ELDERSCROLLSUPDATE

When interviewing developers for Massively over the last three years, I’ve taken many opportunities to chat up multiple community managers. And when I was running my own community, I read article after article about how to gauge the health of a community. Although I don’t remember who said it or where I might have read it, I learned that one of the best ways to measure a healthy community is the amount of artwork that players make about your particular theme, or in the case of The Elder Scrolls Online, the game.

Of course, all game creators like to see players having fun and being inspired by what they are doing. The Elder Scrolls brings with it an existing community inspired by games like Skyrim and Morrowind. The community has already fallen in love with ESO and has drawn inspiration from everything that ZeniMax has released about the game so far. One of these inspired individuals is Lisa Green, known as Aloucia on TESO-RP.com. She told me a bit about herself and the inspiration behind her painting that was featured in the latest Tamriel Chronicle.

Massively: Your artwork was featured in the latest Tamriel Chronicle — congratulations!

Lisa Green: I’m super excited! I feel I accomplished something pretty substantial. It’s exposure, and to a target audience, I suppose, more than what I’m able to get via my personal Facebook page or Tumblr.

The picture is of a Bosmer (Wood Elf) and her wolf’s pelt, right? Tell me about the inspiration behind the picture.

Yep! It was inspired by the character I’ve already created in my head for ESO. She’s a character that’s been passed down from one game to another. But for ESO, I wanted to make someone who is confident and wild. So with all of that in mind, I came up with this version of Aloucia.

Is there a significance to the wolf pelt, or is that just something you thought would look good in the painting?

The pelt was a gift to the character. I want to say that they’re sort of kindred spirits, but I’m not sure. Sure, it’s an inanimate object now, but it’s become sort of a part of her in that she never leaves it behind. She doesn’t have too many friends, so having the pelt likely makes her feel she isn’t entirely alone while traveling Tamriel.

(See, this is why interviewing artists is fun; there is no “I thought it looked cool.” There always seems to be a deeper reason behind the different parts of the work!) Obviously, you plan on playing ESO, but which other Elder Scrolls games have you played, and what has made you want to play ESO?

I regret to say that I didn’t get fully hooked on the Elder Scrolls games until Oblivion. I played that game religiously, as well as Skyrim. I cannot wait to play ESO because I want to see what the team has done in terms of lore and immersion. Am I going to be sucked into the game as much as I was with Skyrim and Oblivion? I really, really hope so.

What about the lore sucks you in?

I love the little details about the various races that some people might not think too much about while playing the games. For example, I’m a fan of the Bosmer, and up until about three months back, I didn’t know their religious beliefs called for them to be cannibals in most cases. And there are so many gods, goddesses, and Daedra with all of their own unique stories and qualities. I love it all!

Earlier, you mentioned exposure. Obviously, every artist wants his or her art to be looked at and enjoyed by other people. What type of exposure are you looking for in your work? Do you plan on this being a career for you?

Right now, the only exposure I have is my Facebook page, and that’s a little hit and miss as interests go. Some people on there might like art from, say, Star Wars: The Old Republic. But because my interests change depending on the game I’m playing or about to play, I think maybe my art is missing its target and is being viewed by people who might not like the subject matter. People who are fans of sci-fi might not necessarily want to look at a bunch of funny-looking elves. So having my Bosmer Healer on the Tamriel Chronicle means it’s being seen by the fanbase it was intended for.

I’d love to do this for a career, but I am going to need a ton more experience and training before that might be an option.
Tell me about your current training a little bit. What inspired you to become an artist, and what do you do to keep your skills in shape?

I don’t have any real formal training — almost no college experience in it, and maybe a class or two in high school. Most of it was teaching from my mom since she had an interest in art when she was younger. She told me about the sort of things she’d draw and make, and as cliche as it sounds, I wanted to do what she did. I tried to have other interests, but it always comes back to art. Recently, I’ve been doing rehashes of my old art to keep me focused and trained. I also take commissions and throw in new techniques I’m trying.

What tools did you use to make that piece, and if people want to see more of your work, where can they find it?

