Bethesda sister studio opens MMOG support center

@CureForLiving For the same reason someone can run the singleplayer game Crysis on full settings, yet can barely run the mmo Age of Conan without dropping all the graphic settings to low. Consoles lag when you get too many NPCs on the damn screen, what do you think is going to happen with 200+ player controlled characters running around on screen at the same time? The PS3 and 360 both would be lagged to a standstill just from the people hanging around in Stormwind in WoW. The server handles the back end sure, but the console has to show all the graphics and physics involved, particles, etc., plus the continual random movement of player characters at full graphic resolution. Do not confuse an mmo ( thousands of players ) with the multiplayer components of singleplayer games that have dozens of separate servers each only running a single map that only holds16-30 players. In fact, here's the dev of RIFT, someone who knows what he's talking about: http://www.nowgamer.com/news/5213/rift-dev-console-mmos-need-to-scale-back Quote: "Consoles have a whole new set of challenges, on a PC you've got tons of memory, virtual memory and all of that built-in. On a console when you go over a certain amount it just ceases to function, and that's a very challenging set of restrictions to develop an MMO under." When asked whether an MMO such as Rift could make it to consoles, Hartsman suggested no, saying "the console would blow-up."

Don't see why a MMO on the console would be technically unfeasible, all your console has to do is generate graphics and send your input to the server, most of the heavy processing occurs server side. Its basic client-server. Now if it was peer-to-peer we would have a number of issues regarding client side capabilities, but MMO don't work that way (well with mild exceptions).

Those of you wanting a TES or FO mmo on consoles are going to be sorely disappointed. You cannot have the massive worlds of Bethesda's games on consoles as mmos, neither the PS3 or the 360 could handle them. Why do you think the mmos currently on, and slated for, consoles are small worlds and heavily instanced ( DC Universe, FFXIV, Free Realms, etc. )? Only way you're going to have REAL open world modern mmos on consoles is when the next gen consoles come out.

@Dunbon It's a wonder how MMOs work on PCs.

hows it gonna work on xbox 360? I mean, we already pay a yearly subscription, will we have another subscription fee to pay on top of that? We're looking at double what we normally pay on top of the initial price of buying the game anyway at the very least (£40 + £40 +£40 = £120 = one expenisive game to keep).

Yes!!

It would be cool if you could import your Skyrim character into this MMO.

"Hullo der! Welcum t' thee customer suppot centa' for Zenimax.. How may ay help yer?" Haha. Loving the idea of an Irish customer support centre. I may just ring up for fun.

why is it sister studio, why not brother, and i cant call my boat a girl but buildings are? idk

Oh thank goodness they didn't try to make Skyrim a MMOG. I think that both TES and FO could work with multiplayer, but I'd like it to be more of a 1 player game with up to 4 invites for coop. MMOG just doesn't appeal to me.

If a Fallout MMO comes out in the next few years, I'll be happy as Larry. Personally, I'm not that big a fan of TES.

To be honest, the mecahnics of Oblivion sure can work awesome for a Multipayer game

@edgefilm2001 I dare you to say that again!!!! NO ONE IS TAKING "THE FIRST TO SUBSCRIBE" RANK FROM ME!!!!

If this happened, a TES MMO, no matter how silly it sounded, I would be first in line and subscribe to this forever.

I would rather have a multiplayer option for friends then a whole mmo.

Two Words! Lets dance! Man, this is awesome. TES IS THE BEST GAME EVER MADE!!!! And we hope that this online game will be the BEST ONLINE GAME EVER!

why would you NOT want an MMO??? they REALLY need one on the 360 and ps3 NOW

Okay, THANKYOU, for keeping the MMO SEPARATE from the single player game!! I love Elder Scrolls for the reason of how it is just single player.

I can see where some people might like an MMO Elder Scrolls, but I would rather they keep it single player. As long as the single player TES like Skyrim isn't affected, I'm good.

that is a great idea. Making an MMO as a spin off and still making the single player games in the main series.

If somehow they can incorporate the "sandbox" style role playing(which is highly unlikely but not impossible) that Elder Scrolls franchise is renowned for, in this "MMORPG", then I'm game.

