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Bethesda Announces Elder Scrolls MMO

Posted by timothy on from the hey-zonk dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Today Bethesda announced that their popular Elder Scrolls series of video games will be getting its own MMORPG. It's planned for 2013, and will be available for PCs and Macs. 'Players will discover an entirely new chapter of Elder Scrolls history in this ambitious world, set a millennium before the events of Skyrim as the daedric prince Molag Bal tries to pull all of Tamriel into his demonic realm. "It will be extremely rewarding finally to unveil what we have been developing the last several years," said game director and MMO veteran Matt Firor, whose previous work includes Mythic's well-received Dark Age of Camelot. "The entire team is committed to creating the best MMO ever made – and one that is worthy of The Elder Scrolls franchise."'

50 of 295 comments (clear)

  1. Just hope... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    that an arrow to the knee doesn't kill this.

    1. Re:Just hope... by broggyr · · Score: 2

      Funny, I came here to count the 'Arrow In The Knee' references ^^

      --
      Irony? Yea, it's like goldy and bronzy, only it's made of iron!
    2. Re:Just hope... by jo_ham · · Score: 5, Funny

      I was going to come here to count the "arrow to the knee" references, but then I took an arrow to the knee.

    3. Re:Just hope... by overlordofmu · · Score: 2

      Arrow IN the knee, not "to the knee". Details, people, DETAILS!

    4. Re:Just hope... by jo_ham · · Score: 5, Funny

      I tried to get the quote right, but then I took an arrow in the knee.

    5. Re:Just hope... by Quiet_Desperation · · Score: 4, Funny

      Yeah well I (woooosh! *THUNK) OW! Shit, that fucking hurts! This isn't funny!

    6. Re:Just hope... by synaptik · · Score: 4, Funny

      I used to make arrow-to-the-knee jokes, and then I took a vagina to the penis.

      --
      HSJ$$*&#^!#+++ATH0
      NO CARRIER
    7. Re:Just hope... by shutdown+-p+now · · Score: 2

      I hope it does. I do not want to see "instances" of Red Mountain where parties of 40 players, all named something like "SuPeRW1Z4RD!" raid Dagoth Ur while typing things like "BUFF NOW U FAG".

  2. As long as it has pandas! by ZaDeaux · · Score: 2

    It will only be widely accepted if it includes pandas!

  3. YES! and OMG NUUUUU by sanosuke001 · · Score: 2

    ffs bethesda, i don't have time for this...

    --
    -SaNo
    1. Re:YES! and OMG NUUUUU by Baloroth · · Score: 2

      Read TFA: despite the /. headline, Bethesda isn't developing this game: Zenimax Online Studios (a different subsidiary of Zenimax from Bethesda) is. Bethesda may be publishing it (I think), but not developing it (or at least not the primary devs).

      --
      "None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license." --John Milton
    2. Re:YES! and OMG NUUUUU by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 2

      I was coming to say a similar thing: it seems like Bethesda is downright allergic to game balance.

      In addition to the Morrowind case you mention, there was the issue in Oblivion where it was quite easy to 'level yourself out of' practically the entire world if you focused on the wrong skills, or didn't tune your skill increases correctly. In Skyrim, it's harder to totally nuke yourself; but varying techniques for potion and enchantment cycling are back with a vengeance.

      They also have an aversion to games that aren't as buggy as they are massively ambitious. If you give them a while to settle down, and install some of the fan patches, they are usually worth the price that you'll pay by the time that they've settled down; but the mixture of bugs, glaringly superior and inferior gameplay strategies, and wildly overpowered skill exploits is the sort of thing that the griefers will eat for breakfast outside of single player...

    3. Re:YES! and OMG NUUUUU by Sir_Sri · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Sure they are unbalanced, but that's part of the fun, it's a single player game, so you let people do crazy things if they want. It doesn't hurt anyone else.

