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Offline beardo

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Re: The Elder Scrolls Online
« Reply #460 on: July 03, 2014, 10:06:12 PM »
Yes.
The Mastery.

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Offline beardo

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Re: The Elder Scrolls Online
« Reply #461 on: July 04, 2014, 12:45:21 AM »


This is what he looks like. He's a fucking plant.
The Mastery.

Saddam Hussein

Re: The Elder Scrolls Online
« Reply #462 on: July 04, 2014, 03:46:31 AM »
Clearly, ESO isn't the only MMO to suffer from a lackluster main story.  Why do MMOs feel the need to have main stories, anyway?  I was talking about this with a couple of people on IRC the other day, and it really just seems antithetical to the entire concept of MMOs, especially ones with subscription fees.  When you tell players that they've beaten the game, it's not such a huge stretch for them to then conclude that they're done with the game.  Even setting aside the fact that the main story in ESO is just an uninspired rehash of Oblivion, the fact is that the game didn't need a main story to begin with.  Not with all the stuff they could have put into the game in its place.  Things like the Thieves Guild, the Dark Brotherhood, the Companions, the Morag Tong, the rest of the fucking map, etc.

And before anyone starts with the "But Saddam, you're practically complaining about the weather here; the laws of physics literally state that all MMOs must do these dumb things" or whatever, there already have been some exceptions. There's RuneScape, for one.  Don't laugh, I'm being quite serious.  Granted, there's a lot that game did that was really weird, and the main reason I quit playing it some years ago was that Jagex was basically just fucking it up, homogenizing it, "fixing" things that weren't broken, replacing their old animations and art styles with terrible cartoony clichés, all that awful stuff - so it's quite possible that the game is currently shit.  But it didn't hit you over the head with a stupid overarching story when you began playing, and it didn't force you to linearly travel between zones completing all the content as you went.  Most of the regions of the world were available to low-level players, and they all had their fair share of low, middle, and high-level content for players to partake in.  If you were bored with one area, you could - wait for it - go to another area, and still continue to progress normally.  I know, it's mind-blowing.
« Last Edit: July 05, 2014, 03:39:17 PM by Saddam Hussein »

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Offline Lord Dave

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Re: The Elder Scrolls Online
« Reply #463 on: July 04, 2014, 04:00:06 AM »
It seems to me that they could have easily just had the story be "You just escaped from the afterlife/Oblivion/whatever along with a whole bunch of other souls.  You and your fellow souls are now the only ones who can enter Oblivion and stop whatever plot is afoot."

Then just have raids be "you've slowed down the Daedra and bought Tamriel a little more time."
If you are going to DebOOonK an expert then you have to at least provide a source with credentials of equal or greater relevance. Even then, it merely shows that some experts disagree with each other.

Ghost of V

Re: The Elder Scrolls Online
« Reply #464 on: July 04, 2014, 04:24:41 AM »
Main stories are counter intuitive to an MMO with the goal being "get the player to play for a long time", yes. However, I think there is demand for story and no one has figured out how to make a good story without it being an episodic adventure. I think they think because all games have one they would fail without it. I'd like a rich gameworld with lots of lore where you're not the main character or integral to the main story of the game. It would be cool to see the world changing around you without any sort of input from yourself, but that would be impossible for an mmo.

I am a little drunk.
« Last Edit: July 04, 2014, 04:27:18 AM by Vauxhall »

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Offline Lord Dave

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Re: The Elder Scrolls Online
« Reply #465 on: July 04, 2014, 04:37:26 AM »
Main stories are counter intuitive to an MMO with the goal being "get the player to play for a long time", yes. However, I think there is demand for story and no one has figured out how to make a good story without it being an episodic adventure. I think they think because all games have one they would fail without it. I'd like a rich gameworld with lots of lore where you're not the main character or integral to the main story of the game. It would be cool to see the world changing around you without any sort of input from yourself, but that would be impossible for an mmo.

I am a little drunk.
Most war MMOs work that way.  You're a solider and you just fight.
EVE is like that too.
Fantasy style MMOs, however, demand story.  The key is to make the story vague and unending enough that while you don't "save the day" you do at least help.
If you are going to DebOOonK an expert then you have to at least provide a source with credentials of equal or greater relevance. Even then, it merely shows that some experts disagree with each other.

Ghost of V

Re: The Elder Scrolls Online
« Reply #466 on: July 04, 2014, 04:47:46 AM »
I havent played much of Eve due to how demanding it is, but from what I have played and what I have read about it: it seems like an amazing MMO. The immersion alone is a selling point for me.

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Offline Lord Dave

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Re: The Elder Scrolls Online
« Reply #467 on: July 04, 2014, 04:50:33 AM »
I havent played much of Eve due to how demanding it is, but from what I have played and what I have read about it: it seems like an amazing MMO. The immersion alone is a selling point for me.
That's part of why I don't like it.
It's so immersive it's more like a second life than a fun adventure. 
If you are going to DebOOonK an expert then you have to at least provide a source with credentials of equal or greater relevance. Even then, it merely shows that some experts disagree with each other.

