The one thing I find interesting is how multiple reviewers have slighted the introductory islands.
These isolated areas serve as a landing for the main story line for your faction. Yes, they are slower paced and you are required to complete them (Unlike TES games), but they do serve a purpose. The story, the lore served in these areas has a wider impact, and some critical choices are made that affect other quests and stories going forward. These are critical to a good TES STORY.
The slower pace will definitely put off the MMO crowd, because it seems a vast majority of the reviewers aren't really in it for the lore and story - They just want to run from A to B as quickly as possible and complain there is too little content (Looking at you, AngryJoe.. Who I am a fan of, by the way) in between.
The lack of freedom to just go anywhere you want puts off the TES fans, because it's too linear.. Well how else do you purporse they tell a story and base future quests you encounter if you never make earlier choices? At least well? Sure, if I skipped saving city A or fishing vilage B, you could script out something for someone who has done neither, but then there would never appear to be any appearance of depth to your choices.
You just can't please some people, I guess. I took the slower approach, read the dialog, read the books, paid attention to the story.. And I found it very worthwhile.
But like you said most mmo players don't care about story. Its all about kill and level up for them. And where true Tes games are about lore a mmo version is really a bad idea. I will bet down the road this will end up another generic mmo. It will sell like all AAA titles do but later when players free month is up. I can't wait to see what happens.
l been playing since UO, then EQ, SWG, and so on. GW2, SWTOR and a few others bored me after a while and never played them again, no reason to. Now when l played TESO, l was hey finally a game that l don't feel rushed to level, but l want to check everything out that it has to offer. l don't care what level l am or what anybody is either. l order the CE because l plan on playing it for a while instead of jumping from game to game.
No matter the pace of the leveling is. What will make the success (in time) of a game is the ability to keep a player on the game. To attract players in the first time is another story to my point of view (for that I see how deep the game is, like crafting, PvP, story etc).
And how to do that ? By creating a world where it's fun to move and combat. Most of the time, you're walking, running, moving around. If you can't make that attractive to the players, they will be bored in no time. For that ESO is ok, there are mounts, fast running and shrines.
For the combats. It must be dynamic, with a lot of movements and no static (or few) moments as I can see in most of the MMORPG (WoW, Rift...). And for that area of the game ESO is in between the good and bad.
The FPS mode is fun to play, but you can't see that much of the combat. In 3rd person mode, the game can be boring to my point of view. Maybe by the lack of usable skills at low levels but also (and it's the important part) by the lack of dynamics during fights. I'm not saying that the game is completely boring, it's clearly a good game, but the fights needs a hint of extra speed to be as fun as possible.
So I wouldn't say that leveling pace is a good or a bad thing in ESO, but I'm really worried how the game will stand after few weeks / months because of the fights system.
Originally posted by HATUEY A question for you guys. Has anybody tried TESO on a mac?
Have a guildie who is a die-hard Mac user. He played the beta on both PC and Mac. He only played on a laptop mac when at work and PC at home and said he saw no real discernable differences and that it ran fine on the mac. In fact, he's going to be playing TESO exclusively on his MacBook Pro...
Really ask people what the 'goal' is and they really cant come up with one. Only 'viable' goal is "to be emperor" which now that we know a little more about the mechanics of PvP wont be nearly as difficult as people thought it would be.
That's because of that kind of thinking that games are becoming easier and easier. There is a lot of stuff to do in MMORPG and ESO. People are not holding your hands and saying "you have to do this, and this", so you're saying that there is no goal. That's stupid. Now Developpers are making cursors and indications to complete a quest, because people are too lazy to think themselves.
I liked Morrowind because you had to read the whole damn quest, explore, talk to people. With Oblivion and Skyrim, it was too easy to do a quest, you didn't have to read the quest to finish it. That's sad tbh.
This is a really nice write up!! I had only tested some two hours of beta and my buddy and I were solely testing skills and how they worked (and if they worked) so I had not much time to focus on what the write up was about. Alas, it seems that we look for similar aspects in our MMORPG's and so I can only be completely excited now. The one question remains and that is for which system? Lurve my PC but ps4 is coming to me soon and I absolutely love the idea of a true mmorpg on the console with the community and such. Cheers!
Unless the game offers something radically new where the players has to learn completely new mechanics of some sort I don't think it makes any kind of sense to add any delaying elements to the game. In a game like ESO where you need to get to max level to do relevant PvP and the developers have effectively blocked off any advancement path outside of the solo-player experience, you need to allow players a way to quickly navigate through the tired old themepark quest format. Especially for character #2, #3 and so on.
