Bethesda vs ZeniMax Online

The more I play through Bethesda RPGs, to which, as I've established, I'm very much a late-comer, the more I'm eager to get into Elder Scrolls Online, and see how much that experience translates. From the little I know, ESO seems to come very close to the 'authentic' Elder Scrolls experience.

I'm not talking just about the interface and control, either. I'm talking about the feel of the world and the nature of the quests. At first glance, one would think that Bethesda's approach would translate perfectly to the MMO style. Many of the quests in their games are 'go here, do this one thing, then report back,' which very much echoes the style found in MMOs. However, there are often times in their games in which there are multiple approaches and outcomes that can fulfill that quest. I'm curious to see if that versatility is something that is featured in the game.

Something, though, that MMOs do that Elder Scrolls doesn't, is non-linear progression. In most MMOs, leveling dictates whether or not you can survive in a designated area. Most MMOs subtly section areas off by implying 'this area is for 30-35,' 'this area is for 36-40,' etc. I've heard the original SWTOR design tried to eschew this approach, and put the standard non-linear BioWare approach in place, but that they brought in some experts that changed it to more closely resemble the WoW approach. I'm eager to see what ESO does here. I won't be upset if they have to make some compromises, but a lot of what I'm learning about the game seems to eschew some MMO standards.

For example, this explains their approach to character-building:

The 'M' Rating
So, word on the street is that Bethesda was surprised to see ESO get an M rating. In the current MMO market, this can understandably present some constraints to their potential market, since it narrows their audience a bit.

However, I'd like to point out that both Oblivion and Skyrim were 'M' rated titles, so it's possible the game will be more in line with what we've seen in the last two titles, and the 'M' rating potentially frees them up to skew more adult than perhaps they were planning initially. It would be refreshing to see content that caters to a more mature crowd in an MMO.

And it's not like, in the past, we've walked into a bar in Ebonheart, and seen a topless bar wench on a table screaming, 'Fuck you all!' while she gouges a man's eyes out. But, perhaps a bit more realism and some colorful languages, so long as it's lore-consistent, would not be something to which I'd object.

Also, and this is probably hopeless, but between the subscription fee and the 'M' rating, might we see a more mature audience than is typically found in MMOs? Between F2P and 'please everyone by pleasing no one' approaches in most MMOs, the communities tend to turn toxic over time. I feel that a subscription and the 'M' rating MIGHT filter the community to a point that it's people that are genuinely enthusiastic about the product, and have an active interest in providing feedback that is actually useful.

It sure would be nice, after some of my past experiences.

You Are the Only Hero, One of Several Hundred Thousand
This is something I'm not sure is going to be solved by any MMO any time soon. The player's avatar is the One, the One that will do that One thing. And the same goes for all these other avatars.

I sometimes wish that MMOs would abandon this very notion. Why not let the player just be 'one of many' instead of the One, in addition to all these other Ones?

In any case, it'll be interesting to see if ESO tries to do something new here. Again, if they don't, I'm not sweating it, but I hope they try to put their own stamp on it, at least.

I had to bang this out real quick between work items, so sorry for the abbreviated post.

Like I said yesterday, if you're in the ESO beta this weekend, PM me. I wouldn't mind playing with some folks.

-Blaine

Pre-Orders and the Gaming Space

Because I'm a sad little man that is constantly trying to fill a void where once my soul resided, I finally caved and spent some cash on Steam. I bought 'early access' Wasteland 2 and Age of Decadence, bought The Banner Saga, then preordered Thief, South Park: The Stick of Truth, and Shadowrun Returns: Dragonfall. Dragonfall hadn't even been on my radar. I had completely forgotten that was coming, but luckily, I follow Harebrained Schemes on RSS, and caught a glimpse of it on my Windows Phone RSS Live Tile (yes, folks, sorry, but Live Tiles really are fantastic and useful.)

I poked around a bit at Age of Decadence, and came away from it with the certainty that I do not have any idea how to play it. This is one that will require a few hours, 2-3 monitors (game, research, video), and some patience from my wife. It's all good, though. I like complex games, and I really enjoyed the bits I understood. I'm really looking forward to trying more.

