Bethesda Takes The Elder Scrolls Online

Later this year, Bethesda Game Studios will bring even another aspect to their nearly 20 year old and ever evolving role-playing game, The Elder Scrolls. ZeniMax Online Studios, a company focused on MMO development, is moving The Elder Scrolls from a single player game into a massively multiplayer dimension.

Setting

Although the online version will stick with the usual continent of Tamriel, it will transport you back a thousand years prior to the time setting of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, and 800 years prior to The Elder Scrolls  IV: Oblivion.

The storylines main aggressor, Daedric Prince Molag Bal, attempts to reign over the whole of Tamriel. The player can choose from nine character classes categorized into three factions, The Aldmeri Donimion, The Daggerfall Covenant, and the Ebonheart Pact, all of which are battling for control of Tamriel City.

Gameplay

As typical of MMORPGs, The player will accept and complete quests to gain rewards and experience points. However, this game was developed with an open exploration element. Being not limited to one specific quest path will allow the players to roam more freely across the continent and decide their own adventure without getting bored from grinding away in a small questing area.

With previous MMORPGs, when creating an avatar, an individual must decide on the server they wish to play on for the duration of that character. This became an inconvenience for players when they found that they had friends who played on a different server, and wouldn’t be able to join them in-game without creating a new character on the friend’s server. The Elder Scrolls Online has created an alternative to the multiple server games. Mega Server Technology will allow all of the games players to join in on one enormous server, making the social aspect of the game more convenient.

Release

The game will come out sometime in mid to late 2013, though the release date has not yet been announced. For die-hard MMO fans, you can now sign up for a chance to be a beta tester, although a start date for testing has also not been released. The testers that are chosen will be notified before the testing period begins. In addition to waiting for release dates, gamers also wait anxiously to discover the price of the game, and if the game will charge a monthly fee which is a common payment arrangement in the world of MMOs.

[Image via toqonline]