#1 Engaging Single Player Story
As most fans of the Elder Scrolls will tell you, the game has always been about an engaging single player experience. The story and atmosphere of the Elder Scrolls has always been about a Fantasy world you can escape to where one can easily spend hundreds of hours. There are very few single player games out there that have been able to engage fans for as long as the Elder Scrolls has.
#2 Single Player Campaign Quality
In an interview with Skyrim director Todd Howard on multiplayer features Howard said “We always look into multiplayer, put lots of ideas on the whiteboard and it always loses. It’s not that we don’t like it. I can think of ways it would be a lot of fun. At the end of the day, that dev time is going to take away from doing the best single-player game we can, and that’s where our hearts are.”
#3 Developer Vision
The Elder Scrolls developers have always had a specific vision for the series. While it is easy for gamers who are new to the Elder Scrolls to discount this vision because of what they think the fans want, in many of the forum posts I have seen fans have been split down the middle in regard to a multiplayer component in Skyrim.
#4 Tacked on Multiplayer = FAIL
A lot of game developers seem to think that not having Multiplayer will make or break a title. This misunderstanding has lead to many mediocre implementations of multiplayer and even single player campaigns as the developers can’t decide where their focus needs to be. As we’ve seen with all the Battlefield 3 reviews which have lauded the game for its online play, it’s the under developed single player campaign that have brought down review scores for the game. This is a double edged sword that works both ways and single player has always been the Elder Scrolls strength.
#5 Elder Scrolls History
The Elder Scrolls encompasses several titles including Morrowind, Oblivion and now Skyrim. The history of these games has shown how solid the single player component of the game is. The developers have always been up front about what fans can expect in an Elder Scrolls title. When you have a winning formula you expand on it, you don’t change it altogether.
#6 Choices Affect the World
With how personalized the single player experience is in the Elder Scrolls it would be hard to incorporate multiplayer while keeping the same level of personalization. Imagine a stranger slaughtering a key faction NPC or quest giver preventing you from exploring these aspects of the game further down the road.
#7 Mob Levels Scale
In order to provide challenging combat monsters in the game scale up to a characters level. This way player’s can explore the world in a non-linear fashion while still facing a fun challenge. Questing with a lower level character would tip the scales one way or another creating an imbalance in a proven formula that has worked well for many years.
#8 Difficulty (or lack thereof)
Many of the single player and story based encounters have been designed to be experienced from a single player perspective. Adding additional players would skew the balance of well crafted encounters designed to maximize the quality of the single player experience.
#9 Xbox Live Chat
If there’s one thing that ruins the mystique of a game for me it’s the voice cracking banter I hear on Xbox live everyday. I can’t imagine anything that would more effectively ruin the atmosphere in Skyrim than some kid working down the list of “your mom” insults on Xbox Live. With amazing voice acting from people like Patrick Stewart (Oblivion) the last thing we need is a bunch of Chuck Norris jokes to add “atmosphere” to the game.
#10 It Doesn’t Need To Be
Skyrim doesn’t need to be an online game because there are literally hundreds of Free to Play MMORPGs & Co-op RPGs out there already!
At this point online multiplayer is not what the developers want Skyrim to be and the same can be said for many of the fans. Maybe in time the developers will find a working formula to incorporate balanced multiplayer while retaining a solid single player experience.
If you are looking for some great online MMORPGs please check out the new F2P MMORPG list.
it wood be the game of the year for like 20 year if it waz online no 1 wood be on wow lor d&d it wood be the elder scoll 5
You sir that commented, just proved why it shouldn’t be an mmorpg. I can just hear your mom jokes now.
Your statement should of been…
“It would be the game of the year, and maybe for the next 20 years. I believe no one would be on World of Warcraft or Dungeons and Dragons.”
ty
^ lol
Make it an MMORPG.. are you guys dumb? do you not understand how much fuckin money you guys would make..? almost every single person who ever even playen an mmo would join skyrim in a heart beat and quit everything.. im not even buying the game because its not multiplayer… i feel lonely and depressed when its just me and a bunch of computer mobs. get smart. GET MMO!
