Elder Scrolls Online Story "100% Solo," Says Firor

[Cy-Kill]

Good idea, or bad idea, you decide:



The Elder Scrolls Online will be designed to make each player the hero of the overall story.

In a video interview with Game Informer, The Elder Scrolls Online game director Matt Firor said that the main storyline will be 100-percent solo. After all, in the Elder Scrolls universe, the player is always the hero whether he/she wants to be or not. That's not going to change for the MMOG.

"You go out there and you kill the dragons," he describes. "You kill Mehrunes Dagon in Oblivion. In Morrowind, you're up there fighting the Tribunal - those are huge, global, epic things that you don't want to stand in line to do in an MMO. The last thing you want to do is have the final confrontation with Mehrunes Dagon as he's stomping across the Imperial City, and you see like 15 guys behind you waiting to kill him because they're on the same quest."

The team of 250 at Zenimax Online wants the player to feel awesome, that he or she is the hero. "We do that through a mix of technology, where when I am confronting a major foe in the game, I'm doing it in an instance where I am alone," he added. "And we have a whole part of the game that is 100 per cent solo," he said, "which is the main story, where the world focuses on you - you are the hero, everything you do is solo and the world reacts to you that way."

Fans of the franchise have criticized the team for straying away from the "dirty realism" seen with the single-player chapters, to a cleaner, cartoon-exaggerated design. Firor welcomes the criticism, stating that a healthy community is one that's passionate about what a developer is creating. These are the people he wants playing in the MMO because they'll have the most invested on a personal level.

Firor knows all about the MMO community. He helmed the production of Mythic's Dark Age of Camelot MMO which launched back in 2001 as an answer to EverQuest.

"Having been in MMOs for a very long time, I know and understand that community very well," he said. "And that is a very vocal community - a lot of the time vocal critics of what you're doing. But those people who take the time to pick your game apart, and sometimes they tell you things that you didn't know was wrong with the game - those are the people you want playing your game, because they're the people most invested in your game, because they care enough about it to complain."

"The worst situation for a game community to be in is where no one posts on the boards because they don't care," he added.

To see the video interview, head here.


http://www.tomshardware.com/news/Eld...ine,15701.html

[whitey]

The only reaon I play a MMO, is to play with other people. yes at times it can be a pain to find a party to complete a quest,but still its a lot more fun

Defeats the purpose of a 'MMO'
If I wanted a '100%' solo content, I will play a single player game.

[poeticas]

tell me then why they are making it into mmo ?

[Akeras]

tell me then why they are making it into mmo ?

Because they are expecting easy money

[Acreon]

Because they are expecting easy money

By removing most of what made Elder scrolls fun, of course!

Such brilliant plans they have!
Except not

[Lahdeedah3]

I'm glad the main story is solo. I'll beat the main story and level with other people. lol

[Karkelo]

The only reaon I play a MMO, is to play with other people. yes at times it can be a pain to find a party to complete a quest,but still its a lot more fun

Defeats the purpose of a 'MMO'
If I wanted a '100%' solo content, I will play a single player game.

To be honest, games like Diablo and Borderlands are designed around multiplayer yet they can be almost* completely enjoyed solo. It's also just that the story is solo, not content. This is the way it should be done. Play with or without friends, you have a choice. People that were going to play with other people were going to do that anyways, so it hurts no one.

*Maybe except Inferno difficulty.

[Akeras]

By removing most of what made Elder scrolls fun, of course!

Such brilliant plans they have!
Except not

Never said they were being intelligent about it.

[Reser6]

Sounds like SW:TOR and they are using the same engine.. this game will be a disaster.

[Acreon]

Never said they were being intelligent about it.

Oh I know, I wasn't directing that comment to you. I was more just tacking onto the joke of them expecting easy money when they're more than likely just gonna shell out another generic mmo

[ApocaRUFF]

I'm forcing myself not to show much interest in this. Why? Because I don't want to be disappointed. If it's shit, I can say, "Oh well, I didn't really have any hopes or anything for it." if it succeeds, I get a fun surprise.

I don't even know what features it will have.

[Cy-Kill]

Sounds like SW:TOR and they are using the same engine.. this game will be a disaster.

Where did you get that info?

[Reser6]

Where did you get that info?

About them using the same engine? that has been the big news since it was announced and what a large amount of the hate is about.

http://cinvin.com/threads/heroengine...-online.11736/

http://www.theverge.com/gaming/2012/...ne-mmo-details

Using the Hero Engine.

I have always wanted an MMORPG for Elder Scrols and the only reason I wanted one was so I could enjoy the game with other people , together in multiplayer style. To now say the whole story will be driven singleplayer just totally makes the reason I wannted the MMO worthless, everyday a new dissapointment with this game.

