Elder Scrolls Online (played beta)

[cimerians]

I got a beta key and played with it for a while, anyone else play it?

My opinion so far:

Its basically a carefully stripped down version of Skyrim (the engine is the same except for the overhauled menu system). Graphics are on par with Skyrim (PC) and maybe slightly less detailed but very nice and colorful, I started out on a somewhat tropical island after running through a dull and drab "dungeon" starting point.

Menu's are really easy to use and combat is action based like Skyrim which is great. Simple and pretty good although sometimes I would get a few bugs like missing a target who's in point blank range. People who have never played an MMO will have an easy time getting into this...especially Skyrim players.

PVP seems to be Guildwars'ish where you join up and go after other clans and Keeps. There are siege weapons and all out attacks on Keeps and open field battles. Resource conquering to weaken the enemy and random clans that can ambush you. Fun, but something I'm not into. This opens up around level 10 I think.

Sorcerer seems to be pretty solid with the Dominion pact. You get some pretty cool spells and I used a bow for most of it.

Not worth 15 bucks in my opinion but probably is for people into the PVP stuff or Guildwars fanatics.

Its a beta so I don't know how much better it will be. I definitely don't think I'll ever play it if they stick with 15 dollars a month.....unless the full game is vastly better especially when playing alone etc. (I doubt it)

In all honesty it should be a free to pay game even though I hate those just as much. I cant see paying 15 dollars a month to play an Elder Scrolls game that has no depth to it as much as the single player games have. PVP fans will dig it though.

Anyone play it? Am I totally off base on this? I just didnt think playing alone was all that much fun even with other people and traveling was a chore too....

[KrazyKaiju]

What bugs me most is that you pay $60 upfront for the game, then $15 a month to play. And they have the audacity to open a cash shop at launch that'll offer pay-to-win items. I guess they intend to grab as much cash as they can at launch before then whole thing crashes and burns around them.

 

To be fair, FF14 did something similar and got record numbers of players. Though now (3 months in), most of the the NA servers are ghost towns.

[cimerians]

I just saw some youtubes out there reviewing it and some of them are along the same lines I felt. I didn't care for it and yeah 60 bucks on top of paying a monthly fee is inane these days for more depth you can get out of older single player Elder Scrolls games.

 

I can't see this making any sort of splash and what aggravates me is they could have been working on a next generation single player Elder Scrolls games for the new consoles instead of this rehash. Time well wasted but I'm sure some people will play it. I think the 15 bucks a month will drive them away though eventually.

 

For 3 or 4 months of this stuff you can get a years worth of a Gold or PSplus subscription and get some free games every week.

[moycon]

I have the beta and have had it since day one, but have yet to play.

Every time I open it, the game wants to update, and like after 20 minutes it'll be at 3% so I just shut it all down.

I honestly care very very little for a pay to play business model, so no huge loss.

Hoping this fails right out of the gate, if only because I prefer the single player aspects of the game. It's all about me after all.

 

Throw in free co-op if you want, I wouldn't complain, but the monthly fee is a sure way to lose my $$$, and I know playing the beta wouldn't change that fact which is why I'm not investigating as to why the updates are taking so long. My prediction was, it'll be a lot like Skyrim, but cost to play. Nice to know I might be psychic!

[Hyper_Eye]

I have been participating in beta since August. My main interest was running the game on Linux and I have been able to successfully do that during each test I have participated in. The game itself is not for me. The Elder Scrolls is very much for me but this game isn't. I don't see anything there that can justify paying $15 a month. Honestly Guild Wars 2 is a better game... a fantastic game and it has no subscription fee. I can get everything TESOnline offers and more by playing GW2 for my MMO needs and Morrowind/Oblivion/Skyrim for my TES needs.

 

The beta today is vastly better than it was when I first played it. The first time I played it I was incredibly BORED and the game did not play well. This weekend I am enjoying the game quite a bit. It still has some serious problems and they have a lot of work to do before release day. It seems absolutely possible that the game could release with serious bugs.

[moycon]

I will say I bought into Guild Wars and loved it.

It's proof you can have a kick ass MMORPG and not charge a monthly fee. If this game didn't have a monthly fee I'd be all over it.

[Atariboy]

If this game didn't make you pay twice, it would be worth considering. But a monthly fee on top of $60 to buy the game itself is far too much.

 

It either needs to be solely fee based, or free to play with an Xbox Live/PSP subscription after paying $60 for the game itself.