My Wacom Bamboo Fun tablet and Photoshop, and two places: DeviantArt and Facebook.

Cool. Thanks, Lisa, for taking the time to talk to us!

In last week’s Tamriel Infinium, we discussed phasing and how it could be implemented in ESO. Although the only clues we have about how phasing (or layering, as the ESO devs call it) are from an AMA from April, we have had experience with phasing in other games, particularly World of Warcraft and Lord of the Rings Online. Our commenters are torn about this technology. Players seem to either love it or hate it with very little in between.

Most who were opposed to phasing mirrored the opinion of commenter Trumanlee4. “I don’t like how everyone is separated according to where they were in a quest line,” he explained. “MMOs need to start bringing players together again, force people to group up, make content difficult again, and force socialization. I know there are some people who like being able to solo, but that’s just not an MMO.”

Other commenters believe that phasing can be a great storytelling tool. “Phasing is a pretty cool feature,” Sorenthaz said. “I enjoyed how there were some enemy-infested areas that would later be cleared out and turned into base camps for the Argent Crusade [in World of Warcraft] once you did quests to clear them out and whatnot.” However, he did see the possible pitfalls: “The only problem is sometimes that makes grouping difficult. But devs can always make tweaks to the system to change the phases you’re in depending on various conditions.”

Lastly, LookingGlass had a very balanced view, seeing both the pros and the cons and calling it a “double-edged sword,” but the pros outweighed the cons. “Being out of phase typically doesn’t last long, and the moments when phasing breaks your night of group play are rare. Saving a town or watching it burn is worth more than the occasional forced-to-solo scenario.”

I really enjoyed reading last week’s comments, so keep them coming! This week, my question melds both this week’s and last week’s discussion, and it’s not really a question with a simple answer, but let’s see how it goes: What tools can the game designers and community managers use to help bring the community together? Do you think the ESO team is doing a good job at it so far? If so, what is the best part? If not, what can it do to improve? Sit in your developer’s armchair and let me know what you think in the comments below.

After reading the roleplay-oriented AMA that released Monday on the official Elder Scrolls Online website, I resigned myself to the fact that I’m never again going to get to play an MMO with chat bubbles. I will miss you, my lovely communicative vesicle. I shall remember fondly the times you allowed me to easily distinguish between those who spoke right next to me and those who sat halfway across a tavern. Apparently, you are now a dated device that no longer holds importance to designers looking to make a game that revolves around player-to-player communication…

I know that chat bubbles are not the only important device in the roleplayer arsenal of storytelling tools, but that doesn’t mean that I don’t find the irony humorous. And I am extraordinarily happy that developers took the time to answer some very important roleplay-related questions. As someone who happens to be very interested in the ability to roleplay effectively, I’d like to take a few moments to discuss the answers the developers gave. And surprisingly the discussion we had last week about the ESO community-building tools fits in quite well with the theme on the whole.

Communication appears to be the primary thrust of the roleplay-related questions. It makes sense; communication is the primary tool for excellent roleplay. Besides the aforementioned chat bubbles, there are multiple ways players can communicate with each other. Chat channels, like guild chat and group chat, come to mind. Spatial (or local) chat serves as the primary place for in-character dialogue, so if that channel is filled with out-of-character communication, then not only does it possibly break the immersion of the moment but it can also clutter the channel with irrelevant chatter.

What was ZeniMax’s response to the communication question? “Though you can’t group together if you’re from different alliances,” the developers explained, “many of our social systems are focused on you as opposed to on your characters individually, and you’ll be able to communicate across alliances through these systems.” At this, I emote an eyebrow-raise and a look of complete confusion.

The devs have said in the past and reiterated in the AMA that guilds ignore factional differences, but they have also stated that Cyrodiil is the only place that opposing factions will be able to meet up. “There’s nothing stopping you from sharing a peaceful (if tense) round of drinks with characters from another alliance in Cyrodiil,” the AMA states, so most likely there will not be a language barrier between the factions. But what are the other “social systems”? I can only assume that means things like whispers and in-game mail. To which I say, “Yes! Finally, a game that will allow me to coordinate events with opposing factions!” If that’s not what that means, then I’m going to be wearing a very sad face.

