Originally Posted By Fnord (17 MAR 2012 7:58am)

Originally Posted By markornikov (17 MAR 2012 5:50am)

There're some rumours that a new Elder Scrolls game will be announced in May and that it will be a MMORPG...

 

These have pretty much been confirmed. It won't be the team that made Skyrim that works on it though, as far as the rumors goes, they have hired a new team for it, so it should have no impact on future TES games (other than possibly expanding the lore even further) 

Truth.

There are rumours of three factions with symbols of Dragon (Empire), Eagle (Thalmor) and Lion (???). If they let me play as Thalmor, ngl I'll be all over the damn thing.

This is what PISSES ME off about mmo's.

I bet $100 bucks that instead of taking TES games, and what make them great (the exploration, open leveling system for characters) that they will end up simply taking "Generic mmo formula" started by EQ (Theme park world, trinity class focus, auto attack/specials combat) and slap a TES skin over it.

So we'll end up with go kill "xxx" quests and will b ePUNISHED for exploring, where if you go off into "x" area you will encounter high lv mobs and will be hand held and guided throught he world without any way to explore it.

I can already see the writing on the wall, with how they have hired a "new team" (IE people that have NEVER worked on TES) an dmost likely have ex-mmo developers to work on it.

As long as it doesn't stop them from making a SP TES 6, I don't really care.

There are still some MMO developers out there who have good ideas, but investors usually just see WOW and wants to copy its success, without realizing that the market for such games is severely over saturated. This was why Lord of the rings online had to go free to play, why Warhammer online had to go free to play and why EQ just turned free to play as well. It is basically their only chance of attracting new players, by making the level of entry so low that they can get people who are getting a bit tired of wow to try something new without having to invest heavily into it.

I still have some hope for the upcoming Vampire: The masquerade MMO. That world be a setting that just won't work with the standard MMO-formula, so hopefully they will take a look at other, more open ended games (like say UO).

And the thing is, before WOW came along, MMO-devs were experimenting quite a lot. Look at Meridian 59, Ultima Online, Everquest,  Anarchy Online, EVE online and Dark Ages of Cammalot (the more commercially successful MMOs of yesteryears), they were all did something new (Meridian 59 pioneered the pay to play model, UO reached out to a wider audience and got the mainstream attention, EQ created the current model, Anarchy online offered instances and a more open ended character development (not as open ended as UO), DaoC created a large scale PvP focused game and EVE created a game offering an almost entirely player driven word. Then came WOW, which got so successful that almost all investors wanted to copy that. And it is just not working. 

You included one of the most innivative and good MMOs Anarchy Online. Funcom who made The Longest Adventure, and Dreamfall did it and was one of the first. and their upcomiong Secret World will be a new MMO that i think will set the Gold Standard for it will have Ragnar's story line, much like the Dreamfall world, and also years and years of their game devellopement experience and they are totally free of the American WOW theme and idea of MMOs which is basicaly bash and slash and make friiends and enemiies...essentially a social netowrk with a theme park laid on top....Funcom and a few others have gone much farther and allowed both SP and MP to exist side by side..... SWKOTR is another trend setter and they too put HUGE effort into their developoment, Bioware bieng ond of the pros, and LucaArts having a great story francise, it was a marriage made in Heaven...

so there is hope. Even for Beth and a MMO,yes i hear those rumors too, there have been attempts to make multiplayer for Oblvion for years and there is a bootleg mod that allows up to six playersx to play in identical game installs but no mods at all can work with it. I think it has possiblities....but ...care needs to be taken.....

Skyrim being the success that it is, i think they will do a new title that is SP as well, but....one can never tell, the suits in the head offices are NOT gamers and do NOT understand games and the real issues, they are numbers people..and they can and do do irrational things...ie see what EA is up to these days.....   so ..i am nervous but hopeful.

I don't know about the secret world, it looks to be more of the same old same old.

I enjoyed SWTOR at first, but after a little over a month of playing it, it gets into that same area, grinding out quests. They didn't have NEARLY enough flashpoints (the big group focused story releated quests) imo, those were the most fun experience in SWTOR and throughout the game there's like 13 or so of them total, and that's it. (there are some that are faction specific, but it's 13 total for whiechever faction you're on. 

The major letdown of SWTOR was the combat, they just didn't capture star wars combat AT ALL, the last thing I think of when I picture "star wars" is people standing around, not moving, just swinging their swords about, Jedi Knight's combat woulda been 10x more fun, though SEvernace style woulda fit so well.

To me, out of all the upcoming mmo's, the only one that seems to really want to "change" things up is Guild WArs 2. They are stripping out the "trinity" focus, there's no "healer/tank/dps," every single character can self heal and revive fallen team mates, there's no taunt/tank ability, you don't wanna get hit you move out of the bloody way.

Then you have their excellent group setup, there's no having to "/lfg" you have open public groups, where you can literally walk into a quest area and start doing a quest (you don't even have to take/accept it, you just start doing it) and you will find a group on your own while doing it. Basically picture for example, a siege taking place, you run up to the village, start fighting enemies, bam, you are now taking part in the quest to defend said village and you'll be grouped with those others doing it.