      In an MMO though you have to do a very tricky economic dance, and shit has to work. I think bethesda is stepping into the wrong market here, there are other people who are very very good at making MMO's and it's a very saturated market. I can play one MMO, and I can play single player games. But I can't play two MMO's, and what is Elder Scrolls online going to bring to the table? Everyone says their game is going to be the greatest, but EA spent what, 300 million dollars on SWTOR and it's not that good. Trying to enter that market and be competitive is enormously expensive and risky, and frankly not worth it. Not when you can make elder scrolls 6 by putting a turd in a box and make 100 million dollars on it. Trying to go after Blizzard, who have WoW and unannounced 'titan' and Diablo 3, and SWTOR, and Guild Wars 2 and all of the other MMO's out there is probably going to lose the fight for available player time. Not a good move on their part.

    4. Re:YES! and OMG NUUUUU by nedlohs · · Score: 2

      Obviously if you stay at level 1 you won't hit a problem caused by levelling up. Are you really stupid enough to think that you would?

      And I don't think alchemy was a problem in Oblivion either, they removed the morrowind sillyness.

    5. Re:YES! and OMG NUUUUU by digitig · · Score: 2

      The point was if you can beat the entire game plus one of the guild quest lines with a level 1 character with NO RECORDED KILLS even the most absurdly borked up character should still be viable even with all the so-called leveling issues.

      No, those levelling issues do catch you out. I levelled my character up about eight levels in one go and discovered that I could barely go outside a town without getting hacked to a pulp. The enemies all levelled up attributes, weapons and armour. I had only levelled up attributes. That meant that the enemies could rip through my armour like tinfoil whilst I was trying to beat them off with little more than a rolled-up newspaper. Morrowind handled this much, much better. Hardly any of the monsters levelled up, but some locations were more dangerous than others. You stayed in places where you had a chance of surviving, and as you levelled up you could go to more places. In other words, Morrowind rewarded you for levelling up; Oblivion punishes you.

      --
      Quidnam Latine loqui modo coepi?
    6. Re:YES! and OMG NUUUUU by shutdown+-p+now · · Score: 2

      Normally you'd want to buy a game and slowly progress into being all badass as the story unravels. The problem with TES games is that there are obvious exploit-ish (but not really - it's just badly thought out game mechanics) ways to grind your skills sky high, which people get sucked into since getting better skills/equipment is half of the lure of the traditional single-player CRPG.

      It's basically like going to a fine Italian restaurant, where, as soon as you sit down, along with the menu, they bring you a Quarter Pounder for free. You can ignore it and go to the menu, knowing that it'll take them half an hour to cook the stuff that you want... or you can just munch at the burger right there and then. If you're hungry enough, it can be a tough choice.

  4. Interesting and mixed feelings by santax · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I always found it a shame that such a rich world as the elder scrolls has, was only single player. It seemed to be missing that true interaction at times, while it's still and incredible world. I would applaud this, but I think we all know this will be a paid monthly subscription and they will find a way for micro-transactions. Personally I feel that is a shame for such a rich world.

    1. Re:Interesting and mixed feelings by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      > I always found it a shame that such a rich world as the elder scrolls has, was only single player.

      I've often felt the same. Sometimes standing on a hill looking out over the country side the world felt very empty.

      What I've always felt would have been a killer feature for TES, is a stand alone server and development kit along the lines of the original NeverWinter Nights. Even just to be able to host the main campaign and play through it with small group of friends would be an infinitely better experience than *another* grinding MMO.

    2. Re:Interesting and mixed feelings by santax · · Score: 2

      Hi, I'm a modder, your first-born, is it a she and around legal age? I''ll give you my mail, oh wait, doorbell...

  5. Urgh!!! by rodrigoandrade · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Last thing I want is an MMO in Tamriel.

    First, the MMO market is totally saturated and this game just won't get the attention it deservers from fans and the media. As a result, it'll become yet another niche MMO for a few longtime diehard fans of TES.

