# Elder Scrolls Online going f2p



## mdchan (Feb 12, 2015)

So apparently, the inevitable happened and ESO is going to be free to play (or pay to win, more likely) starting in March.  Supposedly, it's due to the release of the console versions, but I believe we all saw this coming.  ESO just isn't solid enough to be worth a subscription fee.

But, putting that aside...

I played it during the closed beta invites, then for the free month when it was (prematurely) released.  I stopped playing when my free trial ran out since it was still buggy as all heck, but if it's going to be free again...

I might just return to it.  I'm a casual gamer anyway, so as long as I can still enjoy the game, I'm not concerned with the pay to win options (heck, I actually saved up in-game gold to buy one of the horses rather than use their cash shop or get the Imperial Edition).

Anyone else from the beta or early release days (or later on, even) who quit plan on returning to Tamriel when f2p/p2w is implemented?


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## Alienfish (Feb 12, 2015)

Kinda expected imo, with that kind of game. I don't think multiplayer is the biggest thing to the ES series, people could as well buy one of the five main games to rock around with rather than bothering with that stuff.


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## KarlaKGB (Feb 12, 2015)

u mean b2p, u still need to pay an initial box price


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## Keitara (Feb 12, 2015)

I wanted to play the beta too, but when I looked into my emails, the email with a code was already expired DX
If it goes f2p, I would definitely try it out!
I've always wanted to try playing an Elder Scrolls or Final Fantasy game but somehow it never worked out for me :'<


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## Tao (Feb 12, 2015)

mdchan said:


> So apparently, the inevitable happened and ESO is going to be free to play (or pay to win, more likely) starting in March.  Supposedly, it's due to the release of the console versions, but I believe we all saw this coming.  ESO just isn't solid enough to be worth a subscription fee.




How exactly did they say it was due to console versions? Because they have their own separate subscription fee already?
Xbone I can see that being a issue but for PS4, don't they allow you to play subscription based games such as ESO without a PSN subscription solely so you don't have to pay for 2 subs in the first place?

Sounds more like "our game is terrible but we don't want to admit it". Sort of the same as Ubisoft blaming Nintendo for their poor sales.




But yea, I knew this wasn't going to last long before going F2P. I think Star Wars even lasted longer than this.

Elder Scrolls isn't a game that was going to work as an MMO. It's all about doing your own thing whilst a typical MMO just can't let you do that without causing massive balance issues in the game. Take that away and Elder Scrolls really isn't much different from every other western fantasy game.

Aside from Warcraft, the only franchise I've seen that has managed to start and succeed with a subscription based MMO is Final Fantasy. Arguably because of the fanbase (even though Star Wars and Elder Scrolls had this), maybe because Final Fantasy is already pretty much suited to being an MMO already.

Everybody else seems to just jump on the MMO bandwagon thinking that they're going to be the next 'WoW killer' and that their MMO is somehow more likely to succeed than the thousands of other failed attempts before them.



I think it's safe to say that if something like Star Wars failed at the MMO business, Elder Scrolls didn't stand a chance at all.


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## DoctorGallifrey (Feb 13, 2015)

Tao said:


> How exactly did they say it was due to console versions? Because they have their own separate subscription fee already?
> Xbone I can see that being a issue but for* PS4, don't they allow you to play subscription based games such as ESO without a PSN subscription solely so you don't have to pay for 2 subs in the first place?*
> 
> Sounds more like "our game is terrible but we don't want to admit it". Sort of the same as Ubisoft blaming Nintendo for their poor sales.
> ...


The PS4 requires you to have a PS+ membership to play online games. However you can watch Netflix and stuff similar without it.

I'm so happy that they dropped the subscription fee for the game. I wasn't about to pay $60 for a game, then a $20 monthly subscription fee for PS+ and whatever the fee is for ESO.

I'll never understand why they went the way of MMO, don't know why they just didn't do the ESVI with the same story line.