Most of the people I know play MMOs for the possibility to play with other people (either in raid/dungeon environments for the PvE or in various forms of preferably OW PvP environments) and the solo "You are the the Hero of All Time" quest string is just in the way of that. More so in ESO where the phasing actually acts as a further barrier for co-operative play. In my view the only party that benefits from a forced slow pace is the publishers as they will have a mechanic that encourages keeping a subscription active.
I have to agree with the article here.. I even hope they slow down leveling a little more before launch. They can always make it easier, but never make it take longer.
SWTOR was too fast. We were skipping planets and content because we out leveled it. I still think ESO is just a little too fast. If they reduce xp across the board by 5% to 10% before launch it will be golden.
This is a journey and I'm looking forward to it. The destination...we'll see how that is when we get there. Hoping that's months away.
Originally posted by Vivasvan There is no raiding. There is something called adventure zones which is not RAIDING.
To the person who played EQ and loved it's slower levelling.... Yes I too loved the levelling in EQ but you had an endgame in EQ which still exists now to this day.
To the person who said raiding is done by a small portion of the community... Ehm so wow got to 12milliom due to raiding and EQ still exists due to raiding.
That is the excuse lotro used to justify f2p and no raids and that game is now a empty place of nostalgia.
You play in a game in an MMO without raiding the you will play in a game that is dead as you level up.
Pay your money on that not my problem
You really have no idea what you're talking about. Raiders in WoW constitute about 5-10% of their audience. Do some looking around and you'll find the stats. The majority of WoW, and most MMO players are *GASP* Casuals. Do you REALLY think that there were even close to 12 million people raiding in WoW?
Casuals, whether the raiding crowd likes it or not, make up the majority of game players across almost all games....
Originally posted by Vivasvan There is no raiding. There is something called adventure zones which is not RAIDING.
To the person who played EQ and loved it's slower levelling.... Yes I too loved the levelling in EQ but you had an endgame in EQ which still exists now to this day.
To the person who said raiding is done by a small portion of the community... Ehm so wow got to 12milliom due to raiding and EQ still exists due to raiding.
That is the excuse lotro used to justify f2p and no raids and that game is now a empty place of nostalgia.
You play in a game in an MMO without raiding the you will play in a game that is dead as you level up.
Pay your money on that not my problem
You really have no idea what you're talking about. Raiders in WoW constitute about 5-10% of their audience. Do some looking around and you'll find the stats. The majority of WoW, and most MMO players are *GASP* Casuals. Do you REALLY think that there were even close to 12 million people raiding in WoW?
Casuals, whether the raiding crowd likes it or not, make up the majority of game players across almost all games....
The problem is that how people define "casual" and what people constitute as being a raider is.
The people throwing around the large percentages are including anybody who has ever stepped foot in a raid. In vanilla that would have made me a raider. I wasn't by any stretch. I sometimes filled in when the guild was running something they needed somebody and I was on. The numbers are inflated. If you were able to cut down those numbers to just people who A) Enjoy raiding, Raid in an organized group, and C) Raid on a regular schedule, you would be looking at much much much smaller numbers.
Some people would like to include LFR as raiding. It really isn't. While it is a large group activity, it isn't the same activity people have been doing since the inception of MMORPGs and refer to as raiding. It doesn't require teamwork, dedication, committing to a schedule or really any kind of commitment at all, and it also doesn't require any preparation. Raiding required all of these things and this is why it had the best rewards. It is why it was an exclusive activity.
I consider myself a casual player. I might raid once in a while but not regularly. I like making sure my gear is up to speed, and I do what I can to get it there. I don't want to hold a group back when I join so I make sure I know what I am doing, and while I don't need to be #1 on the meters I don't ever want to be near the bottom. What makes me casual is that I play on my schedule, I do the activities I enjoy, and real life takes priority. All of this said, end game is important to me. I don't care about raiding that much personally, but I need to have a reason to log on, stuff to do that I enjoy, and a sense that I accomplished something in my time played. From what I have heard is once I have finished leveling in ESO there isn't much to keep me logging on. If it was a B2P game, that would be OK as I could just pick it up when I felt like it, but as a subscription game I am not going to pay for a game that cannot keep me engaged and logging on at end game.
Comments
But like you said most mmo players don't care about story. Its all about kill and level up for them. And where true Tes games are about lore a mmo version is really a bad idea. I will bet down the road this will end up another generic mmo. It will sell like all AAA titles do but later when players free month is up. I can't wait to see what happens.
No matter the pace of the leveling is. What will make the success (in time) of a game is the ability to keep a player on the game. To attract players in the first time is another story to my point of view (for that I see how deep the game is, like crafting, PvP, story etc).
