The elder scrolls saga

[winny257]

The elder scrolls saga !

 

I know it is not the right place, for that I apologize.
but this one should appeal to point times, because it affects the whole community elder scrolls! for me, the elder scrolls saga was the best role-playing series ever, but it ends with skyrim because for me are games online taboo. I want to experience my own adventure and not fight a monster with 20 other people. which says, "m'aiq the khajiit" in skyrim, "I prefer to travel alone, then there is also no dispute about the treasure." so I just want to say that there are already a plethora of role playing online, why does bethesda to its players union, why elder scrolls cans not a pure solo play remain.

 

Deutsch !

 

ich weiß es ist nicht der richtige ort , dafür entschuldige ich mich .
aber diesen punkt sollte man mal ansprechen , denn es betrifft die ganze elder scrolls gemeinschaft ! für mich war die elder scrolls saga die beste rollenspiel reihe überhaupt , aber sie endet mit skyrim denn für mich sind online spiele tabu . ich möchte mein eigenes abenteuer erleben und nicht mit 20 anderen leuten ein monster bekämpfen . was sagt ," m'aiq der khajiit " in skyrim , " ich bin lieber allein auf reisen , dann giebt es auch keinen streit um den schatz " . damit möchte ich nur sagen , daß es schon eine unmenge von online rollenspielen giebt , warum tut das bethesda seiner spielergemeinschaft an , warum kannen elder scrolls kein reines solo spiel bleiben .

 

[lordofthedread]

I am not sure at all that ESO will be the end of the solo game, time will tell.

[Ingun Black-Briar]

I am not sure at all that ESO will be the end of the solo game, time will tell.

 

I'm honestly worried there, and I admit my initial reaction to ESO was purely negative. I've played many an online game, starting with Ultima Online in ... uh ... 1999? 2000? and I've been witness to the slow transition from unique setting to mass-appealing "buy stuff for real $$, and it glows!!!" sell-outs. So, yes, I *am* worried that ESO will end up being a cash-cow, that, for the sake of attracting more and younger customers, will bend to corporate decisions.

On the other hand ... we have Morrowind, Oblivion and Skyrim, and no one will ever be able to take that from us. We experienced the Elder Scrolls, and even if ESO goes completely downhill there is a large base of players who remember what it's all about. So maybe there's hope? I don't know.

 

Deutsch:

 

Darum bin ich auch besorgt. Meine erste Reaktion war durchweg negativ. Ich habe so meine Erfahrungen mit Online Spielen, und am Ende ging es immer nur noch darum eine möglichst breite Masse an neuen Spielern anzusprechen und Geld zu scheffeln. Ultima Online zum Beispiel verwandelte sich vor meinen Augen von einer einmaligen Spielwelt in einen Alptraum aus leuchtenden Farben und Spieler-Paketen, die man für echtes Geld kaufen konnte. Dasselbe passierte mit WoW, wenn man es genau nimmt - damals noch ein ziemlich solides Spiel ist es inzwischen darauf ausgelegt, dass neue Spieler sich direkt ihren Level und ihre Ausstattung erkaufen können, und der vormals interessante Spielhintergrund wurde zum Tummelplatz von Tierwesen. Ich habe wirklich Angst, dass ESO dasselbe Schicksal widerfahren wird.

[winny257]

thank ingun!
you feel with me, my heart bleeds when I think of what will happen to elder scrolls, bethesda just how could something like tuhen only profit from greed, it is not enough that they have already earned. hope finally they fall right on the nose, but I suspect there are plenty of people that can be ripped off, money rules the world!

 

deutsch !

danke ingun !
du fühlst mit mir , mir blutet mein herz wenn ich daran denke , was mit elder scrolls geschehen wird , wie konnte bethesda nur soetwas tuhen nur aus profitgier ,reicht es nicht was sie jetzt schon verdient haben . hoffendlich fallen sie richtig auf die nase , aber ich vermute es giebt genügend leute die sich abzocken lassen , geld regiert die welt !!

[Absurdity]

I honestly wonder where you got the information that there won't be anymore TES single-player games. Just look at Skyrim's sold copies. Do you really think they'd abandon their moneymaker that easily? For something that could be a total flop?

ESO isn't even made by Bethesda Game Studios, who make the TES and Fallout games, but by ZeniMax Online.

