PAX West: TESO: Never Been a Better Time to Return to Tamriel

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Few MMOs that have made the conversion from subscription model to a buy-to-play, ie Guild Wars, model have failed. Same for the more popular conversion of subscription to F2P. People love having guaranteed access. Seemingly more than they enjoy the perks of paying for a subscription on average. The world of Tamriel has been unlocked by a single purchase for a while, and yet it continues to improve. A lot. That’s why there’s never been a better time to give The Elder Scrolls Online a spin. Certainly if you enjoyed it before the conversion and only drifted due to that.

Updates for any and all MMORPGs tend to be exciting. New features, fixes and content tend to excite even the most cynical fan. One Tamriel, as update 12 for TESO is named, is no exception. What a casual, relapsed or just-getting-interested fan may not realize is how much ZeniMax Online has retooled as part of the update. The tweaks run the gauntlet from large to small, including massive undertakings of itemization, destroying level restrictions, the reinvention of a high-level zone and my favorite, degating lore. Is everyone happy about it? Of course not. Did Creative Director Rich Lambert wake up in cold sweats at night? You betcha. Yet, he discusses it, thorns and all with us.

Oh, and you bet your ass we asked Rich what the biggest three challenges of the conversion were for The Elder Scrolls Online. He sums it up with “It’s been a long year and a half.”