Have you ever wondered when the servers of the online role-playing game AION will finally be updated to version 4.5? The solution is: It is here! Freshly released! Woohoo! Finally, all engineers can try out their second specialization and sweep enemies off the battlefield! Are you excited to try the new Aethertech or have you already been on the test server because you couldn’t wait out of curiosity? For everyone else: Take cover when the mech swings its Aether key!
But we have even more good news! The cooldowns for instances have finally been removed! After this change was first made in World of Warcraft, it is also finally available in AION. (Or vice versa? 😉 ) You can take advantage of this benefit directly in the eight new instances that await you. Get ready for breathtaking battles that will test your attention and skill!
The new instances are:
Ruin’s Protection Tower (East of the Underworld of Katalam) – 6 players – From level 65
Upper Abyss Area
Krotan War Fortress – Level 61 to 65
Krotan Legion Fortress – Level 61 to 65
Kysis War Fortress – Level 61 to 65
Kysis Legion Fortress – Level 61 to 65
Miren War Fortress – Level 61 to 65
Miren Legion Fortress – Level 61 to 65
Battlefield of the Steel Wall Bastion – 24 vs. 24 players – Level 61 to 65
If that’s not enough to do, prepare to hunt for Honor Points by completing quests, defeating boss monsters, or participating in fortress captures. This will grant you your new Abyss rank – but beware, it is not possible to earn Honor Points below level 50 or below 30,000 AP. And you can lose them. Not when you die, but every day when the rank recalculation happens at 12. So keep collecting and stay active 🙂
Tip: Check out your trusted merchant and keep an eye out for new skill books. Rumor has it, there are great new abilities for you. 🙂
Gladiator: Blade of Provocation I from level 65 (Deals physical damage to a target up to 21m away and increases its rage towards you.)
Templar: Flight: Confinement I from level 65 (Deals physical damage to the target up to 20m away and then pulls it directly in front of you. Can only be used in flight.)
Assassin: Evasion Increase II from level 63 (Evasion is increased by 350 for 20s after a successful dodge.) and Flight: Confinement I (Deals physical damage to the target up to 20m away and then pulls it directly in front of you. Can only be used in flight.)
Hunter: Weakening Arrow I from level 65 (Causes physical damage to the target. Parrying by the target is reduced by 300 for 10s, Evasion by 300 and Blocking by 300 .)
Sorcerer: Twinkling Shard II from level 63 (Deals magical water damage to a target up to 25m away and absorbs 50% of the damage as MP. AND Glare I from level 65 (Deals magical fire damage to a target up to 25m away. Chain skill level 3 Brand – Glare)
Summoner: Smoke Gas Explosion II from level 63 (Deals magical fire damage to a target up to 25m away and absorbs 100% of the damage as TP and 50% of the damage as MP. AND Wrath of the Wild I from level 65 Deals magical earth damage to a target up to 25m away based on accumulation level. It is an accumulation skill)
Bard: Melodic Cheer I from level 65 (Attack speed is increased by 20% for 15s.)
Now that looks good, doesn’t it?
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Guild Wars 2 is a success story. Launched with huge hype, the fantasy MMORPG received excellent reviews, sold incredibly well, and was praised for its innovative approach.
So why are we still playing another MMO?
And what are the reasons that Guild Wars 2 couldn’t conquer the market as many once thought? Our tester Schuhmann investigates these questions.
The Beta – Catchment area for failed MMO relationships
At the moment, I’m hanging out in many betas. Betas are kind of the catchment area for homeless MMORPG players. Or better yet: Betas are like those apartment blocks where only freshly divorced men live, pretending to enjoy a happy bachelor life while eating frozen pizzas. If you watch the chat, it’s all about the exes. And you pick up a lot:
So sound disappointed ex-gamers. There is almost never talk of EVE Online. Whoever has fallen for it seems to remain in space forever. Also, hardly anything is heard about The Secret World. If you ask someone about it, they raise their eyebrows in surprise: “Is that a TV series?”
By the way: The highly anticipated feature release coming out on April 15 might give GW2 a solid boost!
But when you chat with someone about Guild Wars 2, you get responses like: “Yeah, that’s true. That was quite good. I could actually play that again.” And then the beta player turns around, steers their level-4 character into a dangerous adventure, and seems to have forgotten the conversation already. Hmm! That got me thinking.
What does Guild Wars 2 lack to transform us all into marauding cats, tree people, or mesmer forever? And why am I not playing it right now?
Problem No. 1 – The missing Holy Trinity
The Holy Trinity is a simple concept. Tanks are there to tank, healers to heal, and damage dealers ensure that the mob falls quickly. This system has been known for decades. It has its problems:
The tank has an enormous amount of responsibility and an ungrateful job.
The healer has an ungrateful job and an enormous amount of responsibility.
The damage dealers often fight more for the top spot in the damage meter than against the boss.
Every class is forced into a specific role, the gameplay is somewhat monotonous, in PvP tanks are often redundant, and when a healer or tank wants to venture out solo, they have to switch to DD.
The unloved kiting
What could have been more innovative than to toss the system out the window? Everyone is a bit of a tank, everyone can heal a bit, and everyone deals damage well anyway. And thus the strange bastard class system in Guild Wars 2 was born.
Now – the system is fantastic for solo play, PvP, or the general game feeling, but in instances or during mass fights against world bosses, it feels chaotic, disorderly, and annoying.
If you ask a player how they experienced Guild Wars 2, they might say: “I played to the max level, then I completed the main quest, it was all great. Then I was in an instance and because there was no tank, we kited a mob around for hours and it was completely stupid.”
For some a boss, for others the biggest loot piñata in the world
Now there will surely be ways for experienced players to establish some order in a 5-player instance, but the impression of total chaos has stuck.
As a casual player, you encounter fantastic mass events: A new threat lands somewhere in the world. It requires hundreds of players to defeat it. But it ends up being 100 people standing around a mob and everyone bashing away like crazy. Because there is no tank to heal, the mob design is limited to AoE attacks, and in the end, it feels like you are beating on a massive piñata until it finally bursts open and the sweet loot spills out.
Conclusion: The lack of a holy trinity severely restricts encounter designers. Some players miss identification with their class.
Reason 2: The high barrier to entry in PvP
The PvP in Guild Wars 2 imposes high tactical demands: The single player is initially nothing. Only in the company of numerous others does he become something, namely part of a zerg. These masses of players stay together on the map, follow a leader, conquer castles and fortresses, and contribute to the success of the realm.
The PvP in Guild Wars 2 overwhelms every beginner at first with a plethora of information, requirements, bonuses, and other things. While the PvP in other MMORPGs is relatively easy to understand: “The one still standing wins.” Or limited to the well-known capture-the-flag scenarios, the PvP in Guild Wars 2 initially expects the player to really dive in.
And even if you have done that, you are dependent on the fate of your realm. Although Guild Wars 2 also has instanced battlegrounds that you can win and lose, the focus is on a battle that lasts a week, during which you are just a grain of sand on the beach. Sometimes PvP in Guild Wars 2 feels like being down 0:3 in a football game after just 2 minutes and only looking forward to the final whistle.
Conclusion: The entry into PvP is difficult and frustrating for many.
Reason 3: The lack of hunting and gathering
Every time I log into Guild Wars 2, I have no idea what I actually want to do. In other games, it’s clear: Finish that quest, farm reputation, join that raid, get a few more points in PvP – because then you get a better item!
So I do that, get a better item, log out, and feel stronger.
Diablo 3, the game that is currently driving half of the MMO gaming community into an early grave and into rampant madness (“Schnitzel!”) has perfected this behavior.
In Guild Wars 2 with the flat item curve, I can buy pretty good gear directly from the auction house. At boss events, little better drops. Somehow, you could have weapons crafted or farm some dailies or start with “fractals,” but even before that, there is a hurdle that a casual player will probably never overcome.
