Well, I did it. Finallly

You would think, being a rabid Elder Scrolls fan that I would have the diamond wrapped, platinum filled collectors edition with gold leaf dragon mount and articulated Dragonborn figurine of the Elder Scroll Online: Tamriel Unlimited game. Alas, that is not the case. It was released when when my employment status was in peril. Now that I find myself in deeper peril I thought, "What the heck" and took advantage of the latest Gold Release. I'm downloading as I type, apparently with a million other people as it is moving at telephone modem speeds, GAH!

Anyways, if anyone plays online regularly let me know. It will take me a bit to become accustomed to the game operation, but will eventually be looking for friends in the wilds of Tamriel

I'm too scared to play online games. People are mean, and I'm a wimp.


Okay, so how does an online game work? I've always been curious about them, and ESO looks awesome.

Trail, all I'd say is, don't expect it to be Skyrim-online ... it's different.

No prob, I didn't expect it to be anything like Skyrim. Being an MMO, the graphics and gameplay would need to be scaled back to accommodate the massive-multiplayer piece. Since the Elder Scroll is traditionally written for a single hero, I'm sure they had to adjust for party/guild game play and leverage all the usual MMORPG stuff like "grinding" to level, creating PVP areas, having a lot of scavenger hunt style quests for XP and so on. While I've only just started playing it, so far it kind of has an Oblivion vibe to it, but updated, if that makes any sense. I'm trying a Khajiit character to start with, figured that wouldn't be the most popular and would give me a stealth edge while learning the ropes. Just a funny side note, when I was checking the spelling of Khajiit, I originally forgot the "H." When I typed it in phonetically Google asked, "Did you mean Fajita?" As a result, I think my next character will be a female Khajiit and she will be names Fajita.

So, Hagatha. I'm not a big MMO player, but the ones I have played pretty much use the same kind of formula. Basically, you download the game (which takes forever) establish an account, build a character or characters and get thrown into a starting scenario that gets you familiar with the overarching storyline and game controls. Then comes the "grinding," which is basically taking on low level beasties and doing small quests to level your character up enough so you don't get killed every 5 minutes. Most of the MMORPG's have PVP areas, so if you don't want to battle other more advanced players, you just stay away from those areas. I don't know yet if EOS has that, but I'm sure I'll find out one way or another. The first 10-15 levels, depending on their level cap always seem to be the most difficult for me. I don't even try to associate with other players in those levels because I don't want to be "that noobie guy"

I'm just curious. Are your other online players friend of foe? If they are off line what happens to their characters? Do you have to pay a monthly fee to play?

Depends upon the factions with which they (other players) align. There's almost always an "Us vs. Them" aspect to online gaming, but you can usually choose your time to join in or just run quests that keep you out of factions manned by other players. The game is actually fairly costly, when it first came out the main game was around $70, but the new gold edition is $60 and includes all the DLC to date, kind of a GOTY edition.

When you stop playing, your character disappears from the game, but is saved. I only just started playing last night so not sure how EOS re-spawns you. In other games you can spawn back to where you left off, while others drop you at a neutral spot and allow you to "fast travel" near a point where you left off.

You don't have to pay a monthly fee, but they provide perks to push people towards it. It's easier to advance, you get access to better stuff earlier and usually get some kind of stipend of in game "money" whatever that might be and usually have an easier time getting on to servers. Always amazed me how you can pay real cash for a virtual item. Anyway, that's a topic for another conversation.

In EOS, if you choose to pick up a paying subscription, the cost depends on how many months in advance you want to play. Which is pretty much the way other MMO's do it. It's 14.99 a month and then drops by a couple bucks per month if you want to do a bulk 3 or 6 month pay. I'm only paying for the first month to see if I really like the game play, if I do I'll go for a bulk pay otherwise I'll just let the subscription expire (along with the perks) and run the "free" version.

I thought it was free now

As I mentioned, you don't have to pay a monthly fee. You do have to initially pay for the game though.

From my previous posting: