I’d just like to take the time to thank the developers and PR team behind Elder Scrolls Online for letting me know ahead of time that it’ll be horrible, and that I don’t need to waste my time, nor get my hopes up.
It seems Zenimax is taking a page out of BioWare’s playbook, but didn’t realize BioWare’s lost the game. Fully voiced NPCs, solo story-line, typical MMO tab-targeting combat system, and a separate zone for PvP; can someone please alert Zenimax to tell them they’re making a horrible mistake? This design formula is the expected ruler (the measurement one, not the monarchist one) by the market for the industry. What makes the “next WoW’ is something that bends the ruler to make another, different formula.
What’s even worse is that game director Matt Firor just did an interview with Edge-Online talking about public dungeons as if they were some ancient game mechanic that hasn’t been seen in MMORPGs for years. Non-instanced dungeons!? Geez, this sounds like the greatest MMORPG ever made (/sarcasm)! Is he serious? There are literally dozens of MMORPGs that released in the last few years without instanced dungeons.
From a team made-up of some ex Ultima Online and Dark Age of Camelot developers, I can’t believe how horrible ESO sounds so far. They don’t even have a hook yet. What separates ESO from the pack? Is their big selling point, “Hey, it’s an Elder Scroll MMO“? I haven’t heard one thing that’s unique yet; and in this market, the first impression is everything.
Having been an Elder Scrolls fan for over a decade – I only missed experiencing TES 2 - my excitement for this title shot-up through the roof, only to plunge down within minutes of reading the details; but at least they’re upfront about it. So again, thank you for letting me know that ESO will suck, Zenimax.
