As far as tutorial goes it is very weak and does a poor job of pulling players in the game world.
What tutorial zone really does though? Don't think I've ever played an MMO where I thought much of the first 2 hours of the game. It's the nature of them. They're simple, basic and they're designed to introduce you to the game. It's a progression system and one that is needed for them, given the nature of trying to appeal to console gamers. (A lot of first time MMO players potentially).
The first two hours of Tera really pulled me in...boy was I wrong.
As far as TES series, most of those games first two hours are really strong. If I remember correctly, in Morrowind you are just kinda tossed into the world like "Bye! Have fun!". Oblivion's first two hours are rather epic w/ the death of the king etc.. and Skyrim had the dragon invasion scenario. I would have expected TESO to have an intro of epic proportions. To hear that it doesnt is rather disappointing.
Everyone has their own ideas of "being pulled in". In my case, I couldn't make it past 2 hours in TERA. It was a horrible experience and I never bought the game once I got to test it.
The intros were ok in those games, but again, they were just teaching you how to play the game. Just like any game, and I wouldn't call them epic. They were simply linear events that started you off with a story and a launching point. Same in ESO really, it is just a back story and a launching point to get you into the game and teach you how to play. That is to be expected in every MMO. And how epic can it be when you don't have any skills yet and can only use a single weapon.
I wasnt aware that the only thing in gaming that can be considered epic is the combat. Sorry.
I'm not going to talk about the details of my beta experience since it's under NDA. All I'll say is that unlike countless other MMOs, they seem to have gotten right what counts the most: GAMEPLAY. It annoys me to no end how most MMO companies out there focus on the eye candy and not enough on the gameplay. They pander to that crowd who constantly cries out for the sugar high of beautiful graphics, only to fail miserably after a month or so since beautiful graphics get old without good gameplay.
For those who give this game a chance and don't have this nasty habit of judging a book by its cover, they will appreciate the depth of this game.
Technically you should be banned from these forums, because I was banned a few days ago for saying I was in the beta and nothing else.
I wonder why they left your post alone and had mine locked?
Want to see the exact email?
Dear coventryhagdog,
You have been issued a temporary ban by one of our moderators.
Category: NDA Violation Span: 02/05/2014 - 02/07/2014 23:59:59 [3 days] Reason: MMORPG.com does not permit users to post information on games still under an NDA. For more information about your specific game's NDA, please visit their official website.
This temporary ban was generated from the following post on our discussion forum:
Thread: Yet another beta weekend under NDA... Below is the content of the post:
------------------------------
------------------
Originally posted by WolfClaws
You have too much time on your hands OP.
Game comes out in a couple of months. You can wait until launch, or you can try to get into the beta weekends.
Whining about it isn't going to make the time go any faster. The game will be a hit or a failure on the PC. Consoles, it will probably be a hit, since there wont be much in the way of games until December 2014.
Joke's on you, because I've been in quite a few beta sessions already.
Troll harder, you can do it. I have faith in you.
_________________________________________________
Basically, this website violates FTC regulations about online disclosure.
Guys, stop arguing with JJ82, he's narcissist, you are only banging your head on a brick wall because "he is better than you". He has an opinion about everything and his opinion is always "the right one". It's impossible to have a conversation with a narcissist person because they are not here to discuss, they are here just to state how things are period.
Most negative media reviews of beta are people who haven't made it past level 10. Most positive are people who have. There is a reason for this - that's about when you're done with the starter zones and in the "real world". They should have added more to the starter zones to make it more appealing right off the bat, I'll say that. But after you hit that point it gets WAY better.
I do not agree with the OP at all about what they've gotten right.
However, I will agree with the thread's title. The game does get a bit better as you get further in it, because certain mechanics open up and PvP becomes available.
Feel free to use my referral link for SW:TOR if you want to test out the game. You'll get some special unlocks!
So any review that is positive towards ESO is paid by advertising dollars and the negative ones aren't?
Obviously not. But do you not believe almost every game studio have paid people saying good review about them?
