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Friday 8/2 at 1:30 for anyone interested. More info available on the website http://elderscrollsonline.com/ and hopefully they will have replays since I have family matters to attend to all day tomorrow and Saturday (B-day for son's fiancée - so going to daughter's house)
Safe journ all...
http://www.ign.com/videos/2013/08/02/the-elder-scrolls-online-gameplay-quakecon-2013 A reply on IGN if you missed it. Looks good
So...um... anyone watch this?
I saw it and the parts where the guy was alone definitely looked like an Elder Scrolls game. And I'm all about exploring, adventuring, and going to the cool looking place I see off in the distance, so that's a plus.
But the grouping looked pretty rough to me; it seemed very chaotic and seemed to be one of two extremes: attack something random in a big clump of enemies or everyone pound on a boss. I'm sure they're refining that (or at least I hope so).
Seems like character progresssion will be an important aspect of ESO, and while I understand them saying "you can use any weapon, any armor, do anything" I wonder if it'll make character progression too muddled. While on one level it's great to be able to say "I'm a Templar who uses a bow and medium armor" or "I'm a Templar who uses lightning bolt and a one-handed sword" I worry that it's going to make all our characters be a big mass of abilities, and everyone will look and seem the same. I dunno, I'm not able to express my thoughts well, but I hope that characters will have distinct development paths and looks - part of what I find interesting about character development is having to make choices, and if we don't have to make choices (i.e., if you eventually end up with everything) or if the choices don't matter then the game will lose a lot of appeal to me.
It seems that all the MMOs coming out these days (FFXIV, ESO, and the recent EQ Next reveal) allow you to "change classes" on the fly by swapping gear or weapons. So I suppose the next generation of MMOs will all lessen the need to level alt characters, since if you roll a Warrior and all of a sudden feel like playing an Archer, you don't have to roll an alt, you just have to equip your bow.
I guess it's an evolution of what we've recently seen. Take Diablo. If you were playing D2 and had a lightning Sorceress and wanted to roll a fire Sorceress, you had to reroll. D3 changed that: once you level a class, all the classes' abilities are yours. So swapping from ice to fire is as easy as changing your quickbar.
So it seems the trend is to make it easier to change around your character to (I suppose) keep it interesting. But I think that only works if there's interesting stuff to do with your character!
At any rate, getting back to ESO, I liked the look of the world and am interested in seeing more. It seems that one of the hooks of ESO is being able to explore all of Tamriel, and that definitely has appeal to me.
Yes it did look like an Elder Scrolls game with the first person view and minimal onscreen UI. Combat in ESO games is certainly more chaotic than most MMO's. I guess that is game they are making now for better or worse. The demo did not give enough information for me to judge the game on yet (or I don't want to believe this is actually the gameplay they will release with. I do fear ESO becoming more a console game with a PC port).
I hope ESO will support normal mmo-type third person view where we can zoom out much further. I cannot remember seeing that in this demo at all. First person and zoomed in 3rd person make me feel cramped and confined.
In ESO you may want an alt to play different factions. In EQNext you will need alts if you want to have one character good and one evil as your class type is limited by your alignment.
"It seems that all the MMOs coming out these days (FFXIV, ESO, and the recent EQ Next reveal) allow you to "change classes" on the fly by swapping gear or weapons. So I suppose the next generation of MMOs will all lessen the need to level alt characters, since if you roll a Warrior and all of a sudden feel like playing an Archer, you don't have to roll an alt, you just have to equip your bow."
Best part about this generation of MMOGs, if you ask me. I'm tired of having to have 10 characters to enjoy every class, or to have to pay out the nose in gold to "respec" my character. Multi-classing is a welcome evolution, in my opinion.
In fact, a class-less, level-less game would be the best. Let players mold their characters based on the skills they develop (ie. the skills they use the most) rather than by the amount of experience points they collect.