Luckily, ZeniMax didn’t completely dodge the EU vs. NA megaserver question as it did the sitting-in-chairs question. Having many roleplay friends who live in Europe, I am pleased to know that I will be able to play with them without territorial restriction. And I was also surprised at the candid answer regarding personal profiles. Although that type of interface will not come standard, roleplayers will be able to create add-ons that will allow this and other roleplay-centric tools. Maybe that means we can have chat bubbles after all. Players in beta, get to working on that now.

Commenters last week could not decide which direction was best for developers to create a great community. However, I think there was a consensus that many recent games have taken a direction contrary to community building. Steve1 stated that the “comfortable path [of progression] should be one that leaves the players seeking a group by the time they leave the newbie area.” He questions the idea of a strong character-focused story with a checklist of achievements; he does not believe there would be a reason to care about the other players “except for the sake of comparing their accomplishment lists.” AnatidaeProject echoes this sentiment by declaring, “We are in the age of Massive Multiplayer Solo Games.”

Oftentimes, I wonder the same thing. Are we living in a time in MMO development where the personal trumps working on a cooperative or world story? World of Warcraft became the MMO to emulate shortly after its release, and unless you’re leveling via the dungeon finder, it’s essentially a solo game until you reach max level. Even Guild Wars 2, a game that in my opinion made co-op leveling extraordinarily easy and fun, told a personal story that seemed to shut out the rest of the players. Unfortunately, I don’t see a great solution to the overarching issue, but I do think that games like Star Wars: The Old Republic did at least attempt to incorporate a larger group-based storyline within its flashpoints. Perhaps Elder Scrolls Online will attempt the same thing (or something better).

The AMA and last week’s comment discussion bring up some interesting points about communication and what makes these kinds of things important to an MMO community. First off, I’d like to ask whether you’re going to roleplay in ESO or not. Given the single-player feel of the storyline of past Elder Scrolls games and the direction that ESO tends to be heading, I’m not sure to what extent I will roleplay. It appears that it might be an uphill battle, one that I might not be willing to take at this moment in my MMO career. If you are a roleplayer, why or why won’t you roleplay in ESO? Are there any tools ZeniMax can give you to help solidify your wants?

Those of you who don’t roleplay, tell me what you think of personal story in MMOs. Does it separate you from the playerbase at large, or does it actually make you feel more connected to the world around you?

Long rumored and much anticipated, The Elder Scrolls Online is finally being unveiled in the June issue of Game Informer. In this month’s cover story we journey across the entire land of Tamriel, from Elsweyr to Skyrim and everywhere in between.

Developed by the team at Zenimax Online Studios, The Elder Scrolls Online merges the unmatched exploration of rich worlds that the franchise is known for with the scale and social aspects of a massively multiplayer online role-playing game. Players will discover an entirely new chapter of Elder Scrolls history in this ambitious world, set a millennium before the events of Skyrim as the daedric prince Molag Bal tries to pull all of Tamriel into his demonic realm.

“It will be extremely rewarding finally to unveil what we have been developing the last several years,” said game director and MMO veteran Matt Firor, whose previous work includes Mythic’s well-received Dark Age of Camelot. “The entire team is committed to creating the best MMO ever made – and one that is worthy of The Elder Scrolls franchise.”

An in-depth look at everything from solo questing to public dungeons awaits in our enormous June cover story – as well as a peek at the player-driven PvP conflict that pits the three player factions against each other in open-world warfare over the province of Cyrodiil and the Emperor’s throne itself.

Come back tomorrow morning for a brief teaser trailer from Zenimax Online and Bethesda Softworks, and later on in the afternoon for the first screenshot of the game. Over the course of the month, be sure to visit our Elder Scrolls Online hub, which will feature new exclusive content multiple times each week. You’ll meet the three player factions, see video interviews with the creative leads, and much more.

The Elder Scrolls Online is scheduled to come out in 2013 for both PC and Macintosh.