Conclusion: The item and character progression is unclear.
[What is it about Guild Wars 2 that I and many other players can’t overcome these three hurdles? Are you a certified Guild Wars 2 expert and can explain to us why it is your game? Do you have to really dive into the endgame to appreciate the mechanics? Or did you also quit Guild Wars 2 fairly quickly?
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This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
“Polishing” is the magical word that has been circulating in the WildStar forums for weeks. It refers to the ironing out of bugs, improving the framerate, and balancing the classes. Essentially, the final touch – the last polish – before an MMO is unleashed on the player base.
And this final touch seems to have arrived for WildStar, and it has quite a few surprises in store!
In addition to the countless small class changes, some disruptive gameplay elements have also been removed: group play is now rewarded with significantly more experience points than when wandering through Nexus alone. Moreover, each character now receives an additional teleport spell that takes them directly to the capital of their faction – incredibly useful, as this means you have a total of three recall options with your own house and fast travel.
The Chua out of the bag: More character models!
This Chua is excited about this surprise!
The biggest unexpected change is the fact that each race will receive multiple character models and some new hairstyles.
Previously, there was exactly one model per race and gender, and the last statement was that this would not change before launch. Sometimes it’s nice when developers do not keep their promises! According to rumors, Carbine felt compelled to do this because many players criticized the reduction of the bust size of the Aurin in one of the past patches – now everyone might get their wish after all.
Due to maintenance work, we unfortunately have not been able to take a look at the new models yet. This will only be possible again on April 18, during the next beta phase.
Housing – More, Better
Further tweaking is also being done on the housing system: the previous number of neighbors has been increased from 25 to 100 – now everyone should be able to accommodate their friends list there.
In addition, it is now possible to furnish some of the “dead spots” on the property with furniture and decorations; now the entire area is really available.
Have you read my article about Housing in WildStar? I hope so! It contains over 100 hours of content! You should also read the preview by Schuhmann, it’s a must-read.
Many, Many Details
It would be too much to address each of the over 500 points here, but it’s clearly recognizable that the game is heading towards its final stretch: voiceovers for instances and cinematics are in, endgame and PvP are being rounded out, plenty of new icons, improved emotes, and a more sensible user interface.
If you want to take a detailed look at every change – and you are fluent in English – you can do so here.
Nexus, here we come!
http://youtu.be/ukb7oOCkhJw
This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
The launch of an MMO never goes perfectly. Even The Elder Scrolls Online couldn’t manage to eliminate the bugs before the game’s start and prevent the glitches. In this video, I want to tell you about some of the sometimes amusing, but at times also pretty serious errors.
For example, my Khajiit Nightblade suddenly defied gravity and flew/ran around in the clouds — at least until it fell down again and was eaten by slaughterfish. An undignified end for a cat, I might add.
The peaceful meadows of Middle-earth will soon tremble and nothing will be as it was…
Because Lord of the Rings Online is celebrating its seventh anniversary! From April 17 to April 29, 2014, the party will take place and promises not only a beautiful fireworks display. Depending on how old your account is and whether you are a Premium or VIP player, there are additional gifts. If you haven’t been playing HRDO for that long or don’t know it, here’s a short explanation:
Premium = Someone who has spent money in the shop or market or was once a VIP
VIP = Active subscriber
And what is there for these players now? Generally, the cut-off date is always April 30 of the year, so if you have been registered for longer than…
1 year registered: Anniversary fireworks
2 years registered: Three scrolls of perpetual speed (60 minutes duration), +5 % attack damage (90 minutes) x1, 10 battle-recovery potions
3 years registered: Three loot box keys
4 years registered: Azure festive clothing
5 years registered: A festive azure horse
6 years registered: A festive, azure cosmetic appearance for your warhorse
7 years registered: A shield cloak, a treasure chest key and if you have a monster-player character, the /dance emote and 5 % attack damage x5
Depending on the number of years, you will also receive a matching character portrait frame. If you can hardly wait, you will unfortunately have to wait until April 17, 2014, because then a large batch of gifts will be waiting in your inventory. If your bags are full, the rest will be delivered to you at the next login when there is space.
Don’t worry, even if you haven’t played for a while, you are not excluded from the action. Even if you can’t manage to log in during the event, the gifts will not expire.
Maybe the free-to-play players among you will gulp… But hey! You still get a firework!
There’s actually only one thing left to say: Happy Birthday, Lord of the Rings Online!
So seriously, what do you think about this? Is it okay that Premium and VIP players are prioritized? Are you disappointed as a F2P player? Do you not care? Do you consider people greedy for wanting more?
This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
And those are just difficulties outside the game. We don’t want to deal with those today. We’ll take a look at where TESO’s game design still offers improvement opportunities and glance at the two things in Tamriel that annoy us the most. We’ll leave bugs and lags aside and focus only on things that seem to have been intentionally designed this way.
Or to put it another way: Welcome to our first show at mein-mmo.de.
Welcome to“WTF Zenimax? Really?!”
We have already reported about end bosses in caves whose spawn timers are too low and whose loot is too good, we have already reported.
Thank you, I would like to do this alone
The quest system of TESO is highly praised, but it conflicts with the design decision to avoid instanced areas as much as possible and to keep the world open. This is something quite normal and known in the open field. If you need to kill 10 bears for a quest, then the game is designed to have 50 bears in a field: enough bears for everyone. In TESO, however, many quests lead in a tube-like manner toward a dungeon or a cave. And while there are also 50 bears, they all wait neatly in a row like dominoes.
This means a player enters a cave, wonders why there are only corpses lying around, pushes further towards the end, encounters a group of players who are currently squashing an unfortunate bear in a team of five, joins in, and – poof – suddenly six players are hitting the next fur carrier. But that one is also only designed for one player.
Unfortunately, too many quests in The Elder Scrolls Online play out this way.
This becomes unpleasant especially at the end of a cave when 8, 10, or 12 people gather around the poor cave boss, just to send him promptly to the afterlife. The good guy lives on average four frames.
When you compare this quest experience with the solo quests that a player experiences in the service of the Fighter’s or Mage’s Guild, there are worlds of difference in fun.
In other games, the run on certain quests eventually dwindles, but with The Elder Scrolls Online this is not necessarily to be expected due to the mega-server.
Why is this a case for “WTF Zenimax? Really?!”: Because it’s simply not fun to take the poor boss’s milk money with 12 people. We are not schoolyard bullies… (anymore).
What should change? It is commendable that Zenimax is moving away from instancing with TESO and towards an open MMORPG, but the opponents must scale with the number of players.
The fun that an anchor provides decreases exponentially with the number of players. If they are just dragged away from the spawn, it is not particularly enjoyable for either demons or players.
Where did I put that again?
The inventory system from Zenimax is a return to the origins – one could say it politely. In other words: it is simply outdated. Space is scarce in many RPGs, and players have to consider what they need and what they can leave behind. But the question must be allowed: Why is this the case? Does anyone enjoy this?
Guild Wars 2 or the new WildStar have found an excellent system to immediately remove crafting materials (boring, boring crafting materials) from the player’s focus and put them into a special bank. Nowhere would this system be more appropriate than in The Elder Scrolls Online, where every player can collect every type of resource. And every single damned thing takes up one of the few inventory slots.
Billions of different runes, trillions of different food additives, plus crafting stones to create various styles, and health potions! Oh God! Health potions! Any tiny difference in level immediately occupies a new slot. There are also mana and stamina potions!
Can you remember this graphic showing how many weapons are in the game and how much coffee everyone drank at Zenimax and how many played the beta and so? Why is the following number missing: We give you 80 inventory slots and 300 different food ingredients! Yeah!