You also gotta differentiate here. There is Bethesda Game Studios who develope those two great RPG series, Bethesda Softworks who's the publisher, ZeniMax Online who's responsible for ESO and they all belong to ZeniMax Media.

 

Ich frage mich ernsthaft woher du die Info nimmst, dass es keine TES Einzelspieler Spiele mehr geben wird. Guck dir bloß die Verkaufszahlen von Skyrim an. Denkst du ernsthaft die würden so eine Goldgrube einfach so aufgeben? Für etwas was evtl komplett floppen könnte?

ESO wird nichtmal von Bethesda Game Studios gemacht, welche die TES und Fallout Spiele entwickeln, sondern von ZeniMax Online.

Außerdem musst du hier differenzieren. Es gibt Bethesda Game Studios, welche die zwei großartigen Rollenspiele Serien entwickeln, Bethesda Softwork, der Publisher, ZeniMax Online, welche für ESO verantwortlich sind und sie alle gehören zu ZeniMax Media.

[FallenWarrior]

There's a project going on over at Dark Creations with the name Beyond Skyrim.

Beyond Skyrim is a community-wide effort to craft the remaining provinces of Tamriel in a single worldspace, allowing players to cross borders wherever it's geographically possible. The project is also intended to facilitate cooperation between province expansion mods by sharing knowledge & resources.

 

 

http://www.darkcreations.org/

[Trykz]

ESO will repeat what dozens of others have done since the release of WoW:

 

copy, cave, consolidate, and finally go F2P.

 

It'll copy WoW (not in content, but gameplay). It'll cave to the WoW kiddies who are temporarily bored with WoW (due to extensive periods between new content). It'll consolidate it's server farm soon after the new WoW expansion (like all others have). And finally, in it's final death throes, it'll go Free to Play offering some crappy in-game shop system to buy stuff to make a character slightly stronger. It'll be a niche game at best (much like Eve Online).

 

Rift

STO

SWTOR

LotRO

 

and dozens of others which you can try whenever you want by simply looking here.

 

I expect ESO will come out really strong like SWTOR and Rift did. But eventually, the inevitable will happen:

 

the WoW kids will go back to WoW, and the remaining player base won't be enough for the game to thrive and grow, putting it in life support mode after about 6 months to a year. Tops. If you want to see an older game that's relatively close to ESO (challenge-wise), check out the original EverQuest. Just don't expect too much. It's a 14 year old MMO. But it's gameplay is tough, gritty, and very unforgiving.

 

The vast majority of today's MMO gamers don't want challenge, strategy, or tactic...... they want a loot pinata. And I don't think ESO can give them that and remain true to the ES saga.

 

Trykz

[Adam Jensen]

 

 

ESO will repeat what dozens of others have done since the release of WoW:

 

copy, cave, consolidate, and finally go F2P.

 

It'll copy WoW (not in content, but gameplay). It'll cave to the WoW kiddies who are temporarily bored with WoW (due to extensive periods between new content). It'll consolidate it's server farm soon after the new WoW expansion (like all others have). And finally, in it's final death throes, it'll go Free to Play offering some crappy in-game shop system to buy stuff to make a character slightly stronger. It'll be a niche game at best (much like Eve Online).

 

Rift

STO

SWTOR

LotRO

 

and dozens of others which you can try whenever you want by simply looking here.

 

I expect ESO will come out really strong like SWTOR and Rift did. But eventually, the inevitable will happen:

 

the WoW kids will go back to WoW, and the remaining player base won't be enough for the game to thrive and grow, putting it in life support mode after about 6 months to a year. Tops. If you want to see an older game that's relatively close to ESO (challenge-wise), check out the original EverQuest. Just don't expect too much. It's a 14 year old MMO. But it's gameplay is tough, gritty, and very unforgiving.

 

The vast majority of today's MMO gamers don't want challenge, strategy, or tactic...... they want a loot pinata. And I don't think ESO can give them that and remain true to the ES saga.

 

Trykz

 

 

 

I thought it was going to be F2P from the get go, meaning that it wouldn't have subscription, I know you gotta buy the game though.

[Rayblue]

You ask me, I got weary of playing MMOs now, primarily because of the balooning costs involved.

 

Ich wurde müde vom Spielen MMOs wegen der steigenden Kosten.

