Shifting into MMO

As players explored the vast world of Skyrim and discovered the secrets hidden in its nooks and crannies, they became engrossed in the minute details of the world and mechanics. But players couldn’t help but feel like a second element of game play was missing. As fun as bashing in the skulls of bandits and dragons is with your NPC companion it would be more fun to do with your friends. This sparked the idea of taking the world of Elder Scrolls and transforming it into an MMORPG.

For those players, like myself, who love Skyrim but have little to no experience with MMORPG’s have had a difficult time adjusting to the new style of game play. The changes are small little things like the mechanics and normal MMO glitches, but they add up to become so annoying I was unable to become immersed into the world like I normally am. When I played there was a point where you had to jump into a pool of light to transfer you to Tamriel. Normally on a console you just physically jump into the light, with an MMORPG you have to click a specific button to do so rather than the action its self.

This small but unnatural change in mechanics resulted in a lot of deaths. I also noticed when playing the game I couldn’t fully engage in the environment. If I were to sneak in specific areas or too close to an object the game would glitch and I would fall through the map causing my character to die after 3 minutes of falling, resulting in many rage-quits. Many of my friends who do play MMORPG’s told me this is completely normal for relatively new MMORPG’s and it would never deter them from playing.

There is also no heroic narrative in the MMORPG. What made the single player games so exciting and addictive is that the single player became the hero among heroes and The player is now faced with countless other people who are now going to be the best of the best and as GAMESPOT, a credible gaming news source, states “the one true hero crown is threatened”.

The Elder Scrolls Online did an excellent job of capturing the world of Tamriel, the continent which holds all the countries Elder Scrolls takes place in. In this regard they did not disappoint any Elder Scrolls fans. But the change in view has irked some players. Many who have played the traditional Elder Scrolls games has played in the first person view. In MMORPG’s the only option is a 3^rd person view which is not hard to get used to, but not having the option to switch views does remind you that your character is just that, a character.

Elder Scrolls Online will never be as beautiful or immersive as Skyrim, but it can be linked to the way players approach their game. Rather than fighting to become the best hero players can work together to advance their faction and have a sense of being part of something larger could be the thing that attracts the Skyrim fans and makes Elder Scrolls Online a stable in the Elder Scrolls universe rather than a side story project.