I also popped in to SWTOR briefly, and ... I mean, I still like the game, but every time I'm in there now, I just ... I dunno, I always get the itch like I should be doing ANYTHING else. I don't hate the game, I actually quite love it, but close to 2.5 years in, I feel like there should've been a proper expansion by now. Instead, it's just outfits and a space battle bit about which I give no fucks. Not even one.

Hurry up, ESO.

My play-through of Morrowind has slowed somewhat. I'll be honest. I'm losing motivation. I'm at the point in which Caius has told me that I might be the Nerevearereveeaerrine, and I'm to go talk at some Ashlander dudes about it. I decided to start blowing through some side quests, since this seems like a good time to grind some stats. I'm wondering if some of my fatigue relates to how dated Morrowind is, and the illusion of a living world just isn't holding up. I'm not sure. I'm gonna stick with it, but I'm itching to move onto Oblivion.

Meanwhile, Fallout 3 has been my fallback for when I'm just not feeling Morrowind. I've been enjoying the hell out of it, and recently had an episode with it that completely reinforced the fact that I love being a PC gamer. Fallout 3 is, by now, a bit of an older game, and is not properly configured to know how to handle multiple cores in a proc. This was causing repeated crashing when it was time to flee Vault 101. I poked around a bit, found the issue, added a couple lines to an .INI file, and I was good to go. I was playing a 'last-gen' game with no problems, moving between my desktop and laptop all weekend, with minimal effort. Were we talking about a console release, it would've been a whole other story. First, your locked to playing on that aged box, through a TV. Second, if you're experiencing a known bug, you're at the mercy of the developers, publisher, and platform holder to ever get it fixed. No thanks. Because I'm a PC gamer, I was able to find the known issue, see the fix, then implement it myself. Easy.

In any case, I'm now in Megaton, talking at folks, and I'm having a great time saving, trying something crazy, then reloading. For reference, I have played a fair amount of Fallout 3 in the past, but never all the way to completion. I aim to do so before the GFWL servers die July 1st.

I think part of what's constantly nagging at me about Morrowind and Fallout 3 is that the Bethesda approach to RPGs veers sharply into the uncanny valley (not literally, but thematically), and thus, because so many things seem 'alive' and 'true to life,' the things that aren't really fucking jump up and flick you in a single gonads (did that once to a buddy in high school, and he was almost squealing. Hilarious). People in Morrowind aren't on a schedule. They're wandering aimlessly in the streets for DAYS. The animal population is pitifully low. Guards can know I killed someone via the Force (I guess. Not sure how they know it otherwise.)

Also, for as real as some of these characters feel, they don't feel real at all. It's hard to explain, but it's that 'uncanny valley' thing.

I have a feeling that this is incrementally improved in each Bethesda release.

And don't get me wrong. I really like aspects of Morrowind. I'm eager to see where all of this leads. I just wish it had a stronger central narrative, and I wish it wasn't 13 or so years old.

All this should continue to make this my Year of Bethesda (and Witcher, and Dragon Age).

In closing, I have a question for all the 'Bethesda Veterans' out there. How do you all stay motivated in these games, as opposed to games that have a more linear approach, and more insistent main story thread? I'm doing it, but I'm finding that my motivation to keep playing is starting to diminish. I don't like that it's diminishing, but it is what it is.

I'm also thinking about starting to stream some random shit via Twitch. My Twitch channel is here. I can promise it won't be exciting, but it might be interesting. I'll probably stream some of the early access stuff, for those that wanna check it out.

Word. Thanks for reading!

-Blaine

MMOs and Me

I have been the biggest supporter of Star Wars: The Old Republic since before it launched of pretty much anyone I know. Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic is one of my top three games of all time, Star Wars is probably my favorite franchise of any, and I loved that BioWare was bringing their 'fourth pillar' of story to an MMO.

For me, having a 'single player' MMO set in the Old Republic era of Star Wars was a dream come true. I loved that I could solo the majority of the game, and bring in friends whenever I wanted. I didn't even touch the endgame raid stuff for almost a year. I was so caught up in creating new characters and playing their stories, that I didn't really have a need.

Finally, though, having to burn through the same content (the non-character story side quests) started to wear on me a bit, and I joined a buddy's guild, and started dabbling in the endgame stuff. It was cool, I did enjoy it, but it didn't bring the same exhilaration that seeing new content brought.