[Absurdity]

 

The vast majority of today's MMO gamers don't want challenge, strategy, or tactic...... they want a loot pinata. And I don't think ESO can give them that and remain true to the ES saga.

 

The main reason I stopped playing WoW after 7 years. It basically lost everything that made it the best MMORPG of it's time but at the same time it managed to do what it needed to do to survive and that was turning into a loot pinata for lazy bums that want shiny new purple pixels atleast once a week without doing jackshit to deserve them.

 

But sooner or later that will start to fail too because there's a limited amount of new purple pixels and you can't throw out new content every 2-3 months which you'd need to do when your endgame is too damn easy.

[Commander Drag Queen]

I highly doubt that ESO will be the end of their single player RPGs. TES is in high demand, and there are enough people who enjoy the single-player story. Besides, SPRPGs feed into a psychological need to be the hero that develops when you play a game. Don't believe me? Play Spec Ops: The Line and see if your drive to be the hero gets you to the end.

 

Back to the main point, Bethesda makes too much money off the fan base to stop making RPG epics. I think Skyrim finally had a price drop (after two years!) to $30 ($40 for the ultimate bundle). Most AAA titles drop down to $20 a year later, at most. And while I see that an MMO would rake in a lot of money, I also see that it's a risk. If ESO tanks (which could happen), then Bethesda will pull its funding, reinvest in the next title, and have a field-day before the closing of the servers. 

[Ingun Black-Briar]

 

The main reason I stopped playing WoW after 7 years. It basically lost everything that made it the best MMORPG of it's time but at the same time it managed to do what it needed to do to survive and that was turning into a loot pinata for lazy bums that want shiny new purple pixels atleast once a week without doing jackshit to deserve them.

 

But sooner or later that will start to fail too because there's a limited amount of new purple pixels and you can't throw out new content every 2-3 months which you'd need to do when your endgame is too damn easy.

 

 

Yup, I think I can agree with you there. Like I mentioned before, I used to play Ultima Online "back in the day" when everything internet was stupidly expensive, and after quitting that game for much the same reasons (new content only aimed at a [at the time] young target audience willing to spend real monies, everything turning into a neon-colored items fest) I played WoW for a couple of years until WotLK when everything started to go downhill in my personal opinion. It's a sad fact that MMORPGs are a dime a dozen these days, and it also appears to be a fact that the much sought-after customers prefer to be able to buy characters rather than devoting time (and money, most games charge(d) a hefty monthly fee) to experience such a game.

I have mixed feelings about it all. Companies create online games to make money, obviously. Roleplaying and lore elements come second, which aggravates the "hardcore" players who care about a gaming world's history and lore. This was the reason why I quit WoW - I felt there was no support for roleplayers anymore, and that the game's priorities had shifted towards pleasing a more casual audience who'd consist of new players with horrible character names who were encouraged even to play on designated roleplaying servers so long as they'd pay their monthly fee.

I remember having some truly immersive interactions with both the UO staff (hey Melantus and Greywolfe ... you still around somewhere? I miss ya! ) and the WoW GMs until "roleplaying" no longer meant anything but false advertising.

 

That said, to the person who pointed out that (T)ESO is not even published by Bethesda:

That is, in fact, one of the major reasons I expect the game to be little more than a cash cow. Whoever ends up publishing the game will not be subject to the Elder Scrolls' lore, and there are too many f2p competitors to ignore the financial aspect of such a project. I expect it will end up like Ultima Online and even SimCity - stripped off the elements that attracted its original user base, attracting customers who are willing to shell out real money to gain an advantage in the game with no regards to the gaming world's history.

 

SimCity rant:

Not entirely on topic but another first hand experience. I was one of the unlucky people to have pre-ordered SimCity 4 since I'd loved the previous SC games and was looking forward to the sequel. Not anymore. I shelled out roughly 80 bucks for a game that I couldn't even play for the first couple of days because EA's servers were either not up or full. When I finally got to play I found that the finer and challenging elements of gameplay had been removed, and there was little enjoyment left unless you wanted to share a city/region with a complete foreigner who'd be able to join your game and then disappear forever, leaving you stuck in a barren region. SC4 was the last game I ever bought from EA. I never supported their goal to enforce online games only, much less their inability to provide working servers after forcing every single player to log into their servers to play.

