Question #2: 27/01/2005

[Switch]

As Abramul said, if they made the game with the intention of "MMORPG" from the start it could potentially be quite good. But as a lot of people have expressed, they'd lose a lot of their hardcore fans if they did it, and attract lots of the wrong type of person, aka the "omgz free items i died!!1" 12 year olds.

 

Personally I'd prefer them to stick to single player games, they are damn good at it so why stop to do a MMORPG eh? ;) Co-operative play, I don't see any attraction in that, especially not with a PC game. Leave that to Halo on the XBox, please :tongue2:

[Dark0ne]

Co-operative play is where I have the most fun.

 

8 player Serious Sam, there's NOTHING more fun with 8 of your friends in a LAN.

 

2 player Ground Control 2, great game with great strategy and team play.

 

4 player Neverwinter Nights or Baldur's Gate, brilliant fun for RPG enthusiasts (48 hour binges recommended).

 

2 player Perfect Dark on the N64, good clean fun.

 

I'm not looking for deathmatch and I'm not really looking for an Elder Scrolls MMORPG, but a 2 - 8 player linkup world would be brilliant in my opinion.

[Zmid]

My own opinion:

 

It would be extremely difficult to do an Elder Scrolls game as an MMOG, as a large part of them (so far, at least), is that you are in some way special, for example, in Morrowind, you were the person who was supposed to fulfill the Prophecies of the Incarnate. If Bethesda did something like simply taking Morrowind and tacking on some MMOG code and changing the quests to be suitable for multiple players, there would be thousands of people who are all 'special', which would make it not very special at all. If they were planning a MMO Elder Scrolls game, they would have to do three things:

 

1) Forget about any sort of detailed storyline. This is one of the strengths of the previous ES games, so this could turn out to be quite hard to do.

2) In the back history of the game, somehow make it normal for all these powerful warriors/magicians/thieves/whatever else to be wandering around the place. Very difficult to pull off in the ES universe.

3) Have sufficient variety so that people enjoy playing it and continue to do so for a very long time whether they be experienced in the ES universe through the previous games or have just stepped into it for the first time, but also keep it sufficiently like the previous ES games that they don't alienate their established fanbase. Again, very difficult to do.

 

It is possible they could do all three of the above and make a good MMO ES game, but it would require a lot of skill, a lot of thought, and quite possibly a lot of time.

[Twitchmonkey]

I really wouldn't mind a few limited multiplayer options as the series evolves but I don't think they should have been included in Oblivion. Even including some limited multiplayer would require many hours of development time and would subtract from the overall quality of the game. However, I think when graphical improvement starts to flatten out (that is, when it gets to a point where everything is completely realistic or at least almost so) and they don't have to spend nearly as much time developing the graphics then I think multiplayer should be seriously considered.

[VG_King]

I think a cooperative mode in an ES game would be a great idea.

 

Suggestion:

 

They could make the next game so that you and the other player are both siblings or friends or something. I think that two siblings on a quest to fight evil would be pretty cool. Maybe the storyline is that the descendants of a great hero must take on the darkness (just an example.) But in single player it wouldn't really matter because instead of descendants they would just say descendant. They don't need to ditch the main plot just because its multiplayer; they can still make an excellent story with multiple players. An online wouldn't be too bad either just so that playing online means just playing with another player or two in their own world. Just my thoughts.

[Adras]

Ok, this is my opinion on it all.

 

Anyone who has played Serious Sam and/or Soldier of Fortune 2 will know what I'm talking about. When you install any ES game (Any newer than Morrowind), you have the choice of installing Multiplayer mode or not. In MP mode, you can do cooperative and you start out at level 1 and do the whole Character Generation thing. But any progress you make will only be saved on Multiplayer mode. That was the SoF 2 Part. The SS part is that, depending on how many people play (should be 1-4 or 6), there are that many objects. Say you run into the East Balmora Guard Tower and find a sword there. Ok, well your buddy, Bobby Sue, comes running in after you and wants it too. Well, how you do it is, once you get it, it is gone for you. Its still there for Bobby Sue and Jim Bob. When Bobby Sue gets the sword, its no longer there for him. But Jim Bob is still able to get it. And when you put down your weapons or anything, no one else can see them so you dont get your stuff mixed up with your buddies' stuff. You can store everything in the same room. Same with quests and items. You go up to Sugar Lips Habasi and she tells you to get her a diamond, you and Fred run over to Nalcyra's house and you both head up to grab the 3 diamonds out of the little chest above her bed. Ok, Fred unlocks it, and goes running back to Cat Lady. You still have to unlock it, and run it back to Sugar Lips. When you and Goerge go to buy something, say you go to Arrielle (sp?) in Seyda Neen, and you both want to buy a spell of his so you can fry the hell out of eachother, then you can both buy the spell and set trees on fire around the lighthouse. I hope you are understanding where I am coming from. It would be fun, and you can trade with eachother, but if you or a buddy kill an NPC, they are dead. But, say they add a new spell to the game and it costs a lot of moolah, but it will bring an NPC back from the dead. It will cost much because you were stupid enough to kill them. Those are just some ideas, and I relize it would take a ton of scripting and such, but I'm sure with some hard work, it could be done. Now, for online gaming, or an MMORPG, I'm not too sure that would work because you get all these punks going around killing all the NPC's. Anyways, thats just some of my thoughts on how a multiplayer Elder Scrolls game could be made.