In regard to the comments from Zach and those who share that general mindset. My feeling is that they have never even played an Elder Scrolls game before, because they have no concept of what makes The Elder Scrolls so good. They seem to be pushing the MMORPG angle based solely on Skyrim’s graphics.
There are plenty of great MMORPGs out there with beautiful graphics, but there is a severe lack of deep, engrossing, fantasy rich, single player games.
I am further convinced that these people have never played an Elder Scrolls title based on comments like “im not even buying the game because its not multiplayer…” Because if they had ever played Morrowind, Oblivion or Skyrim they would know how good these games are even without multiplayer.
Personally I am glad Skyrim is only a single player game. I stopped playing MMORPGs a few years ago after being very a serious and dedicated player. Too much guild drama, social quirks and general high school age BS from other players ruined several really wonderful MMORPGs for me.
In addition, when I started Skyrim I was immediately swept back to all the great memories I had of previous Elder Scrolls titles. The highly scripted, cinematic experiences in Skyrim would just not be plausible in an MMORPG.
You couldn’t script a nerve racking execution interrupted by a massive dragon that destroys the entire town because there would be no towns left in an MMORPG. You couldn’t have random Dragon encounters in the midst of the wilderness without some other player coming along and kill stealing your pray. The wonderful voice acting and dialog would be drowned out by kids talking shit to one another and making stupid jokes. And the beautiful graphics and scenery would be obstructed by:
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I argued these same points with a friend whose answer was, “Simple, just make all those events instances like in WoW or EQ2”.
So I asked him “Let me get this straight. You want to take a single player game, make it multiplayer and then make all the content in the MMORPG single player?” He didn’t seem to understand what I was getting at. *sigh*
Just my two cents.
When I think of this game and the possibility of a multiplayer aspect; I imagine something similar to what Diablo 2 or even Borderlands did with multiplayer. Simply importing the host’s game instance as the basis for everyone joining – and limiting the number of players able to join. In no way do I support TES being MMO, but some multiplayer would be nice. No more than four people would be acceptable though, just because of the vastness of the world and ability to run off and cause problems for the host. I think just to be able to partner up (a live person rather than a companion) would be acceptable.
I don’t think Borderlands did a good job of implementing their multiplayer, but I think it would be a good model for Bethesda to move forward with.
^ Agreed.
I believe there are not enough game like Skyrim out there. Games where you can put in 300+ hours and still have things to do and places to explore. Most single player games I buy go as follows:
1) Buy $60 game.
2) Beat campaign in ~24 hours.
3) Put on shelf and never touch again…
Just like oblivion, I plan to play it for years to come. And when I’m done, I’ll start over again!
Well done Bethesda. You’ve created another game of the year.
Radamon, seriously u have a super hatred for mmorpg u think there all gonna be filled with lil tweens screaming n yelling yo momma n selling gold. i bet all that comes from wow the only mmo u ever played. well then u should know wow messed up big time. the guy below u got it right on the money diablo 2 is the best game in the world there format was perfect allow a hos, boot n add control to the game to a few players REAL LIFE PEOPLE(u fucking loner) to the game would make it game of the century! but they didnt so they fail, u fail, and ur mom fails.<—kkty GG
^@Greg,
Radamon never said that Diablo 2 was an MMO. He simply stated his dislike of and why MMO based Multiplayer is not needed in a WorldRPG.
I can understand putting in something like Co-OP in Skyrim.
They could even put in thing’s like (No fast travel, hardcore mode:Fallout style, And possibly a chance to conquer a city then fight back constant attack’s from the Imperials/Stormcloaks.
I think that Bestheda has already thought of these ideas but I can dream of a CO-OP Skyrim can’t I?
Also I do not belive that Diablo or Diablo II is the best game in the world. That is only your opinion.
Some of us have plenty of “REAL LIFE PEOPLE” in our lives and we like to escape it once and a while. I thought that games were for escape when they first came out.