Of course, one could now say: But that is realistic, no one can carry everything around. No, it’s not. Why do 3 health potions of level 14 only take up one slot in the inventory, while 2 health potions of level 14 and one of level 13 take up two slots? And why does a forty-kilo heavy chain mail take up as much space in my backpack as a single grape?
Additionally, there’s a really odd interface in the guild store and general frustration with the inventory. Who gets a kick out of coming home from an adventure and wondering whether an onion still has space in the bank or should be sold directly? And who wants to think about such things in 2014? And yes: you can expand the backpack, then you have 10-40 additional items that you have to decide whether to store in the bank or sell right away.
Why is this a case for “WTF Zenimax? Really?!”: Because the inventory system may be a concession to hardcore role players, purists, and nostalgics, but it is both pointless and pretty frustrating. If you want to stop players from hoarding, you should either forbid them from looting every cheese crate. Or you tie the abilities of gathering crafting resources directly to skill level – just like in other games.
What should change: A deep, long, and thorough look at the inventory and banking system of Guild Wars 2 or WildStar should solve this problem.
In the next issue of “WTF Zenimax? Really?”: The salt rice cracker of completion and the difficulties of proper localization.
This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
While my computer is quietly and melodically rattling and downloading the new patch 2.7 for Star Wars: The Old Republic, I want to remind you today: Make sure to start the download before you head to school or work! The message “Data is being reorganized” creeps forward at 0.01% increments and will surely take some time.
But the effort is worth it, as game update 2.7 Invasion brings exciting new content to the sci-fi MMO, all centered around the galactic conflict between the Republic and the Empire. PvE players can look forward to two new tactical flashpoints starting at level 55. The instances ‘Attack on Korriban’ and ‘Raid on Tython’ not only invite you with action-packed battles but also offer some nice moments for fans of the video sequences. But will you manage to attack the enemy planets and deal a blow to the hated opponents?
If you want it even more exciting, grab some friends with strong nerves and head to the Fortress of Terror Masters. The five bosses are designed to require tactical finesse and a lot of attention from you in nightmare mode. Will you defeat them and become a respected fighter, or will the droid cleaning crew have to pick you up off the floor?
Our news about the Huttball Pit, the new war zone on the muddy planet Quesh, can be found here. As Season 1 of the Ranked Warzones has now ended, you should find your rewards in the virtual mailbox with a bit of luck. The next round will start with Patch 2.7.1 – but until then you shouldn’t rest on your laurels. Off to the ranked arenas and practice hard, that’s the mantra now. The young, dynamic latecomers won’t take long to come and will try to take your place in the next season!
Are you more of a fan of heated battles on the maps for Galactic Starfighters? Your wish was the developers’ command. Grab a helmet and make your way to the Denon Exosphere. But be careful where you fly. Debris and huge capital ships complicate the capture of a strategically important space station – but for you heroes, that should be no problem!
Just like the Bounty Hunter Contract Week, which runs from April 8 to April 15. At this event, you can, of course, not only participate as a bounty hunter! Go hunt down the bad guys of the galaxy on eight planets and take them out. But at this point, I don’t want to give away too much – just log in yourself and check it out.
Tip: Before you dive into the fray, be sure to check your class skills again. There has been a true flood of changes that you can read about in the account management at the patch notes !
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What would The Elder Scrolls Online be without enough endgame content? Probably an MMORPG that doesn’t justify a subscription! While there is certainly excitement at the Zenimax headquarters right now to fix all the teething problems you are encountering, a trailer has been released introducing the next major content update.
To counter the impending lull after the supposed finish line, a so-called adventure zone will soon be introduced with Kargstein, focusing on uncovering the secrets surrounding lost constellations and celestial beings.
Players who have already reached the end level and also the 10th veteran rank will find a special gaming paradise with the first content pack of ESO, offering challenges for the strongest heroes among us. The zone itself is designed for 4 players, where you can, as in the rest of the game, casually start searching for tasks and other treasures. This way, you will gradually learn what problems you will be facing in Kargstein. So, you won’t miss out on a strong background story even in the endgame.
Adventures for Raid Groups
In addition to several instanced and group-exclusive mini-dungeons, especially progress-hungry players will rub their hands at a certain content. With the “Trials”, designed for 12 players, which according to the developers are most comparable to raids, the goal is to send extremely tough opponents to the afterlife. The performances of each group are immortalized in a leaderboard to fuel the competitive spirit.
Does Zenimax manage to balance the needs of MMO players while also pursuing the desire to maintain the proven Elder Scrolls atmosphere?
What do you think, will the adventure zone Kargstein provide the hoped-for long-term motivation or rather frustration? Do the daily quests mentioned in the video really fit into the concept of Elder Scrolls?
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The new generation of MMORPGs is at hand with The Elder Scrolls Online, WildStar, and Everquest Next. But what would these games be without companions to laugh, chat, and quarrel with? What would these games be without a guild? The website mmoscout.net now offers players a simple and convenient way to find suitable guilds.
Every guild is a little different
Gamers enter into some strange relationships with each other. Some stick together for years in a raid and only speak the bare minimum. They are trapped in a purpose alliance, the sole aim of which is to bring home the maximum loot Y with as little effort X as possible. It’s like a shared apartment where everyone comes together for meetings. Yet, everyone is happy when the door to their own room closes again.
With other online acquaintances, one hardly plays at all, but just chats. Everyone goes about their business, everyone is a soloist, and the guild chat becomes the communal kitchen table where the day’s events are discussed.
Of course, there are also deeply rooted relationships between players and their communities. Guilds that have lasted for years, some even decades, and endure through the games and MMORPGs. However, such communities often crumble. They become unattractive for newcomers who capitulate in the face of insider jokes and intricate group dynamics. New blood is lacking, and people scatter to the winds: One is a Seth Lord in Star Wars: The Old Republic, the next is a Crusader in Diablo, and the former tank of the raid is now roaming in real life. And suddenly, one sits alone in the living room, looking at the empty seats.
Or there is simply a new MMORPG around the corner, like now The Elder Scrolls Online, that one definitely wants to play, but none of the friends and acquaintances feel like it. So it’s: I will look for a new guild.
In the jungle of forums and the hustle of chats
Now there is certainly no shortage of guilds looking for players in a fresh MMORPG. Every two minutes, a recruiter spams the chat. Somewhere between ads for a goldselling site and questions about where to find “imbalance,” the poor guys poke their heads out of the chat looking for new people, mostly healers or tanks. It’s more like the panic of a mass viewing than a date with new roommates.
In other established games, there are large anonymous forum threads where people brag about their raid successes. The guild seeker becomes a candidate before a tribunal. Or one clicks through squeaky guild forums, has to register with a password everywhere, and hopes to hit a lucky strike. The job interview in a dubious teamspeak isn’t really an inviting option either.
Of course, one can also get lucky and make a nice acquaintance through solo play that then leads to guild membership. However, with today’s games, that has become a rarity. Nowadays, one must be happy to be grouped with people who still talk at all, and with a lot of luck, also in “German” – and no: “og og og” does not count as “talking”.
Who can blame people for many guilds with a pleasant atmosphere shy away from playing with outsiders and prefer to stay in their cozy living room? It’s hard to peek in from the outside. So how to find a guild?
The clever guild search from mmoscout.net
The website offers a central point of contact for guilds and guild seekers. The special feature here is the intuitively operable “clever guild search.” A player registers in the forum and can immediately start looking for their new guild. They select a game, and a drop-down menu opens with various questions and answers. This is not voodoo or complicated stuff that requires a degree from a trendy goblin technician school, but really simple multiple-choice questions that even an orc could fill out before their midday nap.
Power gamer or more of a casual player?
Teamspeak chatterbox or prefer going without a headset?
Role player? Yes? No? Or: Onward my friends, into battle?
