the PvP player in mind. Players of all three factions will meet in Cyrodiil (a zone roughly nine times the size of a normal map) to wrestle over keeps, resources, and bragging rights.

Obviously, PvP hasn't been encountered in an Elder Scrolls title before. Sage commented on that by saying, "There's a real desire in the community to have PvP. It's just one aspect of taking a game online because it's great to cooperate and to see how you stack up against other people. Plus it's not just the rumor of war; it's actually getting to participate in active battles in that war."

It's hard to argue with that logic. I was able to witness a live demonstration of a keep assault in Cyrodiil, and it looked incredible. Trebuchets launched huge boulders at the fortress while defenders scurried along its walls in an attempt to pour boiling oil down upon the manned battering rams. The Q&A team was engaged in a 30v30 skirmish that ran with smooth frame rates, and we got to see the carnage that ensues once a keep wall is breached.

While keep sieges can involve hundreds of players, Sage stressed that there were also activities in the Alliance War geared toward small groups or even solo players. Smaller parties can snipe any enemies that lag behind or wander too far from larger battles. There are also small goals like overtaking enemy farms and mines to secure resources for your alliance.

Since the Elder Scrolls Online employs a megaserver technology that allows the entire population to play together, there was a danger of players encountering unending queues to participate in the three-faction war. ZeniMax's solution is to split Cyrodiil into persistent instances called campaigns that new characters are assigned to. Campaigns allow the developers to maintain some level of control over the populations engaged in the Alliance War as well as combat faction imbalances.

Sage explained that if the Ebonheart Pact on one particular campaign was struggling a bit, the devs could assign an influx of new characters to that faction to even things out. It's not a perfect solution as those players may not choose to engage in PvP, but if one side gets too strong, the other two factions can work together to beat it back.

You'll have some limited ability to transfer to a different campaign, but the details on how that works aren't yet available. The status of the war in a particular campaign will persist anywhere between three and six months to ensure that hard-fought accomplishments stick around for a while. When I asked Sage whether there will be perks offered to guilds that maintain control of a keep -- such as access to vendors, banks, and other conveniences -- he merely smiled and teased, "There are reasons to hold a keep for your guild; we'll reveal more of that as the system gets more robust."

Guild Wars 2 also offers large-scale three-faction PvP with its world vs. world feature, but it's been plagued since launch by an issue known as culling. Culling causes a delay in when enemy models render on your screen in order to curtail major performance issues when massive numbers of players are on the screen. Guild Wars 2 hopes to remedy this issue in the March game update, but I was curious how this issue is being tackled in ESO.

Sage emphasized that ZeniMax built ESO with the goal to have 200 players on the screen at once without performance issues or culling. He told me that testing on minimum spec machines has proven that it can be done and that ZeniMax is extremely focused on metrics and getting this right. Given studio head Matt Firor's Dark Age of Camelot pedigree, it's easy to see the source of that confidence.

Lastly, on the PvP front, I asked what sort of progression system there will be for players who participate in alliance battles. Besides being able to level from 10 to 50 by engaging in PvP in Cyrodiil, players will earn alliance points by completing various objectives. You can spend alliance points on different things, such as gear, and there will be a running total of lifetime alliance points earned, which can be used to show off on leaderboards.

While a three-alliance system works perfectly for ZeniMax's PvP plans, I was skeptical about its impact on other areas of the game. Part of the reason the megaserver technology was designed is to eliminate issues that always creep up during MMO launches with groups of friends ending up on different servers. Having three separate alliances (each with three different races) shifts the problem from needing to coordinate server choice to which faction are your friends going to be.

I was curious to hear Sage's take on the impact of three-way PvP, and he agreed that the studio had to make some concessions in order for players to feel a certain allegiance to their faction. We were told during an open Q&A session that communication across factions won't be permitted. At this point, I started to get nervous about a possible design misstep because splitting your playerbase into thirds can be detrimental when you're trying to get a group together for any cooperative activity, such as a dungeon run.

