WARNING: This article does not use any harsh language, but some of the linked pages may. Click at your own risk.

Recently, the prominent e-sports team Evil Geniuses (EG) ended a short-lived contract with a player named Orb, who was scheduled to cast their next tournament, the Evil Geniuses Master Cup Series VII. Orb was dismissed from the contract after some of his previous games were uncovered, where he used a racial slur insensitivity, and failed to take responsibility. The StarCraft community has all sorts of varying opinions on the matter, and it has become a very contentious issue.

The initial controversy started when a screenshot was posted on reddit of Orb making rude remarks (including the slur) after losing a game. Most of the comments on the screenshot were rather disgusted. Orb, relatively unknown previous to his participation with EG, made a post about how he didn’t say those things and it was, in fact, his friend playing on his account. This was suspicious for many reasons; including the fact that he claimed the reason his friend was playing was that they weren’t that interested in StarCraft, but at the time his ‘friend’ was playing at a Master’s league level with the same setup and hotkeys as Orb. Additionally, some commenters added that he had been banned from Team Liquid’s featured streamer list for his language previously, and some people noted that when he streamed during the StarCraft II beta he often spoke this way. After an uproar on reddit and Team Liquid, some people called for a boycott of EG and complained to EG’s corporate sponsors. Evil Genius’ CEO Alexander Garfield then ended the team’s relationship with Orb. Orb released a statement apologizing (safe for work) for his language, but many people still fault him for sticking to his story of his friend playing on his account, a story that’s hard to swallow.

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Yesterday, ZeniMax announced that the many rumors of an Elder Scrolls MMO were true, and officially announced The Elder Scrolls Online, only to be met with fan backlash. The main reason being, that fans believe that Bethesda will be less likely to release another single-player Elder Scroll game, since they do not want to compete with themselves.

While Bethesda is owned by ZeniMax, they are two separate development studios; with ZeniMax developing the Elder Scrolls MMO, and Bethesda doing what it normally does. As a MMORPG gamer first, and Elder Scroll fan second, I don’t see a conflict of interest.  A single-player RPG and a MMORPG are not in the same market. It’s like World of Warcraft and Warcraft 3, one’s a RTS game, and the other a MMORPG. Both can exist at the same time without affecting the other.

One comment on the Bethesda blog stated,

Please say this won’t indefinitely post-pone the release of the next real TES title, the way World of Warcraft has indefinitely put Warcraft 4 on hold.

This user is failing to see that  Warcraft 4 was not put on hold for WoW, but for Starcraft 2. Both are RTS games that do compete in the same market. A single-player RPG is no more of a threat to a MMORPG than any other single-player game.

The only issue I could see is that Bethesda wouldn’t want to saturate and cheapen the Elder Scrolls name by releasing too many games around the same time. However, considering that the Elder Scrolls RPGs normally have a 4-5 year development cycle, we won’t see Elder Scrolls VI for at least another 3-4 years anyway. Elder Scrolls Online has a release date of 2013, which provides a big enough buffer that it probably won’t have any affect on the next Elder Scrolls RPG release date anyway.

Regardless, I can’t wait to learn more about Elder Scrolls Online.

Game Informer recently announced that their June issue will feature The Elder Scrolls Online. The game will feature all of Tamriel, including Skyrim and Elsweyr. A trailer for the game will debut tomorrow morning on May 4th.

Set 1,000 years before Skyrim, players will join one of three factions and fight in an open world environment for the region of Cyrodiil “and the Emperor’s throne itself.” Touted by Game Director Matt Firor as “the best MMO ever made”, we expect excellent solo questing, dungeons, and open world exploration from you, Bethesda.

The game will launch for PC and Mac in 2013. Stay up to date here at Lore Hound.

We Lore Hounds have been following TERA closely. It’s not a pet project or personal interest, it’s the community and a handful of writers that have been following the conversion of the hardcore action-oriented MMORPG from its Korean launch to the western audience.

For years, we have been sniffing out various tidbits of information, challenging producers, digesting marketing fluff and pooping the details out to you. Yeap, TERA has gone through our entire digestive tract. And it’s come out exactly as you’d expect; a shiny nugget for gamers to play with.

There’s a chance that metaphor ran its course a few thoughts ago. Moving on.

Like Mike, I’m incredibly excited for TERA, but for a different reason. It’s main draw for me has been it action-oriented PvE, which reminds me of the hardcore vanilla WoW days; my fondest MMOG memories.

Below you’ll find a summary of TERA information to review as your download and install commences. Here’s to hoping for flawless server performance, limited bottlenecking and seamless installs.

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