SimCity was one of the greatest games ever - a game that you played by yourself. Fuck EA. Fuck them. I'm not going to buy another game of theirs, and SCREW their obsession with copy protection and collecting user data. Guess what? I don't need your shit. I can download the cracked versions of your games to play them. I was willing to purchase your games in order to support the people who made them, but not anymore. Fuck you, and go to hell.

 

Ahem. Sorry.

[Absurdity]

 

 

 

 

 

The main reason I stopped playing WoW after 7 years. It basically lost everything that made it the best MMORPG of it's time but at the same time it managed to do what it needed to do to survive and that was turning into a loot pinata for lazy bums that want shiny new purple pixels atleast once a week without doing jackshit to deserve them.

 

But sooner or later that will start to fail too because there's a limited amount of new purple pixels and you can't throw out new content every 2-3 months which you'd need to do when your endgame is too damn easy.

 

 

Yup, I think I can agree with you there. Like I mentioned before, I used to play Ultima Online "back in the day" when everything internet was stupidly expensive, and after quitting that game for much the same reasons (new content only aimed at a [at the time] young target audience willing to spend real monies, everything turning into a neon-colored items fest) I played WoW for a couple of years until WotLK when everything started to go downhill in my personal opinion. It's a sad fact that MMORPGs are a dime a dozen these days, and it also appears to be a fact that the much sought-after customers prefer to be able to buy characters rather than devoting time (and money, most games charge(d) a hefty monthly fee) to experience such a game.

I have mixed feelings about it all. Companies create online games to make money, obviously. Roleplaying and lore elements come second, which aggravates the "hardcore" players who care about a gaming world's history and lore. This was the reason why I quit WoW - I felt there was no support for roleplayers anymore, and that the game's priorities had shifted towards pleasing a more casual audience who'd consist of new players with horrible character names who were encouraged even to play on designated roleplaying servers so long as they'd pay their monthly fee.

I remember having some truly immersive interactions with both the UO staff (hey Melantus and Greywolfe ... you still around somewhere? I miss ya! ) and the WoW GMs until "roleplaying" no longer meant anything but false advertising.

 

That said, to the person who pointed out that (T)ESO is not even published by Bethesda:

That is, in fact, one of the major reasons I expect the game to be little more than a cash cow. Whoever ends up publishing the game will not be subject to the Elder Scrolls' lore, and there are too many f2p competitors to ignore the financial aspect of such a project. I expect it will end up like Ultima Online and even SimCity - stripped off the elements that attracted its original user base, attracting customers who are willing to shell out real money to gain an advantage in the game with no regards to the gaming world's history.

 

 

 

 

I'm not sure if the game's not gonna be published by Bethesda Softworks but I know that it's not developed by Bethesda Game Studios.
 

[Ingun Black-Briar]

 

I'm not sure if the game's not gonna be published by Bethesda Softworks but I know that it's not developed by Bethesda Game Studios.

 

 

Yeah, that's what I mean. Btw, do I know you? Your user name seems strangely familiar. Darknest? :-O

[Absurdity]

 

 

I'm not sure if the game's not gonna be published by Bethesda Softworks but I know that it's not developed by Bethesda Game Studios.

 

 

Yeah, that's what I mean. Btw, do I know you? Your user name seems strangely familiar. Darknest? :-O

 

 

Mhm...could be but I've not been there since a year or so.

 

[Trykz]

And while I see that an MMO would rake in a lot of money, I also see that it's a risk. If ESO tanks (which could happen), then Bethesda will pull its funding, reinvest in the next title, and have a field-day before the closing of the servers. 

 

Actually, it won't.

 

Today's MMOs are insanely expensive to build, with some costing upwards of $100m to produce (I think SWTOR was something like $115m). Rising PC capabilities greatly influence the demand for better looking and more realistic games. For an RPG, it's pretty cut and dry. You essentially choose your target audience based on past and current trends, and build to a target cost knowing roughly what you can expect for a reasonable profit margin. MMOs have no such luxury. The MMO gamer base fluctuates wildly on a near daily basis, with very little to depend on for reliable trend statistics. The hot ticket, upcoming MMO of today, gets quickly stripped of it's slot on the most anticipated list by the next thing coming down the pike tomorrow.