Click the images below for the full-size renderings of the cover, and continue on to find out what other surprises are in the issue and when it will arrive:

In addition to the world exclusive first look at The Elder Scrolls Online, the June issue of Game Informer brings you the first hands-on report on The Amazing Spider-Man from Activision and Beenox as well as new details on Lego Batman 2, Resident Evil 6, and Devil May Cry.

Furthermore, Matthew Kato explores the role of the Entertainment Software Association plays in the video game industry, Matt Miller discusses the rise of new business models in gaming, and Joe Juba chronicles the new form that the once-thought-dead adventure genre has evolved into.

Look for the June issue to hit mailboxes and newsstands over the coming week or so, or click here to subscribe or convert your existing physical subscription and get access to the digital edition when it goes live on May 8th.

Well, one of the industry’s worst-kept secrets has been officially put to rest courtesy of Game Informer. There is in fact an Elder Scrolls MMO in the works, and ZeniMax Online has chosen the print magazine for its initial reveal.

Despite a professed lack of interest in MMOs from Elder Scrolls notable Todd Howard, the project has been ongoing for a number of years now, according to the game’s first press release. The dev team is headed up by Matt Firor, known primarily to gamers for his work on Dark Age of Camelot. Like DAoC, the new Elder Scrolls title will feature three-faction PvP. We’ll keep you updated as Bethesda releases additional details.

Every time i played morrowind, oblivion or skyrim i always thought how much cooler it would be to play with someone else. Now i always thought in a coop sense and dont really see how an MMO could work with this IP but im willing to remain hopeful.

The internet and rabid fandom being what they are, it’s next to impossible for gaming press outlets to keep their exclusive information exclusive for very long. So it went with Game Informer’s The Elder Scrolls Online reveal, which is slated to appear in its June print edition. Posters at NeoGAF, as well as pretty much every gaming news site around the web, subsequently got a hold of the article and leaked a bunch of screenshots as well as a few rumored gameplay details.

Said details include traditional hotbar combat, a third-person perspective, and around 120 hours’ worth of leveling content for the average player.

Could a game studio please have the balls to release a high-grade open world sandbox title for the love of pete!?  All dev studios are so focused on copy/pasting a new watered-down mmo for the masses that nobody is really doing anything interesting – this has been getting stagnant/boring for years now.  I sure wish that another company besides CCP would release an mmo focused on capturing a smaller (but very hardcore) niche audience rather than trying to become the next 11-million sub pile of junk.  This is precisely why ArcheAge hasnt been picked up by a NA publisher.  Nobody wants to touch a sandbox title with a 10-foot pole.  The studios know that these types of games weed out much of the potential gaming population rapidly because they are too complex and lack hand-holding that more casual gamers crave.

Whenever the subject of untapped RPG franchises that could make the jump to MMOs comes up, Bethesda’s Elder Scrolls series is almost always mentioned. After all, if Blizzard and BioWare made the jump, why not the folks behind Oblivion?

In talking with our sister site Joystiq at PAX, Bethesda’s Todd Howard fields the question with blunt honesty. “I like this kind of game better,” he said. “You know, it’s what most of us are into. I’m not really an MMO guy. I respect them, I look at them, but I don’t play them. It feels more real to me when I’m the hero and it’s crafted for that. A community aspect to it, I recognize a lot of people would want that in a game like this, but it changes the flavor for me.

Of course, one man’s feelings toward the genre aren’t always enough to stave off corporate demands, but Howard says that isn’t the case: “We can just do our thing, and it’s kind of grown with each game. So there was no pressure from anybody above me to say ‘Hey, you need to change this.'”

That doesn’t mean Bethesda will forever abstain from MMOs, however. Bethesda’s parent company, ZeniMax Media, built an MMO customer support facility in Ireland earlier this year, an indication that online gaming may very well be in the company’s future.

MMOs in an existing franchise always present certain issues: You need enough conceptual space to advance a game’s storyline, but you may not want to be locked in to never doing another title in the franchise. So The Elder Scrolls Online has to be set in just the right time period for the game to work. In a recent video interview, creative director Paul Sage and content designer Rich Lambert sat down to talk about the why behind the when.