How important is crafting, an RL meeting, or the size of the guild to you?
In less than 90 seconds, you are done with the questionnaire and the system presents you with guilds to choose from. From a percentage display, you can easily see how likely it is that you have found your future soulmate here. The application is just a click away. Or you create a profile and let guilds come to you.
Already over 40 guilds registered for The Elder Scrolls Online
The website mmoscout.net has a guild search function for a total of 17 games. Among them, of course, is also World of Warcraft. Likewise, Guild Wars 2, Rift, HdRO, and Star Wars: The Old Republic are represented. Even players for more exotic titles like Age of Wulin or Runes of Magic find each other here.
Currently, the application for Zenimax’s masterpiece, the fantasy MMORPG The Elder Scrolls Online, is particularly high. More than 40 TESO guilds have now registered. For Rift, there are already 121 guilds listed. Maybe there is a new, the right, the super comfortable and also fragrant living room for you?
In addition to the guild search (http://www.mmoscout.net/gildensuche.html), they also entice with regular news about the hottest MMOs and a loyalty point system, through which regular visitors and forum participants have the chance to win lucrative prizes. In March, a Logitech mouse worth 70 euros was raffled off, and for April, a headset in a similar price range is announced.
This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
Vampires have existed in previous parts of the Elder Scrolls series. There, players had to fight against a vampire and often let themselves be hit by it. With every hit, there was a 10% chance of being infected with “Sanguinare Vampiris,” a disease that gradually turned the player into a vampire – unless cured at a shrine.
If the disease was not cured within 3 days, the player themselves became a bloodsucker and was thereafter avoided or feared by their fellow humans. Furthermore, they had to quench their thirst by breaking into houses and draining the blood of innocent citizens. If they did not do this, they had to live with negative effects, such as reduced health. However, there were also advantages to increasing blood thirst. Although the body became weaker, the abilities became significantly stronger.
In The Elder Scrolls Online, vampirism functions similarly. As with werewolves, there are rare vampire groups in the game that can infect the player with vampirism. This also brings some disadvantages, but also access to a new skill line.
More information about how to become a bloodsucker can be found in the new episode: Interview with a Vampire.
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From time to time, there are errors in games – not just in the online role-playing game Allods Online, where things are currently quite serious due to a major bug: In the Arena of Death, you can become invincible. It sounds funny at first, but we probably don’t need to explain how this exploit affects the gameplay. Now, the community team is finally stepping in and wants to give the bad guys and gals who shamelessly exploited the bug a warning:
Regarding the penalties: We will investigate the accounts that have exploited the bug closely and will ban them. The severity of the ban depends on how often the exploit was used.
So far, the error could still not be fixed – accordingly, players who exploit the bug now will be punished more harshly – in the worst (or best?) case with a permanent ban.
Of course, you also have a chance to atone and contact the Allods Online support via email ([email protected]). There, you not only write how sorry you are but also detail how the error occurred or how you became invulnerable. You should then title the email “Arena of Death invincibility exploit” so it doesn’t get lost in the flood of messages and hope that you come away with just a bruise.
And this is exactly what people argue about every time: Is it fair to punish players who exploit a bug?
[intense_testimonies]
[intense_testimony]
[intense_testimony_text]Even in other MMOs, exploits are used to gain an advantage. Just remember the severe bugs in the arenas of World of Warcraft and the heated debates about them. Whether you do it or not is a personal decision. But as was said long ago in the movie Dangerous Minds: One always has a choice. Affected players do not have to exploit a bug if it is clearly known that it should work differently. And let’s be honest – suddenly being immune on a battlefield should definitely not happen when you are a Paladin (in WoW) and activating the fear bubble. Alternative action: Just leave the arena and inform support…
[/intense_testimony_text]
[intense_testimony_author image=”https://images.mein-mmo.de/magazin/medien/2014/01/Logo-022.png”][/intense_testimony_author]
[/intense_testimony]
[/intense_testimonies]
What do you think about it?
This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
The release weekend of the AAA fantasy MMORPG title The Elder Scrolls Online by Zenimax is overshadowed by some issues. In the PvP zone Cyrodiil, there are problems when players join a group. There are difficulties completing a subscription, certain mobs are excessively camped by players, and on top of that, some quests turn out to be dead ends.
Prefer to go solo in Cyrodiil?
According to forum reports and personal experiences, issues arise in the large PvP zone Cyrodiil, where the three realms compete for dominance in Tamriel. These problems are apparently related to the groups that players can join. If a player joins a large group, it may lead to seemingly random crashes. After the crash, the player cannot log in immediately and gets stuck on the loading screen.
So be cautious if you want to join groups in the PvP area. This bug takes on an ironic flavor as the focus of PvP in The Elder Scrolls Online lies in group combat.
Many dead ends in the quests
For the quests where many players get stuck, unfortunately, there isn’t an easy workaround like abstaining from groups. After the 1.01 patch cleared some stumbling blocks in the starting area, quests that turn out to be dead ends reappear in subsequent zones. In the chat of many zones, there is regular talk that certain quest lines cannot be pursued further. In many cases, repeatedly logging out and back in helps, but not in all.
Typically, the problem presents itself as follows: The brave hero progresses quickly until they reach a point where twenty other characters are desperately reading a book (these are the characters of players currently on the desktop). The newly arrived hero wonders what is so exciting here, continues with their quest, and finds themselves standing next to the others two minutes later, googling… Since no one knows how the respective quest functions exactly and whether they might just be searching in the wrong place, it is difficult to distinguish between bug and feature.
Surely these are problems that were to be expected at the launch of such a large MMORPG. Still, it’s not pleasant.
Do we need a conservation status for Named Mobs?
The brave hero also encounters a larger gathering of players in the public dungeons. Here, usually, one must defeat a named mob at the end to complete the dungeon and earn an achievement.
However, colleague “I have a name and more HP than you normal loser-mobs” is rarely found alive. Many of them have an increased chance to drop special items and are therefore under constant fire. Their better loot table becomes their downfall: they are camped.
Whether this was intended by Zenimax in this form is doubtful. For a game that values immersion and roleplay so highly, it would be an unusual design decision. Especially since any player dealing damage to the mob is allowed to loot.
Problems with subscriptions
From another direction, further shadows are cast over Tamriel. Many players purchased the game, under the firm belief that they could immediately begin their hero’s journey with the 30 free days. Yet starting this Sunday, a subscription must first be completed (which can then be canceled immediately). The 30 free days are of no use without a valid payment method.
Especially younger players often do not have the opportunity to pay immediately via credit card or Paypal. They are facing a disappointing Sunday, having installed the game and just peacefully played until now, as much as possible given the bugs – and now they cannot proceed.
The problems are exacerbated by the fact that Zenimax’s support apparently cannot keep up with the large influx of issues. Based on experience, improvements can certainly be expected in the coming days.
We wish everyone who does not encounter problems a wonderful time in Tamriel!
This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
Who still remembers the first blue exclamation marks with the Netherwing in World of Warcraft?
It was a completely new principle: Quests could be repeated every day and thus offered a fresh method of reputation gain with a beloved faction.
As long as a quest is logically sound, there is no problem: a camp that needs to be supplied with resources every day can very well send me as a player on the hunt for those very resources again and again, that makes sense.
The daily maintenance of various technical devices can also still be considered logical (though I would like to pull the gnome engineer’s ears to elven length). But as we all know, it didn’t stop there.
It Feels Like Work
Daily missions have something incredibly repetitive – that is basically their purpose. They can be programmed with relatively little effort and simply by being repeatable, a player will engage with them much longer than with a classic “One-Time Quest”. That would be fine in itself, if daily tasks were not rewarded with things that make it almost essential to complete them day after day, if you want to stay up to date.
