Howdy, Stranger!
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
If you have an email ending in @hotmail.com, @live.com or @outlook.com (or any other Microsoft-related domain), please consider changing it to another email provider; Microsoft decided to instantly block the server's IP, so emails can't be sent to these addresses.
If you use an @yahoo.com email or any related Yahoo services, they have blocked us also due to "user complaints"
-UE
If you use an @yahoo.com email or any related Yahoo services, they have blocked us also due to "user complaints"
-UE
Comments
Admittedly, it's possible that I'm just inherently really skeptical about the idea of a TES MMO.
yeah, but here's the thing.
Most MMO's 'class story' is entirely single-player anyway. You can't bring other people with you- or rather, you can, but their quest progresses independently of yours anyway. This is even true of TOR.
In fact, most non-raid quests in games are single-player.
So saying that they want to have the main quest be single player but they want it to have advanced social features may just mean that they want the quest to be single-player so they can balance the quest around a single player, while other elements of the game may be entirely less single-player (think guilds with an active impact on the world, etc.)
I think there's an inherent contradiction in MMOs trying to provide for both single-player and multiplayer experiences in the way they currently do. If you compare the stories for TOR to the KotOR games, they're very obviously weaker because they can't maintain the same level of focus. There's also the inherent issue of everyone's individual stories not actually being individual; every Jedi Knight player in TOR is an exceptional specimen destined for great things. Personally, I think these things work entirely against the theme of an MMO in the first place, where the whole idea is that you are one amongst many making what you can of the world you inhabit.
The solution?
Stronger core gameplay, stronger worlds and a much more freeform experience unmarred by too much story guidance. Think about what makes something like Skyrim so compelling; its gameplay is lacking and its story is average, but it's a game that crafts its own experiences using the nature of the world. Most players will find themselves doing things because they're curious, quite apart from all the quests. What better way to compound that experience than with a group of other players?
What most MMOs fail at, however, is at having strong gameplay and strong environments. Usually, there's a small selection of predetermined ways to interact with the world around you, which contrasts with the way games like TES and Dragon's Dogma allow you to dig as deep as your own curiosity and creativity will take you. Now add a free build character system and have multiple selectable starting zones.
Then you can be unlike any other character, unbeholden to any will that isn't your own. This is the kind of setup that would make an MMO feel like an adventure rather than a romp through tropes that have been visited far too often. MMOs are still largely using concepts and structures adapted from single-player games rather than forging their own path, and suffering for it, and they don't give players the kind of freedom that's promised by implication. Hell, why even have zoned by level? Make the gameplay itself versatile enough and a savvy group of players should be able to overcome most obstacles by using strategy rather than relying on a minimum raw power component.
I'm very pleased that Tera took a step in this direction by providing real-time combat, and I'm very pleased that Middle Earth Online provides different starting zones for someone who would otherwise be the same character. But it's like every MMO holds a different piece of the puzzle, because they only risk innovation within a single gameplay aspect. Right now, someone has to take a risk on something different on a mechanical and design level. If they can't, then I don't think the gaming industry is advanced enough yet for a massively multiplayer experience that reaches the heights of well-crafted single-player equivalents.
I disagree. I think the story in TOR is weaker because it's written worse than the story in KOTOR was. There's a couple of reasons for this- they were trying to make eight different storylines with limited resources, for one.
bluh i can't actually find any information on the development of TOR and Skyrim
That begs the question of where video game writing begins and ends. After all, text writing contains narration, but vidya generally lacks that in a traditional sense. Instead, it "writes" with mechanics, graphics, aesthetic, music and a bunch of other elements. In those respects, I consider the KotOR games superior, at least in context of their release period.
The issue with TOR from beginning to end -- and the issue I can see with the TES MMO -- is that it's trying to be a good MMO rather than a good game that is also an MMO. The conventions of the genre hold it back, because there are such specific expectations associated with it. This is a massive double-edged sword, as the dropping subscription rate of TOR is showing; without enough to distinguish it from WoW in terms of core experience, it loses to the more polished game; without innovation, it loses to more sophisticated core experiences.
This is the mistake I see pretty much every licensed MMO make -- they all want to be MMOs before they want to be their own games, and that damages the end product because it replaces the potential for innovation and core experience fun with cloned mechanics and conventions from WoW.