Sage assuaged most of my fears, however, when he mentioned that once you hit level 50 and decide to play in another alliance's areas, you'll be able to play with friends in that faction. So at the endgame, things begin to open up and you can group up, chat, and run dungeons with players of other factions. The one area where things remain separate is, of course, the Alliance War in Cyrodiil.

I wonder, however, whether it's necessary to segregate the population at all provided folks are in the non-PvP areas. I understand ZeniMax's desire for players to feel attached to their chosen alliance, but it seems clunky to allow people to cooperate only after they've reached max level. Furthermore, the way it sounds, the ability to group up and communicate with other factions is enabled only once you trigger some mechanism that allows you to experience one of the other faction's stories. Do you need to play through two full alliance stories in order to unlock communication with the third faction's players? I sure hope that is not the case.

Switching gears, I spoke to Sage about one of the most important aspects of an MMO: the loot! He said the studio is looking at having five different quality levels for items up until level 50, with legendary being the best. He did confirm that there will be gear progression at the endgame in ESO, stating, "The game is going to get more difficult, and the gear is going to get better to match that."

He then explained that crafting would remain viable at endgame because it's used to enhance any of the items you find in the world. This approach will certainly make crafting fanatics happy as they throw themselves into the five professions that ESO has to offer: provisioner (cooking), weaponsmith, armorsmith, alchemy, and enchanting. Players will have a limited number of points to use toward crafting disciplines, so they will have to choose whether they will master one trade or become decent in all of them.

To wrap up, I asked Sage the most important question of the entire interview, courtesy of Massively streamteamer Jasmine Hruschak: "How big are the shoulder pads and exactly how many particle effects are coming off of them?" After Sage stopped laughing, he offered up this insightful reply:

"I would say they are just big enough so you don't take too much damage! The great thing about this is, [players] talk about particle effects quite often, and Elder Scrolls does tend to be a more muted world in a lot of ways. So even we have to look and say, 'Oh wow, that's over the top and a little too much. Let's rein that back in.' I think the solutions we come up with allow players to stand out and get cool gear, but it's not all particle effects."

At the conclusion of the interview, I found myself even more impressed with what the Elder Scrolls Online could bring to the industry. ZeniMax has the delicate task of appealing to both MMO and Elder Scrolls fans, but from what I've seen, it's up for the challenge.

 

[vivisectvi]

Re: The Elder Scrolls Online: Tamriel Unlimited

Hands-on with The Elder Scrolls Online

Full details behind the spoiler.

Spoiler

"Turn on your monitors, and for the next four hours, enjoy your hands-on with The Elder Scrolls Online." Last week, that tantalizing phrase kicked off my visit to ZeniMax Online Studios, but those words must have also conjured some ancient time-bending ritual because those 240 minutes flew by in an instant.

The first thing I did was create a character belonging to the Daggerfall Covenant, which means I was allowed to choose from the Breton, Orc, and Redguard races. There are two other alliances (Aldmeri Dominion and Ebonheart Pact) and six other races that weren't available for this preview (and the Imperials are NPCs). I had to buck my tendency to spend copious amounts of time customizing the minute details of my character in favor of actually getting to the gameplay. I did, however, take a look at some randomly generated characters of the three available races, and the models looked superb.

During class selection, I was given a choice between Dragonknight, Templar, and Sorcerer. The devs let slip that there will be a fourth class at launch called the Nightblade. In the Elder Scrolls Online, your weapon and armor options aren't restricted by your class. You can build your Sorcerer around using a mix of heavy and medium armor while wielding a greatsword. Or you can run around as a Dragonknight in light armor sporting a restoration staff if that tickles your fancy (and why wouldn't it?). While your class will determine some of the abilities you acquire, it doesn't lock you into a particular playstyle or role.

I decided to break stereotypes and roll an Orc Sorcerer named Vir'chuk Urd, and yes, you can choose a first and last name. The customization options were robust and plentiful containing ample numbers of sliders and colors that will entertain us for hours when ESO launches. I appreciated the age slider that allowed me to instantly transform Vir'chuk into the elderly curmudgeon I imagined him to be. I also felt that he must have a penchant for Tamriel's famous sweetrolls as I happily increased his gut size to the maximum. I would love to have seen the customization options for one of the more bestial races like the Khajiit or Argonians, but I truly can't complain about ESO's character creation.

