Elder Scrolls Online : World of Warcraft clone or no?

What do you think about Bethesda's new brainchild : Elder Scrolls Online? Will it be unique, or another WoW clone? Or will it have some aspects of Blizzard's highest ranking franchise, but still be it's own game?

From the perspective of somebody who won't play it...

It has the potential to be considered a WoW clone because... well, most big MMOs get that label - more so this than, say, SWTOR, because this is fantasy and has a feel closer to WoW.

But, on the other hand, I have more confidence in Bethesda's abilities than Blizzard. So maybe it'll be good, who knows?

IMO, it's gonna blow. The teaser left me cold.

Plus, it's not being made by Bethesda. That can only mean trouble.

@SmashBrawler said:

IMO, it's gonna blow. The teaser left me cold.

Plus, it's not being made by Bethesda. That can only mean trouble.

Oh, it's not?

Well then, it will certainly be a WoW clone.

@JediXMan said:

@SmashBrawler said:

IMO, it's gonna blow. The teaser left me cold.

Plus, it's not being made by Bethesda. That can only mean trouble.

Oh, it's not?

Well then, it will certainly be a WoW clone.

Nope, it's being made by a studio named ZeniMax Online Studios. How many games have they made? One: TES Online.

I am going to say no because from everything I've heard about it, its completely different approach to the MMO. For instance, you work with a group to become the next king/queen or Tamerial, and then after that you are fighting against people to maintain your crown. Granted that is from when I first heard about the game so a lot might have changed since then, but if they are actually doing something like that it could be ground breaking, or it could be a huge bust.

@Nova`Prime`: I can tell you from the news from the alpha in Baltimore, it seems to have a traditional elder scrolls combat system and some Guild wars and WOW elements as well.

There will be many years before a MMO actually gets to the same class as WoW, I expect another hyped game that becomes free-to-play a year after release.

It will be as much a WoW clone as Call of Duty is a DOOM clone

@JediXMan: ZeniMax Online Studios was formed in 2007 by Matt Firor, a MMOG designer, and an 11-year veteran of Mythic Entertainment.

The company was built to specialize in the creation of an MMOG. In 2007 the company announced a partnership with Simutronics for the use of HeroEngine.

In June 2008 ZeniMax Online Studios moved into its current office in Hunt Valley.

On March 15, 2010 ZeniMax Online Studios announced that it will be using the Fork Particle SDK to create the particle effects in its unannounced upcoming massively multiplayer game.

On March 15, 2011 ZeniMax Online Studios announced plans to open a customer support center in Galway, Ireland. The company's new facility will provide customer support for players of their future massively multiplayer online games and is expected to result in the creation of hundreds of jobs over the next several years.

On August 8, 2011 ZeniMax Online Studios selected Splunk to be its platform for business intelligence, network operations monitoring, and operational intelligence.

On March 6, 2012 ZeniMax Online Studios signed a licensing deal with Elastic Path Software.

On May 3, 2012 Gameinformer Magazine Online announced that ZeniMax Studios' unnamed MMO in development will take place in The Elder Scrolls universe, approximately a millennium before the events of TES: Skyrim.

To be honest I kind of want it to be free to play (with micro transaction). and not sub based. That might get a lot more people playing since your losing any money for downloading the game in the first place.

The graphics to the screenshots are so awesome! And everyone knows that good graphics always mean a good game. Just look at the video game Sonic the Hedgehog (2006): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3MWEHwvcnyM

(It's so awesome)

@Jonny_Anonymous said:

It will be as much a WoW clone as Call of Duty is a DOOM clone

See, I don't think that's necessarily true.

Doom is the father of all FPS games, essentially. Every game after that has expanded on the premise until we have what we do today (CoD). But unlike with FPS, MMO developers don't seem to have the drive to attempt to make a better format. For the most part, they've stayed with a model that hasn't changed much and people are less... experimental; they aren't really trying to make a better system.

I also think we are forgetting that in a old Game Icons episode from G4, that the developers behind World of Warcraft admited to it being based off EverQuest 1. Which makes me think the question should be will it be another EverQuest knock off, or not.

Every MMO has the unfortunate distinction of being a "WoW clone." Unless a developer really shakes up the formula for their particular game, I don't see many exceptions to this fact in the future.

The problem is not that WoW is in a different class or that it is even a better game than others. WoW basically made MMO's huge. It was the first big one and put the entire genre on the map. As a result it has a vast fanbased established simply because of its age and the fact so many people have invested so much time and money in it over the years.

To give it a comic metaphor WoW is what DC or Marvel would have been if the other hadn't existed to split the popularity. It doesn't matter that smaller companies like Valiant or Image are making better quality stories Marvel and DC simply have the advantage of age and established characters.

If games like Rift, SWTOR or Age Of Recknoning had existed at the time WoW was released WoW would be a farcry from its current popularity. It had the advantage of grabbing a niche no game had filled at the time.

No.