Two Part Interview with Matt Firor

Part I: "Matt Firor explains the thinking behind the game and why pockets can't be picked"
Part II: "Matt Firor focuses on player v player battles"

Penny Arcade Interview with Matt Firor: "...explains how you’ll be a standout 'hero' among heroes'"

I've yet to read them yet but I am waiting for a spare moment here at work to read them :D

EDIT: I added in a Penny Arcade interview that just arrived today as well into this thread.

Later perhaps if there is enough of these, I'll do a thread collecting them all or at least the sites that have the main interviews and link them.

From Part II "We're really trying to de-emphasise quote unquote classes," says Firor. "And make the player's development more about their choices. So for example we want to give everyone access to something like having pets – if they want to. Right now a perk lets you be a pet person, so if you want that ability you can go and get it." A brief digression about crafting; Firor says Skyrim players should expect a familiar system, and also mentions the ability to enchant weapons. Yay for not having to rely on a class to give us a pet :D

I like what they are doing with classes, kinda reminds me of Ultima Online back in the day. Having the freedom to pick and choose what you want.

I agree. I believe all your class gives you is some special abilities unique to the class but otherwise you are free to branch out with weapons/skills (spells too I would believe but can't find the answer to that right now). This is the MMO of our dreams if done right. I for one have been wanting a LANable Elder Scrolls for at least the last 15 years :P Since D&D Online, this may be the one MMO I truly want to roleplay in.

» Edited on: 2013-01-30 16:23:17

I just hope that I'm not "required" to have a combat pet to be competitive. Forgive me for being cautious with my optimism, I am truly looking forward to ESO but I fully intend on keeping my expectations under control this time around.

I saw this reply before I went for my morning tea break and I thought of two methods to do it that probably would work well together. 1. Issuing commands to the pet uses stamina. This would explain the multitasking as 'stamina' could be used as a method of 'how much can I do' mechanic like Pen and Paper games do with combat phase = 5 seconds. 2. A whole tree or just a branch for 'Beast Mastery' This would mean to make the pet effective, you would have to dedicate the points for it. They could balance it out by having more 5 point nodes rather than the single point ones that Blacksmithing had in Skyrim. This could therefore balance out the player's skills vs having a pet on the field. Also, being cautious is the smart move. I wasn't too hyped about GW2 till close to release and it lived up to my expectations and more. I am just hoping that ZOS look to GW2 and other MMOs to see the lessons learned both in pros and cons. If I get into the beta, that is one thing I want to check out and give opinions on is how they handle that aspect.

» Edited on: 2013-01-30 16:52:02

» Edited on: 2013-01-30 17:42:19