While we weren't able to see and experience the initial tutorial area that immediately follows character creation, we were given a summary of the events that take place (jump to the next paragraph if you'd like to avoid spoilers): The Daedric Prince of domination, Molag Bal, takes you captive, has you killed, and steals your soul. It's kind of a bummer, but a man called the Prophet rescues you and helps you escape the Oblivion plane of Coldharbour. Your soulless body emerges from a portal off the shore of Stros M'Kai, where you're pulled out of the water by a snarky smuggler named Captain Kaleen.

Stros M'Kai, a tropical island off of the coast of Hammerfell, serves as the introductory zone for players who choose the Daggerfall Covenant as their alliance. A port town that shares the name of the island is home to privateers and scoundrels who offer a variety of quests to get you started on your adventures. On Stros M'Kai, you'll encounter a variety of enemies including assassin beetles, desert wolves, goblins, dwemer spiders, dwemer spheres, and (of course) mudcrabs.

Though ESO employs a traditional questing system -- complete with speaking to NPCs, accepting tasks, and turning them in for rewards -- you aren't put on rails that lead you from quest hub to quest hub. There's a main storyline that you can direct your attention to immediately, or you can put it on the back burner and occupy yourself with myriad side missions. I wandered around outside of the first area for a few minutes to get acquainted with the controls, and within minutes, my quest log looked completely different from the log of the fellow playing next to me, ZAM's Scott Hawkes.

Each NPC you encounter is fully voiced, which brings life to what would otherwise be unread quest text. Like other Elder Scrolls titles, your conversations with the denizens of Tamriel involve making dialogue choices that blend clues about quest objectives with bits of lore and flavor. Sometimes these choices have a noticeable impact on the story and your interactions with others.

For example, I was given the choice whether to save an evil woman who had been poisoned or to let her die. I chose to save her with some antidote, while Scott thought she should pay the ultimate penalty for her crimes. When we completed the quest, we compared the responses we got from the NPC who poisoned her. Scott was welcomed with open arms, while I was basically called a soft-hearted idiot!

Some choices have an impact that reaches beyond mild sprinklings of flavor text. Captain Kaleen enlists your help in assembling a crew to assist with a major heist she is planning. You're given the names of three individuals who have special talents that can be useful in such an endeavor. Crafty Larisa wants you to help her rescue some of her captured crewmates in exchange for her assistance. Jakarn needs to be freed from prison before he'll agree to help you, and Neramo wants you to help him explore an ancient Dwemer ruin.

You can choose to recruit all, some, or none of these characters, and your decision will alter how the heist plays out. Jakarn can steal a key, which makes things a bit easier for you. Neramo can silently deal with a guard who blocks your path, and Crafty Larisa can provide a disguise so you can move around more freely. You can complete the heist on your own, however, giving you the freedom to customize your experience.

The combat system will immediately feel familiar to Elder Scrolls fans. Tapping left click on the mouse will perform a light attack with the weapon you are currently wielding. Holding left-click will charge up a more powerful attack, while right-clicks are used for blocking. As a Sorcerer, I started the game with a destruction staff that spewed spiraling bolts of fire when I attacked with it. During the course of my play session, I also wielded an over-sized greatsword, a one-handed axe, and a slender bow. All of the weapons offered a different style of play, and I thoroughly enjoyed employing them against my enemies.

One bit of feedback that hardcore Elder Scrolls fans have been vocal about is ESO's lack of hands and weapon animations while the player is zoomed into first-person perspective. Without those animations, these folks say, it wouldn't feel like an Elder Scrolls game. While I wasn't able to try it out in my hands-on session, ZeniMax president Matt Firor did tell me that full hand and weapon animations in first-person perspective will be available for launch. We even watched a video in which the feature was demonstrated; it looked incredible.

