Posts Tagged ‘Elder Scrolls’

Elder Scrolls Fans Grumble at MMO Announcment…Really?

4 May 2012 | 6 Comments » | Mike

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.

Elder Scrolls MMO to be Announced in May?

16 March 2012 | 4 Comments » | Mike

According to an industry insider, Bethesda and ZeniMax Online Studios are currently developing a MMORPG based on the Elder Scroll series, which will be announced in May of 2012.

The source also stated that the MMO will take place a millennium before Skyrim, during the Second Era, which is a few hundred years before any of the Elder Scroll games. The game will have three playable factions, each being represented by an animal.

Not much is known about the factions, except each is represented by one of three animals: A lion, a dragon, and a bird of prey (either a phoenix or an eagle, we aren’t sure).

It’s been known for some time that ZeniMax and Bethesda have been working on an MMO, due to job postings on the ZeniMax website, and through court papers all the way back in Jan 2010, when Bethesda and Interplay were in a legal dispute.

As recent as Sept 2011, Bethesda Game Director and Executive Producer, Todd Howard, came out against turning Elder Scrolls into a MMO; but it now seems this was only done to throw people off the trail. If this leak turns out to be true, that means at the very minimum, they’ve been working on this for over two years.

Bethesda and ZeniMax currently have not commented on this leak.

Source: TomsGuide

PAX Prime 2011: Day 2 Photos

1 September 2011 | No Comments » | Mordil

With Friday in the bag, Saturday comes up with a routine more set in, and more time to spare, allowing us to wait in those pesky lines.

Firefall was our major attraction and coverage of the day, with the interviewed being well spoken and taking the camera time to have what iTZKooPa coined “masturbation of the mouth”. We even managed to hit the “Holy Grail” at PAX Prime: Skyrim (if you don’t get that, you’re not trying hard enough).

On the way out the door, we ran into our good pal from Star Wars, R2-D2 and Beararms felt he needed some lovin’. Finishing off the long day with a late night of the annual PAX Prime Jonathan Coulton Concert. Continue Reading

Games Made to be MMOs

19 November 2007 | 4 Comments » | LHStaff

There are a lot of games being made out there. In fact there are so many being made across all platforms (Wii, PC, 360, PS3, DS, PSP, PS2, etc etc) that there are bound to be at least one or two titles that could very easily be made into an MMORPG given the story, world, or just playstyle. Some games, developer’s and publisher’s permiting, were made to be an MMORPG, and I have my personal picks right here. Enjoy.

  1. Mario. I know what you are thinking: “how can you possibly make an MMO out of a platforming game such as Mario?” Well that is left up to the developers. You see, what makes Mario such a great idea for an MMORPG isn’t the gameplay mechanics but the world. Like it or not the Mushroom Kingdom is an awesome world and one that is ripe for exploration and dungeons. The setting already has numerous enemies, towns, and a very large world. I’m not saying you would play as Mario, himself, but rather an anonymous person within the world. Perhaps they could even throw in some RvR gameplay mechanics and allow people to be on the “evil” side. I would totally rock a Goomba. Any naysayers need just look at what Square and Nintendo did with Mario RPG, the game was amazing.
  2. Zelda. You knew this one was coming. Seriously, Hyrule is one of the most epic kingdoms in any game anywhere. Again, Nintendo has set the stage with a huge world filled with multiple towns and a very real “bad guy”. I am, however, thinking this game could follow a more “Guild Wars”-esque style of [M]MORPG as opposed to a fully blown out WoW-styled MMORPG. The game could be more story-centric and provide some awesome side-games/quests. Zelda is known for its awesome extras.
  3. Pokemon. Nintendo serves up yet another awesome MMORPG idea. This is the last one, I promise. Pokemon started out way back when in the hayday of the Gameboy and was an instant success. The whole idea of capturing monsters and fighting other people with em is already an MMO unto itself, it is just lacking the other players. Although for those interested you can find a neat freebie Pokemon MMORPG here.
  4. Elder Scrolls: Any of them. Bethesda has created some awesome games, most notably Morrowind and Oblivion their perspective action-RPG games. The worlds are huge and incorporate a number of awesome skills combined with a near flawless FPS-type gameplay. This game/world is a PVPers wet dream and could be incorporated in nearly every aspect of the world. Of course, with this type of system, it is obvious that the people with better computers will be better players. Thats how these types of games work, I’m afraid. Still a good idea though, in my opinion, and with the opening of a new online studio this could very well become a reality.
  5. Knights of the Old Republic. Everybody knew this one was coming. In fact, I’d have feared for my life if I didn’t include this game. People are fanatical about it becoming an MMORPG and with good reason; the game is a masterpiece. BioWare created an awesome story for their version of the Star Wars empire and it only further proves as to what good story-telling can do. With this game set as a base for the background story the MMORPG could sweep in and play off of that. Of course with the recent revealing of a LucasArts and Bioware deal many hopefuls are already expecting the game to be in development. Unfortunately, we have our doubts.

Those are my top 5 picks for games that could/should be amde into an MMORPG. A lot of people will disagree with my choices, and some will probably have very good reasons. There are problems when making each one into an MMORPG as MMORPGs play very differently than most other types of games. However, given the time and work, any one of these games could be made into a stellar success. Is there any particular non-MMORPG game you’d like to see become an MMO? Tomorrow I’ll be listing my top 5 games that should NOT be an MMORPG, ever. Ever ever ever. No matter what.