You can solo ”almost the entire game,” he continued. Bethesda want to get Elder Scrolls fans ”unfamiliar with online games” to come get introduced to multiplayer aspects.
Fans of the RPG series will of course be used to experiencing ‘your world’, but now it’s set to become ‘our world’. However we still make heroic choices.
”This is more a multiplayer Elder Scrolls game than an MMO,” Matt Firor explains to Gamereactor. We’ll have ”very limited UI, nice and clean, not a lot of bars.. the combat system is very much action-based. It’s also soloable… you can solo almost the entire game. We wanted to get Elder Scrolls players who were unfamiliar with online games and MMO terms to get in, play, have fun and get introduced to the multiplayer aspects.”
As for the shift of focus from ‘player’ to ‘players’…
”We have the main story of the game, that every Elder Scrolls game has - you start out in prison and you end up saving the world… that story is very much solo. You’re the hero. The NPCs talk directly to you.”
”We promote that you’re the hero, you get to make choices, because even if you’re in a group and you’re talking to a NPC, and they give you a choice - that choice is yours. Not your group; there are no group decisions in this game.”
The team want to encourage us meeting others but don’t require us to in order to enjoy the world and its dungeons.
”Dungeons are a little harder than overground content, about one a half times more, so you’re going to find yourself in trouble - and if you are in trouble and a player comes and helps you, or you see a player that needs help, even if you’re not grouped, the game treats you if you were: it shares full experience, the rewards,” continued game director Firor.
The Elder Scrolls Online releases on PC in late 2013. A second round of beta invites was sent out in early April.