“In the past”, it was about a unique mount that you received for the consistent work – yes, work. The 47th collection of dragon eggs had nothing to do with fun. The end result was satisfying, nevertheless; you did a lot of work and received something you didn’t necessarily need, but just wanted as a prestige item.
Beyond the Target
Meanwhile, the “Daily Quests” have been elevated to a whole new level of absurdity. I no longer have the choice between two to three areas, as it was back in the Netherwing and the Sha’tari Skyguards, but can choose from over ten different hubs. And as if that weren’t bad enough, the reward for successfully completing such areas is unlocking more.[quote_right]As long as the players have something to do[/quote_right]
Many other MMOs have jumped on the daily bandwagon since then and have thrown away everything that originally belonged to their game, following the motto “As long as the players have something to do”.
As a prime example of the negative implementation, Star Wars: The Old Republic unfortunately stands out. The sci-fi MMO shined with fully voiced quests and a great story – this was simply discarded in the daily quests. Instead, every day you go to a terminal, click seven times to have all quests, and then slaughter yourself across the whole area. Sooner or later, when you have killed the “evil occupant” of a corporate site for the fifth time, you realize that a logical story is no longer relevant.
On Makeb, there are a few voiced dailies alongside the terminal quests, but it’s not the golden egg.
Of course, one might say now, “So what? In dungeons and raids, you also kill bosses multiple times,” and that’s true. But quests have always been the opportunity to present players with the story of the world, and have become an absolute joke due to such banalities. Even though the planet “Makeb” has tried to make the tasks shine in a better light through partially synchronized daily missions, that doesn’t change the fact that you simply have to redo the whole planet – week after week, if you wanted to keep up with the “top level”.
Single-Player Content with Group Pressure
For me, daily quests were always primarily content that could be tackled alone while waiting for the next raid or killing time until the next battleground. They were perfectly suited for that – they were never very demanding and usually consisted only of simple gathering or killing tasks that could easily be interrupted to engage in the “real” gameplay.
I unfortunately do not know (or fortunately!) which game designer thought it was a good idea to introduce daily group missions because they cause frustration. Now, you had to intentionally invest time into these contents and could no longer use them as a side distraction – because you were reluctant to leave a group for the next PvP skirmish. Again, SW:TOR takes the crown: to turn in the crucial main mission, all other missions must first be completed, which of course includes the group quest – you were thus forced to complete every task.
Glimmers of Hope and the Future
But not everything was bad about the past generation of daily tasks. One thing that has stayed in good memory for me is the “Domination Offensive” in World of Warcraft. Although the faction did not offer great rewards in the form of items worth playing for, it still captivated me: Every few thousand reputation points, you received a new, unique quest that advanced the main story – one of the best questlines I have experienced in an MMORPG thus far.
[quote_box_right]There won’t be no daily quests, but we do want to get across the notion that it’s not going to be the primary focus for end-game content in Warlords – Bashiok, WoW Community Manager.[/quote_box_right>
The developers also seem to have realized that such a task type is outdated and no longer liked by players – the new WoW expansion “Warlords of Draenor” is thus expected to have only a minimal number of these tasks.
It remains to be hoped that WildStar, TESO, and also SW:TOR will handle it the same way.
Because if I experience exactly the same thing every day and the fun decreases each time – why should I still play the game?
This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
The fantasy MMORPG The Elder Scrolls Online is available for pre-order since almost a week. It’s time to take a closer look at whether the numerous speculations made in the last months have turned out to be true: How does TESO play?
No worries, this won’t be a review of the first few hours in the game. We have also observed competitors wondering whether the game deserves an 85 or a 90 before they let the readers wait until next week. We won’t put you through that.
Instead, we take a look at the first days in Tamriel and examine the PvP, the instances, the language confusion, and the loot behavior more closely.
The PvP: Mass battles instead of sports competitions
On the one hand, the PvP feels pleasantly different. It is goal-oriented, there is always a castle to conquer or defend, and the map immediately shows where the action is. Skirmishes are marked by symbols on the map.
On the other hand, the siege weapons are currently so important that the game sometimes resembles The Elder Sieges Online.
Over time, tactics will set in and establish: Supporters protect important siege weapons with the protective dome – the opponents try to take them out. At the moment, these tactics are still completely unclear to many. In any case, tanks have a lot to do in PvP if they want to destroy castles.
The PvP feels much more like a battle between armies for castles than a fight between two sports teams for a flag. But until everyone realizes that, it will take a while. One could also say: At the moment, many are playing checkers while they should be playing chess.
How some players will react to the experience of defending their fortresses for 12 hours, going to bed, and logging in the next day to find that their Elder Scrolls were stolen in a coordinated night raid: That will be “interesting.” The form of PvP that Zenimax has chosen is great when you win and incredibly frustrating when you’re on the other side.
Looting: Kleptomania instead of piety?
On the one hand, there is a lot to discover in the world; after all, there could be a great item in every barrel. For example, I picked up some cooking recipes from chests around the banker and felt pretty clever.
On the other hand, this also leads to a strange kleptomania. While the housewife is mourning her NPC husband who died in a quest, I’m already clearing out the adjacent room!
What might be stored in this chest?
The beauty of the system is the chaotic and unpredictable element. Whereas loot in other games seems to be distributed like on a drawing board, in The Elder Scrolls Online, something exciting can actually happen everywhere.
However, it feels a bit strange in instances. As soon as the last enemy lies down, all four group members break their legs to reach the treasure chest. Only one can open it. Griefing behavior is therefore pre-programmed (“I’ll skip the fight and wait here next to the chest, that’s okay with you, right?”). Overall, the game still feels a bit like “Well, will they really leave that in?” It is not polished yet, but it is definitely fun. Maybe precisely because of that.
The instances: Single players meet MMORPG veterans
On the one hand, it is great that so many single-player players are finding their way into an MMORPG. Here, cultures collide that might never meet in other games. At the moment, everything is still in flux, and the player who is used to an instance from WoW meets people who are at home in flashpoints from Star Wars, skirmishes from Lord of the Rings Online, or only know the rifts from Diablo 3.
On the other hand, some instance groups look as if they have sprung from an Uncle Barlow video. The tank has a rough idea of what is going wrong (“The healer!”), the healer would actually prefer to be a DD but can’t find a group, and there are so many DDs that it is a miracle to even find a group. Accordingly, they submit themselves and silently endure the tyranny of the tank. (“You have to be afk for twenty minutes? I have total understanding for that! If your dog has to go out, I gladly wait that long!”).
The instances are designed to be pleasantly beginner-friendly, and the fights are action-packed and varied. Usually, you are faced with a significant numerical superiority of relatively weak mobs that topple one by one. This has its appeal. Additionally, there is no dispute over loot, only over treasure chests!
Babylon stands in Tamriel
On the one hand, school English pays off. Because that will probably be the main language in The Elder Scrolls Online, even though there are of course opportunities to speak German in special channels. This may be unfamiliar for some players at first, but it should cure many of the fear of speaking English.
On the other hand, it could significantly impair academic performance if one truly tries out the League-of-Legends-Denglisch/Spanglish/Franglish one hears in an English test.
Communication in general! At the moment, many channels are still unclear. In the PvP area, contradictory instructions are shouted in ALL-CAPS at a second’s pace, while one “Fuck this, let’s go PvE!” mumbles. In the starting zones, you meet the beloved gold spammers from other MMORPGs. It will be interesting to see how server behavior changes when fixed structures are in place.
Until then, you can only guess: Get yourself a German-speaking guild!
Finally, five practical tips
Porting without a shrine costs gold! It can quickly add up at the beginning, so better port only from shrine to scribe. It is not Guild Wars 2.