    No, it won't be the next WoW either. The saturation factor alone prevents ANY MMO from being the next WoW, no matter how uber awesome.

    Secondly, all TES games are inherently FREAKING HUGE!!!! Huge world to explore, hugely deep lore, lots of side-quests. In theory, this would go hand-in-hand with an MMO concept, except for all the technical limitations imposed by current network technologies.

    Case in point: SWTOR. I had EVERYTHING to be a hell of a great MMO, but due to technical limitations, it was watered down to a theme-park-ride MMO. A Star Wars game with on-rails space combat?? Only half-dozen playable races??Seriously??

    DONOTWANT TES MMO, TYVM!!

    1. Re:Urgh!!! by bodangly · · Score: 2

      SWTOR didn't suck because of any sort of technical limitations. It sucked because of a lack of creative vision. They could have made a non-linear MMO, but weren't willing to take a risk. SWTOR was just a big cash grab. Non-linear MMOs ARE on the horizon. I played the Guild Wars 2 beta last weekend and it was amazing, and definitely not a WoW clone or theme park game.

    2. Re:Urgh!!! by sandytaru · · Score: 3, Interesting

      I don't know about that. WoW is aging and players are dropping out rapidly because, well, the game is graphically dated and has been copied and improved upon a lot by other games. WoW is the king of MMOs in the same way that Budweiser is the king of beers, and now that all these fancy craft brews are becoming more widely available, people are beginning to realize what relative piss water WoW is. There will always be a core playerbase for WoW so long as the servers are online, same as Everquest and FFXI, but it's already stopped attracting new players because it's just not as shiny any more.

      --
      Occasionally living proof of the Ballmer peak.
    3. Re:Urgh!!! by Darinbob · · Score: 2

      When I first played Daggerfall my thoughts very early on were that it was really bad as a single player game but felt that it might work as a multiplayer game. This is before I had even touched an online game with many players (this was before MMOs existed, but we did have MUDs). The reasons were the huge number of random quests (just naive and stupid templates that changed names/locations/items), huge numbers of nearly identical towns (seriously what were they thinking?), ability to own a house or ship (both inconvenient to get to), etc. All the drawbacks I hated in a single player game could have worked in a persistent online game.

      Single player RPGs and MMOs are vastly different. That is what is going to hurt things I suspect. World of Warcraft worked think because Warcraft wasn't an RPG but a high level overview wargame. MMOs have players who will be logged in for 6 hours a a time alongside players who are there only 30 minutes a week, and both have to be happy. Deep story lines will annoy the typical MMO player. MMOs tend to have lots of micro-managed quests ("please cross the street to give my friend this sandwich") which would drive a single player RPG player nuts. MMOs tend to have incredibly detailed and obtuse game systems designed to keep end game players busy forever getting itemization done, whereas most single player RPGs try to make things simple so you don't need a spreadsheet. MMOs have you repeat the same content multiple times, the boss keeps coming back to life mysteriously, people keep returning hoping for a new drop, etc; you just don't see anything remotely like that in single player games.

    4. Re:Urgh!!! by Endo13 · · Score: 2

      I don't like spreadsheets and I enjoy playing Eve. Spreadsheets are only necessary if you're heavily into the industry side of things, or if you're extremely concerned about maximizing your profits from everything. If you'd rather just play and have fun, you can always just run missions or mine for money, and sell stuff for the immediate value at Jita. Sure, it may not be as much money but it works.

      --
      There is no -1 Disagree mod. Slashdot.org/faq defines mod options. USE IT.
    5. Re:Urgh!!! by flimflammer · · Score: 2

      Skyrim...linear content?

      Does not compute. The only linear content in Skyrim is the main questline (if you can mark that as a negative. Could you even have a nonlinear main story?), which can pretty much be entirely ignored, just like any other questline you might not care for.

