I admittedly have fallen out of love with MMORPGs, and honestly cannot even get myself to play the ones I looked forward to coming due to lack of interest in them anymore due to utter boredom and have shifted to more freedom and gameplay games such as Minecraft. I have, however, still enjoyed playing Oblivion and Skyrim ( to some extent) but the direction MMORPGs have taken have just really put me off from them.  I haven't been following this so if anyone could let me know if I should even bother, I would like to know if these things have been determined as of yet, because they will be the determining factors on whether I will even give it a shot. I hate how  most mmorpgs  are these days, they tell me how to play the game and I just " go through the motions" like a mindless zombie. The storylines do not do much for me, and I feel they honestly put too much emphasis on them and want to " skip" the developer stories all together, and would prefer player created stories instead, as they are more interesting and entertaining.

1) What I really enjoyed about Oblivion, was the ability to do everything in the game on one character. I  deteste classes with a passion and have no interest in playing another predetermined " see elf. know elfs strengths and weaknesses counter elf" borefest. I want every player to be able to mage, range, melee at will so I never know what they are going to do next. In oblivion you could do this, and to me it  will make or break the game for me. I can tolerate races ( though also lame as far as I am concerned).  So will we be able to mage, range or melee all on one character and access all crafting without having to make a ton of characters wasting time repeating everything you have already done to train them just to be able to perform basic functions?

2) I loved being able to make your own spells, smith and enchant your weapons and armor to however you wish and make potions. Being able to make the best weapons and armor in the game is what a crafting system should be for in the first place. Will we still be able to do this?

3) What I disliked on skyrim was the stupid star charts limiting what you could do to 80 points. I found Oblivions system of being able to maximize everything  allowing for more player freedom, and allowing you to actually enjoy the game longer by being able to do a bit of everythinng to it's full potential without having to start over. Is this game going to allow you to max everything, or is it going to bottleneck you after you get so far, so that you become bored with it faster?

4)  I really  enjoyed the simple combat in Oblivion, and am hoping they are not going to turn it into a button masher by adding a bunch of crap you have to spam while fighting in some lame hotbar as most games do these days. Are they keeping combat simple or are they going down the  button mashing  hand cramping route where you spam 123456789 to play?

Thank you for any answers you can give me on this to help me save some time.

We know that combat will be similar to Skyrim. The difference is you will have a small hotbar of abilities. The reason for the hotbar is obvious as you can't pause an MMO to swap out your spells.

They said they want to keep the UI as minimal as possible. Therefore, with the exception of your ultimate ability, you'll be able to use your skills when you want. Your usage of them is limited only by your resources (magicka and stamina). They want you to be focused on the game world, not on a hotbar.

We also know that factions will be in locked territories. If you want to travel all of ESO you will need 3 characters to do it with. That might change in the future, but it's how it is right now.

You will be given a class template. It will determine your starting ability and skills that you'll be able to unlock. You can use any weapon and armor in the game. When you reach level 50, you will be about 1/3rd of the way done with progressing your character. At that point you'll want to unlock additional skills and abilities to make your character more diverse in different situations.

We will have health, stamina and magicka that we will be able to put a point in to when we level up. You will get enough points to completely fill up one and be able to half way fill up a second one (or you could divide it evently between all three if you don't mind not being able to max one of them out).

Most likely we'll have the Skyrim style of putting points into the different trees but I'm not 100% sure on how that will work.

http://tamrielfoundry.com/development-faq/

http://www.bethblog.com/podcast/

http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/game/821/feature/7061/Elder-Scrolls-Online-Paul-Sage-Talks-Beta-Crafting-and-Progression.html

http://forums.bethsoft.com/topic/1434330-the-zenimax-video-interviews-of-2012/

http://elderscrollsonline.com/en/media/videos/411

http://elderscrollsonline.com/en/news/post/2013/01/18/alliances-at-war

Originally posted by DSWBeef
What will ruin TESO is if its stagnant at end game like: TSW, Swtor, GW2, and so on. The ONLY reasons im even considering trying it is: RvR and its TES.

End game will Hardly be stagnant when the aim is to be in control of cyrodill, if that can't motivate people then nothing will. There are public dungeons that factions can fight over and control and there are many outposts and keeps to control.

And don't forget the PvE end game stuff too. We will have heroic dungeons and we will have raiding.

I think there's also going to be a raid that is accessed via control of a pvp zone in Cyrodiil (like DAoC).

OP, stay away from TESO.

You're expecting an experience that is a refined version of Oblivion and Skyrim.

It's not going to be anything like those games. It's going to be a very standard MMO.

At the very least, try before you buy.

I think the one big thing that will make or break the game for me would be the faction lock.

I think if they....'adjusted' that feature then i could put up with my 'lesser issues'.

http://tesozone.com/alliance-war

This site gives a good overview of end game pvp, not very standard MMO if you ask me.