They don't even need to pay me anything. If I bought their stock I'll say good thing about them. And I actually get paid for writing good review in real life for selling internet product. So people like that obviously exist.
Graphics look fine to me. It seems to be the gameplay, general design and particularly the combat, that the previewers dislike.
The combat is definitely unique. I think people are just too used to WoW's approach to combat. You get used to it.
If you consider left clicking your mouse and hitting Keys 1-8 then I guess its unique I find it rather insulting to ones intelligence. Fact to you really don't have to aim just click and whack or shoot or cast unique?? And no not use to wow approach just being honest that their combat mechanics aren't there. EQ combat mechanics are so much better and I could go on about comparing it to other mmo's
The majority of naysayers have one thing in common: Combat is horrible. Combat is the core of any MMO, and it definitely seems like an acquired taste with this game. One that I could not acquire no matter how hard I try and how long I play. From the looks of it, it looks too slow, clunky and unresponsive.
In any case, I won't be spending my money on this one. It doesn't seem like its for me, even though Im a big fan of TES. I simply dont think elder scrolls can exist in an MMO world. Good luck to you all that wish to play it. I hope you aren't being naive with rose colored glasses with this one.
And people wonder why the company didn't want to lift the NDA, lol. It should have been lifted for this stress test. Not lifting it gave the people that hate it free reign, they don't care about it anymore, and ones that do, won't really share.
That's Zeni's bad. There has been so many breaks of the NDA on this site since Friday, this forum should be locked until release or NDA removal. It seems like the mods have all but given up. It's akin to picking on a defenseless person.
Graphics look fine to me. It seems to be the gameplay, general design and particularly the combat, that the previewers dislike.
Plays like Elder Scrolls to me. Maybe to someone that only plays MMO's and never played a ES game then they might find it odd, but plays exact for moi.
"The King and the Pawn return to the same box at the end of the game"
i am curious, what do you consider the standard in mmo combat? and do you believe ESO's combat is inferior to skyrim?
your answer to both of those questions will be telling indeed.
The DaoC/WoW/EQ style is standard MMO combat and its crap combat that leads to facerolling derp boredom.
Skyrim had crap combat, a different kind of crap, the kind that can be modded and made better. MMO crap is worse because it cant be changed.
Telling indeed.
PS. Crap, just cause it needed to be said again.
I have not played TESO, only watching the reviews. I still remain curious about this combat system. I was able to adapt to GW2 combat. So I know there are other methods of combat that can work. However, The moment you said, WoW style combat that leads to facerolling, you opinion is lost. While I can say there are other games that have taken the traditional MMO combat system to new lows, WoW isn't one of them. I can tell you that if you entered a raid, and decided to "faceroll derp" your way through combat, you'd be kicked (legitimately) for sucking bad. There are reasons WoW's top downloaded addons are combat rotation helpers.
Graphics look fine to me. It seems to be the gameplay, general design and particularly the combat, that the previewers dislike.
The combat is definitely unique. I think people are just too used to WoW's approach to combat. You get used to it.
If you consider left clicking your mouse and hitting Keys 1-8 then I guess its unique I find it rather insulting to ones intelligence. Fact to you really don't have to aim just click and whack or shoot or cast unique?? And no not use to wow approach just being honest that their combat mechanics aren't there. EQ combat mechanics are so much better and I could go on about comparing it to other mmo's
So if this is an insult to your intelligence what would you call the mmo standard of clicking 1-8 minus the aiming, clicking your mouse, or dodging?
Graphics look fine to me. It seems to be the gameplay, general design and particularly the combat, that the previewers dislike.
Plays like Elder Scrolls to me. Maybe to someone that only plays MMO's and never played a ES game then they might find it odd, but plays exact for moi.
Yes plays like Skyrim but other than that the overall gameplay has nothing to do with ESO games. GW2 had more open world gameplay than this which is surprising because ESO games were never about being rail roaded from one quest hub to another.