Since ESO is an MMO, there are some aspects of combat that differ from its single-player predecessors. Double-tapping a direction key will cause your character to dodge and avoid attacks. There's also an action bar, which is used to slot in various active abilities. The first class ability I selected was Mages' Fury; it allowed me to call down bolts of lightning from the sky to damage my foes. It was a great finishing move as it did extra damage against enemies with less than 20% health. The second ability I chose was Unstable Familiar in the Daedric Summoning skill line. This allowed me to summon a blue imp pet that was good at scooping up aggro from monsters and making unseemly gurgling noises.

ESO is embracing the more recent MMO trend that pares down your action bar to only a handful of slots. This ability deck-building allows the designers to offer many different skills, so it's up to the player to determine which ones are actively available. These abilities come from a series of skill lines unlocked by the players as they adventure through Tamriel. I started out with a class, weapon, and armor skill line. Each of those had various trees to select from, and each class has three different tabs in its class skill line.

For my Sorcerer, I could unlock abilities in the Dark Magic, Daedric Summoning, and Storm Calling trees. Armor skills were broken down into light, medium, and heavy paths, while two-handed, hand and shield, dual wield, bow, destruction staff, and restoration staff were the options available to the weapon skill line. I was told that there will be at least 15 different skill lines available in ESO including abilities that are learned for joining either the mage's or fighter's guild. The devs also teased that players can unlock a vampire tree in the world skill line, but naturally, they want players to discover how to do this on their own.

I'll be honest, I've played three of the Elder Scrolls games over the years, and while I thoroughly enjoyed them, I was dispassionate when the Elder Scrolls Online was announced. We've seen many intellectual properties (from both inside and outside of the gaming world) attempt and fail to make the jump to a compelling MMO offering. It's become common to regard these projects with a healthy dose of skepticism, but I'm happy to say that for ESO, the proof is in the pudding. I've barely scratched the surface of this massive online game world, and I already can't wait to get my elderly Orcish hands all over it again at PAX East.

 

[vivisectvi]

Re: The Elder Scrolls Online: Tamriel Unlimited

And some new images..

 

[vivisectvi]

Re: The Elder Scrolls Online: Tamriel Unlimited

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=DlJOPoXUiko

 

[vivisectvi]

Re: The Elder Scrolls Online: Tamriel Unlimited

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ST9D_P0d_Oc&feature=player_embedded

 

[vivisectvi]

Re: The Elder Scrolls Online: Tamriel Unlimited

They have added a first person "with hands" option for combat! Previously, first person mode was just a full view with no hands or weapons.. Much like other mmos - pretty much just a close up of the action. Now, however, they've gone the classic Elder Scrolls route. Good move, IMO!

http://kotaku.com/the-elder-scrolls-online-finally-looks-like-an-elder-sc-510504840

Video at the link above.

 

[Kageho]

Re: The Elder Scrolls Online: Tamriel Unlimited

This may sound terrible to say, but this is the only way I was playing this game. Was for it to be exactly like Elder Scrolls first player. It just doesn't seem right to play a game named Elder Scrolls from any other position than first player.

May give this a try. Assuming its not sub based.

 

[vivisectvi]

Re: The Elder Scrolls Online: Tamriel Unlimited

Honestly, when I play a TES game, I alternate between perspectives. First person for battle and third person for exploration. I this MMO has battles that are not "select your target" based like most are, then I can see first person working out much better than usual for mmos.

 

[Kageho]

Re: The Elder Scrolls Online: Tamriel Unlimited

I've actually played an MMO once from the first person perspective. It was... An interesting experience. I had to be more aware of my surroundings and also be more aware of what was going on around me.