I just hope if ithey do indeed make TES into an mmo (though I think it might be Fallout, remember Bethseda got the rights to the fallout mmo back from interplay a while back, an dimo it'd fit a LOT better gameplay-wise for an mmo with it's vat/turn based style of combat) that they at least try to make the mmo of TES that they at least do it by taking TES games and going from there, and not from simply looking at the WoW style of mmo's and slapping TES lore/skins over it like most developers do.

well we can be hopeful   i have a long history with the SW story line and games, having played almost all of them, even some of the obscure ones.and modded and helped support major mods for many....and tho i agree re some of what you say, for me they achieved wonders with this game...re the SW story this is the first game that really conveys the scale and scope of the SW universe..size, depth and complexity.

There are some things that can be added in terms of improving the feeling of some areas maybe, but overall, it is a fantasitc framework that can be added to. I am sure they plan more content, and there will be more added in.

i dont mind the nature of the play as i want to play mostly on my own for now....maybe get into the group stuff later on, but for now, i am really enjoying it and ...as a game designer and reseaercher, really impressed. About a lot of it.

Secret World will be ...much more that is conveyed on the forum and site, they ahve not really give out a lot that will happen..and I think it will be qutie a thriller when it gets going for a number of reasons.

wow this first mod gamestop is presenting in this vid looks amazing, Elsweyer recreated in Skyrim 

http://www.gamespot.com/features/top-five-skyrim-mods-of-the-week-march-24-6367756/

Originally Posted By markornikov (25 MAR 2012 4:10pm)

wow this first mod gamestop is presenting in this vid looks amazing, Elsweyer recreated in Skyrim 

 

http://www.gamespot.com/features/top-five-skyrim-mods-of-the-week-march-24-6367756/

OOh! ...but... I find it incredibly sad that mods used to be free, and now it seems you must pay for them?  ..and who is getting the cash - i wonder if the dev making the mod is getting any... 

that is very sad to hear about....i am shocked and have no wish to even see it but i may report it to Bethesda as charging for a mod for Skyrim is a total violation of EULA, all the files are owned by Bethesda and may not be used for commercial gain, and other files may not be used....or introduced to the game without permission. Certainly textures can be created but it is a very very unethical thing to charge for mods.

NO honest mods are charged for. that is totally against the ethics of the Elder Scrools community and no decent player would pay for them

Originally Posted By Traveller (26 MAR 2012 1:31am)

Originally Posted By markornikov (25 MAR 2012 4:10pm)

wow this first mod gamestop is presenting in this vid looks amazing, Elsweyer recreated in Skyrim 

 

http://www.gamespot.com/features/top-five-skyrim-mods-of-the-week-march-24-6367756/

 

OOh! ...but... I find it incredibly sad that mods used to be free, and now it seems you must pay for them?  ..and who is getting the cash - i wonder if the dev making the mod is getting any... 

Uhm, as far as i can see they're al free. 

maybe the 'subscribe' button got you confused, because all mods in the nexus are free, it just means they're automatically updated

Originally Posted By markornikov (26 MAR 2012 2:18am)

Originally Posted By Traveller (26 MAR 2012 1:31am)

Originally Posted By markornikov (25 MAR 2012 4:10pm)

wow this first mod gamestop is presenting in this vid looks amazing, Elsweyer recreated in Skyrim 

 

http://www.gamespot.com/features/top-five-skyrim-mods-of-the-week-march-24-6367756/

 

OOh! ...but... I find it incredibly sad that mods used to be free, and now it seems you must pay for them?  ..and who is getting the cash - i wonder if the dev making the mod is getting any... 

 

Uhm, as far as i can see they're al free. 

maybe the 'subscribe' button got you confused, because all mods in the nexus are free, it just means they're automatically updated

Oh, cool!  I didn't know, because I haven't gotten far enough with the game to need mods to spice it up for me... I really haven't been gaming much lately.  I think the Steam portal aspect is what made me think you have to pay now.  I'll try and make time to start gaming again this coming Wednesday.

Nope, all fan mods must stay free. I remember The Sims 2 community had a lot of trouble with custom content people tried to charge for. It's one thing to have Donate button to support the creator, but another to charge for every mod copy.

oh, finally  BS had announced the first DLC for Skyrim: Dawnguard. 

It will be released on xbox this summer, while the pc version will be a bit later.

No further details have been announced though 

Mmm. Fans found some files that indicate it may involve the Falmer.

Soooo no Thalmor for me, I guess :C

Not that I'd be able to play it soon anyway. Thanks, Bethsda -_-

oh boohoo, if there's one thing i dislike in Skyrim, it's the Falmer. 

They're such boring enemies and their huts are an eye-sore in the otherwise marvellous Dwemer ruins

Originally Posted By markornikov (2 MAY 2012 9:36am)

oh boohoo, if there's one thing i dislike in Skyrim, it's the Falmer. 

 

They're such boring enemies and their huts are an eye-sore in the otherwise marvellous Dwemer ruins

Same. Tho some speculate it may be about some Falmer prince legend or whatever. idk, I don't care, I don't like them either.

