Elder Scrolls Online art director talks MMO limitations and stylistic influences
What’s up with the stylized visuals on display in The Elder Scrolls Online’s recent screenshot and video reveals? It’s all about marrying various takes on Tamriel with the limitations of MMORPGs, according to ZeniMax Online art director Jared Carr.
“We’re not really at the technical state with MMOs to be able to pull off photorealism,” Carr explains. He goes on to say that the target is 200 characters on screen for the game’s massive battles, and he also notes that despite concessions to tech limits and travel times, TESO is heavily influenced by previous Elder Scrolls games, particularly Oblivion and Morrowind. Head to Game Informer for the full video dev diary.
Firefall and Tera both have action combat that is more fun than Skyrim’s action combat. I can’t help but wonder what could have been, and now we’re left with a compromise for probably 10-15 years. By then, game genres are going to be blending I think. Every genre will have single player and MMO versions of itself, we don’t have to pretend anymore with tab targetting.