/puts flame resistant coat
So I’m looking ahead at the future MMO titles coming our way and I’m not super impressed. City of Steam is gathering some momentum due to its steam/fantasy/punk roots but it feels too much like a giant cash sink for me to get excited.
Then we have Elder Scrolls online which a lot of you seems to be real excited about and I cannot grasp why at all.
So…. what’s exactly new in here? It’s a warrior type guy fighting a big monster in what looks like a classic MMO fight. I mean, I’m reading all I can find on the website and so far I’ve only seen the same exact things we’ve seen before in WoW, Rift, Swtor et all. There’s level, endgame, raids, craft, etc… etc…
Don’t get me wrong, it could be a very well executed “MMO we’ve all played before” but why get super excited about it? If anything, Swtor proved beyond the shadow of a doubt that even with the best IP ever backing you, you are not immune to the same flaws as all the other MMOs.
So… why all the excitement???
Well, one can say “all the same flaws as other MMOs” and sniff pointedly at WoW, but given that one of the flaws is “gobs of money falling from the sky”, I think there’s a lot of incentive to get lightning to strike a second time. I don’t think the IP matters at all other than the hook to get them to come in. I mean, EQ was pretty much its own IP from the ground up, and it’s still chugging away on two parallel paths, even.
As much as I hate to say it, Blizzard pretty much found the magic “Zynga sweet spot.” All the real work seems to be on getting people to keep playing. The IP really doesn’t matter in such a case.
This really isn’t just an MMO thing, either. Paper and dice games like AD&D have usually far outstripped the popularity of games like Traveler, Gamma World, etc, while games like Tunnels & Trolls do decently regardless of how much they represent AD&D.
I was in the same boat for a while, but I think there are some interesting things going on. Big open world with “adventure zones” that are supposed to reward exploration on the level of being a quest alternative. Three faction PvP. Open world dungeons/bosses. A stamina bar for blocking. Those adventure zones, if I understand correctly, also represent the endgame, so I’m not sure that means there will be raiding in it or not. If not, my biggest concern is how they’ll keep players coming back after leveling up all the way. Not having a traditional raid model didn’t work very well for GW2, so I don’t have high hopes that Bethesda will pull that particular trick off either.
I’m interested but not really excited. It really seems like a pretty generic fantasy MMO with a couple of potentially neat aspects. Nothing re-defining, though. I suspect the majority of excitement stems from there being very little else to be excited about at the moment. When more information comes out about EQNext, I will be curious to see how much of the hype for TESO still has people hooked.
I think the excitement comes from the fact that this (at least from where i’m sitting), is that this is the last big mmo on the horizon. After WAR failed, and swtor ditto, this looks to be the last huzzah for competition for wow, in terms of money invested and scope and fanbase
Mmm…Gamma World. I have heard good things bout some of the new games coming out, but I have no interest in The Elder Scrolls. Path of Exile has some good word of mouth going for it, but I haven’t worked up the desire to try it out yet. A lot of people are saying it is what Diablo 3 should have been. Can’t remember if you were a Diablo fan or not.
Not a big diablo fan. Liked it but once I finished it I didn’t see much interest keeping at it.