Looking back, I think, for me, where things really started to fall apart was the transition to adding a F2P model. At that point, new development stopped being about adding more expansive story content, and became more about adding small bursts of new content, and a ton of nickel & dime microtransactions.

I've weathered this for two years, and over time, I've come to the conclusion that I'm much more willing to put time into an MMO if it's subscription-based, rather than an F2P microtransaction vehicle.

I've had an incredible amount of fun in SWTOR, and have gladly sunk more time and dollars into it than any other game I ever have, but I think my time with it is approaching its end. I plan to wrap up a couple character stories, and then call it a day by some time this summer.

Barring a substantial announcement from BioWare, I'm pretty sure I'll be jumping over to Elder Scrolls Online for my MMO fix. Between my new adoration for the franchise, and something I can't talk about, I'm very excited for this game.

I like having a go-to story-heavy MMO, and everything I know about ESO tells me it's going to fill that role nicely. Also, having all the areas of Tamriel opened up to me is tantalizing.

 

What really fills me with confidence, though, is that it's a subscription-based model. As I said, aside from the Guild Wars series, having an F2P, microtransaction-driven model discourages big releases, in favor of lots little nickel & dime releases. I'd rather pay a regular fee and get more substantial updates.

 

We'll see what happens, though. Turbine has done some okay things with the F2P model, with both Dungeons and Dragons Online and Lord of the Rings Online, but they also don't feature a deep story the way SWTOR does, and the way ESO appears to. My guess is ESO is going to build on the what's come before in the series, which isn't a grand, overarching story, but a main story thread that you can leave and come back to at your own pace, while tackling really interesting side quests. If anything, the Elder Scrolls structure is ripe for being imported into an MMO.

 

Of course, a good friend over at Galaxy Next Door reminded me that the Secret World is still out there, and I really enjoyed the little bit of time I spent in that game. I like their model of regular expansions that are bought outright, or received as part of a sub.

 

Oh, and Guild Wars 2 is still out there. I'll admit, their model defies everything I've been saying here, and I don't know how they do it. At the same time, though, I pretty quickly lost interest, even though I love the franchise. GW2 isn't a bad game, but ... I don't know.

 

Oh, and Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn keeps tugging at me. I may explore that one a bit more, while I still have sub time. I do plan to only carry one MMO sub after this summer.

 

Will it be SWTOR, ESO, or FFXIV? What do you think?

 

In closing, I am not, by any means, a typical MMO player. I'm pretty resistant to random grouping, and definitely enjoy soloing, if the content is good. SWTOR was perfect for me, but they've refused to release any new class-specific content, and most of their new content, with the exception of Makeb, has been pretty small. Some of it's cool, but I want more. I hope they announce something soon that'll keep me in the game.

 

Either way, I'm really looking forward to the ESO launch in April. I can already envision myself in my recliner, Alienware in hand, stomping around Tamriel, while watching the 2014 Cardinals destroy the rest of the NL Central. Good times, folks.

 

What do you need, story-wise, from an MMO? What's your favorite MMO play style? What do you play? Are you looking forward to ESO?

 

-Blaine

How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Trust the Bethesda

I've been an RPG fan for a good long while. Yeah, I've been playing games that are mislabeled 'RPG,' such as the Legend of Zelda series, since the first iteration on the NES, but more importantly, I cut my teeth on the early console RPGs, such as the first Final Fantasy (loved it) and the first Dragon Quest (Dragon Warrior) (didn't really like it.)

All through the 90s, I stuck with the console RPGs, usually Square titles, but then branched out once Squenix decided that most of the design choices in Final Fantasy X were a good idea (they were not).

At that time, I discovered BioWare, then traced them back to Black Isle, and before I knew it, Obsidian existed, and then CD Projekt Red sprang up, and I had so many awesome RPGs from which to choose.

Somewhere in there, Bethesda and I never got some on the page (scroll.)

I never understood it, either. On paper (scroll), Bethesda games should be my dream games. Open world, freedom of choice, a shit load of menus, tons of stats, tons of variables, insanely deep lore. All of those things equal my dream game, and yet ... it just never clicked for me.