And how to do that ? By creating a world where it's fun to move and combat. Most of the time, you're walking, running, moving around. If you can't make that attractive to the players, they will be bored in no time. For that ESO is ok, there are mounts, fast running and shrines.
For the combats. It must be dynamic, with a lot of movements and no static (or few) moments as I can see in most of the MMORPG (WoW, Rift...). And for that area of the game ESO is in between the good and bad.
The FPS mode is fun to play, but you can't see that much of the combat. In 3rd person mode, the game can be boring to my point of view. Maybe by the lack of usable skills at low levels but also (and it's the important part) by the lack of dynamics during fights. I'm not saying that the game is completely boring, it's clearly a good game, but the fights needs a hint of extra speed to be as fun as possible.
So I wouldn't say that leveling pace is a good or a bad thing in ESO, but I'm really worried how the game will stand after few weeks / months because of the fights system.
Have a guildie who is a die-hard Mac user. He played the beta on both PC and Mac. He only played on a laptop mac when at work and PC at home and said he saw no real discernable differences and that it ran fine on the mac. In fact, he's going to be playing TESO exclusively on his MacBook Pro...
That's because of that kind of thinking that games are becoming easier and easier. There is a lot of stuff to do in MMORPG and ESO. People are not holding your hands and saying "you have to do this, and this", so you're saying that there is no goal. That's stupid. Now Developpers are making cursors and indications to complete a quest, because people are too lazy to think themselves.
I liked Morrowind because you had to read the whole damn quest, explore, talk to people. With Oblivion and Skyrim, it was too easy to do a quest, you didn't have to read the quest to finish it. That's sad tbh.
Just make your own goal and go for it.
Unless the game offers something radically new where the players has to learn completely new mechanics of some sort I don't think it makes any kind of sense to add any delaying elements to the game. In a game like ESO where you need to get to max level to do relevant PvP and the developers have effectively blocked off any advancement path outside of the solo-player experience, you need to allow players a way to quickly navigate through the tired old themepark quest format. Especially for character #2, #3 and so on.
Most of the people I know play MMOs for the possibility to play with other people (either in raid/dungeon environments for the PvE or in various forms of preferably OW PvP environments) and the solo "You are the the Hero of All Time" quest string is just in the way of that. More so in ESO where the phasing actually acts as a further barrier for co-operative play. In my view the only party that benefits from a forced slow pace is the publishers as they will have a mechanic that encourages keeping a subscription active.
I have to agree with the article here.. I even hope they slow down leveling a little more before launch. They can always make it easier, but never make it take longer.
SWTOR was too fast. We were skipping planets and content because we out leveled it. I still think ESO is just a little too fast. If they reduce xp across the board by 5% to 10% before launch it will be golden.
This is a journey and I'm looking forward to it. The destination...we'll see how that is when we get there. Hoping that's months away.
You really have no idea what you're talking about. Raiders in WoW constitute about 5-10% of their audience. Do some looking around and you'll find the stats. The majority of WoW, and most MMO players are *GASP* Casuals. Do you REALLY think that there were even close to 12 million people raiding in WoW?
Casuals, whether the raiding crowd likes it or not, make up the majority of game players across almost all games....
The problem is that how people define "casual" and what people constitute as being a raider is.
The people throwing around the large percentages are including anybody who has ever stepped foot in a raid. In vanilla that would have made me a raider. I wasn't by any stretch. I sometimes filled in when the guild was running something they needed somebody and I was on. The numbers are inflated. If you were able to cut down those numbers to just people who A) Enjoy raiding,
Raid in an organized group, and C) Raid on a regular schedule, you would be looking at much much much smaller numbers.
Some people would like to include LFR as raiding. It really isn't. While it is a large group activity, it isn't the same activity people have been doing since the inception of MMORPGs and refer to as raiding. It doesn't require teamwork, dedication, committing to a schedule or really any kind of commitment at all, and it also doesn't require any preparation. Raiding required all of these things and this is why it had the best rewards. It is why it was an exclusive activity.
I consider myself a casual player. I might raid once in a while but not regularly. I like making sure my gear is up to speed, and I do what I can to get it there. I don't want to hold a group back when I join so I make sure I know what I am doing, and while I don't need to be #1 on the meters I don't ever want to be near the bottom. What makes me casual is that I play on my schedule, I do the activities I enjoy, and real life takes priority. All of this said, end game is important to me. I don't care about raiding that much personally, but I need to have a reason to log on, stuff to do that I enjoy, and a sense that I accomplished something in my time played. From what I have heard is once I have finished leveling in ESO there isn't much to keep me logging on. If it was a B2P game, that would be OK as I could just pick it up when I felt like it, but as a subscription game I am not going to pay for a game that cannot keep me engaged and logging on at end game.