Ghost of V

Re: The Elder Scrolls Online
« Reply #468 on: July 04, 2014, 04:54:22 AM »
I feel the same way. I like the idea of it a lot but its too demanding for me to continually play it to make even the slightest progress.

Re: The Elder Scrolls Online
« Reply #469 on: July 04, 2014, 06:35:44 AM »
Is GW2 the game where halfway through the main story, some boring guy shows up and then all of a sudden, he's the one that everyone treats as the main hero, not the player?

Yeah, but what's that got to do with its scaling system?

A lot of people hate Trahearne, I don't really mind him. He's a fairly bland mary sue, but the first half of the personal story is so good I can forgive the writers for fucking that up. And the conclusion to the story is pretty cool as well. Season 2 living story has nothing to do with him or The Pact, but instead much more interesting characters with personalities, so it should be good.

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Offline beardo

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Re: The Elder Scrolls Online
« Reply #470 on: July 04, 2014, 06:53:52 AM »
I was never bothered by him. But my friends thinks he's meh.
The Mastery.

Saddam Hussein

Re: The Elder Scrolls Online
« Reply #471 on: July 04, 2014, 06:52:23 PM »
Yeah, but what's that got to do with its scaling system?

Nothing at all, it was just something I recalled hearing a lot of people complaining about.  Other complaints included his potted plant design and boring text-to-speech program voice.

And speaking of annoying voices, man, I really hate Jennifer Hale.  I hate to say this because it sounds incredibly sexist, but there's something about her voice that just sounds so bossy, so bitchy, so nagging, that it's a pain to listen to.  And of course, it is simply her voice that I'm criticizing, not her specific performance, because she never gives a specific performance.  She never changes her voice, never changes her accent, no, it's always the one-voice-fits-all-roles from her.  I'm sure she's a nice lady in real life and all, but I'm not a fan of how ubiquitous she is in video games.

The other major voice actors are better.  I've only seen John Cleese and Alfred Molina briefly so far, but they seem to do all right.  And Michael Gambon is great as the Prophet.  Yes, even when he talks about how I and I alone am the Chosen One who is destined to save Tamriel.  To be fair, that's believable because the main quest is fully instanced, which is a very, very good thing.  If the way it worked was that a bunch of other people were standing around while the Prophet told me how special I was, I wouldn't bother wasting my time on the main quest.
« Last Edit: December 24, 2014, 06:28:58 AM by Saddam Hussein »

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Offline Rushy

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Re: The Elder Scrolls Online
« Reply #472 on: July 05, 2014, 03:00:21 PM »
But saddam, I never received that quest. You are literally the only person in ESO with the save the world quest. You are special.

Saddam Hussein

Re: The Elder Scrolls Online
« Reply #473 on: July 05, 2014, 03:50:42 PM »
I am the canonical hero of this game.

Also, they've taken a fairly casual approach to time travel.  I've already warped into the past twice, and both times it was only after completing a standard "get me five of these" MMO quest.  I seem to recall in Skyrim that time travel was kind of a big deal - it required an Elder Scroll, and it wasn't even so much time travel as it was simply viewing what happened in the past.  If only the Dragonborn had known a Telvanni mage, he could have saved himself a lot of work.

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Offline Rushy

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Re: The Elder Scrolls Online
« Reply #474 on: July 05, 2014, 04:16:00 PM »
I am the canonical hero of this game.

Also, they've taken a fairly casual approach to time travel.  I've already warped into the past twice, and both times it was only after completing a standard "get me five of these" MMO quest.  I seem to recall in Skyrim that time travel was kind of a big deal - it required an Elder Scroll, and it wasn't even so much time travel as it was simply viewing what happened in the past.  If only the Dragonborn had known a Telvanni mage, he could have saved himself a lot of work.

Hundreds of people going back and forth in time later made Akatosh angry and he fixed it by the time later TES games occurred. There, your lore lore lore has been saved.

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Offline beardo

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Re: The Elder Scrolls Online
« Reply #475 on: July 05, 2014, 04:20:03 PM »
If only the Dragonborn had known a Telvanni mage
But he does.
The Mastery.

Saddam Hussein

Re: The Elder Scrolls Online
« Reply #476 on: July 05, 2014, 05:30:41 PM »
Hundreds of people going back and forth in time later made Akatosh angry and he fixed it by the time later TES games occurred. There, your lore lore lore has been saved.

Fanwanking to the rescue!

If only the Dragonborn had known a Telvanni mage
But he does.

Chronologically, the DLC seems to come after the events of the main story.

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Offline beardo

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Re: The Elder Scrolls Online
« Reply #477 on: July 05, 2014, 05:37:00 PM »
Hehhehehe
The Mastery.

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Offline Lemon

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Re: The Elder Scrolls Online
« Reply #478 on: July 05, 2014, 06:37:07 PM »
I forgot about this shit man does it still suck ass like all MMOs you nerdy ass mofos
NOTHING TO SEE HERE. IGNORE RAMA SET.

Saddam Hussein

Re: The Elder Scrolls Online
« Reply #479 on: July 05, 2014, 07:57:44 PM »
I forgot about this shit man does it still suck ass like all MMOs you nerdy ass mofos

Some elements of it suck pretty hard.  Others are surprisingly good.