The Elder Scrolls Online

[Takiwaki]

Nope..that kinda sounds lazy.

[Kelenae]

Nope..that kinda sounds lazy.

Ya.. its kinda sad that i'm getting turned off on this game.

[Amiricle]

Not to mention, splitting their player base across 3 platforms when the player base is already split across 3 factions means many areas / factions will probably end up dead zones pretty quickly.

[Viq]

Guild wars 2, the only MMO worth playing right now and the near future(best world that actually feels alive and is worth visiting/staying in because 99% of your playtime won't be inside instanced dungeons at level cap, best classes, best PVP balance, most well designed PVP, fastest content updates, best content updates...

a shame Anet literally refuses to add any new content to the game

literally

[Guyverarmor]

Well, as stated earlier, it is Shiyo after all...

[notorious bum]

fuck that noise, I'd rather dip my feet into Wildstar and occupy my time with ArchAge beta until the Division comes out. Also, GW2's devs can suck on a summer sausage.

[Enkidu]

Not like it's fun trudging through lvl5 content when you're at the cap. I like the fact that they're sticking to a "one-character" type MMO similar to the FF's, I never liked the idea of making alts to get access to more content.

I was hoping to be able to play it sometime soon via open beta or release, but now those fuckers pushed it back to 2014... I'd say the game still deserves a chance, some of the gameplay footage looks nice, but I will literally laugh-out-loud if they come out with a sub model. Anything from 2013 onward released with a sub model is destined to fail; unless it's a Blizzard game...

I'm hoping Bethesda came down hard on Zenimax Online and forced a number of changes, they were so adamant about a 2013 release prior to the leaked footage. Really hoping it wasn't just pushed back to release a DoA game on consoles to recoup some money.

[Enkidu]

Was reading up on e3 impressions from people who got to play the game and came across this: "One thing I noticed poking around the menus was a menu that said "Mods"." (sauce: http://www.escapistmagazine.com/arti...e-In-Instantly)

Yeah it could be demo only type stuff or be extremely watered down, but damn it I want to believe. Yeah I know only a fraction of TES mods would be applicable to an MMO...

[Einzo]

No raids. No housing. ESO is pretty much following GW2's style. Was pretty pumped up for this game but I am on the fence now. Looking forward to WildStar instead.

[Zetanio]

I wanted to be excited about this game. I really did.

It looks p stupid now.

[SamanosukeShiva]

literally

lmao

[GoggleHead]

Why would anyone think turning The Elder Scrolls into an MMO was a good idea?

[Lucavi]

Because, like Star Wars, the franchise is wildly popular with people that'll plunk down cash initially, so it makes for a fantastic cash-grab.

You think people wouldn't play a Halo MMORPG, even if it was shit? They'd still buy the box. The sales would be huge.

That is why this game is being made. Brand Fucking Recognition. Quality is irrelevant to the companies at this point; its all about maxing profit through box sales and then going F2P when your game tanks because you cared more about sucking your investor's dicks than supporting the product. There's simply been too many examples over the last decade to suggest otherwise.

[GoggleHead]

I can't imagine the monumental effort required to construct an MMO would be done for a simple "cash grab". It's too big a project for that to be remotely viable.

[Lucavi]

Explain EA's Star Wars Online, then.

Spend millions, develop game, fire entire maintenance staff post-launch, pay off investors immediately with box sales funds, succumb to terrible press due to having a buggy game, announce F2P in quick fashion.

Even if their PR doesn't call it a cash-grab, which they never would publicly, its not as if these "industry experts" don't know what it takes to keep a MMO running. They just overestimate their own abilities to cut staff and retain public support.

[GoggleHead]

With SWTOR there was at least a precedent in Star Wars Galaxies of using the franchise as a backdrop for a successful MMO. I'd chalk it up primarily to poor decision making and misreading the market. They sunk half a billion into it, they were clearly expecting to ride the subscription train all the way to the bank if they were willing put those kinds of resources into the product's creation. There's no way box sales alone were going to cover the costs, and with how badly they fucked up the implementation of F2P I'd wager they hadn't planned on making that switch in revenue models.

Hanlon's Razor etc, etc.

[Hyan]

Why are these MMO's made exclusively for the master race so goddamn shitty looking? Why not unleash the capabilities of the platform and instead let games so "chained" by consoles take over in the graphics department?

It's okay though, because then the PC audience switches to "graphix dun matter, only dudebros care about visuals hurrrdurrr" mode.

Ah, yes --- maybe the increased revenue from the console demographic helps the publisher to fund the development of better graphics among other things. But let's not stop saying consoles be bad for MMO's amirite

Even that excuse doesn't work for TORtanic though. How the fuck did they manage to create something so ugly with so much money?

[GoggleHead]

MMOs are supposed to be designed with long term support in mind, right? The only platform that can accommodate that is the PC. Let me know when that changes I'll let you know when putting MMOs on consoles stops being a bad idea.

[Hyan]

I dunno, I thought more subs meaning more revenue would be kind of important for the long term support too. But I can see how MMO's can be and are best supported with good will alone. Especially in this day and age.

Man what a game XI could have been with half the amount of subs. Glorious.

[Lucavi]

Why are these MMO's made exclusively for the master race so goddamn shitty looking? Why not unleash the capabilities of the platform and instead let games so "chained" by consoles take over in the graphics department?

It's okay though, because then the PC audience switches to "graphix dun matter, only dudebros care about visuals hurrrdurrr" mode.

Ah, yes --- maybe the increased revenue from the console demographic helps the publisher to fund the development of better graphics among other things. But let's not stop saying consoles be bad for MMO's amirite

Even that excuse doesn't work for TORtanic though. How the fuck did they manage to create something so ugly with so much money?

Aiming for the most subs = making games for the lowest common denominator; that means making ugly games that every tom dick and harry PC can run to achieve max subs. When you make a game for a console, the benchmark for graphics is already set, so you just work around it.

There are pros and cons with both systems, but look at the differences in subs for console MMOs vs. PC MMOs. Console MMOs are lucky to break, what, 100k? Contrast that with PC. You make a game only about graphics and you cut sharply into the amount of subs you can expect to pick up.

Besides, there's already console MMOs that look ugly as hell. PSU is ugly as shit. Dragon quest is ugly as shit, from a technical "graphics engine" standpoint. In both instances, the games rely on the same justification that WoW relied on: "stylized" graphics over pure power.

You're kind of strawmanning here.