 

[vivisectvi]

Re: The Elder Scrolls Online: Tamriel Unlimited

Hands-on impressions from Massively: http://massively.joystiq.com/2013/06/12/e3-2013-hands-on-with-the-elder-scrolls-online

A few interesting points:

-feels more like an RPG with multiplayer, than a standard MMO with a "forced story attached"

-quests seem to appear more organically, rather than being marked with the standard floating exclamation point

-lots of interactivity with world objects (meat, cups, sacks, etc) as is the standard with TES series

I wonder how that third one will work out when two people go to pick up the same loaf of bread. Should be interesting to see how they handle that. I also agree with the author that I hope there is some kind of dice-roll feature for multiplayer conversations a la SWTOR. I really enjoy that feature.

 

[Edwin]

Re: The Elder Scrolls Online: Tamriel Unlimited

That this is definitely coming to consoles has piqued my interest a bit. I could see it being a lot easier to play an MMO type game with my usual friends on XBox than doing all the join-a-guild-whatever stuff.

 

[vivisectvi]

Re: The Elder Scrolls Online: Tamriel Unlimited

Yeah, the console announcement really set me off as I had been stating to a few friends that I really wish this game was coming to consoles too.. then BOOM! Happy Birthday and Merry X-Mas all in the middle of June!

 

[vivisectvi]

Re: The Elder Scrolls Online: Tamriel Unlimited

Console release trailer!

http://youtu.be/VHj5VvFWbtE

 

[vivisectvi]

Re: The Elder Scrolls Online: Tamriel Unlimited

Some info via OXM: http://www.oxm.co.uk/56426/elder-scrolls-online-xbox-one-gameplay-details/

For the most part, rather than trying to cram the Elder Scrolls universe into an MMO format, developers Zenimax Online Studios has stuck with the winning Skyrim gameplay formula and adapted it up to suit multiple players adventuring together.

The Elder Scrolls Online won't offer massive raid scenarios. There won't be gigantic bosses that require dozens of players to fell, but there will be instances that allow up to four players to explore together. Public dungeons will allow more than four players, of course, but they'll just be regular dungeons - so you may have to share the space with players outside your party.

there won't be end-game gear grinding, so when you reach level 50, the best gear is obtained only through top-tier crafting.

^^^ I actually really like this. I really dislike gear grinding in some MMOs -- especially the ones where you can only get the gear through larger grouped raids.

there will be no Auction Houses. Players can trade with one another, but you'll have to find someone to trade with via the game's chat box rather than bartering in public.

Cyrodiil will be the only place where everyone can engage in PvP

...

Battle types include sieges and territory gains, where the highest ranking player of the winning alliance will become emperor and must hold control for as long as possible. There are also Capture the Flag-style modes in which alliances try to steal an enemy's Elder Scroll and bring it back to their own fortress, conferring its unique buffs on their allies. As you do different things in PvP you'll gain alliance points, which you can exchange for new gear and abilities.

The three factions are divided into nine races, with three available per alliance. Once you choose your race, there are four class types to select from; Dragonknight, Templar, Sorcerer and Nightblade. These loosely fit into the established MMO archetypes of warrior, paladin, mage and assassin respectively, but TESO is a little more flexible with roles in that it allows any class to equip any armour or weapon type.

Eschewing the usual item restrictions means that tanks can wear cloth or healers can wear mail and wield swords - whether that's advisable remains to be seen. Each class has three different skill trees, and in addition to that, each race has a unique skill line as well. Joining Fighter or Mage guilds grants access to yet another new skill tree, so there's plenty to shoot for down the line. And of course, there will be a way to respec your skill points should you get bored of a character build.

Developers have confirmed that characters start off in the game with a horse. You'll be able to interact with it and feed it different items, and what you feed it will determine how it grows, and whether it gains new bursts of speed or stamina, so the process is a little more involved than in other MMOs. There's no word on whether more exotic mounts will become available later in the game, but there will be a variety of tag-along NPCs and animals that can follow you around at various points during your adventure.

Dropped loot is instanced to each individual player, so if you and a few friends go through a dungeon together, everyone who contributed to a kill will each get the same loot delivered to their inventory.

