The Elder Scrolls Online

[Signe]

I got one of those bring a friend invites, too.  No one sounds as if they want to try it, though.  Or maybe I'm out of friends which means it's time to start writing men in prison again.

[Nebu]

Prisoners would enjoy this beta.  You spend your first 30 mins breaking out of a scripted prison.

[Ginaz]

If anyone wants to be my friend and get the extra key, let me know.  Or, if you want to shun me, there's some free keys available here:
http://www.mmorpg.com/giveaways.cfm/offer/498/Elder-Scrolls-Online-Beta-Key-Giveaway.html

[palmer_eldritch]

My buddy who I used to play UO with wants to play this game, so I'm buying it.

[Der Helm]

Grabbed one of the free beta keys. Even the German registration pages look shitty, uninspired and lazy. I had flashbacks to the late 90s. We will see how this goes.

[Der Helm]

Interesting. If you switch focus while the installer is running, it simply stops.

Horrible font on the launcher. But hey, downloading at 5-6 mB/s. Nicely enough, it keeps downloading even when not in focus.

[Der Helm]

Horrible font on the launcher. But hey, downloading at 5-6 mB/s. Nicely enough, it keeps downloading even when not in focus.

What it does though, is take up almost ALL of my bandwith. Which I should have more than enough off. It is an unlimited torrent download, isn't it ?

edit: So you CAN limit the download if you manage to find the correct button. You can then select: unlimited, 5 mB/s or 10 mB/s.
       Picking 5mB/s limits the download to 250-300 kB/s. Awesome.

[Xuri]

My buddy who I used to play UO with wants to play this game, so I'm buying it.

Who? Who? Elv'eng? Videric?? Burrator???

[palmer_eldritch]

My buddy who I used to play UO with wants to play this game, so I'm buying it.

Who? Who? Elv'eng? Videric?? Burrator???

Ogodei, also known as Narak.

Videric says he will play when it goes free, or if I play for a bit and report that it's worth paying for:)

[Der Helm]

"Login Service failed. ALT=Ok"

I press ALT for ok ? This does not bode well for the game. I assume server maintenance, not that one of the TWO launchers mentioned anything about it in the news feed.

edit: Oh. Now it tells me Beta starts at the 28th. Yay!

[WayAbvPar]

Prisoners would enjoy this beta.  You spend your first 30 mins breaking out of a scripted prison.

"I don't know...can't you just throw me in the hole again? I don't think I can face logging in again..."

[Draegan]

"Login Service failed. ALT=Ok"

I press ALT for ok ? This does not bode well for the game. I assume server maintenance, not that one of the TWO launchers mentioned anything about it in the news feed.

edit: Oh. Now it tells me Beta starts at the 28th. Yay!

Not that TESO doesn't deserve to get poked at, but this seems silly.

[Lakov_Sanite]

"Login Service failed. ALT=Ok"

I press ALT for ok ?

Needs to be translated into console-ese.  "Press X for ok"

[sam, an eggplant]

Yeah, the consolitis is strong in ESO. I would accept that if they allowed me to play with a controller! But no, there is no controller support unless you hack it yourself with xpadder. Steam controller can't come soon enough.

Console release dates are June, but they are likely to slip. Possibly forever, like all other non-Sony MMOs promising console versions.

[Ghambit]

With Dark Souls 2 coming out in a few weeks, there's not a chance in hell I'd buy this game... or any Elder Scrolls IP when put up against *Souls.   MMO (which ESO is barely) or not.

[Der Helm]

Not that TESO doesn't deserve to get poked at, but this seems silly.

I was more annoyed with myself that I did not notice when the beta actually started. But I can see how my edit translated that poorly  

[Tannhauser]

I have a key if anyone wants it.

[WayAbvPar]

My buddy wanted to give me a key to possibly entice me to play it at launch with him (despite my best efforts, he insists on playing it). I don't think I would play at launch if someone gave me a free copy and a lifetime sub.

Well, maybe I would at least log in to make fun of it then.

[Falconeer]

Everyone keeps saying how bad the first few minutes of the game are, and while today I was going through it for what I think is the sixth time, it hit me that the introduction to the game -seriously the first three minutes- are really TERRIBLE. I mean, in general, for a generic, free to play low budget game they could be OK. But when you think about The Elder Scrolls, it's hard to swallow that they couldn't come up with anything more engaging than you waking up in a cell in third person and having to click on a thing on the ground, then -after a delay- on the door, and then follow some dumb instructions through a few dull mouse clicks.

It's the Elder Scrolls, dammit. A little cinematic wouldn't have hurt, but regardless I am shocked at how flat and cheap the delivery is. You start this EPIC game from an EPIC saga, and all you get is a dirty, flaccid tutorial. It's not simply that it is bad. It is just unbelievably weightless, pedestrian, ingloriously mediocre.

[Ingmar]

When has the intro to an Elder Scrolls game ever been anything but that?

[Falconeer]

Skyrim....?

[Ginaz]

Skyrim....?

You were still a prisoner at the beginning.

[Ginaz]

My buddy wanted to give me a key to possibly entice me to play it at launch with him (despite my best efforts, he insists on playing it). I don't think I would play at launch if someone gave me a free copy and a lifetime sub.

Well, maybe I would at least log in to make fun of it then.

Don't hold back, tell us how you really feel?

Some of you people are going way overboard with your disdain for this.  It's not like it gave you polio or something.  Maybe that can be its new slogan "ESO, at least you don't get polio from playing!".

[Ginaz]

Also, judging from the live streams I've seen so far 2/3 of the players will be rolling Bosmer archers...like I did.

[Tannhauser]

They put elves together with the cat-people. Gee I wonder what faction will be hilariously over-populated.