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## Tao (Feb 13, 2015)

DoctorGallifrey said:


> The PS4 requires you to have a PS+ membership to play online games. However you can watch Netflix and stuff similar without it.
> 
> I'm so happy that they dropped the subscription fee for the game. I wasn't about to pay $60 for a game, then a $20 monthly subscription fee for PS+ and whatever the fee is for ESO.
> 
> I'll never understand why they went the way of MMO, don't know why they just didn't do the ESVI with the same story line.




Oh, I'm certain that I heard that for subscription based games the PSN+ sub wouldn't be required :/


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## infinikitten (Feb 13, 2015)

This is some of the most exciting news I've heard today omgomgomgomgsdfgjdhgkldfjfk

I absolutely ADORED ESO when it first came out. Played up to V1, then inexplicably lost my desire to keep logging in... and stopped paying the subscription fee... so aaaaaaahhhHHHHH all I can say is I'm thrilled to be able to play the damn thing again without having to fork over tons of money. I don't even care about what they do re: cash shops or whatever at the moment, as long as they don't implement a daily quest limit or something; I played mostly solo anyway. Love love love ESO, despite all the people who complain about it.


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## Brad (Feb 13, 2015)

Just sort of restating what's been said.

*THE GAME IS NOT FREE STILL. YOU STILL HAVE TO BUY IT, BUT THE THE SUBSCRIPTION IS GONE.*

I bought ESO at launch, and I was able to play the game 3 days early, as well. So I was literally in on the ground floor with this one. I really enjoy this game. The main draw here is definitely the PvP. One of the best PvP systems I've ever seen in an MMO.


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## Chromie (Feb 14, 2015)

Still not worth it guys. Seriously.


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## FancyThat (Feb 15, 2015)

I got emails about this a while ago, I play it on PC with my friends although haven't in a while due to lack of free time so I let the subscription drop. Now it's free I might get back into it.


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## infinikitten (Feb 15, 2015)

I'd say we should form a TBT guild (for those of us who are going to go back to playing it when it frees up) but I dunno if there'd be any interest for it...?


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## FancyThat (Feb 15, 2015)

infinikitten said:


> I'd say we should form a TBT guild (for those of us who are going to go back to playing it when it frees up) but I dunno if there'd be any interest for it...?



Sounds like it could be fun , I was an imperial Battlemage before in the Aldmeri Dominion but if I play again I'll probably start a new character so could join any faction.


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## Jarrad (Feb 15, 2015)

sincerely hope the next elder scrolls game isn't online

can we go back to a single player open-word fps rpg please and not this crappy world of warcraft rip off sht


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## mdchan (Feb 15, 2015)

infinikitten said:


> I'd say we should form a TBT guild (for those of us who are going to go back to playing it when it frees up) but I dunno if there'd be any interest for it...?



I'd be interested!  I believe the only guilds I was in were AH ones, though I don't even remember what my character's name is...haven't played since my free trial ended after the release.  XD



Jarrad said:


> sincerely hope the next elder scrolls game isn't online
> 
> can we go back to a single player open-word fps rpg please and not this crappy world of warcraft rip off sht



I believe that's mostly Zenimax's fault, since they were the ones primarily responsible for putting ESO out and getting it online (they were the ones we had to send out of game bug reports to at the end of a beta period, if I remember correctly).


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## Jarrad (Feb 15, 2015)

mdchan said:


> I'd be interested!  I believe the only guilds I was in were AH ones, though I don't even remember what my character's name is...haven't played since my free trial ended after the release.  XD
> 
> 
> 
> I believe that's mostly Zenimax's fault, since they were the ones primarily responsible for putting ESO out and getting it online (they were the ones we had to send out of game bug reports to at the end of a beta period, if I remember correctly).



No, it's not the fact that it was online that I hated about it. It's the fact that it was so clearly an online game. Everything about it screamed world of warcraft.


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## mdchan (Feb 15, 2015)

Jarrad said:


> No, it's not the fact that it was online that I hated about it. It's the fact that it was so clearly an online game. Everything about it screamed world of warcraft.



I actually thought it was vastly different from WoW, and definitely catered towards solo players.  Now, I haven't played WoW since WotLC, but my brother sometimes does raiding, so I've seen a little of it.  Granted, I also haven't played ESO since last May or so; I doubt they made any radical changes in less than a year.