[Tammo_Korsai]

I think a cooperative mode in an ES game would be a great idea.

 

Suggestion:

 

They could make the next game so that you and the other player are both siblings or friends or something. I think that two siblings on a quest to fight evil would be pretty cool. Maybe the storyline is that the descendants of a great hero must take on the darkness (just an example.) But in single player it wouldn't really matter because instead of descendants they would just say descendant. They don't need to ditch the main plot just because its multiplayer; they can still make an excellent story with multiple players. An online wouldn't be too bad either just so that playing online means just playing with another player or two in their own world. Just my thoughts.

 

I agree. or they could meet somewhere later in the game and could become rivals or freinds. Imagine you were raiding a daedric shrine and you were about to pick up a daedric longsword when you snaeky rival swipes it and runs, chasing somone would be fun!

[Abramul]

Now, for online gaming, or an MMORPG, I'm not too sure that would work because you get all these punks going around killing all the NPC's.

So you set things up so that anyone who kills a non-hostile NPC becomes vulnerable to other players.

 

*Hits Fargoth. Fargoth dies...and Abramul perishes in a hail of spells and bowfire*

[Chaosmaker]

I don't think it will be as appealling as the traditional tes style. I'm not as fond of MMORPG's as i am to TES. However i still would like to see online even though it will probally never happen.

[Charleh]

I think a Coop/MMORPG in the ES style would be good, it would just need to be innovative and unique. In fact ANY MMORPG which posesses these qualities would gain a large following. The problem with online RPGs in general is the quest/monster systems. They all seem to handle these in the same 'mass quest giving' ways - players 1 through 100,000 all get the same 'Kill 10 centipedes' quest from the same NPC. It's wrong. The radiant AI system in Oblivion sounds like the perfect kind of system to make a MMORPG work.

 

A reactive environment of NPCs that all have needs/wants/routines which they follow. NPCs could approach you instead of the other way round - or at least give some indication that they need a favour instead of standing glued to the spot waiting for someone to click on them.

 

Imagine that an NPC (say a blacksmith) needs money - he knows he has a blacksmithing skill and knows that weapons are worth good money so he is looking to build some swords to sell. He needs certain materials but he is too busy with hunting for food/farming to be able to get them - so you approach him and see if he has any 'quests' for you. He tells you he needs some ore and he will give you x gold or a sword maybe if you get it for him. So you spend a while mining while hes doing the usual routine and come back with the goods - then he goes to make the swords and when hes finished he gives you one, or some gold. This NPC will then try to sell swords to other characters to make cash to use for something else (maybe building a better kiln or anvil to make better metal for better swords). His smithing skill would be greater and he would make more money. If the NPC dies then tough luck - new NPCs are born from characters that hitch up together. This needent be too complex, just make some NPCs decide to 'get together' and its sorted ;p

 

You could apply this quest to bear skins - hunting a bear for someone could be fun - absolutely anything the NPCs need. You might be asked just to fetch a pail of water - maybe some monsters could attack a settlement looking for food themselves (also being driven by the radiant AI) and kidnap/kill another NPCs kin. Then you would have the task of finding these raiders and avenging a death - even better if you happened to be in the village at the time you could have saved peoples lives by battling off the attackers!

 

I also think there should be less emphasis on 'levels' in MMORPGs, and also a uniqueness to special items like magic rings. Instead of having an infinite number of 'ring of destruction' just make one. That way if you want it, then you have to find it and take it from someone. I can see a few problems with people logging off after posessing a power item and not playing again, but some systems could be in place to monitor this and maybe have an NPC 'break into their house and steal the item'. It would just be nice to feel a little special in these games instead of just 'player 500000 who is only level 25'. Imagine having an invisibility ring that allows you to cast a spell that only the best mages can cast (and not always successfully). People would envy you, and hunt you - but only those who knew. Lord of the Rings comes to mind ... your name would be known all over the land and you might find hundreds of people looking to kill and rob you! Thats the price of owning such an item!

 

Just some ideas anyway - I just want a truly fun experience instead of this 'constant grind' gameplay. Morrowind pretty much provides this for me, but I'd really like a multiplayer element - I think Oblivion will be REALLY good. Another game of the year for sure.

 

I realise this would take a lot of programming and introducing bugs into a system like this would be easily done - servers might also be strained with a small number of players - but make it less MMORPG and more like a CoopRPG and this wouldnt be too much of an issue.