The release of The Elder Scrolls Online is already happening in a few days, rarely has a game polarized like the MMORPG from Zenimax. On one side are passionate advocates praising its photorealistic graphics and epic adventures, while on the other side, haters vehemently shake their fists.
It’s time we take a closer look at the issue: What is it about The Elder Scrolls Online that frustrates gaming fans so much or leads to such lofty praises? Our tester Schuhmann believes he has found the answer to this question.
Not an MMORPG like World of Warcraft
World of Warcraft, I don’t tell anyone anything new, is the fantasy MMORPG of our time. More than 9 million accounts are currently active. The number of people who have played it at least once is significantly larger. World of Warcraft shapes the genre and has instilled in many people the idea of how an MMORPG should look: Everything revolves around endgame.
A large group of players sees an MMORPG as a race. Who is the first to reach the goal? Who is the first to reach the maximum level? Who defeats a boss first? Who gets the long-awaited golden bowstring from Tel’zarak or the three-eyed feathered mount of Gnargh first?
It’s no wonder they see it this way. Blizzard taught them. Just recently, the leveling process was officially declared tedious: For a payment of 45 euros, it can be skipped.
No effective shortcut possible
These players use a beta phase to gain an advantage over others. They consider how to reach the goal fastest, which build is the most effective, and which weapon type is currently overpowered.
Those players struggle with The Elder Scrolls Online. A shortcut to the maximum level bypasses the side quests and Skyshards, which make the character significantly stronger compared to other games. Anyone rushing to level 50 will ultimately be weaker than someone who took the time to explore the world and collect every Skyshard. For once a player finds three of these Skyshards, a skill point awaits them, which can otherwise only be obtained through leveling up.
The Elder Scrolls Online breaks many conventions
The Elder Scrolls Online breaks with further conventions of the WoW generation: There is no rigid class system, but a variety of options for character customization. Instead of a mini-map, only vague directional indicators reveal the way. The UI is kept spartan and the world is not linearly structured. While in other games it is nearly impossible to skip a quest area, I experienced that it was quite easy to do so in the beta.
Anyone who plays The Elder Scrolls Online without the willingness to let go of the ideas of what an MMORPG like World of Warcraft should be will log out in frustration after just a few levels and won’t understand why others make such a fuss about it. Surely something is wrong with them!
Also not Skyrim
Another segment of the player base approaches The Elder Scrolls Online expecting it to be a kind of next part of the beloved franchise that last gave us Skyrim and where many players spent countless hours.
These players should also prepare for a surprise. Because it is something entirely different to play a single-player game where you are the unrestricted hero, and instead to make the compromises that an MMORPG demands: It occasionally happens that you are sent on a dangerous mission, descend into the depths of a dungeon to slay a huge demon, only to encounter eighteen others who are impatiently waiting for the respawn as the corpses of the demon lords slowly pile up.
Just one hero among many?
The immersion, the immersion into a game world, requires much more effort in an MMORPG than in a single-player game. Because there is no human factor there, who is currently having a discussion about the latest Sharknado movie on Tele 5, while you are unsuccessfully trying to immerse yourself in the role of a two-meter cat woman.
Anyone who approaches the game with the firm intention of finding the next Skyrim and losing themselves in the fantasy world for hours will also be disappointed quickly and wonder what one can find in the game.
A completely unique creation
Indeed, Zenimax, under developer Matt Frior, uses the incredibly strong license of The Elder Scrolls Online to forge a completely unique path and combine many different game elements. While Frior takes elements from existing MMORPGs, he does not draw from World of Warcraft but rather from his former love Dark Age of Camelot, from Star Wars: The Old Republic and other titles.
It is up to each person to decide whether the idiosyncratic mix is enjoyable or not. However, regardless of age, players do themselves no favors by approaching The Elder Scrolls Online with too narrow expectations of what the game should ultimately be.
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[intense_testimony_text]It is neither a Skyrim in MMORPG guise nor a World of Warcraft with better graphics, but a unique creation that can appeal to some – or not.
– Your Schuhmann
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