Bethesda Explains Why Elder Scrolls Isn't an MMO
Bethesda's Todd Howard explains why The Elder Scrolls franchise hasn't entered into the MMOG realm.
Even when Morrowind hit the market back in 2002, Bethesda's The Elder Scrolls franchise felt like it could have been an MMO rather than a single-player RPG. That's the byproduct of excellent craftsmanship: the ability to suspend reality and convince the player that they're wandering in a vast, thriving world. That effect intensified even more with the release of the fourth Elder Scrolls title, Oblivion.
So what gives? Will Bethesda ever broaden the franchise into true MMOG territory? Probably not. The fifth installment, Skyrim, is on the verge of publication, and it's sticking to its single-player role-playing roots despite being bigger than Oblivion and Morrowind. Why? Because the team prefers the single-player role-playing model.
"I like this kind of game better," said Bethesda Game Director/Executive Producer Todd Howard. "You know, it's what most of us are into. I'm not really an MMO guy. I respect them, I look at them, but I don't play them. It feels more real to me when I'm the hero and it's crafted for that. A community aspect to it, I recognize a lot of people would want that in a game like this, but it changes the flavor for me."
"The audience we have for our kind of thing is big enough that we don't have to tone it down," he added. "We can just do our thing, and it's kind of grown with each game. So there was no pressure from anybody above me to say 'Hey, you need to change this.'"
During PAX, Joystiq asked Howard how he and his team could tell when a game this massive is actually finished. Based on his answer, it's partly due to an overall feeling of completion on a content level, that there's a saturation of activity that's not particularly overwhelming. "As the project goes on, we're finding areas where there isn't enough to do, and we keep adding," he said. "So the game always ends up a lot bigger than we anticipated."
He added that certain features seen in Oblivion were scaled back in Skyrim, such as reducing the number of large cities from nine to five. Some of the skills have also been scaled back.
To read the full PAX interview with Bethesda's Todd Howard, head here.
While I will agree that the Elder Scrolls series would be nice with co-op, but it's not the developers vision, and in the end that is what matters
That's exactly why I haven't bought one. It doesn't matter how great the game is if I can't play it with my wife or my friends.
I absolutely agree. I like the Elder Scrolls series, but I really think there's no excuse now for not at least including Co-op. I'd love to play it with my friend online (2-4 player co-op over LAN or internet would be great).
I think World of Warcraft proves your point. The simple fact is the story, which was so great across Warcraft's 1-3 and the novels and comics, has greatly suffered in the MMO. In some repsects it's totally ignored and one of the main reasons I left because Blizzard just doesn't seem to care, especially when you consider the number of retcons.
I can see some people's points about wanting to play with friends, and co-op play would be good. But a good cohesive story is very important to building a strong franchise.
While I will agree that the Elder Scrolls series would be nice with co-op, but it's not the developers vision, and in the end that is what matters
its worked out so far
Understandable. For a lot of people, a game needs a social aspect or it's just no fun. And it's good you can say that without bashing the game itself.
I personally enjoy single player games quite a bit, and I am looking forward to Skyrim's release. With so many games these days sacrificing single-player content in favor of the (often) easier to make multi-player features, it's nice to see some real effort being put into a different kind of game.
Of course, we all know that it's the modding community that will really take this game home, but I still appreciate Bethesda giving us a hard-built template to play with. =)
With a game like Elder Scrolls where your actions actually shape the world to some degree, a MMO simply could not fit into such. The game would have to be severely dumbed down.
If its true i really cant wait to get this game (after i finished deus ex 3 in 1 day 8( ).
NWN was a baldurs gate/DA game style, while oblivion and such is a first person game. Not to metion that, i always found it hard in oblivion to "not-accidentally" hit some ally that then would turn hostile in team fights... Imagine that crap in co-op...
The campaign's released with the game were just to show off the engine, review sites completely missed that part and figured that was ~all~ there was to it. Lately I've stopped reading game reviews, too much is based on the 15 to 60 min of time the reviewer puts into actually playing the game, all in a rush to get the review out right at launch.