Skill trees are vastly different between ESO and WoW.  WoW is now a cookie-cutter game (back in vanilla, skill trees weren't as restrictive), with a streamlined skill tree.  In ESO, you can dabble in any weapon type you want (from what I remember) and its skills.

The amount of skills you could have on your hotbar at one time was also different (I believe the limit in ESO was somewhere around 5?), while in WoW, you have the full use of all the top row of keys with sometimes two or three bars of them full of skills come end-game.

Group mechanics (unless improved) are vastly different between the two, as well.  Honestly, WoW did it better with how groups worked, particularly tanks being able to hold threat.  ESO dungeons felt like a giant maze of mass chaos where wiping was inevitable, while WoW was more structured (again, unless they improved that).

I didn't participate in PvP, so I can't comment on that part of it, but PvP is a big subject for online gaming.

ESO failed hard (again, unless it changed) in terms of communicating with other players and selling items.  There was no global auction house, and players would have to join multiple AH guilds to be able to sell rare items to other players (or buy items).  In this aspect, WoW did a much better job, and I would have liked to see a more WoW-like auction house.

ESO did do better with a storyline, as WoW only had a few quests which tied in together in various locations, but not an overall plot.  Yes, there's lore behind everything in WoW which leads up to the end-game raid dungeons, but casual gamers rarely get to experience that; in ESO, even casual gamers can enjoy the plot as you don't just start off in a starting zone with the minimum of gear and equipment with quests designed to take you to around level 5 before tossing you out into the next area.

Quests are also a little more engaging in ESO than they are in WoW.

Yes, there are many similarities between MMOs, typically in certain aspects (like the HUD) because they work well and are user-friendly.  I've played a lot of single player RPGs as well as various MMOs, and the HUD for WoW and FFXIV:ARR are my favorites in the MMOs (though Perfect World also uses one almost identical to WoW's).

For the game, itself, ESO isn't typically counted as being part of the Elder Scrolls series since it is an online game and not exclusively Bethesda-made (due to the partnership with Zenimax).  Did ESO mar the ES franchise?  Maybe a little; that was the biggest complaint people had during the beta and first month of release.


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## Chromie (Feb 16, 2015)

Jarrad said:


> sincerely hope the next elder scrolls game isn't online
> 
> can we go back to a single player open-word fps rpg please and not this crappy world of warcraft rip off sht



Have you played Wow? Because really, it's nothing like Wow.


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## Trent the Paladin (Feb 17, 2015)

DoctorGallifrey said:


> The PS4 requires you to have a PS+ membership to play online games. However you can watch Netflix and stuff similar without it.
> 
> I'm so happy that they dropped the subscription fee for the game. I wasn't about to pay $60 for a game, then a $20 monthly subscription fee for PS+ and whatever the fee is for ESO.
> 
> I'll never understand why they went the way of MMO, don't know why they just didn't do the ESVI with the same story line.







In all seriousiness, Playstation Plus is not required on games that require subscriptions to play. Playstation Plus IS required on games like Battlefield 4, Call of Duty Advanced Warfare, and Destiny which all are non-subscription based multiplayer games. Things like Final Fantasy XIV, Warframe, and War Thunder do not require PS+ at all. 



Tao said:


> Oh, I'm certain that I heard that for subscription based games the PSN+ sub wouldn't be required :/


This is correct.


@Topic: Honestly I saw this coming miles away, Bethesda really ought to be considered one of the worst game developers we're plagued with after Capcom. Their games are really lackluster, are typically buggy as hell, and lack any real substance to them yet the only reason they sell highly is because people mod the crap out of it. An MMO based off this already bland setup is really just bound to fail, cast aside to abyss for being a truly awful game.


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## infinikitten (Feb 24, 2015)

Aww, I really did enjoy what time I spent with it. But again, I played solo rather than with other people, and since MMOs are generally supposed to be played with others, I guess I understand some of the criticism.

I'll still go back and play it once I'm able. /shrug


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