Elder Scrolls Online

[Hurlshort]

I saw this on IGN:

 

November 2, 2007 - ZeniMax Media, parent company of Bethesda Softworks, has registered the domain name www.elderscrollsonline.com, according to a recent post on IGN sister site Voodoo Extreme.

 

ZeniMax owns both Bethesda - developer of Fallout 3 and Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion - and a new division called ZeniMax Online Studios, which is dedicated to the development of massively-multiplayer online games. The latter studio is headed by Mythic Entertainment founder and former Dark Age of Camelot producer Matt Firor.

 

ZeniMax announced the creation of its online division in August, and Internet registration records show ZeniMax bought the www.elderscrollsonline.com domain name in June.

 

In October, the company announced that a private equity firm was to invest $300 million in ZeniMax and the funds would go, in part, toward funding MMOs and acquisitions.

 

ZeniMax is still silent on what its online division has planned, and speculation has swirled around the Elder Scrolls name since the company's MMO initiative was announced. Bethesda is currently working on Fallout 3, the rights to which it purchased from former Fallout developer Interplay.

 

There has, of course, also been speculation that Bethesda/ZeniMax might be working on a Fallout MMO, but Interplay still owns the rights (per our most recent information) to any future Fallout MMO. In fact, the company has officially proposed such a game, according to SEC documents.

 

Companies frequently purchase domain names related to their intellectual properties to protect them from so-called domain squatting, so the fact that ZeniMax bought the Elder Scrolls Online domain doesn't necessarily mean they have any such game in the works.

 

At IGN, we have our fingers crossed for an IHRA Drag Racing: Sportsman Edition MMO, and we're watching the Internets carefully for any sign of telltale drag-racing-related domain-name registration.

 

So looks like a pretty solid clue that we'll see an Elder Scrolls Online game someday. It makes sense, the ES gameworld is largely developed, and there games almost play like an MMO to begin with. I'm interested to see how it works out, I'd also love to return to Daggerfall. Still probably about 4 years away from any type of release though, but it should be a pretty massive gameworld.

[Pop]

it in and of itself doesn't mean anything. Obviously TES is the first thing that would come to mind as Bethsoft opened up their MMO studio. It's unlikely they'd start with a fresh IP, and a single Fallout game wouldn't be as fertile ground for a prospective MMO as the menagerie of TES games. But then, people got all in a tizzy over Rockstar registering all kinds of GTA titles (not domains, either, but copyrights) that never came to fruition. GTA Vegas, GTA Tokyo, etc.

[jaguars4ever]

And here I thought that Morrowind/Oblivion were essentially offline MMOs.

[Meshugger]

Will it be moddable?

 

I refused to play Oblivion until there was mods similar to the Obscuro overhaul + many others. Did i even play Oblivion at all?

[Gorgon]

For my money human players are exactly what the morrowind games need, ever since daggerfall it\s been too much realestate and too litte interaction. Even the dredges of human society which haunt MMOGs are an improvement.

[Sand]

I rather they do it similar to NWN1/2. Make a huge game world as normal, with a tools set, then allow multiplayer options.

[Deadly_Nightshade]

I would not buy an Elder Scrolls Massively Multi-Player Role Playing Game, nor would I buy a Kot0R MMORPG, for not only do I loath MMOs and MMORPGs on principle

[Tale]

The monthly charges aren't charges for the software, they're charges for the servers and support (services). Unlike NWN and NWN2, they require a server farm to run and maintain large numbers of concurrent players. That's where the first M in MMO comes in.

Edited November 6, 2007 by Tale

[Hurlshort]

The NWN model and an MMO model are two extremely different approaches to business. NWN has very little overhead after the game is released, whereas an MMO has almost as much overhead as they did before release. With an MMO, you are paying to get professionally done updates, but in games like NWN or ES you are having the majority of the work done for free by fans.

 

They are both great in my eyes. Companies like Turbine and Blizzard release huge content updates and I've never felt my $15 a month is wasted. On the other hand, I also enjoy fan made modules, but they are rarely of the same quality. They don't need to be, they are free

[Deadly_Nightshade]

The monthly charges aren't charges for the software, they're charges for the servers and support (services). Unlike NWN and NWN2, they require a server farm to run and maintain large numbers of concurrent players. That's where the first M in MMO comes in.

 

I know, but is it not true that some MMOs and MMORPGs do not charge monthly fees? As I mentioned in another topic, the only MMO I would buy at the moment is Guild wars or Guild Wars II, for they do not charge monthly fees to access their severs. Thus someone, like myself, who likes to switch games multiple times per week could stop playing for a month or two and come right back without the hassle of buying another subscription.

[Tale]

The monthly charges aren't charges for the software, they're charges for the servers and support (services). Unlike NWN and NWN2, they require a server farm to run and maintain large numbers of concurrent players. That's where the first M in MMO comes in.

 

I know, but is it not true that some MMOs and MMORPGs do not charge monthly fees? As I mentioned in another topic, the only MMO I would buy at the moment is Guild wars or Guild Wars II, for they do not charge monthly fees to access their severs. Thus someone, like myself, who likes to switch games multiple times per week could stop playing for a month or two and come right back without the hassle of buying another subscription.

