Elder Scrolls Online Beta

I know those of you who have access to it are not allowed to talk about any specifics due to the NDA but i was curious if it met up to expectations?

I really like the idea of mmo rpg that is more casual. the idea of playing one without the huge list of hotbars and spells that take years to get used to.

I wasn’t lucky enough to get in myself but am thinking about buying it on release. Am super into skyrim atm

As far as I have heard it’s pretty much a train wreck. Most people expect it to be “Skyrim, but MMORPG” which it (absolutely) isn’t.

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ooooo thats really not what i wanted to hear :frowning:
thing is it was a different development team which apparently had little to no communication with the skyrim devs and in an interview with kim they practically said they had no ideas crossing from one to the other.
well… maybe a demo then? :smile:

Yeah that is definitely a ‘try-before-you-buy’ game. I agree with RepeatPan in that it’s not ‘Skyrim, but MMORPG’. I also feel like it’s maybe not the best representation of ‘MMORPG, but in Skyrim’ either. There are probably still a few closed beta weekends left, it’s not too late to sign up!

i’m signed up and skill keen to try it out, even if its not to my liking.
i used to play wow but when you grow up and get a life it seems you no longer have the time to play a game which requires you to be on it constantly to even get a foot in anything enjoyable.
would just like an mmorpg which you can play and enjoy solo and have the option to play with friends without it being the only thing you can do (except shite quests and grinding)

i think that adequately describes my feeling towards MMOs as well… i completely enjoyed my time with WoW, but that was at a point when i had quite a bit more free time to throw at gaming…

now, with a more limited amount of time, i have to be fairly selective on where i spend my gaming minutes (rarely hours)… :wink:

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It’s only a train wreck if you expect the single player experience as an mmo. They even have a rather lengthy disclosure on the site about it… considering it’s a different branch of the parent company developing it.

As with any product, it’s best to try before you buy n not just jump into it cuz the name.

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I got into the Beta, so here are my thoughts:

It’s definitely not “Skyrim, but MMO”. It’s a combination of many of the gameplay features of the Elder Scrolls games set in a much more MMO style game. However, it’s not exactly like other MMO’s I’ve played either.
Basically, if the expectation was just a multiplayer Skyrim, then you were disappointed because it didn’t live up to that. And if you wanted a Skyrim MMO, you also were disappointed because it isn’t as extensive in the ability lists and such.
Basically, it’s trying to find a middle ground between the two. Something that many people can play together, but something that you can also play by yourself. Something that has MMO elements, but also Solo RPG elements.
I personally think they did a pretty good job. It’s definitely not perfect: while in the few hours I’ve played it never felt like grinding, it didn’t have the same flow and feeling of freedom that Skyrim or the other games did.
Overall, I’d say 3.5/5 at this point. Though I didn’t get very far into it (didn’t get to do the whole mass-combat in the central region thing, which is supposedly a very big part of what they are pushing).
Definitely something I’d recommend trying before investing heavily in it, but I think as people leave behind expectations and just try it for what it is, many more will come to like it than do right now.

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thanks for the feedback… and this seems pretty consistent with other “reviews” i’ve read… that they were striving for a middle-ground for their players…

do you know when the beta process is over, and/or when the NDA will be lifted?

No idea. From what I’ve seen in the game, it’s moving along fairly well, but as I said, I didn’t get to far into it, so I have no idea how much more of the late-game stuff needs to be done.

The original target was 2013 so…we’re way past that point. My guess would be April/May.

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I’m not sure how much the NDA covers but-- I would imagine they need at LEAST one or two more beta weekends. There’s still some FPO stuff in-game. And a few really big bugs they’d probably need a larger range of testers for. Not to mention I’m not sure if they’ve done a server stress test yet, unless these last few weekends have been it.

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oh, right… makes sense! oh well, i was looking to see if there was any beta footage on YT, and found some small clips, but nothing like an LP from a major YouTuber…

They’ve been heavily enforcing the NDA. Not to mention any screens or videos have the User ID plastered all over it in a watermark. While playing you don’t notice it so much. But it’s through the entirety of the screen. So anyone posting things would be easily found out and removed. They also have some anti-recording stuff in the client. For example, loading up one of the popular broadcaster software would actually prevent you from logging in. They’ve taken some pretty interesting steps in making sure people don’t leak to the normal places.

Looks like I was right about my guess. April 2014 seems to be the target. From the ESO website on the Pre-order pages: Link

The Most I can say is that the game is more immersive then any other AAA MMORPG Ive played in the last 6 years. The lore and story is probably hands down the best I’ve ever played. Now of course this doesn’t mean it is perfect, but it does mean it is very promising.

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Ultima Online is more of an Elder Scrolls Online than ESO is.

It’s an average MMO in an ES skin, instead of an ES game made into an MMO. Can’t say too much because of NDA, but many major components of classic ES games were removed, when they very easily could have worked. You are much more restricted in your choices than you should be thanks to their class system. (I think I can say that because on the website it spells out their class system)

And for those that say “You need to be restricted in this type of gaem omg cuz it must be like WoW and hav classes!!!” I point you to the aforementioned UO (still around), to Asherons Call (which was highly successful back in the day), and to SWG (while it was freeform, the only period it was worth playing in).

Also, somehow the game felt like it was on rails. I don’t know how they managed that in an MMO.

Was disappointed. Horribly.

Edit: Then again, they only let us play 2 and a half days at a time, and wanted us to test specific features in those 2 days. Not really much time to get lost in the game and really get to the nitty gritty. But for the 4 days total I played, I was underwhelmed the entire time/

I played it, didn´t liked it too much :confused:

Certainly didnt feel like Skyrim does. (The open world stuff)
The combat was very smooth though, but didnt gave that real vibe as when you swing a sword for example in Skyrim.
I guess beiing where they are atm, it will be decent. But im certainly not going to pay monthly for it, not in my opinion.

I also feel the need to point out that The Elder Scrolls existed before Skyrim.

Just saying.

Skyrim was bad enough, feeling like Elder Scrolls Lite.

i have played previous elder scrolls games and thought skyrim was by far the best. much more polished but can still at times be tedious and empty. but that’s the case with all games so large.

oh, it most certainly did, my good man… Arena begat Daggerfall (the memories!), which begat Morrowind (the world!), which begat Oblivion … which begat Skyrim…

my series favorites are highlighted accordingly… :smile:

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