The Plans for the Endgame of The Elder Scrolls Online are known and give our tester Schuhmann a lot to ponder.
I admit, I am a twinker. Not right at the beginning! As soon as I reach max level in a game, I first look around at that level. But after a bit of time has passed, I do make a twink. This was already the case in Dark Age of Camelot and was no different in World of Warcraft.
My name is Schuhmann and I am a twink-a-holic
At first, I told myself this served a higher purpose. In the PvP-heavy Dark Age of Camelot, I had my own gank squad and needed to know exactly what the other classes could do to take them down authoritatively after every wipe.
How was I supposed to figure that out without actually playing the other classes? And wasn’t it necessary and logical to take a look at the other two realms to understand how the classes of the hated enemies work? Didn’t one have to live like a rock to understand how a rock thinks? (Quite Zen, right?)
In World of Warcraft on the other hand, I twinked to level up all possible crafting professions, so I could produce anything if the zombie apocalypse hit every other player in the world (which could happen at any moment!).
I could occupy my time and explore the excellent starting areas of the various races, which would otherwise have been denied to me.
Well, I also told myself I was doing this for a higher purpose. A healing twink was necessary in case something would go wrong in the guild raid again. And as things kept going wrong, the twink became the unwanted new main character.
Cold Twink Withdrawal in The Elder Scrolls Online
With The Elder Scrolls Online, all of that won’t be necessary. My character can simply strut into the areas of the other two factions at max level 50 and complete the quests in a shifted phase – with an adjusted difficulty of course. Variety in playstyle is offered by a single character: Because I can try out all possible combinations of weapons and armor with one character.
So it will be a character that I can keep building and refining instead of a whole family. I think: I can live with that. Already The Secret World prepared me with a very similar system.
For me, twinks were often just a sign of rising boredom. The best experiences I associate with my main character in every MMORPG.
Every time I log in with a twink, I immediately start to ponder. What must I do to even withstand this cavalry ride: Should I inject caffeine intravenously, or should I just skip it altogether?
Statistics Don’t Lie
In all my years in the MMORPG scene, I have never, really never, managed to bring a second character to max level. It usually looked like I had a main character, let’s say level 60, and next to him I had 2 twinks that I had painstakingly leveled up to 12 and 17. I was almost as proud as Oscar!
One exception is Runes of Magic, but I won’t count that because I mostly leveled the character with so-called experience spheres. That was no longer a twink but became my main because I wanted to try something new. From then on, all my attention was focused solely on this character.
Leveling Twinks? Sure, just not mine…
I don’t want to offend anyone here, absolutely not. There are of course many reasons to create a twink, and there are quite a few players who enjoy playing different roles or experiencing other areas of the MMORPG. That’s great!
In Star Wars: The Old Republic I came very close to the temptation. But experiencing the same-looking planets a second time and leaving my Jedi Guardian behind? No, I couldn’t bring myself to do that anymore and therefore opted out of a multiple personality.
I join Schuhmann. For me, the first twink is often a sign that the game is boring me. Because I actually prefer to play just one character, fully identify with that character, and gradually perfect him as much as I can.
One character, but please with variety
TESO promotes deep character development.
For this reason, I find class systems great that offer me many options to specialize a character in multiple directions. Good examples are Rift, Final Fantasy XIV: ARR, and hopefully also The Elder Scrolls Online.
Conversely, I find the class system of Tera quite bad, to mention a negative example. For 2 years, my damned Castanic Destroyer has been functioning the same way. I cannot take on another role nor switch to a different combat style with him. Boo, if only the combat system wasn’t so great! A profound character development is essential!
The Ideal Case…
All in all, I find it best when I am able to perform multiple tactical roles with one character. Today tank and tomorrow DD? Why not! For that, I gladly farm the respective armors, which keeps me busy for a longer time and allows me to set goals. And if one suggests that I might also consider other “skill trees” that allow for completely different gameplay, then I become even happier.
The Elder Scrolls Online comes very close to that, at least it seems so.
What do you think? Are you a twinker, or do you prefer to continually improve a main hero? Do you look forward to exploring all three realms in The Elder Scrolls Online with one hero? Or would you rather start a new character at the end of the journey?
Tell us about your favorite twinks and those you hated!
