official The Elder Scrolls Online

[Mystic Mungis]

Will this game be "pay to play" or "free to play"?

Pay to play, it's the only thing that might stop me from buying it. 

 

 

 

• What payment model will The Elder Scrolls Online use?We will be announcing exact payment methods at a later date, but globally we will be supporting multiple payment options. Players must purchase The Elder Scrolls Online in order to play it. They will have unlimited access for the first 30 days following activation and can continue beyond that with a subscription of $14.99/month (?12.99 / ?8.99).

[dead.cell]

Will this game be "pay to play" or "free to play"?

As far as I can tell, P2P. Doesn't bother me, as I was happy to pay and try out FFXIV. The game just needs to be worth it though.

 

I'll be putting my feedback here as well, as I'm in the beta. I've played so many MMOs as it stands; they'll have to do well if but only to stand out.

[HawkMan]

Got invite to this weekends beta.

 

I wish they'd stop calling weekend "betas" for beta. it's not, it's a stress test at best. you don't have time or ability at all to do any testing and find out anything in a weekend. beta weekends are just another word for "pre launch demo". they're not getting any useful info from it. 

 

and yes, I am going to install and try it, since like all other AAA MMO's they're probably not going to offer any real demos or "free to play til level 10 or 20" like they should so people an see if it's something worth paying for before they fork out the cash. 

[Lord Method Man]

Pay to play, it's the only thing that might stop me from buying it. 

 

Good. Much prefer a sub-based MMO. "Free" to play games have too many caveats that prevent you from enjoying the full game without spending more money than you would on a subscription.

[Xilo]

This is true. It looks way better than Skyrim. Mainly because they aren't using the 10 billion year old Gamebryo engine anymore for ESO. Maxed out, the game looks stunning to me.

All of those excuses just amounts to being an apologist and a zealot. This is why ES is so heavily modded. Compared to other MMO games, everything I mentioned is 100% true and is no excuse.

 

It doesn't feel at all like an ES game.

[trag3dy]

Good. Much prefer a sub-based MMO. "Free" to play games have too many caveats that prevent you from enjoying the full game without spending more money than you would on a subscription.

 

Just you wait. Cash shops have proved entirely way to profitable in comparable titles. Within 6 months they will have one of some sort if it isn't available at launch.

 

WoW has a sub fee and that didn't stop them from making one and they stuffed all kinds of exclusives in it.

[Lord Method Man]

Just you wait. Cash shops have proved entirely way to profitable in comparable titles. Within 6 months they will have one of some sort if it isn't available at launch.

 

WoW has a sub fee and that didn't stop them from making one and they stuffed all kinds of exclusives in it.

 

There's nothing gameplay related int the cash shop though. Its just pets and junk. Slipperly slope though, which is why I find myself drifting away from modern gaming more every year.

[MillionVoltss]

Got an invite also, although Im not going to DL 21gb of data for use on two days both of which im at work, seems rather tight, I played it a while ago, so it would be interesting to see any change though.

[trag3dy]

There's nothing gameplay related int the cash shop though. Its just pets and junk. Slipperly slope though, which is why I find myself drifting away from modern gaming more every year.

 

True enough but like you said, it's a slippery slope and I'm not as trusting of game developers as I used to be. I'm lookin' at you Arena Net.

[Nagisan]

If you enjoyed Skyrim, you'll probably love this one even more.

Umm.....No.

 

600+ hours in Skyrim, played in 1 beta event of ESO (have been invited back twice since then) and decided it's not for me.

 

Granted most of my playtime in Skyrim had mods installed that change gameplay a bit and add some new content.

[Mystic Mungis]

Good. Much prefer a sub-based MMO. "Free" to play games have too many caveats that prevent you from enjoying the full game without spending more money than you would on a subscription.

I do agree... kinda :P For me personally I'm finding that I don't really get my monies worth, I like playing games in little bursts, I can easily play one game one week and another the next and not go back to the first game for a while which means I pay for a month and it ends up wasted. That's just me though, it works just fine for the majority and that's who they cater for :P

[Jub]

######? FFXIV:ARR is insanely good.

 

I think it's quite dull, lacks direction and has a very boring art-style. There's nothing new in terms of gameplay, the battles are small, few _extremely_ unremarkable class skills and too long GCDs.

 

I play it at the moment and bought it back on release, but only for lack of any real alternatives ... 

