Bethesda will release a massively multiplayer online version of its popular The Elder Scrolls series next year for PC and Mac, Game Informer reports today.
Set a millennium before the events of Bethesda's last The Elder Scrolls game, Skyrim, The Elder Scrolls Online will take place across all of Tamriel during a time when daedric prince Molag Bal is wreaking havoc on the realm. The game will feature three player factions and PvP combat. Presumably you'll be able to travel across the entire world of The Elder Scrolls—Game Informer mentions recurring areas Elsweyr, Skyrim, and Cyrodiil as locations in the MMORPG.
"We have been working hard to create an online world in which players will be able to experience the epic Elder Scrolls universe with their friends, something fans have long said they wanted," director Matt Firor said in a press release. Firor previously worked on fantasy MMORPG Dark Age of Camelot. "It will be extremely rewarding finally to unveil what we have been developing the last several years. The entire team is committed to creating the best MMO ever made – and one that is worthy of The Elder Scrolls franchise."
This is the first project from developer ZeniMax Online Studios, which was founded in 2007.
Rumors earlier this year suggested that The Elder Scrolls Online would be unveiled this May and that Bethesda would show more about its upcoming MMO at this year's E3 gaming conference. An earlier rumor also suggested that the game's three factions are represented by a lion, a dragon, and a bird of prey.
Game Informer promises more details in its upcoming June issue, which goes on sale next week.
Skyrim was alright, but a first-person MMO? It'll be interesting.
I hate MMOs. I really do. But to travel the entire land of Tamriel? YES PLEASE. I just hope they make it soloable, at least reasonably so.
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Beach Bum
Joined: Dec 08 2010
Location: At the pants party.
Posts: 1777
Posted:
May 03 2012 07:55 pm
Can't say I'm surprised, everyone is making MMOs these days. Definitely not interested though. I can see how it is appealing because the single player games could use a little life breathed into the NPCs and how they interact with the world and adding a bunch of players kind of gives you that atmosphere. I just hope they use the modified Gamebryo engine they used in Skyrim and then they will be forced to fix some of the weird bugs and glitches that have been in it since Morrowind so that whenever they get back to making real games some of them will be fixed finally.
Drew Linky
Wizard
Joined: Jun 12 2009
Posts: 4209
Posted:
May 03 2012 11:02 pm
Will they be able to keep up the level of reality they've been putting in Oblivion and Skyrim? I'm just afraid that they'll have to dumb down things in order to make the entire continent playable.
That having been said, if it does retain the same level of detail, then it's going to be freaking fantastic. I've wanted to explore Valenwood for years, since reading about the cities being in moving trees.
I wonder what major differences will be around, though. 1,000 years before Skyrim? Wow.
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Preng
Title: All right, that's cool!
Joined: Jan 11 2010
Location: Accounting Dept.
Posts: 1690
Posted:
May 04 2012 12:40 am
Looking forward to seeing how this game turns out. I realize that the series has currently stayed within the realm of single player gaming, but I am especially curious to see how Bethesda manages game balance and such, since it is usually not very difficult in their games to shatter the difficulty curve.
Too long, didn't read: Looking forward to running around in player versus player with 100% Chameleon, or 100% Reflect Damage and 100% Resist Magic!
Etch
Title: Intermittent Scribbler
Joined: Mar 15 2011
Location: Texas
Posts: 588
Posted:
May 04 2012 02:15 am
I hope you can go to the Coven on the Bluff and summon a Daedra prince.
...and it has an actual PC interface.
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Alowishus
Joined: Aug 04 2009
Posts: 2515
Posted:
May 04 2012 12:14 pm
The Elder Bugs. Bethesda are the Kings of Buggy games.
Let's not forget about Fallout New Vegas. First thing that happens in the game:
Bugged.
Amplify this by a million for online and i can expect game crashes all over the show.
Bit of a negative view but with Bethesdas track record for buggy games (including Skyrim) i wouldn't be surprised.
-Releasing 2013 for PC/Mac
-Developed by ZeniMax Online Studios
-MMORPG
-250 Person Team
-Started development in 2007
-"This time, saving the world from the awakening of ancient evil is only the beginning. What happens when hundreds or thousands of prophesied heroes all think that they should be Emperor?"
-The game is fully voice acted
-Third person perspective
-The game uses a hotbar to activate skills like other traditional MMOs
-Visually it looks like other Hero Engine MMOs like SWTOR
-The general art style is kind of like RIFT or Everquest 2
-You can't be a werewolf or vampire
-Crafting, alchemy, and soul stones will exist in an unrevealed form
-There will be mounts, but no flying mounts
-Fast travel exists in the game in the form of wayshrines, which are also your ressurection point, and you can teleport from one wayshrine to any other wayshrine you have already visited
-There most likely won't be dragons
-Sneaking will be in the game, but how it is implemented is undecided
-They're not talking about pets right now
-There will be no player housing
-There will be no NPC romances or marriage
Looks pretty generic if all this is true. I personally do not find the Elder Scrolls universe to be particularly exciting.
Ice2SeeYou
Title: Sexual Tyrannosaurus
Joined: Sep 28 2008
Location: South of Heaven
Posts: 1761
Posted:
May 04 2012 09:08 pm
I love Skyrim, but I'm not interested in this. I guess I'm just set in my ways, but I hate multiplayer.
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Greg the White
Joined: Apr 09 2008
Location: Pennsylvania
Posts: 3112
Posted:
May 06 2012 06:48 pm
This article mirrors a lot of my apprehension about the game:
