Elder Scrolls Online Beta

I really like the game too, but I also phase in and out of games and don't play them often enough to justify a monthly expense.  I play other games that have a free part and a subscriber part, but they also have an option to "buy" certain areas and this appeals to me far more.  This means that if I happen to have a spare bit of money, I can buy the game currency, then buy each area as and when I play it.  Buying the area also opens it up for any other character you may have and you can have up to six.  So if I am playing and run out of paid for area as well as money, then I can just play a new character up to that level.  With different character classes, this doesn't get boring because the gameplay differs slightly for each character.

For ESO, I had a lot of fun trying it out and it is the first time for me ever having any kind of success with this kind of game (only died twice woo!)  I did find the quests confusing at times, and I am pretty sure that one of them was bugged because I was supposed to talk to someone and even when I was hopping up and down on the very spot the map said I should be - no person.

If ESO would adopt a pay by area option, then I might consider it, but my budget in no way stretches to becoming a subscriber (and like Anto, my game play habits don't justify it either).

OK, time for my know nothing opinion.

Yes it is/was fun, good graphics, blah blah blah...

I understand Beta, done beta testing before. This seemed to have a lot of bugs for something thats two months from release. Yes, I know its beta and there are bugs in every game and all that. I just expect something this hyped and this long in the crafting to be a bit more polished this close to release.

As far as the monthly expense of it... had a guy once explane his WoW sub, and it goes for all sub based games. You pay $15 a month, if you play 15 hours thats $1 an hour for entertainment. You manage to hit 30 hours its $.50 an hour, so on and so forth. You go to a movie that's $15 (if its just you, and no snacks) for two hours of entertainment.

That being said, I still prefer games like DDO or LotRO. They are free to play, subscriber options that you can buy points, as well as earn them, for additional content.

As far as ESO goes... I will not be getting it at release. IF a number of you do pick it up I might get it at some point. And as always, I might need to get a new computer before I can truly play it. If I add that in it makes it nearly $700 for the game and the ability to play plus $15 a month. Thats just too far out of budget.

i just tried the pvp

holy shit it is amazing

the pvp is like its own separate game, but it is done so well you truly feel like you can make a difference in it all.

just, wow

now if you can get past the bugs, i wouldnt even be posting this if it didnt just crash again

Got a new router, can get higher connection speeds... now the game crashes even faster.

The pvp is THE reason to get this game.  I usually hate pvp but I've just had the most ridiculous amount of fun, even with the lag and crashes. I think Anto and I managed to precipitate the taking of one keep through our sneaking around.

It was just a massive rush. Very exciting, very fun and totally consuming. I forgot to eat lunch :p


Twelve more hours of beta testing time left

ESO is looking like it will be a great game. The only thing really holding it back would be the price. Seems a bit outrageous to pay 60 bucks upfront and then 15 bucks a month after. I don't see that model really working for me.

There are some other cons too- which are expected when transitioning a game like this to an actual MMO. For example, hit detection and combat is very much MMO, with a targeting twist. It is definitely not the same combat style as Skyrim, for example. You can't sidestep an arrow, because it will curve after you like a homing missile.
Hitting an enemy is built on the same MMO principles. There is a very vague 'hit box', when you swing your weapon, as long as they are in range you will hit them. There is also no reaction to your attacks in the combat sense.

I am sure they will fix things like the numerous bugs, lags, load screens, and the lack of enough hotbars.

Through all of this, it would be a game worth getting for me, if this price wasn't as insane as I keep hearing it will be. 60 bucks up front will get you 30 days, then 15 bucks a month = 225 bucks for the first year, 180 bucks each year after that. That's just for one person to play.

I guess we'll see what happens. Maybe they offer better deals if you rent a year or something. Idk. The pricing model I seen so far is a kick in the balls tho.

I love pvp but my crapbook pro couldnt really play ESO to my standards, what did you like about it?

Also on top of the price I'm pretty sure theres IG perks and weapons you can buy with irl money, which is muy lame.

Gilan wrote:

Also on top of the price I'm pretty sure theres IG perks and weapons you can buy with irl money, which is muy lame.

So what you are saying is not only is it pay 2 play, its also pay 2 win...

I don't want no stinkin' speshul weapon, I am happy with my ratsplatter!

The price does seem high when you add it up and look at it from a yearly point of view.

But then last year I dropped money on DDO for the last expansion and tbh ... I now feel that was a waste of my cash as I rarely go into the content that was bought and haven't bothered playing an iconic beyond the initial fun factor of trying them out.

So I guess I'm thinking of it this way. I'm getting a game that I know I'm going to enjoy for a price that I willingly dropped on another game which turned out to be a waste of money. As for the sub ... well, online gaming is my main form of home entertainment. I don't really spend on much else for home entertainment and it's the equivalent of the price of a few drinks in a bar during a night out.  

For me, it's worth it and it was the pvp aspect that swung it for me. It felt like being part of an enormous and continuous raid and it's exactly the sort of gaming experience that I've been looking for. It gave me the sort of enjoyment that I used to get in DDO before they killed the raid scene there. I'm happy to pay for that for now and when I'm eventually done with it, I'll cancel the sub.

That might be a long time coming as when you have run through all the content and got your character to lvl 50, you can then go to the other areas covered by the other alliances, and play through them on your original character with the difficulty scaled up appropriately. So ... there's longevity to it too.

Respect to all opinions though. Can only speak from my perspective and I appreciate that everyone will see things from their personal context. They'll probably go to a FTP model eventually with micro transactions to access content or something like that - so if the sub is the thing holding y'all back I'll see you there when that happens

For those who didn't get to see the pvp ... this reviewer does a pretty decent job of showing off cyrodiil and what happens there.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I82pz60iGL0

Hey Beth, I hear they will offer discounts if you buy a year at once; you hear anything?