[spaceelf]

I won't say ARR is perfect, but at the moment it seems like the most compelling MMO out there.  Which, given how the market shrank, isn't really saying much.

 

I liked The Secret World more, but I'm pretty much done with that unless the Tokyo content coming up is awesome.

[scaramonga]

Server is up in EU a little early ;)

[Mystic Mungis]

Server is up in EU a little early ;)

*heavy breathing* I hadn't even thought to check!

[_neutrino Veteran]

its sad, i am honestly debating if i even want to participate in another of their betas with as horrible as the last few have been.

[Mystic Mungis]

its sad, i am honestly debating if i even want to participate in another of their betas with as horrible as the last few have been.

That's not sad, what's sad is that I am actually excited to try this beta even though I know deep down it will just ruin The Elder Scrolls series for me :(

[dead.cell]

Got invite to this weekends beta.

 

I wish they'd stop calling weekend "betas" for beta. it's not, it's a stress test at best. you don't have time or ability at all to do any testing and find out anything in a weekend. beta weekends are just another word for "pre launch demo". they're not getting any useful info from it. 

 

and yes, I am going to install and try it, since like all other AAA MMO's they're probably not going to offer any real demos or "free to play til level 10 or 20" like they should so people an see if it's something worth paying for before they fork out the cash. 

That's a bold statement to make, when there are thousands of bugs that get reported. I haven't worked on a dev team, but I'm willing to bet that list gets sorted based upon how many repeat submissions the have, severity, and so forth. Thus, major bugs that can cause crashes even if only on the client side can get addressed, along with anything that breaks the game balance whether vendors aren't working right, item duplication, exploits, etc.

 

Yes, they do want to stress test the servers, but it's certainly more than that. If you can't get past the first portion of the game, who cares what players will see at the endgame if there are still too many bugs to allow for a playable environment to even make it that far?

[_neutrino Veteran]

That's not sad, what's sad is that I am actually excited to try this beta even though I know deep down it will just ruin The Elder Scrolls series for me :(

 

it does not ruin anything, you just have to think of it as the perspective that they are trying to branch out into the MMO market and they have already stated that they are going to continue to make single player games so i do not think that will be a problem.

 

just realize when you are playing the game that it will not feel as "live" as the single player game because you have to send the commands and things to a server. and it would not work out well with the MMO aspect, so skills are buttons and you cannot just spam the attack button to continually swing your sword to kill stuff. each attack has a time it takes to cast or happen so it just feels a bit slower.

 

in all honesty the game is not horrible. its just a beta and needs to have some bugs ironed out. That being said. one of the biggest things i hope that change on release is that they have higher resolution textures because there is a lot of stuff in the beta that look absolutely horrible, with either low poly counts or bad textures.

[Mystic Mungis]

it does not ruin anything, you just have to think of it as the perspective that they are trying to branch out into the MMO market and they have already stated that they are going to continue to make single player games so i do not think that will be a problem.

 

just realize when you are playing the game that it will not feel as "live" as the single player game because you have to send the commands and things to a server. and it would not work out well with the MMO aspect, so skills are buttons and you cannot just spam the attack button to continually swing your sword to kill stuff. each attack has a time it takes to cast or happen so it just feels a bit slower.

 

in all honesty the game is not horrible. its just a beta and needs to have some bugs ironed out. That being said. one of the biggest things i hope that change on release is that they have higher resolution textures because there is a lot of stuff in the beta that look absolutely horrible, with either low poly counts or bad textures.

Thanks for an honest reply, 99% of things I've seen about ESO are either "lol it's not even out and already it's the worst game of 2014" or "you got a beta key, wow, someone must hate you". It's nice to see some actual opinions of the game, just about to eat dinner and then I'll be giving it a go if the servers are still up so I'll report back on my findings :)

[Pupik]

Plenty of streams online: http://www.twitch.tv/directory/game/The%20Elder%20Scrolls%20Online

[McKay]

Plenty of streams online: http://www.twitch.tv/directory/game/The%20Elder%20Scrolls%20Online

 

They'll be closed. Last stress test people began streaming it and were banned.

[_neutrino Veteran]

[McKay]

I'd agree with an NDA for in-house testing, but I don't even know why they bother trying to enforce an NDA when they've opened the beta to any Tom, Dick and Harry who applies.

[Pupik]

 

I think more people need to see how bad this game is, before committing to buy it to try it for a month.