[Rex Dart]

I imagine it'll become free-to-play once they've duped enough early suckers. Like that Conan game.

[cimerians]

I imagine it'll become free-to-play once they've duped enough early suckers. Like that Conan game.

 

Lol.. .I played that (of course). They still stuck you on an island and not the mainland for the free part. They may have changed that though as I haven't gone back to that in years.

[SoulBlazer]

I'm confused, I got the impression here that Guild Wars 2 was Free To Play like Star Wars was....but I just checked and I see only two versions, both of which you have to pay for, starting at $40. What gives?

[SeaGtGruff]

[Random Terrain mode, PG-13 version]

I think Bethesda is starting to suffer from "My poop don't stink" syndrome, thinking that people are so enamored with Bethesda's poop that they'll shovel out a poop-load of money up front to buy it, and then keep shoveling out more money every month just to keep sniffing it.

[/Random Terrain mode, PG-13 version]

[moycon]

I'm confused, I got the impression here that Guild Wars 2 was Free To Play like Star Wars was....but I just checked and I see only two versions, both of which you have to pay for, starting at $40. What gives?

I've only played the original Guild Wars which was 100% free to play.

 

Checking Amazon, this is what it says about Guild Wars 2...

 

• Guild Wars 2 provides a massive, online persistent world.
• Free online play. No monthly fee.
• Players have the freedom to play together even if their friends are at a much higher (or lower) level.
• Players will be able to engage in organized, balanced PvP (similar to GvG in the original Guild Wars) without needing to first level up characters, find equipment, or unlock skills.
• You will be able to advance your character to the maximum level without ever joining a group if you so desire.

[SoulBlazer]

 

I've only played the original Guild Wars which was 100% free to play.

 

Checking Amazon, this is what it says about Guild Wars 2...

 

• Guild Wars 2 provides a massive, online persistent world.
• Free online play. No monthly fee.
• Players have the freedom to play together even if their friends are at a much higher (or lower) level.
• Players will be able to engage in organized, balanced PvP (similar to GvG in the original Guild Wars) without needing to first level up characters, find equipment, or unlock skills.
• You will be able to advance your character to the maximum level without ever joining a group if you so desire.

 

Must be free to play after you buy it. But it sucks that you can't even check it out without paying.

[Hyper_Eye]

Guild Wars 2 is not a free-to-play (pay-to-win) game. You buy the game once and you then have access without any subscription. It's better than a subscription service because it doesn't penalize you for lack of time or make you pay for it over and over. It's also better than pay-to-win because the items on the gem store are not required items or items that give the player an advantage. You do not need gems or real money to access parts of the game. Also the gems can be purchased with real money or in-game gold. Later in the game it is easy to farm gold to trade for gems so there is little incentive to spend real money on the game.

 

Guild Wars is the same way. Each Guild Wars campaign and the expansion is a retail game that you purchase after which it is part of the accessible area for your account. You never have to pay for that campaign again. I can log in to my Guild Wars 1 character today and run over every inch of the game but I haven't paid anything for GW1 in years.

 

Sign up here to get an alert when the next free trial event begins: https://register.guildwars2.com/trial/newsletter

Edited March 4, 2014 by Hyper_Eye

[moycon]

Must be free to play after you buy it.

Oh yeah. You have to buy a copy of the game first, it's not 100% free, just no monthly fee to play the game you bought.

[SoulBlazer]

Guild Wars 2 is not a free-to-play (pay-to-win) game. You buy the game once and you then have access without any subscription. It's better than a subscription service because it doesn't penalize you for lack of time or make you pay for it over and over. It's also better than pay-to-win because the items on the gem store are not required items or items that give the player an advantage. You do not need gems or real money to access parts of the game. Also the gems can be purchased with real money or in-game gold. Later in the game it is easy to farm gold to trade for gems so there is little incentive to spend real money on the game.

 

Guild Wars is the same way. Each Guild Wars campaign and the expansion is a retail game that you purchase after which it is part of the accessible area for your account. You never have to pay for that campaign again. I can log in to my Guild Wars 1 character today and run over every inch of the game but I haven't paid anything for GW1 in years.

 

Sign up here to get an alert when the next free trial event begins: https://register.guildwars2.com/trial/newsletter

Thanks, Hyper. That was the information I was looking for. How often do they allow free trial events? I'd like to check this out, but every OTHER MMORPG I've played has allowed you to check it out for free first before you buy, and I don't want to plunk down $40 for something I haven't even tried and may not like. I don't know why they don't allow a few days free or something like that. I signed up for the newsletter, but I just hope they allow free trials soon.