    6. Re:Urgh!!! by lymond01 · · Score: 2

      I can only imagine he's saying that each quest is specific and most don't tie into one another. That's not true of course -- Civil War and the dragon storyline can overlap in interesting ways; the Dark Brotherhood can go a number of ways -- I wiped the DB out before I really had heard of it: I didn't participate in any DB quest except for "Destroy the Dark Brotherhood".

      So yes, the AC doesn't have a point.

  6. Re:In their language, he is "Spiderman" by GameboyRMH · · Score: 3, Funny

    Part of a DLC pack I'm sure.

    --
    "When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
  7. Not Excited by Missing.Matter · · Score: 5, Interesting

    For me, the allure of Elder Scrolls has always been the single player experience and the immersion in a different world this provides. As someone who has played many MMOs, immersion has never really been a word I'd use to describe them. From all the immature annoying players, to the terrible meta game of griding levels and petty guild politics, playing MMOs has always been a chore for me (which is I guess why I don't play them much anymore). Elder Scrolls has always been a beautiful fantasy escape, and while I know there aren't any details released about the game at this point, I can't possibly see how they can replicate that experience in an MMO.

    I mean, look at the play style that characterizes TES. Vast open environments where you can do practically anything. Now imagine this as an MMO. Imagine walking into town to find EVERYTHING had been stripped out of every building. Shopkeepers slaughtered in the streets, two or three bandits with their pack of mule characters, shipping everything off to a stash... no it wouldn't work. The only reason these sandbox games work is because you're the only one in the game causing this kind of mayhem. So I don't know what TES Online is going to look like, but I have a strong suspicion it will include almost none of the allure of a typical TES game, and will be severely crippled by its MMO status.

    1. Re:Not Excited by crazyjj · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Not to mention the fact that's it's going to be a little hard to be the Chosen One when everyone else is too.

      --
      What political party do you join when you don't like Bible-thumpers *or* hippies?
    2. Re:Not Excited by Darinbob · · Score: 4, Funny

      "There can be only Ten Thousand!"

  8. woot! Minecraft online by rfioren · · Score: 5, Funny

    I love that Notch guy. Can't wait to play Minecraft online!

  9. Will be available for PCs and Macs? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Do they mean a Windows version wrapped in Cider or a real, proper OS X version?

  10. Re:Oh Hell! by Moheeheeko · · Score: 2

    You have a year or so, stockpile resources. Ive started an Elder Scrolls Online fallout shelter.

  11. Re:Too bad by Missing.Matter · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I agree. I would love to explore the land of Tamriel with my friends. I just don't want to do it with 10,000 other people to constantly annoy me.

  12. No immersion -- No TES by Shoe+Puppet · · Score: 3, Funny

    One of the main strong points of the TES games is, in my opinion, that they allow for quite a lot of immersion. Well, about as much immersion as a fairly buggy PC game can give you. I cannot imagine that they will be able to carry that over into an MMO full of 13 year old kids called "FusDoRahPorn131888".

    --
    (+1, Disagree)
  13. ARGH! by Anachragnome · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I want to strangle some of these bean counters.

    We don't need another MMO to replicate Skyrim--We just need MULTIPLAYER.

    (and by multiplayer, I mean IP to IP connections that don't rely on your fucking servers)

  14. Re:That's great and all but... by Quiet_Desperation · · Score: 2

    Settle down! I looks like they are creating a whole new studio for this, so Bethesda Prime will still be doing what they are doing.

  15. Re:Lovely. by Adriax · · Score: 4, Funny

    And after respawning you'll have to wade through the horde of "TheLustyArgonianMaid696969" knockoffs all dancing naked on the mailboxes in the starting city.

    --
    I don't suffer from insanity, I enjoy every minute of it!
  16. Must have by Quiet_Desperation · · Score: 2

    The ability to capture the souls of other players in black soul gems.

    I'd also like a deep, deep, deeeeeeeep crafting system. I can get lost in a happy OCD haze for hours with that shit.