[Nevermore]

I'm trying the beta and so far the game hasn't been as bad as some of the people in this thread have made it out to be.  That's not to say I think the game is good, but it's not the land portion of Pirates of the Burning Sea.

I agree that the three biggest problems I see so far are the terrible opening sequence, godawful UI and the lackluster animations.  The game intro really is terrible.  The so called story doesn't make any kind of sense at all if you stop to think about it for two seconds.  Am I supposed to be just a soul in some kind of underworld?  Because if so, it's really poorly presented since both the voice over and the journal say the soul has been torn from my body, implying that I'm a body without a soul.  Yet I need to be sent back into a body.  So I have no body or soul?  Am I a hologram?  If they mean I'm a disembodied soul, then just say that.  Also, that underworld has the worst security in the history of underworlds.  My favorite part was how all the security eye things are all networked together in such a way so if one is disabled, they all are.  It takes special planning to have a security system that inept.  Anyway, whatever.

As for the UI, the whole thing sucks.  I wonder if they'll be selling a mini-map as DLC?  I mean, that's the only conceivable reason why there isn't one, right?  The animations just don't feel fluid at all and are bland on top of that.  I guess the animations are a marked improvement over Daggerfall, maybe.

That said, there were things I did like.  I like that it's more 'standard' fantasy instead of the over-the-top silly fantasy of WoW or GW2.  It's also the first game since DAoC that I can play a sneaky archer.  Yes Ginaz, guess that I made?    The models and world both look nice enough.  The island I'm on looks a bit drab but that seems to be more of a stylistic choice than a graphics issue.  The game actually runs pretty well on my aging laptop.  I don't know how deep character advancement is but so far there seems to be a lot of choices for customization.  Maybe not as many choices as a single player Elder Scrolls game but certainly more than most MMOs.  We'll see how having only 6 active abilities works out.  That's even less than Secret World.  I'm all for not having ability bloat but I think they may have swung the pendulum too far in the other direction.

Lot's of character customization when you first make your character, too.  I know there are many cynics who think it doesn't matter since everything will be covered up in gaudy armor anyway, but just the process of creating just the right look for my character generates more of an attachment to the character, for me at least.  I could have lived without the ass slider, though.  Also, making an entire race available only to those who pay way too much for a collectors edition is perhaps the slimiest thing I've ever seen an MMO publisher do.

I could go on but I'll leave it at that for now.  I might buy the game if it were on sale for say $20 and there was no sub fee.  At the box price their asking and with a sub fee on top of it, no thanks.

[Falconeer]

I don't think you really need a reminder, but all I am saying is that, while nothing special, THIS puts THIS to shame. And that's a shame.

[Nevermore]

Oh wait, one other thing really stands out.  In keeping with the straight out of the 90s vibe of the game, I find myself rifling through every crate, sack, barrel and piece of furniture I come across.  Doesn't matter if it's out in the open, in someone's house or right next to the vendor to whom I'll immediately sell what I've just stolen.  Hey questgiver, is that a nice piece of bread on the table right next to you?  I think I'll just help myself, thanks.  It's almost quaint.

Edit: I do like that there's weather effects.

[Nebu]

I don't think you really need a reminder, but all I am saying is that, while nothing special, THIS puts THIS to shame. And that's a shame.

That's because the first is made for a PC and the second is made for a console and multiplayer optimization.  I'd expect an MMO to look and play worse than a single player game.

[Falconeer]

I am not talking about gameplay or graphic quality. I am talking about the presentation, the feel, the sense of involvement. The first one, the Skyrim one, puts you there, makes you care, makes you curious about the surrounding and what forced you in chains, gives you the time to look around (even though you can't move) and listen to the other prisoners and then forces you to pay attention, and the whole thing is perfectly framed by the titles and the clanging sharp sounds that come with it.
The TESO one, even considering some probable "finalizing" that will come with the miracle patch right before launch, simply drops you into a MMORPG and says: "Hey, here's the tutorial and your first quest. Quick, there's no time to be classy, abandon style, forget immersion! Just click here and then there, follow the arrows and get out of the training zone, you know the drill!".

It's a missed opportunity I think, with a game of this caliber you would think they'd make sure to welcome and impress you in the first 30 seconds. In order to do that all they needed was a better storyboard, better ideas, not better technology.

[Ingmar]

Skyrim....?

Start the game up and use a watch to time how long it is before you get to move under your own control, pick up an item, etc. ESO is quite generous in comparison, really.

Granted it isn't completely tedious until the 2nd time you do it, where ESO is tedious from the beginning, but I don't think there's really an enormous gulf between those introductory experiences from a fun standpoint at all.

[tmp]

Mhmm, so I got myself a beta key and trying it out

pros:

sneaking around and one-shotting things with my bow keeps being more fun than it should
the starter elf/cat people area is kinda ok; nowhere near as bad as I'd expect from the comments
no gear/skill restriction is as nice as it was in the single player version(s)

cons:

uhh, everything else I guess?

semi-seriously, if it was a free-to-play game I'd probably spend some time with it. If just to see some of that content hinted at in the achievement section of the journal.

[Stormwaltz]

Edit: I do like that there's weather effects.

Do the stars still twinkle? That was my favorite tiny, ignorable detail.

[Der Helm]

Skyrim....?

Start the game up and use a watch to time how long it is before you get to move under your own control, pick up an item, etc. ESO is quite generous in comparison, really.

I have yet to find a mod that skips that part.

[satael]

Skyrim....?

Start the game up and use a watch to time how long it is before you get to move under your own control, pick up an item, etc. ESO is quite generous in comparison, really.

I have yet to find a mod that skips that part.

Something like Alternate Start you mean (originally released over 2 years ago)?

edit: list of various different beginnings the mod offers in spoiler: