What if ESO had an offline mode?

[billyro]

I was just thinking about ESO today. I am still undecided about buying it due to the $15 a month subscription fee, but I started to think about the possibility of the game having an offline mode.

 

 

From what I've seen of the game so far, it looks like the game will have enough content for a player to enjoy without even being online. So, do you think Zenimax would consider an offline mode?

 

I'm saying this because it would be a good alternative for players who don't want to pay the $15 a month just to play the game. Instead, they can just pay the standard $60 to get it and not have to worry about subscription fees. In doing this, they miss out on some multiplayer content and subsequently cannot play with their friends (a major reason why people want this game in the first place).

 

Potential issues I see are the fact that a lot of Elder Scrolls fans will be content to just buy the base game and no subscription, meaning that Zenimax will make less money from the Elder Scrolls community (who are already accustomed to single-player anyway). On the other hand, more people will actually buy the game in the first place if they had this option, so Zenimax could actually make a lot more money at release.

 

I, for one, would love this option. I generally prefer to play games at my own pace (MMOs have this feeling of competitiveness about them that I'm uncomfortable around), and missing out on multiplayer content won't be too much of a loss for me. If I had this option, I would pay the $60 to get the game - whereas I probably wouldn't pay the $60 at all if the subscription fee was mandatory.

 

If I did decide that I wanted to try out some multiplayer, I could purchase a month of online access for the $15 right then, and Zenimax could still benefit from a steady dose of subscription money from players who are willing to do the same. The market could be potentially broadened if this was taken into consideration.

 

 

So, what do you guys think about this? Is this idea worth considering, or wouldn't it work out as I envision? Would you like to have this option in ESO? Would it convince you to buy the game if you weren't going to previously?

[daventry]

That Idea i would love to have, then i would Buy ESO

 

Im Sick of Online Games where i miss so much.

 

World of Warcraft

Starwars Knights Of The Old Republic

[Vagrant0]

Nope... Not going to happen.

 

With an MMO, the reason why they can afford to spend all the time making such an expansive world is because they are projecting the proceeds from the the first 2-3 months of fees spanned across x thousand players to pay for it (after server costs). Having an offline mode would effectively kill off the vast majority of that income as people would buy the game, play through content offline, and only use online mode for PvP or those rare cases when they wanted to play with other people.

 

There are also some rather large challenges related to the technical aspects of such a thing. Namely the fact that the client that people install generally only contains the game's resources (areas, models, textures, ect) with all the NPC placements, game scripts, quests, and a majority of game mechanics being handled solely by the servers that the client connects to. Having this locally would bloat the game data size several times beyond what would normally be used just by the client alone. Nevermind the additional strain of trying to run it all. There is also the problem of the fact that making this available to players would make it trivial for players to setup illegal private servers. So would never happen unless a company wants to go out of business.

 

Beyond that, the game design itself may not be something where the mechanics are suitable for single play. Boss encounters or difficult events would need to be designed very differently, essentially ruining the experience for anyone playing online as they could then just solo everything. We already saw what this does to an MMO's community with KotR.

[billyro]

I still think that there would be a lot of people who would pay for the subscription fee. Perhaps not as many, but still a lot. On the other hand, more people will buy the game because there are those who don't want to pay $15 a month on top of the $60 for the base game. Surely this would make Zenimax enough money to run the servers. After all, Skyrim wasn't an MMO and it made crap-loads of money.

 

Surely there could be some way to bypass these limitations. It might take a bit of tweaking, but if the other Elder Scrolls games could pull off their expansive worlds, I don't see how an MMO couldn't handle something like that. Still, I'm not really familiar with the way MMOs work, but in theory it sounds easily accomplished.

 

As for the enemy designs and stuff, wouldn't that just require a patch? Bosses could be nerfed a little bit, but perhaps would require a higher level to defeat on offline mode. That way people would prefer to use online mode if they wanted to defeat a particular boss earlier.

 

 

I don't know much about the workings and costs of MMOs, and I'm probably grasping at straws here, but I would really like it if it was considered.

[hoofhearted4]

Worlds in Mass can be vastly Bigger then that or Skyrim. Skyrim would only take up a single map or two of an MO which cane have 20 or more maps. Easy. For example I play GW2. It's not am overly huge game compared to say WoW and probably even SWTOR was bigger then GW2 but the entire map of Skyrim would only take up maybe 2-3 zones on GW2 (depending on the zone ofc) and there's something like 15-20 zones I'd guess. Im only just passed 60% map completion so. I'm not quite sure how many there are. My point being is Skyrim is tiny Compared to an MMO. So it would be much harder to store the MMO locally vs on A server. Making stuff act differently offline would also be difficult. Normally if they want something to act differently towards a player they put the player in an instance. In. This instance things cam happen that dont in the actual World such as the player facing a world boss but weaker since it's a part of the story. Inside the instance the player can solo it. Outside the instance it might take legions of players to kill it. However you couldn't put a player in am instance offline. Since that's also on the server. Almost every aspect of an MMO is handled by the server. You really couldn't have an offline MMO.

 

Basically your dilemma goes back to. The argument of them not even having a sub fee. If what you really truely want is The Elder Scrolls Offline then play the offline games. Skyrim and kin. I mean it is called TES ONLINE for a reason.

