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People say " an MMORPG, ESO was not able to be 'Skyrim online". But why couldnt it?
MMOExposed
Member RarePosts: 7,400
People say " an MMORPG, ESO was not able to be 'Skyrim online". But why couldnt it?
Philosophy of MMO Game Design
Comments
A MMO should be just a would changing on it's own regardless of the players in it. Players should only be able to make small changes as they explore and interact. A themepark doesn't let you make changes at all. It is really just a personal story based on the way you quest. Others can be there with you. But the story is for only one player. Even in group dungeons and raids. Grouping is irrelavent to the story. It is just a way to enteract and be social.
A sandbox isn't really that different either. It allows for freedom and stories based on player imagination and partisipation. But it is still only a story for the player behind the keyboard. Nothing really changes at all in the world.
I personally like ESO. I am ok with the questing, VR leveling and the fun I continue to have in game. But I went in expecting a solo game with organic, non-social grouping. With ES like questing with a lot of other players all doing the same thing. A hybrid between the ES SPGs and current MMOs. If you expect anything else, you will be disapointed.
How many people long for that "past, simpler, and better world," I wonder, without ever recognizing the truth that perhaps it was they who were simpler and better, and not the world about them?
R.A.Salvatore
It is after all, far too late to change things at this juncture, and dwelling on what might have been helps nobody
ESO is already massively instanced and phased so more would only be even worse, given the current grouping issues, which seem to be a corollary rather than a glitch.
I am personally offended that you compare ESO to DAoC even remotely.
Grouping in ESO can be a pain due to the main story phasing. However, if the phasing was implemented in a way to follow players play styles, what they do in the 'world' I think it would be great. I'd be grouping with players that play the same way I do.
Yesterday, at the Northern coasts of Skyrim, I was standing in front of a cave which, as I had found out earlier, was a bandit hideout. On my journey to this cave I had to fight some wolves and had contracted rocky joints. I was tired and cold, so I decided to make a fire and put up a tent to rest for a while. The next morning, after stilling my thirst and hunger, I did not really feel well rested. Yet, I decided to enter the cave quickly and dispatch the bandits. I could cure myself afterwards.
I did not realize, though, that my rocky joints had progressed, and after a while I contracted another disease, it might have been brain rot. Still, how hard can a couple of bandits in a cave really be? Unfortunately, the cave was much larger than I thought. Fighting the bandits was challenging but not too hard. Fighting my diseases was impossible. I had neither fish soup nor curing potions with me. So, in the middle of the cave, my armor bore me down as if I was carrying the mountain I was crawling through and I felt tired and exhausted again. I had to admit that I needed to cure myself first, before I could continue to fight the bandits. So, I crawled out of the cave, got on my horse, tried not to freeze to death until I made it to the first settlement with a shop and a tavern. I got rid of the diseases, ate and drank and slept in a nice warm cosy bed. Then the next day, i made it the last day for some cave dwelling bandits.
This is why ESO is not Skyrim Online. Every little action I did, I actually had to do. I had to eat and drink, otherwise I would have to suffer the consequences, I had to rest, I had to take care of the freezing temperatures outside. On top of that I had to fight my enemy. For a roleplayer, Skyrim is heaven.
That has ntohing to do with Skyrim either...it's your version of superbly altered something that was once called Skyrim.
People need to stop making generalizations based on their subjective perception, experience and wishful thinking, it makes posting on public forums moot...
There's a survival mod for Skyrim where you had to eat,drink and sleep. Another dealing with temperature needs. Your right, vanilla Skyrim didn't have those mechanics.
But it fun to butchered the guards in Riften , they will re-spawn anyway,
if it MMO then just add 'essential' to NPC with name and add bunch of nameless Riften citizens that will disappears and spawn for theft guild / black brotherhood quests .
The best answer for "why" question is , they don't make the ESO for TES fan or people who enjoy TES. They just want to use the IP like how blizzard used warcraft to create complete new game.
It just the idea don't work well as the plan.
Simple because WOW is MMO-RPG and Warcraft games is RTS so there are no compare.
WOW It more like complete new RP game used RTS IP.
But TES games are RPG and ESO is [MMO]RPG . That's why people expect ESO will like TES games with MMO element ,
It's not just guards you could kill. You could kill the majority of named NPCs, even ones with side quests and they wouldn't respawn.
If the respawn timers are like that of an MMO, say 30 seconds in some cases then it may not be a problem. I could see the players who like to kill them not liking that though.
But the thing is, Why cant all the appeals of Skyrim/TES be done for large scale gaming in a MMO?
Philosophy of MMO Game Design
The scale isn't the problem, the presence of other people in a perpetual environment is the difficulty. All it would take to ruin the game for a lot of people would be for one person to go on a NPC killing rampage in the name of what that one person considered to be fun and enjoyable. In a single player game like Skyrim, something like that is not a particular problem, because at worst, the player starts a new instance of the world with a new character. Even co-op multiplayer games can avoid most of the worst of these difficulties with few changes to the game itself, but a full MMO cannot without making significant changes to both the mechanics and the world as a whole.
The answer to your question is right there in the post you quoted.
In a single-player game, the story and the game world revolves arouind you, the only player. It means that when you kill the bandits in a cave, they stay dead. After a long time in the (Skyrim) game world, new NPC's may repopulate that cave. That gives you the feeling that you actually have an impact on the game world.
In an MMO, that cave has to almost instantly be repopulated, otherwise 10K other players will complain that there's no content. In a standard MMO, every player is the unique hero who will save the world. We all suspend our disbelief and take our turn to save the world. We can even watch the other heroes saving the world as we wait in the queue for our turn.
ZOS made a valiant attempt to change this required suspension of disbelief by actually permanently changing the world (from the perspective of the player) by using phasing. It solved one problem and created another, because grouping becomes very tricky when people exist in different "dimensions".
Skyrim allows the player to use their imagination to shape the game world and their actions. It reinforces that imagination by allowing consistent consequences. NPC's that are killed are not instantly respawned. Artifacts that are looted never respawn. A boss that is killed stays dead.
In Skyrim, everyone you see in the game world is "in character". NPC's only sprint when they need to, they don't run everywhere. There is nobody bunny-hopping around the market square while they wait for their friend to login. There is nobody spamming AOE flame attacks at the crowd around the banker NPC. There is no banker NPC.
It's not as much about "can't" but "should".
Why should ESO be Skyrim Online? No reason it should be.
Because Skyrim is a hugely popular game and making an online version is likely to capture some of that success.
Developers needed an excuse to justify making the game a standard theme park.
Apparently a lot of gamers around here latched onto it.
Then you would need to release ESO on consoles since that is where vast majority(+85%) of the Skyrim sales went towards.
Considering they were releasing on PC, PC MMO audience is far more closer.
ESO will be released on consoles.
"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
Maybe because "People" have no clue about the difference between a MMORPG and a Singleplayer game in how they are and can be developed?