Nice vid too, lol I fucking miss the pvp already

There's nothing officially said about discounts on the ESO site, but it does refer to choosing your subscription plan so ... I think it would be reasonable to assume that discounts are given for subscribing for longer than a month at a time? The only definite reference to discounts I can find is on an unofficial eso community site. Where did you hear about discounts?

TBH I think they would be daft to not have a discount for long subscriptions, but we'll see.

And yeah, I'm really missing the pvp too. I'm such a sad case I've been searching through youtube for vids of the pvp action :p

Anyway, I've gone ahead and preordered. Very excited! Planning a build and all of that jazz. As the preorder means you can choose any race for any alliance, its kinda opened up my options

On a separate note, everyone is predicting doom at DDO because of the news of layoffs this week.

ETA: I went and asked about subscription plans at ESO support. If I get an answer (unlikely) I'll share.

Dang, I wish I'd known you guys were in the Beta too! I ran around on my own most of the time.

I didn't really like it though... I love Elder Scrolls and I love MMOs so I thought this would be my ideal game, but the grouping system is terrible and there are loads of bugs that I can't see them fixing before live.

The thing that I really dislike about it is that they have made very little effort at adapting the Elder Scrolls template to the MMO scene. it is basically a typical Elder Scrolls game and they are basically going to be getting people to pay a monthly sub for it so I doubt it will be very successful for that reason.

Also, there are way too many quests that say "go and get 10 of X item" which is extremely tedious.

For me DDO is still the King as you can build your own unique toon. They claim you can do this in ESO too but for me it is limited in that aspect.

Having said that the graphics are awesome and I can appreciate them now I have a new computer

Shoulda checked in here more often, Zog :p  There's talk of another beta before launch date so may be hook up for that?

I'll agree on the grouping system, that needs work. I'm hoping the bugs are going to be addressed too.

Got to say I quite liked the mix of quests between fighting, puzzling and being the Messenger who fetches whatever is needed for the npc in question. I guess because the 'task' quests were neatly tied into the storyline so it didn't just feel like I was going picking up x number of random artifacts or whatever for the sake of it. I liked all the lore and the story, although it feels a bit daft for everyone in the game to be the 'special' one who is some sort of saviour. I think thats why I liked the pvp as there you are just another grunt working with other grunts to take down keeps as part of a massive alliance. That felt more 'realistic'.

But having said that, I only hit quests that were lvl 8 difficutly at the most before I reached lvl 10 and after that I went straight to the pvp area and didnt come out again :p  I'll let you know if the balance leans more to fighting mobs in higher quests when I play some more. If not, I think doing things like taking out a dark Anchor in groups will be pretty good fun and challenging for those who want more killing npcs in their PvE game. First time I saw one of those, I freaked out, and ran screaming towards it to see how quick I would die  They've really nailed giving the dark anchors a sinister presence.

I don't see any game ever really matching DDO for character customisation though, yeah. Giggling a lot over the theory crafting going on in tamriel foundry as the min/max peeps try to find the most uber build. Still musing over what I'll be doing but probably two toons, one a dps type - likely going dragonknight, and the other a sneaky nightblade.

I'm also hoping to nix my staying up til 4am thing by joining the EU server. Already touched based with a bunch of UK players for a potential guild to join. Woot!

New computer? Lucky dog! What did you get?

Got a custom built computer (desktop) so it's pretty sweet

I got my Nightblade to lvl 12 and tried that quest that everyone was trying to get groups to do. It was very difficult but you could have endless attempts as you can just resurrect the entire party at a save point... which is kind of the easy button as far as I am concerned.

I did a bit of crafting, wandering around, but I didn't do any PVP - I guess I should've checked it out. However, I'm pretty sure I will not be purchasing it as it is way too expensive just to play the new Elder Scrolls game. It is not MMO enough for my liking, so I felt cheated.

Also, there's a reason why we've all been playing DDO for 4/5 years - it has staying power. Sure, we might feel disappointed with recent events but the game itself is still good enough to keep us interested. I doubt that ESO will have the same type of longevity as, like was the case with Morrowind, Oblivion and Skyrim, we'll be waiting for the next installment and it won't come, just little additions to the ESO model.

anto_capone wrote:

Hey Beth, I hear they will offer discounts if you buy a year at once; you hear anything?

Nice vid too, lol I fucking miss the pvp already

Got a reply back from the ESO help guys. Official word is that nothing has been announced yet regarding subscription plans and discounts, but to watch for new announcements as they happen. So all we can do is speculate for now.

Apparently there's another Beta weekend, this coming weekend, although I haven't had an e-mail about it yet...

If you haven't got one yet, you can apply for keys on these sites:
http://www.mmorpg.com/giveaways.cfm/offer/498/Elder-Scrolls-Online-Beta-Key-Giveaway.html
http://www.tentonhammer.com/giveaways/elder-scrolls-online-beta-key-giveaway

Don't know if I'll be there this weekend, but if I get a mail about it, I might give it a go... unless I get auto-access having logged in the last two times. I'd certainly like to give that PvP bizz a go.

I've got an extra key if anyone needs

I'll likely have to skip most of it. Got a play on this weekend. I'm operating the lights for a change. Fun, fun fun ^^

ETA: Who the feck am I kidding - of course I'll be there  Sleep is for the weak!

Zog, previous characters can be continued, so I think you'll find you can get in if you've been in a previous beta.

I've got an extra key as well, PM me if you want one.

Same, I have an extra key if someone wants it.

I have a spare key too. I asked BF and he's not interested.