The Elder Scrolls Online

[Samprimary]

And where was there a dwarf?

whenever I look at any standard press for this game, they are trying to make the nords as dwarf-like as possible, for the standard elfdwarfhuman trifecta

[Simond]

Have a couple of interviews from the Grauniad's games section:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/gamesblog/2013/jan/28/elder-scrolls-online-interview-matt-firor

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/gamesblog/2013/jan/29/elder-scrolls-online-characters

[Sheepherder]

A larger concern is how the melee combat of Skyrim and Oblivion, which is functional but somewhat unrefined, can be re-engineered for competitive play.

"It does work the same way mechanically in PVP as it does in PVE," says Firor. "So you swing with the left mouse and block with the right mouse, but there are a couple of new moves, like a really fast left click then right click will stun someone, plus things like doubletapping a key to roll away.

 

[Lakov_Sanite]

These guys....I think they mean well, but I just wanna pat them on the head and say "you are just so CUTE!"

[Paelos]

By the time it launches I can't tell what will happen. Will the hype become so large that people just take a chance on it? Or will it be one of those things where people that are Skryim fans say DO NOT WANT.

[Falconeer]

Let's agree on something:

- Chances it will be acceptable as an Elder Scrolls game? Less than zero.
- Chances it will be acceptable as a MMORPG, and maybe even good? Some. Why not? We don't even know enough to say "zero" about this (while we know enough to say "zero" about the previous point).

[Paelos]

Yeah it could be a decent MMO. I signed up for the beta as a lark. Who knows?

[Lakov_Sanite]

Could be a decent mmo but man they are gonna make mistakes.

[Hawkbit]

I can't be bothered to delve through the material.  Is the game class-based or skill/perk based like the previous games?

[Simond]

Yes.

[Rendakor]

Class based.

[blackwulf]

And skill based.

[Merusk]

So it's DAoC? 

[Draegan]

So it's DAoC? 

With an Elder Scrolls skin and more PVE.

[Paelos]

Here's their chance to learn from WAR, then.

[Simond]

You're a funny guy, you know that? 

[Sir T]

Tell me more about this "learn" concept.

[Lantyssa]

It's where you ignore your textbooks and drink yourself silly at parties every night of the week.

[UnSub]

Tell me more about this "learn" concept.

Three star talent, four star drive, with a star saved for post-launch content. .

[calapine]

The entire excellent thing is silly. Who wouldn't keep punching buttons until they got it to excellent.

Well, I am average. Now even games think I suck.   

[blackwulf]

If any of you haven't really felt inclined to hunt down the various details that have been released about this game, here's a guy who compiled all kinds of sourced info in one handy place.  Nothing new here, if you've been following every detail that's trickled out.

http://forums.bethsoft.com/topic/1443440-the-comprehensive-eso-mechanics-thread-100-sourced-information/

[amiable]

The last games I was this excited for were Warhammer online and Diablo 3.  Reviewing my history I can now make the following prediction:

The game will look visually stunning but be plagued with a series of game-breaking balance issues/exploits and half developed features that will prove more frustrating than fun.  Most hardcore guilds RvR will leave after 3 months to return to rift/GW2/WoT.  Zenimax media owns them both. Betheda will milk a few more dollars out of Skyrim via dlc’s then be folded into Zenimax Online to create the new dlc areas. The game will eventually fold or move to f2p after months of being unable to address core gameplay issues and a string of broken promises that craters Bethesda's brand.  Zenimax online will be cut loose, Bethesda will be gone and the francise will be left a smoking ruin.

[Paelos]

I think it will succeed if their plan is to hold 250k subs continually, and make a profit that way.

If their plan is to hold a million subs? It's an expectations gap you can't win.

[Merusk]

At this point anyone making a subscription MMO is a fool.  They all overplan their sub base and are devastated afterwards.  Expecting this to be any different is putting too much faith in humanity and the 'business sense' of the games industry.

I'd be shocked if they were planning for LESS than 1 mil continual subs.  Much like new housing there's too many features demanded by the market for the lower revenue ranges.

[murdoc]

PAReport with a hands-on

http://penny-arcade.com/report/article/elder-scrolls-online-nails-the-online-stumbles-on-the-elder-scrolls-during-

[Merusk]

I forgot to mention this two weeks ago.  There was a huge troll/ argument around TES:O going on in the Neverwinter beta chat during the public week.  So many  - SO MANY - people were damn certain it was going to be free-form "just like Elder Scrolls, otherwise you wouldn't call it that!"

Not even through the first subheading and I've read 4 things that will make these people rage so hard I think my Schadenfreude just had an embolism. 

[Xuri]

PAReport with a hands-on

http://penny-arcade.com/report/article/elder-scrolls-online-nails-the-online-stumbles-on-the-elder-scrolls-during-

The contents of the article aside; is it just my eyesight/monitor getting worse, or is the font that PAReport use in their articles hard to read? I've seen the same font in a couple of other places and it's starting to bug me. Seems like parts of some letters are in bold (like the first line in each 'h'). I get the same feeling from reading it as I do when I Read Text Where Every Letter Starts With A Capital Letter. -_-

[Rendakor]

The font is Arial. Something on your end is broken.

[Hawkbit]

It's Helvetica, which is much better for signs and banners than it is text. 

Calibri is the most used 'business type' font right now - reads like butter, but is fairly dry looking.

[Xuri]

Interesting. Looks fine in IE 9, but both Opera and Chrome have the same issue with the font. Curiouser and curiouser.

[Falconeer]

I think I see what Xuri sees. It's just come caps letter on my end have a "bold" upper side.

This:

[Bzalthek]

I catch Destructoid on my Roku frequently (see Rev3 games on youtube), and Max Scoville (sp?) mentioned in the last episode that he had some hands on playtime.  Not much of substance was discussed but from what he could tell it seemed that they are very much trying to cater to the single player "Hero" storyline with the option of grouping with other "heroes" if you want.   And apparently while there are classes, they're just templates as per previous iterations of Elder Scrolls games, and customization is completely free beyond that point.

[Miasma]

PAReport with a hands-on

http://penny-arcade.com/report/article/elder-scrolls-online-nails-the-online-stumbles-on-the-elder-scrolls-during-

The contents of the article aside; is it just my eyesight/monitor getting worse, or is the font that PAReport use in their articles hard to read? I've seen the same font in a couple of other places and it's starting to bug me. Seems like parts of some letters are in bold (like the first line in each 'h'). I get the same feeling from reading it as I do when I Read Text Where Every Letter Starts With A Capital Letter. -_-

They are trying to use one of those shitty webfonts because standard fonts that actually work are just too functional for some people.  As with most webfonts it looks like garbage on every browser except the guy's who came up with the idea to use it.  Other people think it's arial or helvetica because those are the options it falls back on if your system can't display it.

[Rendakor]

I think I see what Xuri sees. It's just come caps letter on my end have a "bold" upper side.

This:

Must be a browser issue of some kind, because it doesn't look your screenshot on my browser.

[Xuri]

Don't want to drag this off topic too much, but enabling the ClearType feature in Windows 7 cleared out this problem for me in Opera (strangely, it had no effect in Chrome). Of course, it also changed the font and made it look different in other programs all over the place, but...meh ;P