    Gotta start the game as a prisoner, except with an MMO, it can be a mass prison break. Ha! :-)

    Pony mods. No, I'm serious.

  17. Re:Possibly the first real WoW killer by crazyjj · · Score: 2

    Many have tried. All have failed.

    --
    What political party do you join when you don't like Bible-thumpers *or* hippies?
  18. DAoC by CosaNostra+Pizza+Inc · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Wow! I remember Dark Age of Camelot...good game for its time.

  19. Re:Sick of seeing MMOs by Darinbob · · Score: 2

    MMOs need to break out of their "if we make it they will grind" mindset. They need more depth. I absolutely believe they should dump the outdated levels concept. Start the game being max level essentially, don't waste months gearing up, instead play the game! Too many MMOs treat everything below end game as not worth playing, and they're left to rot when level caps increase. Instead focus on the game world and a story line. Let the new players jump right in without the veterans calling them noobs or ignoring them until they pass a gear check. Don't penalize players for hanging out having fun in less populated zones where they aren't buying expansions; encourage exploration.

  20. Re:Oh boy. by CanHasDIY · · Score: 3, Funny

    I thought I saw it coming... 'til I took an arrow in the knee.

    --
    An enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in bacon and cheese
  21. Re:MMORPG nastolgia by geekoid · · Score: 2

    DO you know why WoW is so successful? because EQ wasn't fun.

    --
    The Kruger Dunning explains most post on /. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
  22. Re:Please not another MMO by RivenAleem · · Score: 3, Funny

    Pfft, you're suck a slacker, I've been playing this MMO for only 30 years. Sure for the first 18 I noobed about a bit, but then I got into this hard-core 'work' that raids 5 days a week, officially, but ofc I grind on the weekends too.

    I'm almost lvl 55 now. You should check out my epic mount.

  23. Re:That's great and all but... by Kelbear · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I hope that new studio has better QA than the old one.

    With a release date of 2013, the game will probably be playable in 2014 given their track record. Their games are beloved for an amazing scope, but they have a history of releasing games filled with game-breaking bugs that players tend to forgive for having attempted to achieve so much. Hey, you can always just enter cheats or download mods to fix the problems right?

    This time it's an MMO, and when the game-breaking bug stops your main questline in it's tracks, or empties your inventory, or resets one or more of your stats to 0, etc. etc. etc. You can't hit the command line to fix it.

    I'm excited about the game for sure, but I have absolutely no confidence in them to release a stable MMO. I'll wait a few months or a year after release and let other people deal with the bugs first.

  24. Re:Possibly the first real WoW killer by Endo13 · · Score: 3

    The Warcraft brand was a lot more niche before WoW than TES is now. It's a lot more about the game than the existing fanbase. The vast majority of WoW players past and present never played another Warcraft game. If the game itself hits the right notes, the players will come.

    --
    There is no -1 Disagree mod. Slashdot.org/faq defines mod options. USE IT.
  25. Re:Smells like money by X0563511 · · Score: 2

    Shut up and take my money!

    --
    For large sets, this will be our guide even unto death, for the LORD will work for each type of data it is applied to...
  26. Re:Sick of seeing MMOs by Evil+Pete · · Score: 2

    But how can you have more depth in an MMO? In single player the game developer can develop deep stories and constrain you somewhat, perhaps via sub-quests, so that you actually experience the storyline. In an MMO you could go to do sub-quest X and discover somebody else has already done that. So you wait for the BadGuy(tm) to respawn and sub-quest to re-initialize. It just isn't the same. "Please stand in the queue to have your unique experience."

    I came to TES via Oblivion, which I loved, such a free and open world. I could join the story or not. Skyrim, even better. It would be fun with a couple of friends but not with hundreds of othes.

    --
    Bitter and proud of it.
  27. Re:Lovely. by Issarlk · · Score: 2

    Can't wait for this ! Nude Khaajits too please.