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“The lead designer Ted Peterson had initial worries about the games development after talking to fellow industry peers who doubted Bethesda ability to deliver on such an ambitious project.”

The original development briefs outlined an arena combat fighting style game. The player would travel around from town to town fighting with a team in gladiatorial like battles. The idea of side quest available outside the arena combat was only secondary to the initial planned gameplay. However as the development progressed these side quest started to take more precedence over the arena combat, with the explorable world expanding out to vast cities and multiple dungeons beyond in the wilderness. It wasn’t long before the idea of a medieval gladiator style fighting games was abandoned in favour of a full blown RPG fantasy title. The shift change in the games development was influenced by the games developers’ love of the dungeons and dragons series, with other fantasy games like Ultima Underworld and Legends of Valour also offering inspiration for the development team.

“The team behind The Elder Scrolls series has always seen the importance of establishing a rich and deep narrative. The backstory and lore of the games universe seen as important as gameplay.”

The game was not set to just emulate these influential titles but wanted to surpass them with The Elder Scrolls: Arena. The one design element that set Bethesda’s game apart from the competition was the sheer size of the game world. The entire map outside of the pre-set towns and cities was randomly generated populated by enemies and NPC’s. The game was one of the few in the series to allow the player to explore the entire continent of Tamriel, so large was the map that without the fast travel feature the game was near impossible to play. It could take the player several hours to walk from one town to another or several days to walk to a city in another province. The game was also known for it’s notoriously difficulty for new players, with high level enemies spawning right from the beginning unlike later titles that have enemies level up with the player.

“The Elder Scrolls series is now heading into its 20th year with the release of its latest title Elder Scrolls Online a venture into the MMORPG genre.”

Even though during development the combat fighting elements where replaced with RPG style gameplay, the original title The Elder Scrolls: Arena still stuck. Mainly due to the game’s material having been already printed using the original title. The misleading title and a missed Christmas 1993 launch date led to some early poor sales, only 3,000 units being shipped for the initial March 1994 launch. The subsequent negative reviews and high hardware demands made on the player’s machines didn’t help the flagging sales. The development studio heads worried about the future of the company if the game failed to boost sales, which it managed to do through word of mouth and a rerelease “Deluxe Edition” launching late in 1994. The game soon becoming a cult hit with plans for a sequel in the works in the same year. Bethesda Softworks now had a franchise to establish, with an expanding fantasy universe to explore and build upon.

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“Those gamers hoping to pick up where they left off in Skyrim are going to disappointed about the lack of dragons and the powers that come with been the Dovahkiin.”

The answer has to take various factors into consideration and look at the MMO’s that have tried to emulate WOW but ultimately failed. The first aspect that has to be addressed is that this article is only taking western released MMO’s into consideration as Japan and the East Asian market has released to many MMO’s to mention. Although I would still wager that WOW holds more sway then many of these regionally released games. The most recent case sample for judging the potential success of The Elder Scrolls Online would be Bioware’s The Old Republic. The MMORPG based in the highly popular Star Wars universe and what seemed like concept that couldn’t fail. Despite the fact the game idea was not new with Star Wars Galaxies launching in 2003 to only be shut down in 2011 due to lagging subscriber numbers. Nonetheless the fanfare and anticipation that surrounded Bioware’s new game prior to launch would have more than eased the concerns of any anxious executives. Four years after its initial announcement, in December of 2011 it was launched and less then twelve months later it switch to the free-to-play model. Initially it saw its subscriber base growing to 1 million within the first three days, making it the fastest ever growing MMO to date. Those numbers failed to increase significantly enough over the following months and prompted the publishers EA to reconsider their options, eventually making the game free-to-play. Not to say that problems faced by one game will be the same for another, but those at ZeniMax Online might take heed and not count their chickens before they have a solid subscriber base.

“For a franchise that has proved so popular in various different video game genres and other forms of media, Star Wars MMO’s seem to be cursed.”

A slight advantage that ZeniMax Online might have is that their MMO is based on a game series that has a long establish history in the industry. Granted it’s not like Star Wars was new IP and Bioware had worked on the very successful Knights of the Old Republic previously. The Elder Scrolls franchise however has a twenty year long history of giving fans the best RPG experience in the genre. The question is can a series that has been solely been based on a singleplayer experience make the crossover to the multiplayer realm. From the early beta testing and tentative reviews of retail game it seems like ZeniMax Online might be onto something. It’s too early to tell if the game is a success with The Old Republic seeming like a sure bet in its first few months post launch. Other MMO’s series have even managed to maintain a solid user base without massive number. Guild Wars opted for the one time purchase subscription method, it has allowed them to maintain 400,000 concurrent users and even produce a sequel. All the same I’m sure ZeniMax Online will want to do better and compete in the big league alongside WOW.

“Once again Elder Scrolls fans will be able to explore the rarely visited corners of Tamriel, from the sands of Hammerfell to the swamps of the Black Marsh.”

The Blizzard team on the other hand are surely not wiping sweat from their brow with worry over the launch of ESO. WOW is a game that came out nearly ten years ago and still has nearly 8 million subscribers according to figures from the end of last year. The subscriber base has actually increased in the last number of months; most likely due to interest peaked with the announcement of the next expansion Warlords of Draenor. The Elder Scrolls Online beta received 5 million registered users, which is not a bad start but turning those players into long-term subscribers is another matter. This is the essential problem faced by any developers wishing to get into the pay-to-play market; the gameplay experience must live up the monthly subscription fee. ZeniMax Online is taking a risky venture by charging $14.99(€10.87) per month to play ESO. WOW only charging $12.99(€9.42) in comparison, not to mention that Xbox One users will have to cough up for an Xbox Live subscription alongside the $14.99/mo. fee. The developers stating that ‘significant’ DLC set to be regularly released post launch justifies the high price point. Bethesda Vice President of PR, Pete Hines has stated that there is no intention of using the free-to-play approach in regards to ESO. Reasoning that quality is better than quantity, creating better gameplay experiences at the expense of a larger user base. It’s a gamble that might work with the Elder Scrolls series known for its richly detailed worlds and immersive game experiences. However in the MMO game it’s all about the numbers and it will be interesting to see how certain opinions might change if ESO fails to gain any traction.

“Blizzard’s last expansion pack didn’t go down that well with gamers; however they will hope Warlords of Draenor be a hit for the aging MMO.”

It stands to reason that a highly successful RPG franchise should have no problem taking their dedicated fan base and bringing them over the MMO genre. Then again the average video game fan is a fickly beast that could easily see The Elder Scrolls Online detracting from the series. Other Elder Scrolls properties that tried to make the jump over to other genres, like The Elder Scrolls Travels games that failed to gain any favour with critics and gamers alike. All of the questions about ZeniMax’s venture into the MMORPG genre will be answered over the coming year. Will the game be able to hold the attention of its subscribers, facing tough competition with the upcoming expansion for WOW due to launch sometime this year.

By Colm O’Sullivan

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