 

If this game didn't have a sub fee I'd consider it. I'm not a big fan of TES and haven't even looked into. This MMO at all. But I enjoy MMOs and there is nothing stopping me from trying this one for its MMO purpose except the sub fee. The thing about this game is it seems to be attracting more TES fans then MMO fans. Which is bad because it's the MMO crowd who would be easier to convince to sub then the single player TES crowd. Plus TES fans want it for more TES experience whereas MMOers want it for the MMO experience. Same thing happened with SWTOR and it didnt work out. However there still games like STO and LOTRO still kicking. But track record shows when you try to bring fanboys (not used in the derogatory sebse) of a series to an MMO you can't please both crowds... For long anyways

[Vagrant0]

I still think that there would be a lot of people who would pay for the subscription fee. Perhaps not as many, but still a lot. On the other hand, more people will buy the game because there are those who don't want to pay $15 a month on top of the $60 for the base game. Surely this would make Zenimax enough money to run the servers. After all, Skyrim wasn't an MMO and it made crap-loads of money.

 

 

Surely there could be some way to bypass these limitations. It might take a bit of tweaking, but if the other Elder Scrolls games could pull off their expansive worlds, I don't see how an MMO couldn't handle something like that. Still, I'm not really familiar with the way MMOs work, but in theory it sounds easily accomplished.

 

As for the enemy designs and stuff, wouldn't that just require a patch? Bosses could be nerfed a little bit, but perhaps would require a higher level to defeat on offline mode. That way people would prefer to use online mode if they wanted to defeat a particular boss earlier.

 

 

I don't know much about the workings and costs of MMOs, and I'm probably grasping at straws here, but I would really like it if it was considered.

 

The thing isn't about money initially so much as money over the lifetime of the game. Re-occuring subscriptions is that allows them to continue paying for servers, inworld staff, bugfixers, those working on new content (events, additions, expansions), and all the other staff for the game. As anyone who has played these games can tell you, as much as 50% of these re-occuring payments come from people who play infrequently (1-8 hours a week), or people who are only paying month to month until they hit level cap (or see most if the story quests). Having a single player version of the same game would decrease this portion of the playerbase outright.

 

The other nail in the coffin is that whole bit about all the game data being available on the client. Not only would a single player version cause even top end systems to grind to a halt when trying to run the game in single player (since you're essentially tracking and maintaining information about every single mob spawn) but it would also make it easier for cheaters or hackers since they can see exactly how everything works. Then you have the whole private server issue. WoW for example loses thousands of dollars monthly due to people who just download the game from them, and then connect to a private server by altering the client. These private servers allow those players to play online in an environment close to the official one, but without needing to pay a monthly fee or deal with the pacing of the official servers. The only reason why these servers do not have as much of a following, is because they also usually lack the majority of the scripting that makes dungeon encounters or quests work as intended, making for an inferior experience. Having all that stuff simply handed to the player makes the setting up of these illegal servers much easier to do, and allows them to have a nearly identical environment... Forcing the company who is making the game to have to compete with anyone who can setup a server for players and subscriptions.

 

Those extra thousand players (hundred after piracy gets acknowledged as being a thing) simply aren't worth the comparable costs or difficulties... Even before you have to rebalance the whole world around it being played by a single player.

[billyro]

I have a feeling that ESO's subscription fee will get reduced over time anyway. If they're so adamant that the $15 is worth it, I'll just wait until they change their minds.

 

It's a little disheartening that it's impossible to run the game offline. All I really wanted to do was to roam Morrowind with nice graphics - no subscription fee, no other members distracting me, just myself and the giant mushrooms.

 

Oh well, the waiting game begins. Perhaps after 6 months the price will drop...

[hoofhearted4]

All I really wanted to do was to roam Morrowind with nice graphics - no subscription fee, no other members distracting me, just myself and the giant mushrooms.

This right here will be the downfall of the game. To many people people will be playing it looking for another TES game. Which the devs have to take into account. Then all the ones looking for the next MMO. You just won't please both crowds.

[brokenergy]

I don't think that anything could be gained by making TES into an MMO. I know many are making mods to allow multiplayer but to me the problem with TES in general is that Beth barely popluates the world with anything and it fall into modders to add stuff like "larger cities" and "more people" mods. It's sort of the main reason why I started disliking and fell out of TES and fell into the camp of smaller areas because TES doesn't convey scale very well. Will ESO be more successful in garnering a subscription following when TOR failed? No, I am willing to bet that the game will lose it's fee between 6-12 months and move into microtransactions to be more successful. Besides, didn't beta tester people say that it isn't anything worth talking and it's just another generic MMO?

[hector530]

they cant turn MMOs in to single player games, end game would be impossible and the only thing that matters in MMOs is end game. it makes or breaks all MMOs.

 

Besides, didn't beta tester people say that it isn't anything worth talking and it's just another generic MMO?

 

not from what ive seen and played, no. as other have said it plays like a multiplayer TES. most feel this way after they play it, others hate seeing other players and get pissed. if fact ive seen people get pissed they cant "grind" like a normal MMO because you level MUCH faster by completing quests, exploring, reading books, talking to NPCs. also most(like 90%) quests in the game aren't "kill X number of things" type of quest most MMO have.