[Cy-Kill]

About them using the same engine? that has been the big news since it was announced and what a large amount of the hate is about.

http://cinvin.com/threads/heroengine...-online.11736/

http://www.theverge.com/gaming/2012/...ne-mmo-details

Using the Hero Engine.

I don't see what the problem is, because you know they are going to modify the engine for their own use, which most companies do when they license an engine.

[Reser6]

I don't see what the problem is, because you know they are going to modify the engine for their own use, which most companies do when they license an engine.

And yet everyday they come out with a story like this which shows how similar to SW:TOR it is going to be?

Yes it could turn out better, and a lot different, same Engine does not mean clone, but from all the evidence so far it is sure pointing to it being SW:TOR with a different skin, this whole new news sounds exactly how SW:TOR plays out.

[Cy-Kill]

So far all we've seen are some early screenshots & a teaser video, but by the time the game comes out a lot of what has been seen can change.

Granted, I am not really a fan of the Elder Scrolls, because I don't like the quest system, because you can never tell who is giving quests, or even selling stuff. Hopefully they make it different for the MMORPG.

[Oraigin]

Hate more. You guys can't stop those greedy bastards from making game. Don't waste your time and brain cells thinking about it and hating it. The best you could do is steer clear from ti and don't buy their products.
Everything's about money. You know it's true.

[Bryan]

Because we all know how that worked out in the past with the hero engine.

Claiming "homogeneity" in a game engine is a flaw-ridden argument, considering what developers like Above & Beyond Technologies are doing with The Repopulation. SWTOR added an obscene amount of character models on an engine that is meant to replicate simplicity on that level -- thus causing performance issues for many players.

The game isn't even CLOSE to release, I don't see what the big fuss is about. Speculative discussion based on one guy's "quote" (taken out of context, mind you) isn't really constructive.

[Slate]

Hate more. You guys can't stop those greedy bastards from making game. Don't waste your time and brain cells thinking about it and hating it. The best you could do is steer clear from ti and don't buy their products.
Everything's about money. You know it's true.

No, don't do that. Hate them, despise them, think about it constantly, post it on their twitter/forums/etc. So then maybe they get an idea of what the people what, and what will end up generating more income. Don't ignore it and leave it for the casuals and die-hard fans to buy, that'll just add to the cancer. It will just make the publisher/developer think they've made a good game, which will result in yet another shit attempt next year.

[Cy-Kill]

Because we all know how that worked out in the past with the hero engine.

I'd much rather see Bethesda build their own engine for ESO, but sadly that's not going to happen, so like I said earlier, they will modify the Hero engine to their hearts content.

[birdman16]

why make it an MMO?

WHY?! what for? I hated the typical nowaday MMOs because 99% of them were played solo

It's hard to imagine people were fooled by the illusion of mmos. making players belive that they ill be playing with 1000 of other players. and they ****ing payed 15 bucks a month for it.. starting off in WoW is no diffrent than playing a single player game. It takes too long to get to end game and play with guilds.. etc.

[Acreon]

I can actually understand Bethesda reasoning for running with the Hero Engine. IF bethesda had chosen to develop their own engine from ground up, the amount of time and resource consumption would have been extreme. We're talking 5 - 10 years possibly. Its a lot easier to grab a licensed engine (such as Unreal Engine, Hero, etc) and build from the tools available, than to simply build from the ground up at times, depending on the big heads aim. I highly doubt they could run a MMO with the tools used to create Skyrim.

Look at Funcom and their Cheetah/Dreamworld engine, built from the scratch up, but during its Trial'n'Error runs with Age of Conan, almost costed funcom its moniker as a AAA game producer. However, now its much more stable, even though it shows signs of old bugs and problems (Memory leaks, ghosting characters, and "grey hair" symptoms). But its become one of the most sophisticated and technologically advanced MMO engines on the market.

But in the end its still a cash grab. Had Besthesda been in the MMO market, lets say, 5 or more years ago, they probably would have initiated a separate team for the development of a MMO on its own Standalone engine. But seeing as theyre just entering the scene, this was the best move.


Here ya go.

haha thank you Treytrey!

[Attila]

I don't know why they couldn't simply add co-op to Skyrim for up to 4 people. Problem fixed. Hours of fun doubled, and you could even charge for a multiplayer expansion.

[Acreon]

I don't know why they couldn't simply add co-op to Skyrim for up to 4 people. Problem fixed. Hours of fun doubled, and you could even charge for a multiplayer expansion.

People have been asking for this since I believe Morrowind.

Bethesda isn't always the brightest bulb.

I mean, especially with how big the modding community is a more Orpg approach could be amazing! You'd see so many unique mods catered to different online experiences...but alas...

[Orpheus]

Will only stand a chance if it goes F2P from the start.
Or if it milks all the TES hardcore fans for a few months then turn F2P.
Or it will simply die after milking the hardcore fans.

The important thing to remember here is: milk the TES fans for as long as you can.