The years went by, Bethesda would drop the occasional release here and there, I'd inevitably pick it up on or near release day, because THIS was going to be the Bethesda game that I'd finally get into, and ... it never happened.

I kept telling myself it was the combat (which is pretty bad for such refined games), or I'd tell myself it was the weak central narrative (which is almost nonexistent in some titles), or I'd tell myself it was the pain-in-the-ass traversal of the game world (which can be horribly painful if you take a single wrong turn.) Still, everyone so often, I'd fire up Fallout 3 or Oblivion, and something would almost click. Something would almost tickle the right part of the brain to pull me in, and yet ... it would just never quite happen.

I think, initially, I had a bit of culture shock, if you will. See, in most of the BioWare / Squenix / Black Isle games I've played, if there's a dice-roll associated with an attack, it's an explicitly expressed dice-roll, meaning that the user is informed that there is 'chance' associated with the invocation of this action.

In Bethesda games, the dice-roll is implicit, rather than explicit. When I swing/shoot this sword/gun, there's a dice-roll, even though in most games when I swing/shoot, there's a 1-1 association between animation and object collision.

Throw in there the first-person perspective, and if you're not accustomed to Bethesda games, your mind is trying to demand that there be an automatic 'hit' when you shoot/swing, while, underneath this FPS veneer is a very, very deep RPG engine that wags its finger and says 'ah, ah, ah ... +2 to hit.

At first, this made combat very hard for me. I'm a seasoned RPG veteran, but something about this mishmash of genres really fucked me up. I'd be swinging like mad at a Cliff Racer, only to be taken down by Prehistoric Fucking Tweetie Bird.

Additionally, ranged enemies soon became problematic. Also, jumping. Also, navigating the map. Also, the world just being so big. Also ... it just stopped being fun after a while.

I own EVERY FUCKING GAME Bethesda has ever released. Oh, and all the expansions and DLC and shit. Yup, I'm THAT guy. I wanted so badly to love these games. There's so much in there that I can appreciate and enjoy.

So, fast-forward to late 2013. I decided I needed to chill out a bit, and be less goal-oriented in my play time. I realized that I'd gotten very linear and very concerned with 'progress' when I played games. It occurred me to that I was approaching all games with the same mindset, which was to maximize stats, view all available content, and do so in as timely a fashion as possible.

It occurred to me that Bethesda games, at least the first time each is played, aren't easily compatible with this approach. I decided to approach Morrowind (the furthest back I can go without being forced to invoke DOSBox) with a mindset of 'max chill.'

And to be fair, much of this flawed gaming mindset comes from being a pretty happy guy. I have a wife, children, and a full-time job as a developer, so while I have nothing about which to complain, I wouldn't necessarily have the time to complain, anyway.

Either way, it was time to fire up Morrowind (again.) After installing a few mods to get it to render a little prettier, we were 'go.'

As I (very) slowly walked my way through Seyda Neen, I leaned back, chilled myself out, and said, 'just relax ... take your time ... you're here to relax.' And it all finally started to click.

As I very deliberately took in everything around me and talked to everyone, I could almost here Loial, from a Wheel of Time, in my ear: 'humans are always so hasty.'

Since then, I've progressed further in Morrowind than I have in any previous attempt. I'm excited, because I'm so chilled about it. I'm even thinking I'm going to fire up Fallout 3, and then New Vegas, some time during my Elder Scrolls 3-5 playthrough.

I'm an Imperial bard, member of the Thieves' Guild and Imperial Cult, and cannot stand these whining Dunmer. I look forward to joining the Imperial Legion, and doing what I can to bring about greater obedience from these elves.

It is amazing to me how easy these games are to roleplay, though. It seems that these games lack in story, they make up for with depth of lore and freedom of choice. I appreciate now more fully how different but equally successful the BioWare and Bethesda approaches to RPGs are.

It's amazing to me, though, that all it took for me  to finally 'get it,' in regards to Bethesda RPGs, was an adjustment to mental approach. Have any of you experienced anything like this?

Also, to those experienced Morrowind players - is there something optional that I absolutely MUST do or somehere optional I absolutely MUST go? Let me know!

I'll keep checking back in every so often about this while I write up my RPGs of 2014. I've got more to say, but I'm eager to get back to Morrowind on this extra day off!

 

-Blaine