This basically sums it up for me.  This guy on the ESO forums made a really great satirical analogy here.  Basically, replace all mentions of COD with TES and it's exactly how I saw my beloved series of TES being ripped to shreds:

This just in everyone! In light of Zenimax's recent ESO news, ACTIVISION has jumped on the bandwagon:

HYPOTHETICAL PRESS RELEASE EXCERPT:

DOUBLE HELIX GAMES, makers of “Battleship: The Game” are currently developing a brand new MMO for Activision’s acclaimed, signature first-person shooter franchise: “Call Of Duty.”

Built upon the WORLDFORGE engine, COD: ONLINE, will feature a new and exciting third-person view from which to control your soldier! Pair that with the same MMORPG mechanics so many veterans are used to, with hotkey, timer-based combat, cooldowns, but in the fast-paced, hardcore military environment of World War One and we can’t lose! The story of CODO will be a pre-pre-prequel to the Call of Duty single-player games, that sees many familiar faces on dead old French people from the first COD WW2 game, as actual main characters that you and thousands of others will control across the theaters of WW1. Why not the core FPS combat of previous COD games? Well because in an MMO that would be technically IMPOSSIBLE! (Don’t google “Planetside” please).

From the Sommes to Gallipoli, you will march across decimated wastelands and war-torn landscapes to finally fire one round from your bolt-action rifle and be immediately cut down by incessant, AI driven machine-gun fire that will guarantee a historically accurate outcome to the war. Keep in mind though, the rock-paper-scissors of hotkey-based 3rd-person combat! If your opponent uses his “Mustard Gas” AOE DOT then you counter with your “Gas Mask” Interrupt and press the number 2 to fire your gun at him. Suck at aiming? Don’t worry, all you have to do is tab target your enemy and you will hit him in the face every time. Battles will be staggeringly huge, sometimes up to 100v100 in the same battlefield! Did we say battlefield? We meant Call-of-Duty.

Also, we’ve decided to approach the art-style with a more cartoony feel to it. Considering the success of games like “Team Fortress 2” we’ve decided to basically copy that. It’ll be great, you’ll love it. You have to! It has “Call of Duty” written on it! You don’t want people to think you don’t LOVE Call-of-Duty do you? Think of how bullied you’d get in school, and that cute girl in class would never look your way again without a lifetime subscription to CODO! Since we also own Blizzard, we’ll also be able to do some cross-promotion with you WoW veterans, who will feel right at home in the trenches of WW1 since all the battlefields are basically re-skins of Arathi Basin. You can even earn some new unique gear in CODO that will give your WoW character some new looks like, a German WW1 helmet with that cool spike on the top! Imagine your level 85 Goblin wearing one of those! Radical!

Last thing, the shareholders at Activision have said that if this doesn’t blow away WoW’s lifetime sales in the first week and score at least 103 on Metacritic, they will close the book on all future COD projects, regardless of genre or developer. It’s only fair, since we’ve invested more money and manpower and time into this game than any other COD before. So if you want COD to continue, you will buy this game and subscribe to it. Forever.

Love, your “bestest pal ever™,”

-Robert “Bobby” Nicholson J. “I was in Moneyball with Brad Pitt” Kotick

I wonder if people whined this much when they found out that Blizzard was making World of Warcraft and you couldn't click on buildings and spend recources gathered to build an army...

Originally posted by Entinerint

This basically sums it up for me.  This guy on the ESO forums made a really great satirical analogy here.  Basically, replace all mentions of COD with TES and it's exactly how I saw my beloved series of TES being ripped to shreds:

This just in everyone! In light of Zenimax's recent ESO news, ACTIVISION has jumped on the bandwagon:

HYPOTHETICAL PRESS RELEASE EXCERPT:

DOUBLE HELIX GAMES, makers of “Battleship: The Game” are currently developing a brand new MMO for Activision’s acclaimed, signature first-person shooter franchise: “Call Of Duty.”

Built upon the WORLDFORGE engine, COD: ONLINE, will feature a new and exciting third-person view from which to control your soldier! Pair that with the same MMORPG mechanics so many veterans are used to, with hotkey, timer-based combat, cooldowns, but in the fast-paced, hardcore military environment of World War One and we can’t lose! The story of CODO will be a pre-pre-prequel to the Call of Duty single-player games, that sees many familiar faces on dead old French people from the first COD WW2 game, as actual main characters that you and thousands of others will control across the theaters of WW1. Why not the core FPS combat of previous COD games? Well because in an MMO that would be technically IMPOSSIBLE! (Don’t google “Planetside” please).