Sage and Lambert explain that the real draw to this particular time period was the fact that there’s neither a great deal of recorded in-game history nor a lot of huge events that might affect future titles — it’s a time when almost anything can happen without derailing future events in the universe. The duo also discusses keeping the game aligned with existing lore and ensuring that nothing gets thrown off by mistake. Those looking forward to the game will want to watch the full interview, which goes into more details regarding specifics of lore and setting.

The domain name elderscrollsonline.com was registered on 15 August this year by ZeniMax Media Inc, parent company of Bethesda Softworks – the lovely people who make all those wonderful Elder Scrolls games.

Adding fuel to the speculation, ZeniMax Media obtained 15 million US dollars in funding from Providence Equity Partners Inc in late October, which will be used “to fund future growth, increase game development and publishing, facilitate acquisitions, and finance massively multiplayer online games (MMOGs).” [our emphasis]

Bethesda, the Elder Scrolls, and MMO development. These things potentially add up to Massively Tasty Online Games.

If they can manage to retain the same aspects that make the offline games so compelling (exploration, do anything, free-form character development), than it could very well be the best MMO ever in my book. But can they deliver on it?

I’m willing to wait to find out.

The MMO world was knocked on its butt last week, when rumors began percolating through media outlets that Zenimax Online, a new MMO studio created to be the online cousin of the renowned Bethesda Softworks, was working on an MMORPG based in the Elder Scrolls universe. Evidence seeming to support these claims followed not far behind. Zenimax Studios, the parent company of which both Bethesda and Zenimax Online are a part, received seed funding from Providence Equity Partners in mid-October to, “fund future growth, ramp up publishing and development, facilitate acquisitions, and finance MMOGs.” And, as if the writing on the wall wasn’t quite clear enough, sharp-eyed domain watchers spotted the acquisition of the URL elderscrollsonline.com, registered by Zenimax Studios on August 15. At this point it seems all but certain.

Until Zenimax decides the time is right to let the cat out of the bag, all we’re left to do is sit back, palm our copies of Oblivion and Morrowind, and play armchair quarterback. And probably the biggest question on our minds is whether it is in fact the right move for Bethesda to bring their beloved RPG franchise into the rough and tumble world of the massively multiplayer. Is it the right fit for the IP or is it a big mistake? There are strong arguments in either direction, and they’re all worth exploring.

Join me after the jump, won’t you?

+ The Elder Scrolls universe is massive already

One of the strongest arguments in favor of an Elder Scrolls MMO is that the game universe is so expansive already. Taking Oblivion as an example, the larger game world (i.e., the part outside of dungeons) was a whopping sixteen square miles in size, and chock full of things to explore in nearly every nook and cranny. And this represented just the region of Cyrodiil, the regions explored in the franchises other three games and their respective expansions could be just as large, saying nothing of unexplored continents and the like. There are a lot of directions the Zenimax Online crew could choose to take this game, but it seems clear at least from the outset that the Elder Scrolls universe is equipped to handle all their landmass needs.

– We liked it single player!

There are many who feel, perhaps rightly so, that much of the charm of the Elder Scrolls series lay in the fact that the player was given the unique opportunity to play a pivotal role in the lore. Playing as the Nerevarine or the Champion of Cyrodiil is a truly exhilarating experience, especially after having spent literally hundreds of hours completely immersed in the game world and its intricate story. Elder Scrolls is the kind of game that favors the careful, thoughtful traveler. Everywhere you go there are NPCs to flesh out the culture and context of a given city or region. Every building you walk into is shelved with books that have actual content in them. The game is deep.

To put it simply, an Elder Scrolls MMO just doesn’t seem to fit the lore. Do we really want to have five thousand Champions of Cyrodiil running around with daedric swords and glass armor walloping the hell out of each other? Doesn’t that degrade the narrative that Bethesda has worked so hard to construct up to this point? Moreover, wouldn’t we be risking part of what made the series so great – the ability for the player to be the axis on which the plot turns? These are the risks taken when a game goes massive.