[danwinslow]

I prefer pay-to-play. That way you get less cash based advancement, ie., 'station dollars' and the like. They are going to make money one way or the otehr, and I prefer to just up and give them a flat rate so they won't try to chip off money in a thousand little ways.

[moycon]

I prefer pay-to-play. That way you get less cash based advancement, ie., 'station dollars' and the like. They are going to make money one way or the otehr, and I prefer to just up and give them a flat rate so they won't try to chip off money in a thousand little ways.

I dunno about GW2 but the original Guild Wars had nothing like what you describing. No "cash based advancement, no 'station dollars' (whatever that is) and no chipping off money in a thousand little ways. Why anyone would want to pay to play a game they have bought is seriously beyond me.

 

I will say this, this thread is making want to install and play through Guild Wars again!! LOL I have the collectors editions of the main game and all the expansions! I fired it up a year or two ago and had a blast playing (for free) was just like old times, and the collectors editions came with special graphic enhancements not found in the regular version!

[Hyper_Eye]

Let me know if you want to jump in and roll a toon sometime. I'd really like to play through some of Nightfall. I've never taken a character higher than a couple of levels there. I have a Mumble server.

[danwinslow]

I dunno about GW2 but the original Guild Wars had nothing like what you describing. No "cash based advancement, no 'station dollars' (whatever that is) and no chipping off money in a thousand little ways. Why anyone would want to pay to play a game they have bought is seriously beyond me.

 

I will say this, this thread is making want to install and play through Guild Wars again!! LOL I have the collectors editions of the main game and all the expansions! I fired it up a year or two ago and had a blast playing (for free) was just like old times, and the collectors editions came with special graphic enhancements not found in the regular version!

 

I never played gw or gw2. There are many other games out there, and valid reasons to prefer pay for play. If you think its ridiculous, fine, it was just my opinion.

Edited March 5, 2014 by danwinslow

[moycon]

 

If you think its ridiculous, fine, it was just my opinion.

I didn't say it was ridiculous at all.

 

You should really try Guild Wars if you're a MMO fan and currently prefer to pay to play, it might help you understand why I said it was beyond me (not that it was ridiculous). If it doesn't though, or if you still preferring paying after trying it that's ok too.

 

Hyper_Eye, Sadly I haven't either. I got WAY into the Xbox 360 by the time Nightfall was released. I do have the CE version, but barely used it! If nothing else, pointing out the issue I have with Elder Scrolls Online has made me remember I have Guild Wars and haven't played in a LONG time!

[danwinslow]

Ok, I'll ive them a try, always heard a lot about them. If you want to see what I was talking about, try one of the Sony games. You can just about buy character levels there.

 

But actually, I think GW does have some of what I'm talking about :

 

"Guild Wars 2 Lead Producer Chris Whiteside has a pretty straight-forward opinion of MMO business models: He says that subscriptions are "a huge barrier to entry." He says that Guild Wars 2's model, which has no subscription but does charge a one-time fee for the client, each campaign, and optional microtransactions, is far more accessible to gamers."

 

It's the 'optional microtransactions' I am talking about. Usually that means 'buying advancement' of one sort or the other. They have to finance ongoing server/network support, which is VERY expensive, and a one time buy of fifty bucks is not going to cover that. These games have to cover that somehow, and its either going to be subscription or these kinds of micro transactions and/or ads. I personally hate to play a game where you can just pay money to get advancement. I know that if a player does so it doesn't really affect me in any material way, but I just don't like it. If you get something in game, an item or level or whatever, you are supposed to have earned it by dint of skill, not paid RL money for it.

 

I also feel that if I am paying a flat rate, it will keep the servers up at least minimally even if the game declines in popularity and the new clients sales stop generating revenue. I have been involved with several games that lasted much longer than they 'should' have if they were supported only by new client sales. The other issue is the cost; a 15 dollar a month tag does not seem that significant to me, I spend more than that going to ONE movie.

 

And now a sad part - I have to admit I like the idea of pay for play in at least a small way because that tends to weed out the extremely casual players and at least some of the gold farmers and random griefers that you meet in a lot of the F2P games. Yes, its elitist of me, I admit it.

 

So what game do *I* play nowadays? Lol, its a free emulation of a 15 year old game called Everquest : http://www.project1999.com.