"The problem is that the hardcore folks always want the same thing: 'We want exactly what you gave us before, but it has to be completely different.' -Jesse Schell
"Online gamers are the most ludicrously entitled beings since Caligula made his horse a senator, and at least the horse never said anything stupid." -Luke McKinney
- skill and attribute assignment: lots of customization; I hope you can reset your points an don't have to reroll!
- exploration
I didn't like
- the weird instancing inside buildings and such: you end up with 5 people running around inside with you, couldn't they have made these single player instances? This also wrecks fights in there, because mobs don't scale (or scale enough?). Outside you occasionally fight stuff with a person or 2 helping, inside you have 5 guys beating on the mob.
- combat: it reminds me very much of Diablo 2, including the shooting pains in my hand and wrist. I also didn't come across a single challenging fight, see my complaint about the instancing. I think the only time I died was when I jumped off a cliff? Hitting things was also a bit quirky at times, sometimes my daggers hit just fine, other times, they just went swoosh for no obvious reason
Stuff that was down the middle
- graphics: not super appealing to me, but they looked good
- questing: was ok. Some of the usual nonsense of backtracking, some repetitive quests (3x I did a "find 3 guys and do X to them"), but at least not every 2nd quest was "kill 10 rats"
And people wonder why the company didn't want to lift the NDA, lol. It should have been lifted for this stress test. Not lifting it gave the people that hate it free reign, they don't care about it anymore, and ones that do, won't really share.
That's Zeni's bad. There has been so many breaks of the NDA on this site since Friday, this forum should be locked until release or NDA removal. It seems like the mods have all but given up. It's akin to picking on a defenseless person.
I think the NDA is pretty much lifted at this point. They gave that Angry Joe clown permission to review and show beta footage this weekend, and that dude trashed the game after only a few levels. He is no different than the folks on this forum talking about it, as far as I'm concerned.
I'm no fanboy of the game whatsoever. I've just gotten into beta and haven't played much at all.
People saying the graphics are horrible are trolls. The graphics may not be Star Citizen level, but they are quite good.
People complaining about 'floaty' combat please remember that GW2, SWTOR, etc. all were the exact same. They were all fine tuned in short order. I don't see that as being an issue.
I am concerned that the game will become repetitious, making leveling and endgame a grind. 'Floaty' combat can be fixed, feeling like a grind would be substantially harder to correct.
Comments
Technically you should be banned from these forums, because I was banned a few days ago for saying I was in the beta and nothing else.
I wonder why they left your post alone and had mine locked?
Want to see the exact email?
Dear coventryhagdog,
You have been issued a temporary ban by one of our moderators.
Category: NDA Violation
Span: 02/05/2014 - 02/07/2014 23:59:59 [3 days]
Reason: MMORPG.com does not permit users to post information on games still under an NDA. For more information about your specific game's NDA, please visit their official website.
This temporary ban was generated from the following post on our discussion forum:
Thread: Yet another beta weekend under NDA...
Below is the content of the post:
------------------------------
Joke's on you, because I've been in quite a few beta sessions already.
Troll harder, you can do it. I have faith in you.
_________________________________________________
Basically, this website violates FTC regulations about online disclosure.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-57604148-93/companies-to-pay-$350000-fine-over-fake-online-reviews/
You're next on the line.
I do not agree with the OP at all about what they've gotten right.
However, I will agree with the thread's title. The game does get a bit better as you get further in it, because certain mechanics open up and PvP becomes available.
Feel free to use my referral link for SW:TOR if you want to test out the game. You'll get some special unlocks!
If you consider left clicking your mouse and hitting Keys 1-8 then I guess its unique I find it rather insulting to ones intelligence. Fact to you really don't have to aim just click and whack or shoot or cast unique?? And no not use to wow approach just being honest that their combat mechanics aren't there. EQ combat mechanics are so much better and I could go on about comparing it to other mmo's
I won't be buying the game.