You can get married - That's right, it's possible to tie the knot in TESO. At the end of the (in-game) ceremony you'll both get an equippable ring, and if you wear those rings when you dungeon-crawl and quest together, you'll both receive an experience bonus. D'awww. Asked whether you can 'marry' multiple players at once, Paul Sage quipped that you could, adding that it might get "expensive". Either these ceremonies cost in-game gold, or Cyrodiil employs some fearsome lawyers.

There will be two kinds of Guilds in The Elder Scrolls Online - in-game guilds and player guilds. In-game guilds work much like they always have in single player Elder Scrolls titles, offering optional quests and skills to their members. Player guilds are similar to the way they work in other MMOs.

 

[Damaramu]

Re: The Elder Scrolls Online: Tamriel Unlimited

Seems like I can just play this as a single-player Elder Scrolls game. Awesome.

 

[vivisectvi]

Re: The Elder Scrolls Online: Tamriel Unlimited

Seems like I can just play this as a single-player Elder Scrolls game. Awesome.

Yeah man - it's sounding more and more like the perfect mix of RPG, Single & Multi. I'm really fucking hyped for this. I just hope it's F2P. I mean, I'm a TES mark, so I'll pay a sub if I have to, but I would not shy away from the F2P model.

 

[Edwin]

Re: The Elder Scrolls Online: Tamriel Unlimited

Okay, yeah, this is basically shaping up to be an MMO-lite, cutting out all the stuff that doesn't interest me. Four-person co-op in Tamriel sounds like just about the perfect size. How interesting that this could be what gets me to buy a next gen system at or near launch.

 

[vivisectvi]

Re: The Elder Scrolls Online: Tamriel Unlimited

I love that they're also making Cyrodiil the PVP zone since it's the area that everyone is warring over. I am seriously so hyped for this game.. hopefully some fellow TRTSMers who are going PS4 also go for it.

 

[Kageho]

Re: The Elder Scrolls Online: Tamriel Unlimited

I'm still on the fence about this game. But it looks very interesting.

 

[vivisectvi]

Re: The Elder Scrolls Online: Tamriel Unlimited

EDIT: tis gone

 

[vivisectvi]

Re: The Elder Scrolls Online: Tamriel Unlimited

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=yQFiNpwRan4

 

[vivisectvi]

Re: The Elder Scrolls Online: Tamriel Unlimited

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JWXjzLEGV9U

 

[vivisectvi]

Re: The Elder Scrolls Online: Tamriel Unlimited

http://www.joystiq.com/2013/08/21/elder-scrolls-online-opting-for-subscription-model-over-f2p/

The Elder Scrolls Online will cost adventurous non-Dovahkiin $14.99/€12.99/£8.99 per month once it launches next year, ZeniMax Online general manager Matt Firor has told GameStar.

"Going with any other model meant that we would have to make sacrifices and changes we weren't willing to make," Firor said. "We'll talk about further discounts, etc. later, but for now, we are very happy to finally announce our model. It's very simple - you pay once per month after the first 30 days and the entire game is available to you."

Firor also said that folks can "expect some discounts if you buy multiple months at a time," and that gametime cards will also be available as a payment option. We're not super into gametime cards ourselves, but only because we had to go to a 7/11 to buy them, and invariably we'd end up buying Dr. Pepper Slurpees and sacks of powdered donuts instead, and then our guild would kick us out.

I'm still in, though I still think they should've just went with a F2P with P2P as an option a la SWTOR and DCUO.. It just means this is the only MMO I'll be paying for going forward. I usually only play one P2P MMO at a time anyway, so this doesn't change much for me.

 

[muzzington]

Re: The Elder Scrolls Online: Tamriel Unlimited

Seemed like almost every MMO coming out would go with the F2P model but ESO, Wildstar and Realm Reborn are all sub based.

I actually prefer sub based.

 

[vivisectvi]

Re: The Elder Scrolls Online: Tamriel Unlimited

I prefer it too.. but I want that F2P option there so that more people can experience the game and boost the populations. Though, I guess this game won't need to rely on populations too much (outside of profits for Beth) as it's also meant to be done solo if you want. Hopefully there are no super insane bosses that REQUIRE groups to complete (unless they are specifically for grouped modes).