The road for Elder Scrolls Online has been a rocky one. From the start, it was clear that Elder Scrolls Online was more MMO than a true Elder Scrolls game, more World of Warcraft than Skyrim.
All the usual MMO trappings were there. Factions. Action bars. Reputation systems. Zones with certain level requirements. Because of the game's three-faction design, it made it difficult to play with friends. The game offered up a huge portion of Tamriel for players to explore, but the game's leveling and zone system made it hard to see all that Elder Scrolls Online had to offer without making multiple characters. Bethesda didn't win over any fans at launch when it locked a playable race, Imperial, behind the game's expensive collector's edition.
However, a lot has changed since then. For starters, the game dropped its subscription fee. It released on consoles. The Imperial race became available to all players. New gameplay features, like the Justice system, slowly but surely began to give Elder Scrolls Online the feel of a true Elder Scrolls game by allowing players to steal and pickpocket NPCs. Additional content updates and DLC packs continued to add many of the factions that Elder Scrolls fans know and love, with more on the way.
Elder Scrolls Online has changed dramatically in the two years since it originally launched, and no change will be more dramatic than when the game receives its massive, game-changing "One Tamriel" update this fall. The news came at E3 during Bethesda's press conference, and it was music to every Elder Scrolls fan's ears.
"With One Tamriel, all characters will be automatically leveled to the content in the world, allowing them to freely group with anyone they want and also to explore the vast world of Tamriel with no level restrictions," game director Matt Firor announced onstage. "This means all content barriers are gone and there are no restrictions on alliance or questing. The moment you get out of the tutorial, the entire game world is open for you to explore freely. You can go wherever you want and play with whomever you want."
This is a huge deal. In fact, it's what players have wanted since day one from an online Elder Scrolls game. Players didn't want a re-skinned World of Warcraft set in Tamriel, they wanted an honest-to-goodness Elder Scrolls game that could be played online with friends. Freedom of choice and exploration have been the two key components of the Elder Scrolls franchise all these years, and Elder Scrolls Online lacked that for too long.
One Tamriel sounds like it will finally, after two years, deliver on the true online Elder Scrolls fantasy of which fans have dreamed. Players of all races will, at long last, be able to play together. The entire world will be open for exploration, just as in games like Oblivion and Skyrim. Elder Scrolls Online will be bestowed a sense of freedom and exploration that previously didn't exist.
Of course, there are still plenty of questions surrounding the update. How does a lack of level restrictions affect gear and end-game content? It sounds as if leveling will become all but obsolete, and if so, what will be the primary means by which players progress?
There are still some huge questions that need answering, and no doubt, developer ZeniMax Online is eager to share more details. The development team deserves some major praise. It's not easy to completely turn a game around. It would have been far easier for the studio to simply endure the lashing from critics and tell people to accept Elder Scrolls Online for what it is. Instead, ZeniMax Online truly listened to fans, and in two years has crafted in many ways what is an entirely brand new game.
It sounds like Elder Scrolls Online will, at long last, be the game players imagined when they first daydreamed about an Elder Scrolls MMO. It will be a fresh start. A new beginning. For fans of the franchise, that's certainly worth getting excited about.
