According to Matt Firor, the head of The Elder Scrolls Online, ESO is a game where the endgame “works like FIFA”. But what do EA’s football spectacle and ZeniMax’s online role-playing game have in common?
Matt Firor, the lead developer of The Elder Scrolls Online, was recently asked in an interview whether he is worried that there will be no noticeable progress in the game due to the One Tamriel concept. After all, levels have become largely irrelevant since the update. Whether you are level 1 or 50 doesn’t matter much anymore, since you are always scaled up to the maximum level.
ESO is like FIFA in the endgame? Huh?!?
In response, Firor offered an initially curious analogy.
„[…] I play FIFA every year, even though there’s no real progression – I win, I lose, I have fun! We take the same concept for ESO.“
That sounds quite strange at first. How can a football game and sports simulator like FIFA have anything in common with a fantasy online role-playing game from the Elder Scrolls universe? What is Matt Firor trying to tell us? Will there soon be Manuel Neuer as a Dark Elf in Morrowind?
ESO-FIFA-Endgame – Fun before Progression
With his statement, Firor means the kick-off mode in FIFA, where you choose a team – for example, FC Bayern Munich – and just play. Unlike in FUT mode, where you start with a shabby amateur team and eventually get legends like Lewandowski, Müller, or Neuer, you immediately play with the mentioned top players in kick-off mode and have a blast.
The Elder Scrolls Online plays out similarly. Thanks to One Tamriel, your hero is suitable for almost all challenges from the beginning, and you can dive right in. No desire to play in the Daggerfall starting region Glenumbra? Off to the Gold Coast or to Skyrim in the north! No matter what level you are, you can go anywhere and play with any other player. Only veteran dungeons and raids may have some limits.
The Elder Scrolls Online – Progress, but Different
A little progress is there, after all. Your FIFA players do not improve, but you strengthen your team by improving the interplay of the individual players. Your ESO hero becomes stronger by equipping better gear and adapting talents and skill morphs optimally to his role and your playstyle.
This is, of course, a completely different feeling of progress compared to games like World of Warcraft, where you as a level-110 endgame hero are worlds better than a level-10 character. However, the endgame hero can experience completely different content of the game than the beginner at level 10.
Both players would remain separated until the newbie reaches level 110 or the veteran creates a twink and starts again. In ESO, both characters would be quite similar in power level and could therefore experience adventures together all over the world.
A Matter of Priority
For Matt Firor, this design decision is optimal for an Elder Scrolls game:
„We want you to feel rewarded and stronger, but we don’t want to achieve this at the cost of separating you from other players. I think the sacrifice of leveling feeling less important is more than worth it when you gain the freedom of exploring and playing together in the One Tamriel system.”
Jürgen says: I have not found ESO as a classic MMORPG optimal since the beta. The classic MMORPG progression ruined the typical Elder Scrolls feeling of free exploration and divided – as Matt Firor aptly puts it – the players artificially. On one hand with the overly eager phasing at the time, and on the other hand with faction constraints and various level requirements in areas and instances.
Since One Tamriel, all of this has changed, and The Elder Scrolls Online finally deserves the “The Elder Scrolls” in the title. That’s why I’m fully in line with Matt Firor’s opinion on progression. It’s just nice not to constantly chase the next level but to develop broadly and just have fun. Just like colleague Ttime in FIFA!
What do you think? Do you share my and Matt Firor’s opinion, or is the lack of progression in ESO the devil, Lucifer, and Beelzebub all together? Let us know and write it in the comments!
In line with the topic: ESO – Oops, where has the endgame gone?
