Padded sell
During his talk of itemization and rewards, Sage let slip one interesting line. In talking about how new content will introduce new gear, he seemed to say that ZeniMax “might sell old items directly to players.” I say “seemed to” because, while this potentially volatile remark did stand out, and I wrote it down as soon as it did, I can't yet find a recording of the presentation, which was streamed live via Twitch. For obvious reasons, I hesitate to stand 100% behind it until I can get confirmation of exactly what was said.
When I brought it up later with Firor, he said that he didn't recall the line. He was backstage during most of the presentation, and probably not hanging on every word like the attendees were, so I didn't think this represented any sort of subterfuge on his part.
Still, if Sage's offhanded comment is to be taken at face value, it opens up a whole new can of worms that even Mannimarco would have a hard time closing up again. As Sage (allegedly) said, it would refer to old gear, stuff that would normally be available in game, so this isn't a pay-to-win scheme. It could even be construed like any other attempt by an MMO developer to make older high-end gear more accessible as content ages, either by nerfing old content or making the gear cheaper to purchase via in-game vendors.
Still, as a paid game with a subscription, any attempt to add gear to a cash shop is going to be met with a healthy dose of skepticism. Perhaps Sage simply misspoke. If he didn't, he and ZOS will need a spectacular PR job to convince players that selling gear, even older gear, for real money isn't the end of the world.
The road ahead
Even with that potentially turbulent issue looming, the future of Elder Scrolls Online looks better than I might have thought it would. Other topics covered included the Imperial City, a PvE zone at the heart of Cyrodiil that only one faction will have the right to enter; a new facial animation system to make NPC speech seem more realistic; a spellcrafting system that seems to work similarly to enchanting; work on increasing combat responsiveness; a new adventure zone, Murkmire; and a new solo PvE zone, Wrothgar.
Also, early on in the presentation, lead designer Rich Lambert admitted that grouping “didn't quite hit the mark.” He said the team is resolved to making it easier and more desirable for players to group up, which will include a much-requested dungeon scaling system, which will “level down” characters to participate in dungeons beneath their level while still offering proper rewards. Daily dungeon quests and rewards and more Undaunted passives will also help make dungeons more appealing. They also intend to squash all those niggling inconveniences of grouping, such as being split from your party when entering a new zone, making it easier for players to share quest progress, and keeping players informed of their groupmates' quest progress.
In truth, little has changed from my initial opinion of The Elder Scrolls Online, which is that it was iffy at launch but had the potential to fulfill its promise with a few more months of development time to smooth out its kinks. I'd still like to see an overhaul of the inventory system and fewer crippling gold sinks for new players, but those are smaller points. “What you saw is our content plan at least through 2014,” Firor said. “We're doing a lot of other things besides that, working on minor things all the time.”
For me, at least, I'm going to adopt a “wait and see” attitude. If they can pull off the Justice System, dungeon scaling, and the other irritating issues I still have with the game, I'll give it another shot. Will you?
