Elder Scrolls Online director, Matt Firor, has said that plenty has been learned from other games in the MMO genre as to how players interact with complex battle and interaction systems.
Mr Firor said that MMOs have evolved considerably over the past decade, and that the development team wanted to avoid the "punish the player syndrome" that often plagues games in the genre.
MMOs are definitely moving away from this but it’s things like when two players that aren’t in a group kill a monster," explained Mr Firor, "why shouldn’t they both get credit for it? Why shouldn’t they both get fully rewarded for it and not split it?"
He iterated by saying that, in the genre's early days, some players would get punished for acts, while others would get rewarded. This has changed over the years, but Mr Firor and his team is intent on encouraging team play.
You want them to need each other so why not make it as cool as possible to fight monsters and get rewarded for it…”
Single player gamers will also find plenty to enjoy about The Elder Scrolls Online, with the experience staying true to other campaigns in the series.
“The part of the IP that we worked with the most to ensure that it was as closest we could in an MMO as it would be in a console solo game is that ‘I’m the hero’.
"In The Elder Scrolls games you’re always the hero, whether you want to or not in some cases, you know. You go out there and kill the dragons, you defeat Mehrunes Dagon in Oblivion, in Morrowind you’re up there fighting The Tribunal, those are huge global epic things you don’t want to stand in line to do in an MMO."
“So, as MMO designers, the thing we needed to hit the most was that feeling that you’re awesome, you’re the hero and we do that of course through a mix of technology where when I am confronting, you know, a major foe in the game. I’m doing it in an instance where I’m alone and we have a whole part of the game that’s 100 percent solo, which is the main quest and story where the world focuses on you. You’re the hero, everything you do is solo and the world reacts to you in that way.”
The Elder Scrolls Online is due for release in 2013.
By Gaetano Prestia - Bio