As far as ESO's camera: I don't think an MMOG can really be fun without the zoomed out camera. It is essentially the peripheral vision and "area awareness sense" of a game, since we can't actually BE in the game. Without that zoomed out camera, pvp would be a mess, I think (although it could add an interesting element of sneak and surprise as long as there is some mechanic for "sensing" your opponent sneaking up).
With eso I ask you all to remember that its still 9 months or more away from launch. That is a ton of time and things can change rapidly. Keep an open mind.
I watched it and I loved the clear interface. That looked pretty cool. It looked a lot like Morrowind to me.
The group dynamic did look a bit chaotic, but there was also intricacies in it. Watching it, there was one character that always took the melee mobs. The archer POV guy was to kill the ranged mobs, with the stealther (don't know how many of you might've noticed the stealther, but they have the black transparent look that DAoC stealthers have) jumping between mobs to help them die. I didn't see too much of what the guy with the staff was doing.
I like how it looks. I think it can do really well.
As far as ESO's camera: I don't think an MMOG can really be fun without the zoomed out camera. It is essentially the peripheral vision and "area awareness sense" of a game, since we can't actually BE in the game. Without that zoomed out camera, pvp would be a mess, I think (although it could add an interesting element of sneak and surprise as long as there is some mechanic for "sensing" your opponent sneaking up).
The MMO genre's third person view is a must for the average MMO player. The first person view offers a different level of challenge or immersion for anyone who wants it. Lots of games give you the ability to zoom all the way in. It's just not usually as well done as it is in an Elder Scrolls Game.
I sincerely hope we will be keeping an open mind with ESO. But keeping an open mind goes both ways. We need to figure out what is both right and wrong with the title, and assess it objectively.
From what I have seen so far (which is limited), my concerns are with how the combat will evolve. It looks clunky and a little off to me. Hopefully that will change in the coming months. On the plus side, I like the rvr information released so far, and the exploration concepts.
Fortunately, we have a very detailed matrix to fill in to evaluate the title logically and analytically, which should remove personal bias from the final outcome. Although sometimes you either love or hate a title, and you cannot put your finger on why, the questions the matrix asks will get us thinking about each aspect of the game and the strengths and weaknesses. No game is going to be a perfect fit, but at least we are attempting to keep an open mind on both the pros and the cons.
What we already know about the 1st/3rd person view was answered in this thread
http://www.gaiscioch.com/tavern/eso_discussion/post_59602.html
by a very insightful and dedicated researcher ....
It was originally only 3rd person view and they added the 1st person view for ES fans... I'm sure they are only showing the 1st person view since they are attempting to hype it to their huge fan base who are use to the first person view and this will seem more familiar to them.
... and as Fog said - has til next spring for testing... and for that long left it looks pretty good.
The recent videos look good no doubt, but they also show some things that I find concerning. Sure I think the Elder Scrolls visuals look very much like an Elder Scrolls game, but it also shows things that I never really liked about Elder Scrolls games. Yes it is very early to make a truly educated opinion, and yet when I see the third person combat animations I can't help but think to myself "Skyrims third person wasn't that good, why copy that?". The red glow is also a concern for me, I never liked it in Neverwinter and I don't like what I've seen of it from ESO either, I find it to be a heavy distraction that continues to pull you back to reality when you want to be immersed into the world.
With all that being said and done, Zenimax Online Studios really haven't shown much in the way of game mechanics, quests, AvA or dungeons so I will continue to sit back and wait for them to surprise me with something good. I'm yet to see anything that has taken my breath away, nothing apart from the ip itself that really screams "PLAY MEH!". I challenge Zenimax to show me something awesome, wow me, surprise me, prove to me that your game is worth moving to because as much as I love MMO's, RVR and Elder Scrolls, I still haven't seen anything that really grabs my attention. I've heard pre-launch/pre-beta marketing PR before, I want to see substance, not hype.
I try so hard not to think about or read about this game. Then they come out with gameplay videos, they have to make it so difficult for me to wait.