Well, presumably it ends when they finish writing it.
I'd actually say that a game writes whatever the hell it wants in whatever way it wants to. Many games "write" with those the same way many films write traditionally but support it with camera angles/music/etc, but many games manage a traditional storytelling experience very well- and support it with mechanics, such as boss fights, etc.
Hold the phone. Please do not talk about this sort of thing if you are not actually up on the facts.
One of the major factors that is causing TOR to lose subscriptions is that it does not feel like a traditional MMO. This is due to a variety of factors; it focuses too much on its' single-player story, for instance. It also has too many servers without enough population to fill them out, leading the game to feel far more single-player than it should.
The core factor that is losing TOR subscriptions is not that it follows WoW's established conventions too well. They are limiting, I'll grant you, but TOR actually carries them off pretty well. Rather, the fact is that TOR does not really carry the 'MMO' part of MMORPG, instead focusing too much on the RPG part.
It is entirely possible to spend hours on a single planet without seeing other players on some servers.
And, again, TOR does not do that. It does indeed borrow some elements from WoW, specifically its' combat system (which I think I will post elsewhere about). However, it differentiates itself from WoW by having a very heavy focus on the story within the game over the mechanical aspects of it, trying to support the game's experience through narrative rather than mechanics.
Whether this makes the game better or worse is a matter of opinion.
Anyway, regarding Skyrim, I've run into...a small problem. For some reason, Brynjolf (and the other characters involved in joining the thieves' guild) no longer spawns in Riften, but in the overworld Riften, which you can only access by noclipping through the city's walls.
Possibly. Though I'm still curious what caused it.
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/120257-New-Elder-Scrolls-Online-Screens-Emerge
So...there are a bunch of new TESO screenshots out.
On the one hand, they're really pretty, but on the other hand, only about half of them look like they're from an Elder Scrolls game.
That's a whole lot of Morrowind right there.
Yeah, thus far in the series, Morrowind is the one with an interesting setting, so that's hardly surprising.
Cyrodiil had better be a jungle in this.
I strongly doubt it, a way larger number of gamers knows Cyrodiil as the generic medieval European fantasy land from Oblivion than the jungle in pre-Oblivion lore. Which sucks, really.
Yep.
Man, I am still pissed about that. If they wanted a generic medieval setting, why didn't they set IV in Skyrim? Oh, right, because they wanted to have two games in a row in generic medieval settings.
I mean, at least they managed to have a reason for the retcon in Oblivion. But now they'll probably have a game showing that it was always like that, which makes no sense.
The way the setting design in this series is going, VI will be set in Black Marsh, which is now a green plain.
Black Marsh, Elsweyr and Akavir have the potential to be incredibly unique and original settings, and it would really be a pity if Bethesda messed it up.
Dammit, I really want a good game set in Elsweyr. If they set a game there and screw it up, I might actually have to stop buying Bethesda games forever.
Akavir isn't likely to turn up, it's an entire continent.
At one point, they will have to put something related to Akavir in one of their future games. It's possible that a game could be set in a part of Akavir (remember, Morrowind was technically set in Vvardenfell, which is only a relatively small part of the actual province of Morrowind), but I think that an invasion from Akavir as a main plot point is more likely.
Probably not overly much; it's being made by a studio that was created specifically to make it.
Skyrim's setting wasn't completely generically medieval.
For the most part, it was (blah vikings vikings everywhere), but it was actually changed to a decent degree by virtue of the civil war (which led to religious oppression) and the various other wars that sprang up over time.
Unfortunately, most of this wasn't/never will be expanded upon. But, I mean, just look at Makarth; that place was actually really cool, if annoying to navigate.
Yeah, Skyrim has a lot of potential, but they kind of glossed over most of the stuff that makes it distinct.
^^ ^ DLC
The DLC so far, as far as I'm aware, is about vampires and building houses, not about Norse influences.
And DLC is an addon to the game, not a main part of the game, so Skyrim does not stand on its own as a unique culture.
I wouldn't say Akavir would be unique setting. It's pretty much the generic medieval Far East setting, give or take a couple of races.
> implying Viking kingdoms didn't infight all the time for hilariously stupid reasons
^^ Yes, but Asia is Exotic(tm)(r)(c)