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[Interview] Elder Scrolls Online: Creative Director Paul Sage on Launch, Craglorn, and the Future
SBFord
Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
The Elder Scrolls Online officially launched only a month ago but it has already become one of the most talked about – and possible divisive -- titles of the year. We sat down with Paul Sage, Zenimax’s Creative Director for The Elder Scrolls Online, to talk about how the first month of the game has gone from their perspective, what players can expect from the new Craglorn update, and where the developers hope to take the game in the future.
You can hear the full audio of Jessica Cook's and Chris Coke's interview on the Game On Podcast.
Check out Jessica Cook's write up, Elder Scrolls Online: Creative Director Paul Sage on Launch, Craglorn, and the Future.
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Comments
Lots of positive spin from Mr Sage, sidestepping the big issues of the many bugs people are experiencing (some which impede progress), the combat and chat latency, the queues for Cyrodill preventing people from PVPing at all. New content is great, but these are some of ESO's biggest issues right now.
Oh and time trials for PVE content? Way to promote rushed exploitative play over skill and knowledge.
I thought the launch was quite smooth for most people, no queues, ok stability, etc. Most of the whining was and has been about bugs and glitches related, not launch related.
Bugs and glitches at launch...not launch related? Server stability complaints, not launch related?
great interview.
insightful to see where the game is heading in the next months to come, unfortunately iam not into the veteran points system, nor the 'endgame' pvp content- i would of prefered a more scalable exploration system for the new game content.
but i own the game already and enjoy the ESO world. and like GW2, i will see what the future will hold for ESO for my play style....
i hope they release more exploration zones with SNOW!!! all this desert and fire in all the zones gets redundant. and for all to enjoy not just veterans.
Well, it is splitting hairs for sure. But I was discussing this with my friends the other day and we agreed that ESO had a better launch than some others - the game most referred to in comparison was FF XIV. To define what we meant we referred to "launch" as such things as being able to log in, even at prime time, server uptime and overall stability. In these areas ESO scores quite well for a brand new MMO as we have all been able to get in to the game without queues, there has not been a lot of server downtime for unexpected maintenance, and none of us have experienced random disconnects.
Not say there aren't a hell of a lot of other problems though
That was quite funny indeed. It has arguably been the roughest launch in recent times, with issues still persisting for EU players as they refuse to move the EU server to, you know, the EU. It has been a quit point for many players I know, as being killed because of slow server response times is unacceptable in this day and age, especially when you're supposed to pay a subscription for it (news flash, many people won't).
But it's good to hear they got their priorities set right, I can't wait for new voice overs... To be honest, this interview just about made me decide to not resubscribe, if it wasn't for the fact some of my clan members want to hold out for 1.1 before their final verdict. I already know the outcome of that verdict, seeing as most of them stopped playing around VR1-5, and Craglorn being unplayable until VR9 because of the VR-exp penalty still being in place for killing things more than two levels above yours.
I admit, the posts about servers going down frequently for whatever reasons, have diminished quite a bit since weeks 1-2.
"It may have all seemed pretty smooth to players, but there was a lot of work behind the scenes!"
Stages of a new mmo: 1) It's just beta. It still has plenty of time before release. 2) It just launched. Give it time. WoW wasn't built in a day. 3) We don't need you anyway. 4) F2P announced. 5)Huge influx of players. 6) Look how much has changed. 7) Cash shop is the only thing developed lately. 8) It has been a long journey and we thank everyone who was part of it. Shutting down in 3 months. (Courtesy of Robokapp.)
No, bugs and glitches at launch are not launch related issues, they are gameplay related issues regardless if they happen day one or day hundred. If there were server stability issues that prevents you from playing or having an acceptable gaming experience, because of the heavy load at launch, sure that is a launch issue.
I was responding based on some threads I skimmed through at launch, since I did not play my self at launch, but started two weeks later in hopes to skip possible launch issues, and those threads were most about; game not skyrim, bugs and glitches, bots and cheaters, and endless loading screen.
Personally I cant remember many if any at all whining that they are in queue, unable to log in, servers down, servers crashing, or other launch related issues. I'm sure there were those too because there had to be, but not as a common theme.
we shall have to agree to disagree on what constitutes a launch related issue then my friend
one thing i do like, in a mmo generated market where the women characters appear to have chain mail bikini's... i have to say elder scrolls got the female armour looking about right.
just enought to distinguish it from the men's without showing more skin which wouldn't block anything
"nothing actually matters, we're just slightly evolved monkeys clinging to a dying piece of rock hurtling through space waiting for our eventual death." - Frankie Boyle, Mock The Week
I simply just take an issue as launch related if the launch it self actually has something to do with the existence of the issue, bugs and glitches are not generated by the launch, they are in the code already and the launch does not alter the code in any way.
All in all it was a smooth launch for me personally, I have only ran into a few bugs and none of them were with the main quest or any type of progression quests. The servers have lagged from time to time, but it usually clears up after a few minutes from my experience.
Really looking forward to Craglorn and future content updates, they have been doing a ton of work and it's good to see it paying off in game. Good luck in Tamriel everyone!
Currently Playing: ESO and FFXIV
Have played: You name it
If you mention rose tinted glasses, you better be referring to Mitch Hedberg.
Again, speaking for my self but, launch was smooth. I'm at 60 hours played at this point and I have disconnected less than 10 times.
But I'm a fanboi/white knight/lrn2play REAL games noob person I guess
Least that is what happens when you defend something from the internet elites.
Its what fixing those bugs and glitches(and economy wrecking dupes and exploits) lead to.
Why do you think they gave away 5 free days?
Launch was about as smooth as sand paper.
It was actually one of the smoothest ***MMO*** launches ever. Even with its problems.
I have to agree with this for the most part, WoW had way more down time when it released, I ended up getting nearly a free month of play time because of all the down time. I guess people don't remember that. What about FFXIV relaunch with the thousand person 5 hour queues to get on the same server as their friends? That seems far worse than them taking the servers down a couple of times to address a game breaking bug or two.
I just don't get it, maybe it's a lot of people who only played single player ES games experiencing an MMO for the first time? This was actually a very smooth launch compared to most titles I have launched with!
Currently Playing: ESO and FFXIV
Have played: You name it
If you mention rose tinted glasses, you better be referring to Mitch Hedberg.
Yet still smoother than most MMOs. Not that I'm condoning the problems, but it's pretty much industry standard at this point, and the fact that most people were even able to log in means ESO did a better job than 90% of MMOs out there. The only exceptions are MMOs that all of their game-breaking bugs sorted out over in Korea/EU first before being published over here in the US (I expect ArcheAge to have a very smooth release assuming they don't cheap out on the servers, thanks to this.)
the launch was very smooth compared to other ones indeed...more problems arose later... but still i think it is wihin to be expected ranges
maybe stop using those wired-cans as internet connection and buy a real one?
"believe me, mike.. i calculated the odds of this working against the odds that i was doing something incredibly stupid and i did it anyway!"