From the Sommes to Gallipoli, you will march across decimated wastelands and war-torn landscapes to finally fire one round from your bolt-action rifle and be immediately cut down by incessant, AI driven machine-gun fire that will guarantee a historically accurate outcome to the war. Keep in mind though, the rock-paper-scissors of hotkey-based 3rd-person combat! If your opponent uses his “Mustard Gas” AOE DOT then you counter with your “Gas Mask” Interrupt and press the number 2 to fire your gun at him. Suck at aiming? Don’t worry, all you have to do is tab target your enemy and you will hit him in the face every time. Battles will be staggeringly huge, sometimes up to 100v100 in the same battlefield! Did we say battlefield? We meant Call-of-Duty.

Also, we’ve decided to approach the art-style with a more cartoony feel to it. Considering the success of games like “Team Fortress 2” we’ve decided to basically copy that. It’ll be great, you’ll love it. You have to! It has “Call of Duty” written on it! You don’t want people to think you don’t LOVE Call-of-Duty do you? Think of how bullied you’d get in school, and that cute girl in class would never look your way again without a lifetime subscription to CODO! Since we also own Blizzard, we’ll also be able to do some cross-promotion with you WoW veterans, who will feel right at home in the trenches of WW1 since all the battlefields are basically re-skins of Arathi Basin. You can even earn some new unique gear in CODO that will give your WoW character some new looks like, a German WW1 helmet with that cool spike on the top! Imagine your level 85 Goblin wearing one of those! Radical!

Last thing, the shareholders at Activision have said that if this doesn’t blow away WoW’s lifetime sales in the first week and score at least 103 on Metacritic, they will close the book on all future COD projects, regardless of genre or developer. It’s only fair, since we’ve invested more money and manpower and time into this game than any other COD before. So if you want COD to continue, you will buy this game and subscribe to it. Forever.

Love, your “bestest pal ever™,”

-Robert “Bobby” Nicholson J. “I was in Moneyball with Brad Pitt” Kotick

Truly oustanding.  that was a fine piece of comedy if i say so myself. Unfortunately, with the announcement of the soon to be biggest flop and embarrassment in MMO history, i could see that scenario playing out.  Good thing we have other games to look forward to.

Originally posted by bossalinie

I wonder if people whined this much when they found out that Blizzard was making World of Warcraft and you couldn't click on buildings and spend recources gathered to build an army...

I beleive what I said back then was "Why the ^$^% aren't those ^$@$s making Starcraft II instead of this ^$^*!"

Originally posted by bossalinie

I wonder if people whined this much when they found out that Blizzard was making World of Warcraft and you couldn't click on buildings and spend recources gathered to build an army...

Nope. They were playing EQ, UO, and the like.  World of Warcraft changed the whole scene.  ESO is trying to do the same thing a decade later with decade old methods.  I see your point, but unfortunately they aren't innovating where they could have.

Originally posted by Skymourne

Originally posted by bossalinie

I wonder if people whined this much when they found out that Blizzard was making World of Warcraft and you couldn't click on buildings and spend recources gathered to build an army...

Nope. They were playing EQ, UO, and the like.  World of Warcraft changed the whole scene.  ESO is trying to do the same thing a decade later with decade old methods.  I see your point, but unfortunately they aren't innovating where they could have.

Even though WoW had a substantial amount of first time MMO players during its innitial launch, I can't make a bold claim like you just did. I can vouch for myself, and the reason I play MMOs now is because of World of Warcraft. The reason I play World of Warcraft was because I was a fan of the Warcraft RTS games. 

As for innovation, we'll just have to see. There is a big different bewteen that and unreal espectations of implementing all  elements that make SPRG special into a MMO

Originally posted by bossalinie

As for innovation, we'll just have to see. There is a big different bewteen that and unreal espectations of implementing all  elements that make SPRG special into a MMO

Sorry, but on this website there are too many examples of MMOs that have pulled off the core aspects of TES including first-person real-time melee combat, thievery, open PVP.  There's nothing unrealistic about expecting that the elements of a game like Skyrim could be translated into the MMO space.  Maybe not every spoon in the world would be stealable, but to a certain extent, anything is possible nowadays in an MMO setting.

Originally posted by bossalinie

Originally posted by Skymourne

Originally posted by bossalinie

I wonder if people whined this much when they found out that Blizzard was making World of Warcraft and you couldn't click on buildings and spend recources gathered to build an army...

Nope. They were playing EQ, UO, and the like.  World of Warcraft changed the whole scene.  ESO is trying to do the same thing a decade later with decade old methods.  I see your point, but unfortunately they aren't innovating where they could have.