Guild Wars can't be considered an MMO. The only time that first M comes to play is in select glorified chatrooms. Guild Wars 2 promises that will be different, but there's no telling at this point.

[Moatilliatta]

The difference is that guildwars lacks the massive aspect. Guildwars isn't a true MMO because it is instanced, someone do correct me if I'm wrong as I have never had any great interest in guildwars.

Personally I would prefer it to be a true MMO or as someone suggested similar to the NWN buisness model, actuall roleplaying in an elderscrolls world would be awesome.

[Deadly_Nightshade]

On the other hand, I also enjoy fan made modules, but they are rarely of the same quality. They don't need to be, they are free

 

 

I disagree, even one or two great modules would make a single-player or independent multi-player game, like NWN I/II, worth buying even if the original game was a piece of ****. This is not the case with MMOs, if they are bad they will never be good

[Deadly_Nightshade]

The difference is that guildwars lacks the massive aspect.

 

Again, I would really only want to play on-line with a group of people I knew I could count on to be responsible, good players

[Hurlshort]

I understand where you are coming from, there are plenty of genres that I dislike, but I don't go into threads about them and go on and on about it. Is there a point you are trying to make OTHER than the fact you don't like MMO's?

 

edit: Guild Wars also was releasing a $50 expansion every 6 months or so. They are optional, of course, but that's not that much cheaper than a monthly fee.

Edited November 6, 2007 by Hurlshot

[Deadly_Nightshade]

I understand where you are coming from, there are plenty of genres that I dislike, but I don't go into threads about them and go on and on about it. Is there a point you are trying to make OTHER than the fact you don't like MMO's?

 

Well, my original posting was about my view of a potential Elder Scrolls MMORPG and then the conversation sort of got sidetracked by off-topic chatter about other MMOs and my examples. Technically, yes, the later comments were not needed, but I was addressing questions and points raised by others. If they had not asked, or stated, them I would not have gone on with my anti-MMO postings.

 

edit: Guild Wars also was releasing a $50 expansion every 6 months or so. They are optional, of course, but that's not that much cheaper than a monthly fee.

 

But I can buy one and not use it for six months without having to buy more sever time, and, as you said, they are optional.

Edited November 6, 2007 by Deadly_Nightshade

[Moatilliatta]

Your point about MMOs being bad even after patches is a truism and as such worthless. Games are made in a specific way by the developers, and the developers obviously won't create a completely different game through patches, but instead use the patches to augment their vision for the game. I fail to see your point as it is true of singleplayer games too, if you disagree with the vision then you surely won't be enjoying the game, the fact that modders have the freedom to be more whimsical with their changes has to with the difference between free time and work time.

 

Oh and how are expansions so much different than mods? In my experience expansions often add more story, exploration, instances etc. to an MMO which is essentially what a mod would do, unless your definition of non-staticness is total-conversions. In the same line of thought I could say that NWN 1/2 is totally static except for the mods.

 

You may like games like Eve Online or World of Warcraft, but I do not, and I probably never will.

You should probably know that the patches in MMOs (or at least in world of warcraft) affect the entire world and as such all types of players, I played world of warcraft as a predominantly singe player game and enjoyed it a lot, especially when I met those players that wasn't the generic not very nice MMOer and whom I could have fun adventures with.

 

Again, I would really only want to play on-line with a group of people I knew I could count on to be responsible, good players

Edited November 6, 2007 by Moatilliatta

[Tale]

Sand truly is contagious. This just about proves it.

[Moatilliatta]

Could you explain the above for someone relatively new here?

[Tale]

I probably shouldn't really detail it, so as to not be offensive.

Edited November 6, 2007 by Tale

[Moatilliatta]

Perhaps not, but that doesn't mean you can't explain it. Unless you're being lazy which is always an entirely valid reason for anything.

[Deadly_Nightshade]

Games are made in a specific way by the developers, and the developers obviously won't create a completely different game through patches, but instead use the patches to augment their vision for the game. I fail to see your point as it is true of singleplayer games too, if you disagree with the vision then you surely won't be enjoying the game, the fact that modders have the freedom to be more whimsical with their changes has to with the difference between free time and work time.

 

Exactly, I have bought games that I initially disliked but re-played with modifications and loved. There is not a difference, other then the fact that it is possible to modify single-player games while you could not modify something like WoW.

 

Oh and how are expansions so much different than mods? In my experience expansions often add more story, exploration, instances etc. to an MMO which is essentially what a mod would do, unless your definition of non-staticness is total-conversions. In the same line of thought I could say that NWN 1/2 is totally static except for the mods.

 

Expansions are modifications, but I was addressing total-conversion, or semi-total-conversion modifications, when I said a game that was disliked could be made enjoyable.

 

You should probably know that the patches in MMOs (or at least in world of warcraft) affect the entire world and as such all types of players, I played world of warcraft as a predominantly singe player game and enjoyed it a lot, especially when I met those players that wasn't the generic not very nice MMOer and whom I could have fun adventures with.

 

I know that, but even a patched game still retains the original beneath the surface

[Deadly_Nightshade]

Perhaps not, but that doesn't mean you can't explain it. Unless you're being lazy which is always an entirely valid reason for anything.

 

Sand is a member of the forum who is quite willing to share his opinions about games, so Tale, if my interpretation was correct, was comparing myself to the aforementioned Sand.