Greg, I can’t understand the last half of your post “there format was perfect allow a hos, boot n add control to the game to a few players REAL LIFE PEOPLE”? I sincerely have no idea what that means. You’re entitled to your opinion. But I assume you were being ironic when you said “u fail, and ur mom fails” since you were pretty much reinforcing the stereotype that you felt I was associating with certain players?
If Skyrim became an mmo, yeah that would be bad. Too many people being loud.
I would be happy with some Co-Op. I mean, it would add some companionship in the game. I often just do my quests alone because I don’t want my followers dying before I actually want to have a good use for them. And yeah. Too many people in the game would be bad. Can you imagine the spam of just one npc? Skyrim has a marriage feature, and only a few houses that you can buy. How are you supposed to even make it plausible that hundreds of thousands of people are owning the same house? Or married to the same npc? Honestly, this makes me wonder how most people thought the MMO Skyrim would work. Personally, I would love to see Co-Op, and I know that would be an xbox live feature. For the people who play Skyrim on Steam, they could co-op with their friends there. Too many people kill a game as good as Skyrim. But just a few would work nicely.
Yeah. MMO Skyrim is for dreamers. Too many people with their grade-school humor, guys bagging on each other about their manhood, and other such nonsense would kill a good RPG.
Não ser um MMORPG?! Claro que sim! Você faz ideia de quando dinheiro eles iriam arrecadar se esse Jogo de RPG Incrível fosse online? Skyrim podia fazer coisas que so podia ser pagando, as pessoas iam comprar mais fazendo com que eles ganhem mais, sinceramente Skyrim podia sim ser uma MMORPG :/ E se o pessoal ficar insistindo pode apostar, eles farão uma MMORPG pois o que eles querem e agradar o povo: Skyrim para MMORPG!!!!!
Jack Kitten, and it serves the same servers that could have multiple servers, a lot, and when the server is in the number SUITABLE is as crowded, pretty simple right? ‘-’
Umm. Jax, not Jack. I am a chick/ girl. Co-op would be better than just straight MMORPG. Also, Lucca, have you not paid attention to most MMO chatter? The world chats are annoying most times. I have seen co-op games, and would like to see that in Skyrim. Seriously. What is with most of you people? Skyrim as a full out MMO? And servers? Those can be ruined easily. Co-Op would be way better for Skyrim. Not full blown MMORPG. I’ve played games that were better for Co-op and not full out MMORPG. There have been obvious statements on why Skyrim can’t be an MMO.
Radamon had stated this in his earlier comment: “In regard to the comments from Zach and those who share that general mindset. My feeling is that they have never even played an Elder Scrolls game before, because they have no concept of what makes The Elder Scrolls so good. They seem to be pushing the MMORPG angle based solely on Skyrim’s graphics.”
“I argued these same points with a friend whose answer was, “Simple, just make all those events instances like in WoW or EQ2”.
So I asked him “Let me get this straight. You want to take a single player game, make it multiplayer and then make all the content in the MMORPG single player?” He didn’t seem to understand what I was getting at. *sigh*
Just my two cents.”
I am quoting Radamon because they have the right points. Making Skyrim an MMORPG and not a Co-op would be a bad idea. Not all games were meant to be MMO. Some are better as solo. Some are better as a co-op. Some are best just for an MMO. Not everything can be an MMO. This is a fact, and I accept it. Why can’t you people pushing for a Skyrim MMO see this?
Yes, I’m a girl. Yes, I am a gamer. No, I don’t care what the rules of the internet say. I’m here, and proud to even put up my views. Freedom of speech is possible, if everyone is willing to listen.
No one here has paid attention to the technicalities of this, One. The rendering power of even implementing co-op, most engines render the world of each player on the host when on multiplayer, Thus requiring ALOT of power (and Ram!), look at the Ram and CPU % it takes (through task manager) when playing skyrim, Okay, Now multiply that by 4 (4 player Co-op) Already you’re using heaps of power, now imagine that on an mmo with say, 16 players, 4×4 of the co-op, of look at that, you need a supercomputer, now i know -nerd voice- U cud jush crete a knew engin -normal- well true, but who is going to reformat the engine of a buggy game, that took an entire team to make, JUST to create some laggy mmo, Its redicolous!