 

And then the inevitable happens:

 

Blizzard detects a potential threat on the horizon and announces their next WoW expansion. Putting a tremendous majority of the MMO gamer base into 

"wait and see" mode.

 

As Absurdity pointed out, every company involved with ESO is a subsidiary of Zenimax. Since that's where funding control originates, it's kinda hard to "pull". I suspect that what's going on now, is that Bethesda's next franchise title will be their fallback should ESO flop too hard. They could use profit from the RPG to float ESO for as long as it's feasible, or until they decide on an alternative revenue model to keep it alive at least long enough to break close to even.

 

If I could offer them one piece of advice, I'd suggest they simply nip it off in the bud by offering an alternative model right away. In the form of the genre's very first "moddable MMO". In such a model, they could set up a consistent revenue stream by partnering with every modder who creates content for the game. Modder creates new content, transfers license to distribute to Zenimax, and then modder gets a percentage of each sale Zenimax makes to players in the form of monthly or quarterly royalty payments, or even subscription credit which can be used to buy content created by other modders, or just keep an account active. Profit can be used to produce further "official" DLC content to generate even more revenue.

 

In such model, you could also reduce subscription rates to basic server maintenance costs for those who choose it. Everyone else goes to a normal server with a typical subscription model with no option for utilizing mods. AND..... you reap the benefit of attracting an audience from TWO sub-genres:

 

RPG and MMO.

 

But alas..... I'm just a lowly businessman who happens to enjoy modding, not worth listening to..... 

[Ingun Black-Briar]

 

 

 

I'm not sure if the game's not gonna be published by Bethesda Softworks but I know that it's not developed by Bethesda Game Studios.

 

 

Yeah, that's what I mean. Btw, do I know you? Your user name seems strangely familiar. Darknest? :-O

 

 

Mhm...could be but I've not been there since a year or so.

 

 

 

Ah, no, according to your age you're not the person I was thinking of. Sorry, disregard that comment. You're not the droid I'm looking for.

 

 

[Xxantoss]

 

And while I see that an MMO would rake in a lot of money, I also see that it's a risk. If ESO tanks (which could happen), then Bethesda will pull its funding, reinvest in the next title, and have a field-day before the closing of the servers. 

 

Actually, it won't.

 

Today's MMOs are insanely expensive to build, with some costing upwards of $100m to produce (I think SWTOR was something like $115m). Rising PC capabilities greatly influence the demand for better looking and more realistic games. For an RPG, it's pretty cut and dry. You essentially choose your target audience based on past and current trends, and build to a target cost knowing roughly what you can expect for a reasonable profit margin. MMOs have no such luxury. The MMO gamer base fluctuates wildly on a near daily basis, with very little to depend on for reliable trend statistics. The hot ticket, upcoming MMO of today, gets quickly stripped of it's slot on the most anticipated list by the next thing coming down the pike tomorrow.

 

And then the inevitable happens:

 

Blizzard detects a potential threat on the horizon and announces their next WoW expansion. Putting a tremendous majority of the MMO gamer base into 

"wait and see" mode.

 

As Absurdity pointed out, every company involved with ESO is a subsidiary of Zenimax. Since that's where funding control originates, it's kinda hard to "pull". I suspect that what's going on now, is that Bethesda's next franchise title will be their fallback should ESO flop too hard. They could use profit from the RPG to float ESO for as long as it's feasible, or until they decide on an alternative revenue model to keep it alive at least long enough to break close to even.

 

If I could offer them one piece of advice, I'd suggest they simply nip it off in the bud by offering an alternative model right away. In the form of the genre's very first "moddable MMO". In such a model, they could set up a consistent revenue stream by partnering with every modder who creates content for the game. Modder creates new content, transfers license to distribute to Zenimax, and then modder gets a percentage of each sale Zenimax makes to players in the form of monthly or quarterly royalty payments, or even subscription credit which can be used to buy content created by other modders, or just keep an account active. Profit can be used to produce further "official" DLC content to generate even more revenue.

 

In such model, you could also reduce subscription rates to basic server maintenance costs for those who choose it. Everyone else goes to a normal server with a typical subscription model with no option for utilizing mods. AND..... you reap the benefit of attracting an audience from TWO sub-genres:

 

RPG and MMO.

 

But alas..... I'm just a lowly businessman who happens to enjoy modding, not worth listening to..... 

