That article is valid, and yet, playing TESO this weekend I realized something.
It's not a multiplayer game. The only multiplayer aspect of it so far is that you have other people running around, and that there's a chatbox wherein people complain about stuff.
You do a quest, and the world around you changes in relation to your current quest's progress - enemies spawn or get replaced by friendly NPC's cheering for you once you complete it, things are on fire or not, etcetera. It's a personal experience based on your own current progress in the quest.
There is - at least so far (< level 10) no incentive for any kind of group play whatsoever. It does not give you any significant benefits, etc.
Of course, I'm sure there will be secluded bits of content - instances - that require a group to perform, and perhaps things will get better in higher levels, but still.
Another thing that irks me is lost potential. In the TES games, and also in TESO, you can craft items, mine ore, make weapons. However, so far at least, all that crafting system is only for your personal gain - and completely optional to boot. You can get your gear from NPC traders and from quest rewards, just like every other MMO out there. What I imagine - and what I really want every MMO ever to start doing - is that there are no NPC traders, or if there are, only for the basics, and that the rest is all player-created content.
You know, (and here it comes), like Eve. TESO isn't as much of a sandbox as the other TES games are, or as much as Eve is, and it loses its opportunity to be truly different there.
Now, I will give some props to TESO in that it doesn't have the same feel as the common MMO; the first-person view and the non-target-and-spam-quickbar gameplay (i.e. direct control) is a welcome change.
But yeah, see the points above. Like far too many MMO games, TESO is all about your personal progression, your personal travel through the content, and it's both pathed / linear and finite. It's lost the freedom, sandbox feel from the single player games (at least in the part I've played so far), and puts you on a path from one quest to the next; there's little incentive to stop with the main quest and just go wandering somewhere.
And it doesn't have breathtakingly impressive visuals and scenery either. In Morrowind, you wander through the land, it turns nightfall, and you look up and soak up the atmosphere of a starry sky and soothing music. In Oblivion, you wander through sunny, grassy meadows. In Skyrim, you take up an epic pilgrimage up a mountain, then look down upon the world and realize you can go everywhere.
In TESO, you follow a path through rather unimpressive countryside while other players run past you and grind on mining bits of iron ore, the weather (if you can speak of it) is depressing, and you're just another grunt checking boxes, walking from point A to B to finish quests.
I really want to like this game, and I do think it's a good attempt, but they've just failed on the core of what makes the TES games awesome; sandbox gameplay, beautiful and impressive graphics, that kinda thing. And they missed out on what TES with online play could become; collaboration and player-powered economy.
Plus I just want to bash someone's head in. Is there any kind of PVP in the game?
teal deer, I'm not going to spend money on this game; it's a single-player game that lacks good single-player entertainment, or a multiplayer game without actually any multiplayer going on.
. Not sure if I should hand in a support ticket or just go meh whatevz beta and I can't be the only one stuck here.