Even though WoW had a substantial amount of first time MMO players during its innitial launch, I can't make a bold claim like you just did. I can vouch for myself, and the reason I play MMOs now is because of World of Warcraft. The reason I play World of Warcraft was because I was a fan of the Warcraft RTS games. 

As for innovation, we'll just have to see. There is a big different bewteen that and unreal espectations of implementing all  elements that make SPRG special into a MMO

Oh i agree, as i would never have touched WoW if i hadn't played the RTS for a good part of the late 90's.  I just see these guys going backwards where Blizzard took a giant leap forward.  I'm not sure unreal expectations is the best way to put it.  Elder Scrolls fans, for the most part (myself included) have the pride of playing a game series that hasn't really deviated from it's core concepts.  ES1 Arena laid the groundwork for this back in the early 90's and they have not deviated from the model until 20 years later. Why? MONEY. They are selling out, pure and simple.  Zenimax is 2012's Metallica.  Everything before Black was legend, and everything after is a steaming pile.  

We'll all sit back and watch for sure, no matter what side of the fence we're on but it's not going to be pretty.  

Originally posted by Skymourne

Originally posted by bossalinie

Originally posted by Skymourne

Originally posted by bossalinie

I wonder if people whined this much when they found out that Blizzard was making World of Warcraft and you couldn't click on buildings and spend recources gathered to build an army...

Nope. They were playing EQ, UO, and the like.  World of Warcraft changed the whole scene.  ESO is trying to do the same thing a decade later with decade old methods.  I see your point, but unfortunately they aren't innovating where they could have.

Even though WoW had a substantial amount of first time MMO players during its innitial launch, I can't make a bold claim like you just did. I can vouch for myself, and the reason I play MMOs now is because of World of Warcraft. The reason I play World of Warcraft was because I was a fan of the Warcraft RTS games. 

As for innovation, we'll just have to see. There is a big different bewteen that and unreal espectations of implementing all  elements that make SPRG special into a MMO

Oh i agree, as i would never have touched WoW if i hadn't played the RTS for a good part of the late 90's.  I just see these guys going backwards where Blizzard took a giant leap forward.  I'm not sure unreal expectations is the best way to put it.  Elder Scrolls fans, for the most part (myself included) have the pride of playing a game series that hasn't really deviated from it's core concepts.  ES1 Arena laid the groundwork for this back in the early 90's and they have not deviated from the model until 20 years later. Why? MONEY. They are selling out, pure and simple.  Zenimax is 2012's Metallica.  Everything before Black was legend, and everything after is a steaming pile.  

We'll all sit back and watch for sure, no matter what side of the fence we're on but it's not going to be pretty.  

Totally agreed Sky.  They could have brought some of the more niche gameplay elements of MMOs like Darkfall and Mortal, in particular real-time combat and open pvp full looting, into a major AAA mainstream game.  They were the last hope!

They ruined such an amazing opportunity, all that potential was squandered completely...

Originally posted by bossalinie

I wonder if people whined this much when they found out that Blizzard was making World of Warcraft and you couldn't click on buildings and spend recources gathered to build an army...

WHAHAHAHAHAHAHA an even better analogy.

Originally posted by Coman

Originally posted by bossalinie

I wonder if people whined this much when they found out that Blizzard was making World of Warcraft and you couldn't click on buildings and spend recources gathered to build an army...

WHAHAHAHAHAHAHA an even better analogy.

In truth the beating Blizzard took for that back then was nothing compared to this.  I was there for the disgruntled grumblings when WoW was announced.  The real fear was that the Warcraft RTS games would stop being developed, not that it wouldn't have the same mechanics, it fit in a lot of ways.  However, those fears were absolutely founded, since we haven't seen a Warcraft RTS since...I wonder if TES will suffer the same fate. 

Different devs, but the same publisher and brand is brand is brand to the bean-counters and shareholders.  If ESO bombs, it might adversely effect how they view the SP RPG side.  Non-gaming executives are rarely ones who understand subtle nuance.  They may cut finding to TES VI or altogether refocus BGS on the Fallout franchise which hasn't failed them yet. 

Originally posted by Coman

Originally posted by bossalinie

I wonder if people whined this much when they found out that Blizzard was making World of Warcraft and you couldn't click on buildings and spend recources gathered to build an army...

WHAHAHAHAHAHAHA an even better analogy.

Ah, but there's more than one opinion, at least it was anticipated by some people while WoW and a number of other mmorpgs were in development and potentially all competing "to be the next big thing", that Blizzard would pull off "WoW as king", simply due to the strength of it's devs and stellar track record at producing successful and polished games, oc now it's success is KNOWN to be crazy good (12m subs peaking etc).