I believe Assemblent hit the nail on the head. Elder Scroll worlds have always been massive and diverse, but it's the sense of isolation that drives the urge to explore, the burden that the fate of this beautiful and terrible world relies solely on -your- shoulders. Adding a million other "heroes" would dull, and quite frankly cheapen the experience. (On a personal note, it's a unique feeling I think are defined best in Elder Scrolls and Metroid games, both amazing series.)

@MasterTheHero No doubt command and conquer was more popular. i just remember playing warcraft first...or was it dune...bah it was so long ago.

"...and ZeniMax Online said that it expects to create "hundreds of jobs over the next several years." The center's location was subsidized by IDA Ireland, a government agency designed to attract businesses to the country." Why don't they ever create more jobs here? :?

No more MMOs damn it, they are useless.

LOLOL where's Bethesda brother studio or cousin studio?

@megakick You do realize they just mean taking a well known franchise of that company and making a mmorpg out of it?Like warcraft into world of warcraft? Cept this wont suck ass. Im laughing hard at the people not getting this at all.Its pretty dam obvious.It just means there is an Elder Scrolls MMORPG on the way.It wont be like WOW or a WOW clone.The comment was made because of what was stated above.Reading comprehension is so little these days...

why would you want to make a game like WOW its not going be to elder scrolls. WOW with elder scrolls lore. WOW with star wars lore. why? did u misread it, says not unlike blizzards world of warcraft. will be like world if warcraft. they will probably use the same combat and mechanics as WOW.

Back when Oblivion first came out, I originally thought it was an MMORPG...I can't see why they can't make an MMORPG. Those kinds of games are so expansive, that they can get really tedious and really annoying. I just wish somebody would just come up with a game that I can play on both Single-player and multiplayer...

"The MMORPG will be not unlike Blizzard Entertainment's genre-leading World of Warcraft." If this is the case, then wouldn't people just rather play WoW? Assuming that this might be a WoW clone with a few Elder Scrolls elements thrown in it.

@dillydadally You said it all. It's so weird to think that technology finally allows us to play with hundreds of people at the same time but the games are so uninventive people would rather play alone.

oh man, I've been wanting an Elderscrolls mmo for a long time. But somehow in the back of my head i feel someone is gonna royally screw it up and it's gonna flop big time.

MasterTheHero= right

@emerin76 No, Command & Conquer popularized real time strategies. Blizzard merely capitalized on the foundation they already set. But Dune and C&C were the true forefathers.

Well It seems I've been off topic enough. I agree with others, elder scrolls just shouldn't be an mmo. Elder scrolls is awesome because it's a world that you discover and are a part of, with an epic story. MMOs while fun, are just too plentiful. Most mmos lose that immersion feel of their single player previous entity and it just doesn't feel the same. Elder Scrolls would theoretically be a great mmo idea, but I just can't think of how it'll be to go do a mage guild quest and have to wait for the NPC to respawn, or to go cave hunting and finding at the end of the cave that a level 100 (max level, assuming) has cleared it and is farming. One of the fun things that I enjoy doing in elder scrolls is just massacring towns. I like just going into balmora and killing all the guards and going into the houses and stealing all their silverware (rawr! >:D ). This cannot be done in an mmo environment because it will either not be allowed, or it would be considered a form of grieving other players. (Although I'm just doing it for fun, like I did in 3 and 4.) In a summarized version, there are too many things that make elder scrolls badass, and an mmo environment will remove the immersiveness of the previous games, as well as what made those other games epic.

you know what I find interesting. Warcraft popularised real time strategies, and World of Warcraft popularised MMORPGs.

@wbezuidenhout I agree completely. However there is one problem about developers making risks; the end result matters.It's not like one of us taking a risk and going with the fast food for lunch, or even investing in something. When a developer takes risks, they put hundreds of peoples jobs on the line, as well as bringing shame to their company which could hurt future product sales if the game turns out bad. The only thing that game developers need to do is give it time. Games that are rushed out suck, and I hope to god that every developer on earth realized this when FFXIV launched. I doubt any developer will make the same mistake square enix did with the release off FFXIV, and if they do, they deserve what happens to their game. - Also note that I did enjoy ffxiv and do plan on going back to it soon (Actually d/led it a few days ago and found out that they closed the servers down for a few days because of what's happening in japan) but they simply released the game too early. It needed much more time. It's like cooking a pizza and you just can't wait any more, so you take it out after only 10 minutes. That pizza is going to be horrible. The dough is not fully cooked, cheese is not melted, etc. You should have waited the 17-22 minutes for a badass tasty pizza. Btw does anybody know why I can't have paragraphs? I press enter and while in the comment box I have space between paragraphs, but when I submit or preview it shows a wall of text.