It's official: Bethesda has announced they will release The Elder Scrolls Online next year.

I'm personally not a fan of MMORPG's, so i probably won't be playing this.

http://kotaku.com/5907372/the-elder-scrolls-online-coming-next-year

But it will be made by another team than the Skyrim team, so hopefully it won't impact future TES releases. 

And in regards to the Falmer, they were grossly underdeveloped. There is still some room for depth there, which could turn them interesting. Time will tell if Bethesda will be able to pull it off.

And by the way, the image above reminds me of 

Sigh, just as I feared.

TES online will be NOTHING like TES series at all.

1. It's going to be class based, so no freedom to build your character how you want, now you pick a class and get pigeon holed into a "role" (likely the generic tank/healer/dps trinity).

2. Combat is nothing like TES, there's your generic mmo style of "Hotbars" where you slot abilities and then pusht he number keys to use them. It's boring as hell in most mmo's, not fun nor exciting  for the most part, as you find the best "dps" route and learn the best "formula" and thus you just repeta the same basic keystrokes over and over and over ad nauseum. Goodbye free aiming archery with skill, good bye magic aiming with awesome double stacking  spells.

mmorpg developers really REALLY need to stop copying World of Warcraft.

Yes it is very successful, but that doesn't mean a game with a different gameplay wouldn't sell

Gameinformer scans leaked: http://imgur.com/a/fO9Ty#0

Officially not giving two cares about this game. Sounds generic and awful :/

Originally Posted By Stiler (3 MAY 2012 7:26pm)

1. It's going to be class based, so no freedom to build your character how you want, now you pick a class and get pigeon holed into a "role" (likely the generic tank/healer/dps trinity).

That is a real shame. Ultima Online did free character customization, and that worked really well, for the most part. (UO was by no means a perfect game, its combat was a bit bland, but that could easily be improved upon). 

Actually making a TES-like system for MMOs should not be that hard. Balancing it might prove tricky, but the core part should be relatively easy. One thing that they would probably have to implement is a skillcap, to avoid characters that can do absolutely everythng, which would make it very hard for newer players to catch up, and also make it hard to balance the end-game parts. Also, they would probably have to split skills into two categories, one for out of combat skills that don't impact your level/counts towards your skillcap (though an out of combat skill skillcap would probably also be needed), and one for combat related skills. 

Originally Posted By markornikov (4 MAY 2012 12:58am)

mmorpg developers really REALLY need to stop copying World of Warcraft.

Yes it is very successful, but that doesn't mean a game with a different gameplay wouldn't sell

WOW's success is a huge reason why for companies should not just try to copy WOW. If people want to play WOW, they will play WOW, they usually don't have time for multiple MMOs. And even if TES online does some parts better than WOW, it needs to convince people to leave their friends on the WOW servers behind, which historically has proven to be pretty hard. The MMOs that have been most successful are the ones that don't try to directly compete with WOW, but rather tries to target the people who did not enjoy WOW. 

Originally Posted By Fnord (4 MAY 2012 3:31am)

Originally Posted By Stiler (3 MAY 2012 7:26pm)

1. It's going to be class based, so no freedom to build your character how you want, now you pick a class and get pigeon holed into a "role" (likely the generic tank/healer/dps trinity).

 

That is a real shame. Ultima Online did free character customization, and that worked really well, for the most part. (UO was by no means a perfect game, its combat was a bit bland, but that could easily be improved upon). 

 

Actually making a TES-like system for MMOs should not be that hard. Balancing it might prove tricky, but the core part should be relatively easy. One thing that they would probably have to implement is a skillcap, to avoid characters that can do absolutely everythng, which would make it very hard for newer players to catch up, and also make it hard to balance the end-game parts. Also, they would probably have to split skills into two categories, one for out of combat skills that don't impact your level/counts towards your skillcap (though an out of combat skill skillcap would probably also be needed), and one for combat related skills. 

 

Originally Posted By markornikov (4 MAY 2012 12:58am)

mmorpg developers really REALLY need to stop copying World of Warcraft.

Yes it is very successful, but that doesn't mean a game with a different gameplay wouldn't sell

 

WOW's success is a huge reason why for companies should not just try to copy WOW. If people want to play WOW, they will play WOW, they usually don't have time for multiple MMOs. And even if TES online does some parts better than WOW, it needs to convince people to leave their friends on the WOW servers behind, which historically has proven to be pretty hard. The MMOs that have been most successful are the ones that don't try to directly compete with WOW, but rather tries to target the people who did not enjoy WOW. 

 

Good point. In order to beat WOW, you're going to have to come up with something really superior...

The TES world and reputation might draw some people in though, I wonder how well done the lore is.

Originally Posted By markornikov (25 MAR 2012 4:10pm)

wow this first mod gamestop is presenting in this vid looks amazing, Elsweyer recreated in Skyrim 

 

http://www.gamespot.com/features/top-five-skyrim-mods-of-the-week-march-24-6367756/

Not thrilled with that mod. It is sort of fun, but really disjointed for me.