I think the spoof analogy does not sound too far off from what's been gleaned so far? It may turn out to be commercially viable, but it may be another game [edit: a different game altogether I mean] that brings the sort of experience of ES Skyrim to mmorpg, not the [actual] one that shares the IP, is a way to look at the current info on ESO?

can we have a link to these forums? I looked around and I cant find.

I want to read all the fan praise on these ideas!...snicker

i loled :D

I don't think anyone is against an Elder Scrolls Online Game, Personally I am against it only based on what is mentioned to be included in it and what won't be included in it.

All the features they aren't adding are features already implemented in other MMO's, so we know they are possible. Player Housing, Action Combat, Classless skills and traits, marriage. None of these items are hindered due to technology.

I am not a huge Elder Scrolls fan, only started playing with Morrowind and Skyrim couple hundred hours in both.

But I did expect an Elder Scrolls Online Game to be in the same line as GW2, in Hype, and innovation. Changing the way MMO's are played, changing the way MMO's are viewed. Guess I just expected too much from an AAA studio, because it seems that if you want Innovation or risk to be taken, it has to be from some unknown studios, or from Anet.

It might be a great Online game, but it will just be another WOW clone within a Pile of WOW clones.

TERA has graphic and Action Combat to stay away from WOW Clones

TSW has its own unique systems to stay away from WOW Clones

GW2 stayed away from WOW Clones

But TESO wants to be a WOW and GW2 Clone??? guess its unique in its own way of wanting to be one when so many tried to stay away from it.

Originally posted by Skymourne

Originally posted by bossalinie

I wonder if people whined this much when they found out that Blizzard was making World of Warcraft and you couldn't click on buildings and spend recources gathered to build an army...

Nope. They were playing EQ, UO, and the like.  World of Warcraft changed the whole scene.  ESO is trying to do the same thing a decade later with decade old methods.  I see your point, but unfortunately they aren't innovating where they could have.

Also, making an RTS into an MMORPG is a little different than making an RPG into an MMORPG.

Not remotely funny at all.

Of all things, people are upset over the substantially more efficient and polished hotkey and tab-targetting system.  Of'course they don't care that there are thousands, if not millions of players out there who aren't good at twitch combat and that forcing people into that will push them away.  This system just makes sense for a variety of reasons, only the short sighted can't understand it.

While I do believe there are certain features that aren't going to be used, that should be used.  I don't think that are that far off base with the supposed feature list. 

Originally posted by Skymourne

Truly oustanding.  that was a fine piece of comedy if i say so myself. Unfortunately, with the announcement of the soon to be biggest flop and embarrassment in MMO history, i could see that scenario playing out.  Good thing we have other games to look forward to.

It may very well flop, but it will have to flop pretty damn hard to outflop SWTOR.  SWTOR is the floppiest...game...ever.

Originally posted by SEANMCAD

can we have a link to these forums? I looked around and I cant find.

I want to read all the fan praise on these ideas!...snicker

You need a link to Elder Scrolls Online official forums?  Really?  Okay... http://forums.bethsoft.com/forum/190-elder-scrolls-online-general-discussion/

The topic was locked, mods have been ruthless to anyone speaking out too harshly against the game.

Originally posted by Lucioon

I don't think anyone is against an Elder Scrolls Online Game, Personally I am against it only based on what is mentioned to be included in it and what won't be included in it.

Actually, you'd be surprised, I've seen plenty of people on the Bethsoft forums who are dead-set against ANY kind of MMO.  I'm not one of them, I always dreamed of the idea, but as you described, with a gameplay that reflected, as closely as possible, the single-player side of it.  All of the features would be possible and have been done in smaller MMOs like Darkfall and Mortal Online and things like that but no...they took the path of least resistance.

Originally posted by Kelthius

Originally posted by Skymourne

Originally posted by bossalinie

I wonder if people whined this much when they found out that Blizzard was making World of Warcraft and you couldn't click on buildings and spend recources gathered to build an army...

Nope. They were playing EQ, UO, and the like.  World of Warcraft changed the whole scene.  ESO is trying to do the same thing a decade later with decade old methods.  I see your point, but unfortunately they aren't innovating where they could have.

Also, making an RTS into an MMORPG is a little different than making an RPG into an MMORPG.

I honestly don't understand why people treat MMO-RPGs as a completely different genre than RPGs and will grant them special considerations in a way that would never ever pass for a single-player game. Its like MMORPGs are the retard brother of RPGs for some indescernible reason.

Its like...an RPG...with more people.