Buy siege weapons in PvP. They can be found in the mine, the farm, and the lumberjack camp around each castle. Familiarize yourself with the siege weapons. At the moment, a guy who can operate a ballista or catapult is much more valuable than ten who hop around a castle desperately looking for someone to shoot.
You can port to the instances you sign up for through the group finder. However, you have to do the porting yourself; it does not happen automatically. The port allows you to easily visit the dungeons of the opposing factions. Completing the instance grants a skill point.
Skulls and torches on the map are symbols for enemy camps or dungeons. The symbols start off white and fill up when completed. You complete them by killing a stronger named mob there. For the skull camps, at least two players are recommended against the enemies.
If you’re worried about missing a sky shard: In the success tab under “J” you can see exactly if you’ve found all the sky shards in an area and which ones you’re still missing. If the vague hints in the achievements are not enough for you, there is a magical way to get more precise information about their whereabouts. I believe the cool kids on the street call it “googling”.
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The visitor numbers are rising
After we were able to dramatically increase our visitor numbers at the end of February with some articles about The Elder Scrolls Online, the trend continued in March. Just as a number: On March 31, that is, on a single day in the last month, we had roughly as many visitors as in all of January. Hand on heart: It is much more fun to write something that is also read.
In total, we had 44,621 visitors on mein-mmo.de in March. April will clearly surpass this value.
Your great interest is a reason for joy for all of us here and was unforeseen by any of us. After all, we do the work for you and very gladly, but mainly in our free time. The support we receive through comments and visitor numbers shows us that we are on the right track. Apparently, an astonishingly large number of people want to be informed about MMOs and MMORPGs in a somewhat unconventional way, fresh and current.
The topics of the month
This article sparked lively discussions across the internet.
With the release of The Elder Scrolls Online at the end of the month, our reporting increasingly focused on the fantasy MMORPG, after all, these articles received the largest response by far. Already our article from March 2 about the missing auction house in TESO was embraced by the community and discussed in various forums.
With an article at the end of the month about the newly crowned Empress, we even landed in the forum of an English site as breaking news from the Weißwurstland. The different preview, helpful articles about the racial bonuses and the Dragon Knight, as well as the article about the head start, round off the month that was all about ESO.
Our magazine was also recommended several times among the articles of German gaming sites. That does not escape our notice, but makes us very happy.
The newly joined YouTuber Darion is now contributing to making our words accompanied by a few moving images. His TESO casts were a popular part of our site in March (#14, #15, #16 and a video about the endgame)
Influence is growing
Moreover, it can be said that we have had quite an influence on how MMOs have been reported – even in the mainstream. After all, some topics we addressed in our articles landed shortly thereafter on competing sites that belong to large publishers.
Of course, we did not only cover The Elder Scrolls Online in March. As a second focus of our site, the sci-fi MMORPG WildStar has turned out to be. It is currently in beta and is a lot of fun for many of us in the editorial team.
Cortyn has invested over 100 hours in her house on Nexus. In the beta.
Especially Cortyn goes all out in the housing feature of the game and has done great things – and plushy things. Our preview of WildStar attracted many visitors and showed that there is lively interest in the quirky title from Carbine among our readers.
World of Warcraft is also important
The boost to level 90 – genius or just uninspired?
If you look at the top navigation bar, you will also see that we not only have these three titles in the program, but also deal with Guild Wars 2 and Star Wars: The Old Republic.
We also have smaller games and free-to-play titles in our sights and provide you with the latest news. Since the beginning of the month, Katja Schönfeld has been writing almost every day about what is happening in the world of MMOs.
Looking into the future
In addition to our focus on specific titles, we repeatedly address topics that deal with the design and philosophy of MMORPGs in general. Thus, our sandbox article might be of interest to anyone wanting to take a look beyond the horizon.
In the hardware section, not much new happened in March, we only introduced a gaming mouse from Logitech, but our articles from February about keyboards, mice, and headsets are still current.
We have not lost sight of the topic.
What’s next?
How things will proceed depends a good deal on you, the readers. What do you wish for from the site?
Do you like the layout, for which our project manager Dawid regularly sacrifices his evenings (some innovations are coming soon)?
Do you have any topics that you want us to cover?
Are you furious with us and cursing us every day because we hype the big titles and ignore and overlook the real gems?
Do you feel like typing yourself and writing a contribution?
One advantage of our site is that we want to be very close to you, the readers, and we can be. So give us feedback, we are just waiting for it. Unfortunately, Björn has withdrawn a bit at the moment, but we are sure: Soon he will also contribute to interesting articles again.
Came to stay
We hope you enjoy the site as much as we do. Of course, we selfishly wish that you keep coming back, whether during a short gaming break, on the bus, or just before going to bed. We will do our best to ensure that you get the best possible reading material on mein-mmo.de.
Stay true to us and recommend us further! We are not leaving here so quickly.
This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
Diablo III: Reaper of Souls is the successful return of a classic that was written off. In a short time, the expansion has sold over 2.5 million copies, which can also be attributed to the nearly overwhelmingly positive reviews.
In Diablo 3, the heroes engage in an arms race with the demons of Hell. Blizzard constantly throws new creatures at the heroes, but also grants them ever more powerful items to combat this threat. Those who want to be convinced by the new features of the expansion can find more information here.
The lucky ones among you who have so far escaped the lure of Diablo 3 can now be tempted by a bargain price this weekend. Amazon offers the bundle of Diablo 3 and the expansion Reaper of Souls at a special price of 44 euros: To the Amazon promotion.
This price advantage is only valid from 28.03.2014 to 06.04.2014, which is why one should seize the opportunity if they were already considering it.
This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
The new letter from the Game Director for The Secret World online reveals how the MMO will proceed. So let’s start with the exciting stuff: Starting next week, the story of conspiracies and myths will finally continue. The title “Side Stories: Further Analysis” promises four new thrilling investigation missions, packed with puzzles and excitement:
The Busy Clay: Visit Dr. Anton Aldini and help one of his missing creatures find itself – or death.
Submersion: Head out to the grim Lisa Hui in the burned desert and try to make contact with headquarters in Tokyo. Besides a surprising ending, you will also find a new feature in this mission that unfortunately has not been elaborated on yet.
Dragon Trial: Have you always wanted to become a true monster hunter to keep up with the Drăculeşti? Then this mission will be just right for you!
The Abandoned: Look forward to an exciting excursion with the mysterious Mosul into the backstory of the fairytale creatures of the shadowy forest.
If you manage to master all the missions, you will receive a surprise prize and an Inspector Gadget.
Are you not a fan of these mission packs? You might be more excited about the next update Issue #9. A highlight will be the AEGIS system, which allows you to further customize your character. There will be three fillable slots: AEGIS Controller, Anima Condensers, and Expansion Modules.
AEGIS Controller, the heart of the AEGIS system, are divided into the classes Demonic, Psychic, and Cybernetic. Each company develops its own variants of the AEGIS categories, all having different effects. Controllers are equipped in weapon slots and convert a certain percentage of the damage caused by the player into damage of a specific type. AEGIS Controllers are self-learning devices. This means they have features that allow them to analyze dirt samples in the field and transmit the results to the respective parent company. Once enough data has been collected, a patch will be released over the ether.
Anima Condensers are equipped on chakra points on the player’s body. They enhance the flow of Anima energy to the controller, enabling it to convert larger amounts of damage into the desired type of damage.
Expansion Modules are equipped with subroutines designed to give AEGIS attacks an extra boost.
To work effectively, you need to constantly upgrade your AEGIS equipment; otherwise, you will have no chance against the opponents in Tokyo! If your gear is too old or poor, you won’t be able to take on many foes in Tokyo. Want to try it live? Then get ready, because in April the update will come to the test servers!