Elder Scrolls is all about the sense of isolation and absorbness it offers to players... We instantly traveled to that world, no need of 10 year olds (with all due respect to the age) ruining your game experience when least expected in all sorts of infinite ways. Like many said before, too many MMO worlds, is everyone so afraid to be alone lately?

If they leave Elder Scrolls and even Fallout out of it, whatever floats their boat. I know I won't play it, have enough of MMO's.

@puffadell, correction: FANTASY mmo worlds are getting a little crowded. :P A Fallout MMO would have been more than awesome! @oopomop, very true, but I would lay the blame at the publisher's feet, or, more directly at the share holders' feet. Most companies don't like taking risks, and so they take the most successful example of a current MMO and try to match it with a bit of their own flavor. The big problem when they look at past failures is that they ignore quality completely in their assessment. They only see 'APB failed', not 'APB failed because it was a complete dog at launch and needed another year in development'. I do agree that 'clone' is used very loosely though. I think it should actually vanish from the gaming world. Everything on earth is a slightly improved clone of another product: cars, boats, telephones, shoes, shampoo, movies, by now everything is a copy with a slight improvement. It's only in the gaming world where that's somehow a 'bad' thing. The bigger the gaming industry gets, the slower innovation will occur. The more money is pumped into game development, the less acceptable any kind of risk becomes. Sad but true.

mmo worlds are getting a little crowded

@dillydadally Unfortunately that's not the developers fault, that's the players fault. We don't like change. Just look at games that went away from the standard wow setup. Tabula Rasa and APB. How did they turn out? Exactly. Eve is one of the few games that went away from the current mmo game standard and is doing alright, even though there are only about 30,000 people playing it. It's enough to survive and keep giving content, but not enough for anything else, really. All these 'clones' you speak of aren't really clones. They're a clone of a clone of a clone of a clone. Wow is not original, it copied ultima among other games. Each 'clone' you call, does things differently. They aren't an exact clone of wow, they have different pvp, they have a different way of questing, different lore, etc. Each game tries to do a few innovations of their own. Warhammer tried RvR, and Rift tried rifts. You can call them clones all you want, but if they are clones, they went through a bad cloning process because of all the differences it has with the original product. - Also note that I'm not saying any of the above games are bad, I've played them all and enjoyed them. I'm just saying that the term clone is used far too loosely now. Runes of Magic is a wow clone. You can see it from the moment you start the game. Other games may have similarities, but they aren't clones.

Ya good idea Bethesda. Yet again, a great memorable game franchise will be tainted with mmo bs. Really? Is this what gaming is becoming? Every franchise needs a mmo? Really? *beep*ck.

This is good news!!! Only because I live in Galway and its always nice to see jobs coming. Maybe I will apply when I finish my degree.

2012...that's the release. E3, unveiling, get ready to 'Jiz* in yo' pants!'. That is, if this game successfully pulls of what 'Mortal' tried to do.

I would wanna see Skyrim have offline play like Oblivion or any other Elder Scrolls game but also have online where when you walk around you can see everyone else who's currently online on the same server(which may mean there will have to be plenty of servers).

Another wow clone. Massive meh.

"the MMORPG will be not unlike Blizzard Entertainment's genre-leading World of Warcraft". Ug. The market is flooded with copies of WoW. So many people say they don't like MMORPG's, but it's not really because the genre is a bad idea, it's because no one innovates even SLIGHTLY in the field. It shows how horrible game designers are! Innovation comes once a decade lately. You know how many games there are just like WoW out there? probably 3,000 - not an exaggeration. But if you feel clicking on a monster and having no further interaction other than pressing an occasionally number hotkey isn't fun, oh well, not one of those 3,000 games could think of a different way to do combat.

Kinda exciting. Kinda not. Good luck Sista Bethesda.

people are out of ideas...