 

You can't have people mod an MMORPG because it would expose everyone to the content. That would include many of the mods that contain content that is questionable to some. If that were allowed the rating boards would make it A and it wouldn't sell at all. 

[Trykz]

 

 

And while I see that an MMO would rake in a lot of money, I also see that it's a risk. If ESO tanks (which could happen), then Bethesda will pull its funding, reinvest in the next title, and have a field-day before the closing of the servers. 

 

Actually, it won't.

 

Today's MMOs are insanely expensive to build, with some costing upwards of $100m to produce (I think SWTOR was something like $115m). Rising PC capabilities greatly influence the demand for better looking and more realistic games. For an RPG, it's pretty cut and dry. You essentially choose your target audience based on past and current trends, and build to a target cost knowing roughly what you can expect for a reasonable profit margin. MMOs have no such luxury. The MMO gamer base fluctuates wildly on a near daily basis, with very little to depend on for reliable trend statistics. The hot ticket, upcoming MMO of today, gets quickly stripped of it's slot on the most anticipated list by the next thing coming down the pike tomorrow.

 

And then the inevitable happens:

 

Blizzard detects a potential threat on the horizon and announces their next WoW expansion. Putting a tremendous majority of the MMO gamer base into 

"wait and see" mode.

 

As Absurdity pointed out, every company involved with ESO is a subsidiary of Zenimax. Since that's where funding control originates, it's kinda hard to "pull". I suspect that what's going on now, is that Bethesda's next franchise title will be their fallback should ESO flop too hard. They could use profit from the RPG to float ESO for as long as it's feasible, or until they decide on an alternative revenue model to keep it alive at least long enough to break close to even.

 

If I could offer them one piece of advice, I'd suggest they simply nip it off in the bud by offering an alternative model right away. In the form of the genre's very first "moddable MMO". In such a model, they could set up a consistent revenue stream by partnering with every modder who creates content for the game. Modder creates new content, transfers license to distribute to Zenimax, and then modder gets a percentage of each sale Zenimax makes to players in the form of monthly or quarterly royalty payments, or even subscription credit which can be used to buy content created by other modders, or just keep an account active. Profit can be used to produce further "official" DLC content to generate even more revenue.

 

In such model, you could also reduce subscription rates to basic server maintenance costs for those who choose it. Everyone else goes to a normal server with a typical subscription model with no option for utilizing mods. AND..... you reap the benefit of attracting an audience from TWO sub-genres:

 

RPG and MMO.

 

But alas..... I'm just a lowly businessman who happens to enjoy modding, not worth listening to..... 

 

 

You can't have people mod an MMORPG because it would expose everyone to the content. That would include many of the mods that contain content that is questionable to some. If that were allowed the rating boards would make it A and it wouldn't sell at all. 

 

 

Yes, you can. Any mod created for such a model would undoubtedly be pre-screened for content. Once a rating is set, anything created by a modder would need to fit within the rating's parameters, or the modder risks it being rejected.

 

And again, this would just be ONE of any number of subscription models for the player to choose from.

[Xxantoss]

 

 

 

And while I see that an MMO would rake in a lot of money, I also see that it's a risk. If ESO tanks (which could happen), then Bethesda will pull its funding, reinvest in the next title, and have a field-day before the closing of the servers. 

 

Actually, it won't.

 

Today's MMOs are insanely expensive to build, with some costing upwards of $100m to produce (I think SWTOR was something like $115m). Rising PC capabilities greatly influence the demand for better looking and more realistic games. For an RPG, it's pretty cut and dry. You essentially choose your target audience based on past and current trends, and build to a target cost knowing roughly what you can expect for a reasonable profit margin. MMOs have no such luxury. The MMO gamer base fluctuates wildly on a near daily basis, with very little to depend on for reliable trend statistics. The hot ticket, upcoming MMO of today, gets quickly stripped of it's slot on the most anticipated list by the next thing coming down the pike tomorrow.

 

And then the inevitable happens:

 

Blizzard detects a potential threat on the horizon and announces their next WoW expansion. Putting a tremendous majority of the MMO gamer base into 

"wait and see" mode.