+ Real-time combat adds new challenge

Elder Scrolls: Oblivion, as the latest representative of the Elder Scrolls series to be released, just happens to have one of the best combat systems of any RPG in recent memory. Set in the first or over-the-shoulder third person perspective, combat relies not only on the equipment and traits of your avatar, but also your ability to time attacks, evade enemies, and aim arrows and magic spells. Combat is much more visceral when it feels like you’re the one swinging the sword or deflecting a blow with your shield. The very thought of bringing Elder Scrolls‘ hands-on action into a genre plagued by “click to attack” games makes me giddy.

– Deathmatch, the RPG?

On the other hand, games like World of Warcraft can be twitchy as it is, requiring precisely timed attacks to yield the best output for players with any aspirations for high DPS. Latency, something that traditional RPG systems account for with casting times and cooldowns, suddenly returns to the forefront of player consciousness. While the actual aiming and firing of an arrow, taking into account wind speed and the arc of the shot, is certainly a lot more intuitive than simply pressing a button, it’s also subject to the strength of the player’s connection. MMORPGs aren’t supposed to be about who has the faster connection, they’re supposed to be about immersing yourself in a world.. And the larger Elder Scrolls series is not about besting opponents, nor should it be considered a fantasy shooter. There’s a very genuine risk that development could stray that way if the next Elder Scrolls game goes online.+ They’ve got the pedigree

Zenimax Online is current headed by Matt Firor, former Dark Age of Camelot producer and designer at Mythic Entertainment. It’s not hyperbole or dramatic overstatement when I say that he’s exactly the sort of guy that can pull this off — he’s got the experience within the MMO sphere that a new studio is going to need to take an existing, and already wildly popular property, from the single-player arena and take it massive. Just check out how he handles questions in interviews — he has a firm grip on what it takes to generate sales in the current market, with all its pitfalls and nuance, and he has a strong sense of what’s demanded of a development team in order to generate a success. And to top it off, they can always pick the brains of the Bethesda Elder Scrolls vets working in relatively close proximity. This is no half-assed start-up we’re talking about, they’ve got a good thing going.

– Great, more elves!

While I love the Elder Scrolls lore as much as the next guy, the superficial aspects of the franchise do seem rather redundant when compared to the myriad of other fantasy MMOs currently saturating the market. You hate to be the one to say it, but isn’t it about time we had a game that moved beyond the whole orcs and elves fantasy shtick? Aren’t there other universes that Zenimax could explore? Surely they could devote their considerable creative talents to the development of something truly original — something that would actually stand out on store shelves instead of just blending into the general miasma?

So is it a good idea or a bad one? If I had my way, they would introduce some online elements to the franchise, maybe some instanced zones that players can tackle together, but I would probably stop short of throwing the franchise full bore into the MMO sphere. But it’s hard to imagine Zenimax or Bethesda listening to little ol’ me. Alas in the meantime, all we can do is watch, wait, and speculate.

So what do you think?
I’ve been waiting for this day for most of my life. I remember the first time I played Arena so many years ago. If Elder Scrolls were an MMO, I’d never leave my room.

Bethesda on new MMO: keep waiting!

Sometimes, as bloggers, we feel bad for game developers. They try so hard to give us straight-forward interviews on their pet projects, and all we do in return is try and get them to slip us information on another, even bigger pet project. A Blizzard producer being interviewed about Wrath of the Lich King? I’ll bet you ten bucks he gets asked about their “next-gen” MMO. Cryptic employee trying to discuss the terms of their separation with NCsoft? So, how’s that Marvel Universe Online going? And in the case of a recent interview with CVG, Bethesda’s Peter Hines came in to talk about Fallout 3 and the first question he’s asked?

So is there any progression down that avenue with the franchise at the moment, with the MMO?

Oy vey! Well, in case you were wondering, Mr. Hines didn’t have much to say on the subject of Zenimax Online, their new online studio, beyond that because they are a start-up, it’s unlikely that we’re going to hear any announcements for quite some time. Well shoot, it was worth trying, right? In the mean time, we’re going to be left to sit and ponder on this cool Sunday evening about what kind of game they could make if NOT an Elder Scrolls MMO.