Over the years, Sony has completely ruined Everquest by dumbing it down, switching to F2P and increasing gear and player power to the point where its just silly. Project1999 is a recreation of the original EQ, in all its irritatingly hard glory. They do take donations though, and I do donate.

 

 

But to get back on topic, I am really looking forward to ESO too

Edited March 5, 2014 by danwinslow

[cimerians]

 

So what game do *I* play nowadays? Lol, its a free emulation of a 15 year old game called Everquest : http://www.project1999.com.

Over the years, Sony has completely ruined Everquest by dumbing it down, switching to F2P and increasing gear and player power to the point where its just silly. Project1999 is a recreation of the original EQ, in all its irritatingly hard glory. They do take donations though, and I do donate.

 

 

But to get back on topic, I am really looking forward to ESO too

 

I may check that out, I also tried the more current stuff including the free to play one.

 

I have the urge to go back to play Elder Scrolls because its so much faster with full voice acting than normal MMO's.

 

The thing preventing me as said is the monthly payment etc.

 

[Hyper_Eye]

Ok, I'll ive them a try, always heard a lot about them. If you want to see what I was talking about, try one of the Sony games. You can just about buy character levels there.

 

But actually, I think GW does have some of what I'm talking about :

 

"Guild Wars 2 Lead Producer Chris Whiteside has a pretty straight-forward opinion of MMO business models: He says that subscriptions are "a huge barrier to entry." He says that Guild Wars 2's model, which has no subscription but does charge a one-time fee for the client, each campaign, and optional microtransactions, is far more accessible to gamers."

 

It's the 'optional microtransactions' I am talking about. Usually that means 'buying advancement' of one sort or the other. They have to finance ongoing server/network support, which is VERY expensive, and a one time buy of fifty bucks is not going to cover that. These games have to cover that somehow, and its either going to be subscription or these kinds of micro transactions and/or ads. I personally hate to play a game where you can just pay money to get advancement. I know that if a player does so it doesn't really affect me in any material way, but I just don't like it. If you get something in game, an item or level or whatever, you are supposed to have earned it by dint of skill, not paid RL money for it.

 

You are making an assumption that I have already refuted. Micro-transactions do not equal pay-to-win. You cannot buy levels or other advancement in GW2 using money. What you can buy with real money are gems. You can also buy gems with in-game currency. The game offers a currency exchange for this purpose. Gems are then used to buy certain account expanding things like additional character bank slots. Most of the items on the gem store are outfits or an item that allows you to reskin a weapon with the skin of another weapon. There are also boosts which temporarily boost experience point gains and other things. These are items that are available throughout the game as well. I don't know anyone who has actually used real money to buy gems. They buy gems with in-game gold. I have never purchased gems with real money. Some people will spend real money to buy gold. This is something that happens in all MMO's. Usually it occurs through gold farmers which have an incredibly negative impact on the game. GW2 removes the incentive to use gold farmers by providing the currency exchange.

 

Here is an overview of these systems:

 

 

I paid for WoW for many years. I can't stand to think of how much money I spent on it especially during the whole last year I was subscribed when I pretty much didn't play the game at all. I've played a number of other MMO's. Some of them had a subscription and some of them were pay-to-win. Guild Wars made me feel a little dumb to buy into either model. I bought the game, had it, never had a need to spend real money (though that game did not have a gem store... you could purchase permanent account expansions like additional character slots and bank tabs.) Still much of the game is instance based and I felt that WoW still offered something GW didn't that kept me wanting to play both. After playing GW2 I will never pay a subscription fee for an MMO again. It is a fantastic game, is not pay-to-win, and I do not suffer any penalties for being the dreaded "casual" player due to lack of incredible amounts of time that other people seem to have on their hands. They also add new content frequently (that you do not have to pay to access) and do regular events to keep the game interesting.

 

BTW there are no extra "campaigns" or expansions to buy at this time. The game is very large and all content has been added to the current game which is all available to you when you buy any edition (digital, retail, etc.) of Guild Wars 2.

[danwinslow]

In the first place, you seem to think I'm disparaging GW2. I'm not.

 

However, since you brought it up, I am talking about things like :

 

 

 

things like additional character bank slots. Most of the items on the gem store are outfits or an item that allows you to reskin a weapon with the skin of another weapon. There are also boosts which temporarily boost experience point gains and other things.

 

are, in my opinion, buying advancement. GW2 may have a light hand, but its still the kind of thing I am talking about. Don't agree? Ok. I have my opinion, and all I did was to state it, which is, in general, I prefer pay to play.