 

As Absurdity pointed out, every company involved with ESO is a subsidiary of Zenimax. Since that's where funding control originates, it's kinda hard to "pull". I suspect that what's going on now, is that Bethesda's next franchise title will be their fallback should ESO flop too hard. They could use profit from the RPG to float ESO for as long as it's feasible, or until they decide on an alternative revenue model to keep it alive at least long enough to break close to even.

 

If I could offer them one piece of advice, I'd suggest they simply nip it off in the bud by offering an alternative model right away. In the form of the genre's very first "moddable MMO". In such a model, they could set up a consistent revenue stream by partnering with every modder who creates content for the game. Modder creates new content, transfers license to distribute to Zenimax, and then modder gets a percentage of each sale Zenimax makes to players in the form of monthly or quarterly royalty payments, or even subscription credit which can be used to buy content created by other modders, or just keep an account active. Profit can be used to produce further "official" DLC content to generate even more revenue.

 

In such model, you could also reduce subscription rates to basic server maintenance costs for those who choose it. Everyone else goes to a normal server with a typical subscription model with no option for utilizing mods. AND..... you reap the benefit of attracting an audience from TWO sub-genres:

 

RPG and MMO.

 

But alas..... I'm just a lowly businessman who happens to enjoy modding, not worth listening to..... 

 

 

You can't have people mod an MMORPG because it would expose everyone to the content. That would include many of the mods that contain content that is questionable to some. If that were allowed the rating boards would make it A and it wouldn't sell at all. 

 

 

Yes, you can. Any mod created for such a model would undoubtedly be pre-screened for content. Once a rating is set, anything created by a modder would need to fit within the rating's parameters, or the modder risks it being rejected.

 

And again, this would just be ONE of any number of subscription models for the player to choose from.

 

Good point.

[Absurdity]

Let's just hope they don't pull the same shit that TERA did in Europe to drop the age rating to 12.

[winny257]

hi Absurdity!
as I should have learned the old release here in Germany, is 12 years! and according to my information working with Bethesda Studios, ZeniMax Online Studios together. ZeniMax Online is the platform where ESO is then released. I have a German website, can look even once.

http://de.bethblog.com/category/zenimax-online-studios/

german\ deutsch !

so wie ich erfahren haben soll die altersfreigabe hier in deutschland , 12 jahre betragen ! und nach meinen informationen arbeiten Bethesda Studios mit ZeniMax Online Studios zusammen . ZeniMax ist die online plattform wo dann ESO freigegeben wird . ich habe hier eine deutsche webseite , kannst ja mal schauen .

[Absurdity]

hi Absurdity!

as I should have learned the old release here in Germany, is 12 years! and according to my information working with Bethesda Studios, ZeniMax Online Studios together. ZeniMax Online is the platform where ESO is then released. I have a German website, can look even once.

http://de.bethblog.com/category/zenimax-online-studios/

german\ deutsch !

so wie ich erfahren haben soll die altersfreigabe hier in deutschland , 12 jahre betragen ! und nach meinen informationen arbeiten Bethesda Studios mit ZeniMax Online Studios zusammen . ZeniMax ist die online plattform wo dann ESO freigegeben wird . ich habe hier eine deutsche webseite , kannst ja mal schauen .

 

Bethesda gehört zu ZeniMax und wie gesagt wird ESO nicht von Bethesda Game Studios entwickelt sondern von ZeniMax Online was nichts mit den Entwicklern von den vorherigen Elder Scrolls Spielen zu tun hat.

[Double D]

There really isn't too much to be worried about at this point. I recall when they first announced the game so many people were mashing on the panic button. Skyrim had been out for only oh so long and people were raging on forums the world over. When Dawnguard dropped I heard people asking about the Elder Scrolls 6 as if it were an annual release. The mass hysteria was a bit too much even for the internet. So when they announced the mmo I took it in stride and was actually looking forward to it. Needless to say I've soured a bit on the game since then but not for the fact that it is an mmo.

 

Anyways what I really want to say is that Bethesda's most successful game to date has been Skyrim which has always been a single player experience. I don't see that changing but I would not be surprised if they tried to force some 2-4 player co-op in somewhere. That would actually piss me off as that has never panned out too well for the games that have done it. Then there is the fact that Skyrim has seen some major simplification from it's predecessors. There is a rather lengthy video on youtube somewhere with the guy voicing his frustrations and I have to agree with him. Plus the studio that is behind the development of TESO is trying to make it play more like Skyrim with first person, real time combat. It wasn't to be included at first, but since the initial outcry they decided they had to do it so it can play more like an Elder Scrolls title.

