Eh, I find the buggy and the mixed goals both valid. Buggy has been covered. But with the mixed goal of “being an ES game” (as opposed to just using the lore/IP) and being an MMO, you narrow yourself to the probably small set of people that would
a) vastly prefer ES games … unmodded … and feel an MMO version completes them, or
b) like MMOs and have lived on only in hopes that an ES one, just like an ES game, comes out
Random aside: the game doesn’t seem to be supporting RPers well (instancing, PvP focus, but emote list is impressive), many of the long term board posters for ES games seem to be heavy RPers. They also often make up the mainstay of long tail MMO subs (three years on that’s always the highest pop server).
the non tl;dr:
Making it “just like an ES game” means dropping many things some MMO players like/find familiar. But then you also have to make it a great ES game. Now, it’s a good enough game, but the existing Skyrim, or Morrowind, or Oblivion games are still valid competitors. If I want to play “a better Skyrim” I look for mods not MMOs. I’m also a big MMO player, but I personally hate ES UIs and often am frustrated each time I learn a new ES combat system. So this gives me the all the ES things I hate in my MMO without being a better MMO. So you have to either be a better MMO, or a better ES game than existing options for MMOs or ES games. For MMOs that’s a tall order for any new ship, and competing with mods is also a tall order for ES games. I can get the UI, dye system, craft system, combat scaling, quest difficulty, realism level, immersion and almost anything else exactly the way I want it, and change it when I get bored. Some other Skyrim players are probably not like me at all! They load different mods, problem solved. We are both happy. The MMO forces a compromise in which neither of us is entirely satisfied.
Disclosure: Played every ES game except Arena, Steam says I have 467 hrs logged on Skyrim and there are a few chars/mods I’d still like to see and I mod it and mod mods. Played MMOs since MUDs, all major ones including DAoC which I liked. I should be firmly in the target audience but I am not a player type a or b above. I just want to have fun. My main worry is that they are making being and “ES MMO” a higher priority than “being a fun game” in combination with not fully grasping that what makes an ES game “a good game” probably varies wildy across the playerbase of them.
@ Arkon262 Yep, in mine! That and chests. Why is this person just standing out here … observe … chest spawn … foot race … oh that’s why.