This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
Germany, 3 a.m. The entire population is playing The Elder Scrolls Online? Probably not, but a stadium could definitely be filled. At least. It seems that access is not yet granted to everyone…
As most have probably noticed, TESO officially launched just a few hours ago. In addition to new items in the shop and an infographic, the obligatory MMORPG launch issues are also present here. Many players are complaining about a) download problems, b) non-functioning product keys, and c) an early access cut short by maintenance.
Small update: If you register your game now, you have to subscribe. Most want to make a decision only after the 30-day trial period. But don’t worry: The subscription will only activate in May and can be canceled until then.
The Mass Makes It
The first two mentioned problems are likely due to overloaded servers, as millions of players have the same goal at this moment: to do everything possible to finally visit Tamriel. The poor F5 key sends its regards. Apparently, Zenimax is already managing to gradually resolve these issues; most players are now also able to dive into their first adventures online.
For the third point, a solution has now also been presented by the German community manager in the official forum, which should calm all the affected pre-orderers:
Anyone who has early access to the game has until Sunday, April 6th, to switch their account to live by entering the code. The 30 free days of play will then only begin when you switch the account and not already on April 4th. Anyone who purchased the game digitally will automatically receive this time since they do not need to enter any codes.
How has your start been so far? Everything in good shape or rather so-so?
In the Elder Scrolls Online Store, the first items can now be purchased and upgrades made. On one hand, owners of the standard version can now upgrade to the “Imperial Edition” for €25 (formerly known as Imperial Edition).
The Palomino horse is usable at level 10, as fast as a normal horse, and costs €11.99
On the other hand, there’s the so-called Palomino horse, for which you have to shell out a modest €11.99 – although this leaves a bitter taste in light of the business model. If you do not own the Imperial Edition, you will be running around without a mount for a while, which is especially noticeable in the PvP area Cyrodiil.
Infographic: 5 Million Players and Counting
If it takes a bit longer again, grab a Snickers or an infographic about The Elder Scrolls Online. This was published today on the official site and shows more or less impressive numbers about the beta and the content of the MMORPG. See for yourself:
This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
On the night from Thursday to Friday, the official release of the fantasy MMORPG The Elder Scrolls Online is upon us.
We have given you an intensive preview of TESO, providing you with first impressions and insights from the head start that was open to pre-order customers, and we ask the question: For whom is The Elder Scrolls Online actually the right MMO?
Long-awaited by fans
Last Sunday it was finally time for the eager ones. About an hour before the scheduled time, Zenimax opened the gates to the online spin-off of the popular Elder-Scrolls series, which has captivated fans across age and country boundaries.
Especially since Skyrim, the Elder Scrolls of the “Generation Now”, the fantasy world of Tamriel is as well-known in fandom as Middle-earth, Azeroth, or Westeros.
The head start can be imagined like the doors of a department store opening for a winter sale as the masses pour in. After all, many gamers had been waiting for years for an MMO set in their favorite world. At launch, everything went surprisingly smooth. There were hardly any complaints about lags or long queues. Only a few buggy quests disrupted the flow. However, the creators behind the game, Zenimax, are already at work and have released the first patch.
What is special about The Elder Scrolls Online?
First and foremost, the graphics. Those accustomed to the comic style of World of Warcraft will definitely be amazed. Particularly interesting is that the landscape includes hills and valleys, lakes and mountains. This has tactical consequences in PvP as well.
When you chase a few fleeing enemies with battle cries over a hill, convinced that you just have to be faster than your comrades to deal a few killing blows and gain some prestige, you might be in for an unpleasant surprise. The enemies may have gathered behind the hill again. And they won’t find a lone hero who has just exhausted all his stamina in a full sprint particularly dangerous, but rather tasty.
So:Beware when climbing a hill.
The storytelling as a compromise between MMORPG and single-player
The quests evoke a true Elder Scrolls feeling. As in Guild Wars 2, the developers have found an interesting compromise. The questing lies somewhere between a hero’s journey like in a single-player game and the typical race from quest hub to quest hub that defines the genre. Although the hero in The Elder Scrolls Online also moves from area to area, he is not artificially sent there, but arrives organically and first takes a look around. Then he addresses the local problems, often two or more quests that are closely interconnected. And lo and behold: The land around him changes, a story has been told, and he can move on.
This may not sound particularly exciting, but it plays well. While WildStar makes no secret that it is clearly rooted in the MMORPG genre, The Elder Scrolls Online successfully conceals its concessions to a somewhat tired MMORPG genre filled with kill quests and the dreaded grind.
The quests, the quests, the beloved quests
For an MMORPG, the quests are naturally crucial: How well are they written? How are they presented? How are they told? And are they any good? This is, as experience shows, a matter of taste.
It is a form of high fantasy, but with a wink. There will always be certain quests that fully immerse the player and draw him into the fantasy world. However, he must be willing to engage with the events.
Gamers who are playing with the TV on in the background while friends in Teamspeak are yelling at them will likely feel overwhelmed by the complex stories. They will wonder when the ghosts stop discussing their family history and the fighting can finally continue. The quests are fully voiced and done by truly good speakers. Only the faces of the characters that speak often look stiff and strangely doll-like.
The Elder Scrolls Online is a game for those who want to hear a good story and are willing to give the game the necessary attention and time.
Admittedly, the stories are not all of an incredibly high standard. There are recurring standard plots involving a bit of betrayal and a dash of greed. But now and then, a true gem sneaks into the narrative mix and can truly captivate a player.
New paths are needed for the genre
The Elder Scrolls Online surprisingly excels in some aspects that MMORPGs have lost sight of in recent years, which have been flourishing in single-player RPGs, namely the versatility of the hero and the crafting system.
Crafting and the economy
The Elder Scrolls series is known for its sophisticated crafting system, alongside The Witcher saga. TESO follows this example: There’s hammering, carving, and brewing going on. The same skill points that you invest in your weapon skill can be used to procure better wood for the next bow or to locate a vein of ore more easily. Magical potions must first be discovered using the trial-and-error principle and runic combinations explored. And in the wild, secret workshops await discovery and use. Only there can craftsmen enhance items with specific abilities.
Compared to the banal crafting exercises that World of Warcraft demands of players, this is a delightful surprise!
Even in the progression of the character, or how a hero becomes stronger, TESO takes interesting new paths. Here, the currency is not called “level”, but “skill points”. You can earn them through various means. A rank in PvP, earned by defeating other players, grants a skill point, just like leveling up, completing a main quest, or finding three skyshards. These are scattered throughout the area and reward a sense of discovery.
These skill points can be invested in different and unusual aspects for an MMORPG.The possibilities for customizing your hero are limitless. Because every character can wear any weapon and armor. Depending on the class, there are three different skill lines, and certain achievements unlock opportunities to invest points. Points can flow into typical PvP skills, and crafting skills still need to be nurtured. It’s truly an amazing story.
While other games have something like “a ranger”, the same idea of this class can be achieved in The Elder Scrolls Online in countless ways. A hefty dragon warrior in heavy armor, drawing a bow? No problem. The nightblade as an assassin with a bow drawn? Good idea! Or a mage who first showers the enemy with arrows before he launches his magical show and even sends a pet against the foe? Why not!
Here, TESO may not be the first MMORPG to blaze new trails, but it is one of the first “big” titles.
My-MMO says
Whether The Elder Scrolls Online will ultimately establish itself in the market with good ideas and approaches is uncertain. However, we believe that the “diluted Elder Scrolls elements” that many fans ridicule do surprisingly well in the MMORPG genre.
The diversity known from single-player games regarding skills, the focus on crafting and storytelling, and the different graphical style are all plus points that benefit the genre, which at times seems exhausted and tired from an endless series of World of Warcraft clones.
I just started with the three-day head start and created a Khajiit nightblade for the Aldmeri Dominion. Yes, Schuhmann loves cats. By now, she is level 16 and on a good path from house cat to feared wild cat.