 

So no, I don't think you should worry about it becoming an mmo as there as so many other things they could do to mess up the formula. That said, even while making mistakes Bethesda tends to acknowledge their core audience even though it doesn't seem like industry standard nowadays. They really haven't done me bad yet. As much I hate DLC and microtransactions Bethesda seems to put some of the best content out there. Plus what other triple A developer/publisher supports the modding community like they do? As long as they continue doing that last bit without abandoning single player then they are okay in my book.

 

One warning though. It will be quite some time before any single player Elder Scrolls title is released. We'll most likely see another Fallout game soon enough plus maybe a new IP. Or at least that's what I am thinking.

[Katsoro]

 

 

The main reason I stopped playing WoW after 7 years. It basically lost everything that made it the best MMORPG of it's time but at the same time it managed to do what it needed to do to survive and that was turning into a loot pinata for lazy bums that want shiny new purple pixels atleast once a week without doing jackshit to deserve them.

 

But sooner or later that will start to fail too because there's a limited amount of new purple pixels and you can't throw out new content every 2-3 months which you'd need to do when your endgame is too damn easy.

 

 

Yup, I think I can agree with you there. Like I mentioned before, I used to play Ultima Online "back in the day" when everything internet was stupidly expensive, and after quitting that game for much the same reasons (new content only aimed at a [at the time] young target audience willing to spend real monies, everything turning into a neon-colored items fest) I played WoW for a couple of years until WotLK when everything started to go downhill in my personal opinion. It's a sad fact that MMORPGs are a dime a dozen these days, and it also appears to be a fact that the much sought-after customers prefer to be able to buy characters rather than devoting time (and money, most games charge(d) a hefty monthly fee) to experience such a game.

I have mixed feelings about it all. Companies create online games to make money, obviously. Roleplaying and lore elements come second, which aggravates the "hardcore" players who care about a gaming world's history and lore. This was the reason why I quit WoW - I felt there was no support for roleplayers anymore, and that the game's priorities had shifted towards pleasing a more casual audience who'd consist of new players with horrible character names who were encouraged even to play on designated roleplaying servers so long as they'd pay their monthly fee.

I remember having some truly immersive interactions with both the UO staff (hey Melantus and Greywolfe ... you still around somewhere? I miss ya! ) and the WoW GMs until "roleplaying" no longer meant anything but false advertising.

 

That said, to the person who pointed out that (T)ESO is not even published by Bethesda:

That is, in fact, one of the major reasons I expect the game to be little more than a cash cow. Whoever ends up publishing the game will not be subject to the Elder Scrolls' lore, and there are too many f2p competitors to ignore the financial aspect of such a project. I expect it will end up like Ultima Online and even SimCity - stripped off the elements that attracted its original user base, attracting customers who are willing to shell out real money to gain an advantage in the game with no regards to the gaming world's history.

 

SimCity rant:

Not entirely on topic but another first hand experience. I was one of the unlucky people to have pre-ordered SimCity 4 since I'd loved the previous SC games and was looking forward to the sequel. Not anymore. I shelled out roughly 80 bucks for a game that I couldn't even play for the first couple of days because EA's servers were either not up or full. When I finally got to play I found that the finer and challenging elements of gameplay had been removed, and there was little enjoyment left unless you wanted to share a city/region with a complete foreigner who'd be able to join your game and then disappear forever, leaving you stuck in a barren region. SC4 was the last game I ever bought from EA. I never supported their goal to enforce online games only, much less their inability to provide working servers after forcing every single player to log into their servers to play.

SimCity was one of the greatest games ever - a game that you played by yourself. Fuck EA. Fuck them. I'm not going to buy another game of theirs, and SCREW their obsession with copy protection and collecting user data. Guess what? I don't need your shit. I can download the cracked versions of your games to play them. I was willing to purchase your games in order to support the people who made them, but not anymore. Fuck you, and go to hell.

 

Ahem. Sorry.

 

 

Your talking about SimCity 2013, SimCity 4 (that came out back in 2003) is the best City Simulator in history bar none. On MMORPGs I have to agree no matter how good they start out in the end they become nothing more then a cash shop in the end.