The majority of naysayers have one thing in common: Combat is horrible. Combat is the core of any MMO, and it definitely seems like an acquired taste with this game. One that I could not acquire no matter how hard I try and how long I play. From the looks of it, it looks too slow, clunky and unresponsive.
In any case, I won't be spending my money on this one. It doesn't seem like its for me, even though Im a big fan of TES. I simply dont think elder scrolls can exist in an MMO world. Good luck to you all that wish to play it. I hope you aren't being naive with rose colored glasses with this one.
I'll wait for wildstar. Combat looks 100x better.
And people wonder why the company didn't want to lift the NDA, lol. It should have been lifted for this stress test. Not lifting it gave the people that hate it free reign, they don't care about it anymore, and ones that do, won't really share.
That's Zeni's bad. There has been so many breaks of the NDA on this site since Friday, this forum should be locked until release or NDA removal. It seems like the mods have all but given up. It's akin to picking on a defenseless person.
Plays like Elder Scrolls to me. Maybe to someone that only plays MMO's and never played a ES game then they might find it odd, but plays exact for moi.
I have not played TESO, only watching the reviews. I still remain curious about this combat system. I was able to adapt to GW2 combat. So I know there are other methods of combat that can work. However, The moment you said, WoW style combat that leads to facerolling, you opinion is lost. While I can say there are other games that have taken the traditional MMO combat system to new lows, WoW isn't one of them. I can tell you that if you entered a raid, and decided to "faceroll derp" your way through combat, you'd be kicked (legitimately) for sucking bad. There are reasons WoW's top downloaded addons are combat rotation helpers.
So if this is an insult to your intelligence what would you call the mmo standard of clicking 1-8 minus the aiming, clicking your mouse, or dodging?
Yes plays like Skyrim but other than that the overall gameplay has nothing to do with ESO games. GW2 had more open world gameplay than this which is surprising because ESO games were never about being rail roaded from one quest hub to another.
"The problem is that the hardcore folks always want the same thing: 'We want exactly what you gave us before, but it has to be completely different.'
-Jesse Schell
"Online gamers are the most ludicrously entitled beings since Caligula made his horse a senator, and at least the horse never said anything stupid."
-Luke McKinney
I played about 8hrs this beta weekend.
I liked
- crafting
- mini games
- skill and attribute assignment: lots of customization; I hope you can reset your points an don't have to reroll!
- exploration
I didn't like
- the weird instancing inside buildings and such: you end up with 5 people running around inside with you, couldn't they have made these single player instances? This also wrecks fights in there, because mobs don't scale (or scale enough?). Outside you occasionally fight stuff with a person or 2 helping, inside you have 5 guys beating on the mob.
- combat: it reminds me very much of Diablo 2, including the shooting pains in my hand and wrist. I also didn't come across a single challenging fight, see my complaint about the instancing. I think the only time I died was when I jumped off a cliff? Hitting things was also a bit quirky at times, sometimes my daggers hit just fine, other times, they just went swoosh for no obvious reason
Stuff that was down the middle
- graphics: not super appealing to me, but they looked good
- questing: was ok. Some of the usual nonsense of backtracking, some repetitive quests (3x I did a "find 3 guys and do X to them"), but at least not every 2nd quest was "kill 10 rats"
I think the NDA is pretty much lifted at this point. They gave that Angry Joe clown permission to review and show beta footage this weekend, and that dude trashed the game after only a few levels. He is no different than the folks on this forum talking about it, as far as I'm concerned.
Disclaimer:
I'm no fanboy of the game whatsoever. I've just gotten into beta and haven't played much at all.
People saying the graphics are horrible are trolls. The graphics may not be Star Citizen level, but they are quite good.
People complaining about 'floaty' combat please remember that GW2, SWTOR, etc. all were the exact same. They were all fine tuned in short order. I don't see that as being an issue.
I am concerned that the game will become repetitious, making leveling and endgame a grind. 'Floaty' combat can be fixed, feeling like a grind would be substantially harder to correct.
Just my 2 copper.