What has bothered me in the 3 days is the pre-order bonus for the Imperial Edition. Beforehand, some were outraged and were a bit paternalistically laughed at: That’s not so bad. You can buy it later easily with money.
The Thousand Gold Horse Problem
Yeah, sure. In four weeks, when money doesn’t matter anymore. At the start, I found it extremely annoying that almost everyone rode past me with a one-gold horse, while the cheapest horse would cost me nearly 18,000 gold. An amount that is still far away even at level 16. The missing horse wouldn’t be a problem; long distances can be covered by teleporting, but especially in PvP, I missed the mount.
Aside from that: For principle, I am simply against the fact that virtual advantages are distributed among the populace in a full-price title in this way.
Of course, if you want to do something good for Zenimax, you say: Buyers of the Imperial Edition receive a horse for free, can start 5 days earlier, and also receive a hefty EXP bonus.
But if we look at it from the other side: Buyers of the normal game can only start five days later, pay 18,000 gold for a horse that is worth just one gold piece, and level slower than the “normal players”. The only thing that determines the perspective here is the fact that the industry talks about a “head start” while it could just as well be called a “delayed start” for everyone else. One will have to live with the fact that the gaming industry is moving in this direction. However, one does not have to endorse it, nor support it.
Clear strengths in PvP
I enjoyed the PvP the most. I spent several hours there, mostly questing around Cyrodil – with the added thrill of being attacked by an opponent or coldly sending a foe to the afterlife while they are in the midst of intense map study, revealing themselves as the “Hmm, let me look it up where the next quest goes” type!
It just looks incredibly impressive when a wall of trebuchets is being shot down. The back-and-forth between attack and retreat, between triumph and disaster, makes me assume a lot of positive things for this aspect of the game.
I enjoyed questing with my Khajiit; I hadn’t checked out the area before, but I played a bit of the Ebonheart Pact in the beta – well, some of the Aldmeri had quests that were buggy and problematic, but it was good hours in which I could always dive into the story again.
The last cat on earth or a pack animal?
Only, the phasing is sometimes strangely regulated. One moment you feel like the only cat in the world fighting for justice, order, and fair beer prices, and the next, fourteen guys run past you (half of whom are of course also archers because they were cool in Skyrim), make the opponents crumble to the ground, and all stand in front of the quest object and press on it – and they are gone again.
Conclusion: After the first three days, I would cautiously recommend it for purchase. However, one must be willing to engage with the game. No television, no too many prejudices, just you, your hero, and the game. Then The Elder Scrolls Online is certainly worth the money. There is definitely enough content for many hours of gaming fun.
For me, the initial days of an MMORPG have always been the most eventful. It was the time I associate with the most memories. I didn’t want to deprive myself of that this time with TESO.
Admittedly, The Elder Scrolls Online didn’t grab me from the first second; it took a few tries: It can best be described as love at second sight.
During the first beta weekend, disappointment set in, but during the next phases, I began to find enjoyment – and now during the head start – the spark has gradually caught on.
Whether this love lasts forever is certainly written in the stars. But I don’t care at the moment, as it tingles and the areas and adventures around Tamriel ensure that plenty of happiness hormones are being released in my brain.
Actually, Schuhmann has already said everything, and in many areas, I am on his wavelength. I still want to share my first experiences. Cats always do what they want. Let’s go, my Khajiit lion, you sneaky nightblade.
MMORPG players needed to adapt
My biggest issue was that I was unsuccessfully searching for the flow of the game that I have followed for years in classic MMORPGs.
It’s just unusual because the game from Zenimax goes at a completely different pace. If you want to rush through the world, you quickly realize that the game does not cater to that. Fun with a quick number here only works to a certain extent. It starts with PvE and seamlessly transitions into PvP, where things can sometimes be pretty quiet for 30 minutes (my first steps in Cyrodiil). Sometimes I miss being able to simply jump into a battlefield and rush into the action immediately. However, Cyrodil has other strengths. Fantastic castle sieges, unpredictable skirmishes, and a huge amount of drama, baby. Schuhmann would say here: Everything makes sense and is coherent.
By now I can say: You can get used to almost everything and it even feels refreshingly new. If not, then it’s just not your thing.
Strengths lie in the atmosphere
The world and everything that comes with it looks great – you can really see a lot of love for detail, which also applies to the characters. The immersion, in this case, the intense immersion in a virtual world, is a strong point of The Elder Scrolls Online. I have rarely seen such beautiful settings – and here comes the catch – in a non-Asian setting. Congratulations, Zenimax, you have revived the lost scout in me.
I still have some issues with the storytelling, while some stories can be quite thrilling, and the decisions I make even have consequences. However, it is not always easy for me to follow all the stories with full attention. I occasionally catch myself wanting to click through all the text quickly to progress faster *hitting my own fingers*.
From a narrative style perspective, I honestly see Star Wars: The Old Republic ahead, although of course, it is also a personal preference. In TESO, the dialogue sequences feel a bit too stiff, and the conversations are one-sided (only the NPC speaks). Star Wars, on the other hand, feels more like a film in these moments, as there is simply more movement due to various camera angles and a two-sided voiceover, which makes the scenes feel more varied. Nevertheless, TESO undoubtedly belongs to the big ones in the genre when it comes to storytelling. Especially how the environment adapts to quest progression is excellently done and gives a sense of being right in the middle of everything rather than just being there. The quests here are unusually varied, and in terms of presentation, you have to search a long time in the MMORPG genre to find something comparable.
Outlook
We will need several weeks before we can comprehensively share our experiences with you in a test. For example, I have not yet tested instanced group content in PvE, but I have already heard from friends that the dungeons are incredibly fun. In particular, compared to GW2, the MMORPG benefits from implementing the holy trinity, or so they say. The bosses also have interesting mechanics and challenge the player in combat. So far in the open world, I have not had a group atmosphere, which is certainly “due” to the single-player aspects. But as the saying goes: What is not, can still become. So far, it has been a lot of fun.
Also positively, Zenimax has worked hard on the combat system and introduced collision detection. It’s already a huge difference from the first beta, the so-called air battles. This was a major drawback then, which is why my first experience with ESO was rather disappointing.
Oh dear, since the latest announcement on the official website of World of Warcraft, a wave of outrage is sweeping through the player community and crashing down on those who stand by the following decision from Blizzard:
In the interest of fair play, the current challenge dungeons will no longer be available shortly before the release of the new expansion.
But what will happen to the achievements and rewards? Of course, you can keep the gear and your collected achievements will be converted into feats of strength that you can brag about in the future. The titles will be handled as follows:
The title “The Undaunted”, which you receive for all bronze medals, will become an account-wide title.
If you manage to achieve all silver medals, with the pre-patch for Warlords of Draenor, all your characters will be able to ride the Ancestor Phoenix.
For the heroes among you who even got gold, the sets for transmogrification will remain class-specific!
The titles for your realm best times will be removed.
Of course, there will be new challenge dungeons waiting for you again in Warlords of Draenor that will require patience and perseverance! When exactly the patch that brings these changes will be released is still undecided. However, since the release of the next expansion is still far away, you surely have plenty of time to tackle the still missing instances from Mists of Pandaria.
What do you think about this regulation?
[intense_testimonies]
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[intense_testimony_text]What is essentially a logical consequence of the release of Warlords of Draenor is still causing quite a stir among the players. But seriously – what kind of art is it to run through these instances at level 100 with new super-duper abilities, stronger gear, and changed stats, on the hunt for the fastest time?[/intense_testimony_text]
[intense_testimony_author image=”https://images.mein-mmo.de/magazin/medien/2014/01/Logo-022.png”][/intense_testimony_author]
[/intense_testimony]
[/intense_testimonies]
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This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
