I never would have guessed it either, OP....

....

Except for the fact that the game allows you to play all the races that have always been provided in every TES game.

Except for the fact that the skill and level up system is similarly close to being exactly the same as Skyrim.

Except for the fact that every story and character in the game is heavily invested within the elaborately detailed lore of TES series.

Except for the fact that a lot of the places that have been shown look almost exactly the same as their SP counterparts.

Except for the fact that the gameplay and combat is almost identical to that found in Skyrim and Oblivion.

Except for the fact that everything about it other than the name screams TES.

... Yeah... I never would have guessed it either.

Hmmmm.... well.... that worked for GW2. Why not this one?

@Xenuri:

Wrong.

It's been confirmed to be launched with a Subscription model only. ZOS has done nothing but publicly denounce the possibility of moving toward F2P.

This whole F2P speculation is brought on by a group of people who apparently want TESO to fail. Why they want this.. I don't know. But they want it... bad. They hope for it. Nothing about this diatribe is even remotely official.

The only official announcement is that TESO will launch with a subscription model and plans to stay that way.

The point isn't to appeal to those people. You can't argue with those guys, man. They are completely unreasonable.

The point is to provide information for everyone else who is still on the fence or simply doesn't understand. The point is to provide factual counterarguments to the loud-voiced non-sense of the naysaysers.

@Sanligo:

Let's talk about this realistically, shall we?

Let's pretend that they made Skyrim exactly as it was, added a MP feature, and called it TESO. Let's just pretend for a moment and see how that will play out:

You go out into the wilderness from Whiterun to find a sabrecat or a bear or something. You're looking for it because you need to fill up your soul gem with a soul. You look and look and look - you run into all kinds of stuff. It's awesome... because it's Skyrim.

Finally, you find the sabrecat. It's right there... yours for the killin.... wait... someone else already killed it just before you got to it. Crap - I guess you forgot this wasn't just Skyrim... It was Online Skyrim. Now you gotta go find another bear or something. Except you look around for hours never finding one because there are a hundred other players running around in the same area looking for the same thing... because it's Online Skyrim... it's an MMO.

....

Seriously guys.... the reason MMO's have mobs standing about is because there are other people sharing the same game space as you are. Come on... use your heads. This is a design that is a fundamental necessity for an MMO. We went through this crap years ago when people had to wait in a line to kill something. It sucked! You want to talk about immersion breaking...

You have to provide enough stuff for everyone to participate in. That means monsters and animals have to be more plentiful. Use some common sense when you make these complaints, please.

You know - you hear a lot of people saying the same things about this game.... and there really aren't any reasonable explanations for them.

1. The game costs $60. I paid the same amount of money for Skyrim when it released. This is honestly a non-issue these days.

2. The Imperial Edition is nothing more than a Special Edition. Why is everyone freaking out about a game offering a Special Edition? It isn't a cash grab any more than any other Special Edition that has been offered by any other game. Stop letting the media fuel your judgments on this and think rationally.

3. The NDA is there because the game is still 4 months away from release. It's the same thing as if they were making a typical TES game and said absolutely nothing about it.... like they typically do. Bioware has been the same way with their games. This has less to do with features of the game not being complete and more to do with preserving the mystery of the story and the world. As a huge fan of TES, you will know that the mystery of the world and the stories therein are the hallmarks of the series. TESO is heavily relying on its ability to provide a similar experience. Why does everyone and their brother automatically assume the worst because they don't know anything about the game? When have you ever known anything about any TES game prior to playing it?

4. You aren't just getting a statue for the extra money with the retail CE. You're also getting a sweet, huge map of the game world, and a 230 page fully illustrated hard cover book that explains in detail the lore of the era. Frankly, that's worth the extra $20 alone if you ask me. Personally, I'm not a big enough fan to need those sorts of things, but I did get the digital version of the CE. I debated on getting the retail... but I bought two copies of the digital version and didn't want to spend the extra money on something I simply don't need. But... they're great collector's pieces for sure.

5. As for the game... man... seriously... even if the game isn't the be-all end-all come to Jesus MMO people somehow thought it was going to be... it's still going to be at worst a decent MMO on par with any other AAA title like SWTOR, GW2, or any other game. The only difference is you'll get a combat system that more closely resembles Skyrim than a typical MMO, and you'll get the lore of TES series. That's at worst. At best, you'll get one unique experience of an MMO that takes you on one awesome journey. And hey... even if the game sucks... you still got some sweet stuff out of the purchase that simply does not suck.

I don't think consumers are to blame at all. It's the natural result of big budgets. The game industry is doing exactly what Hollywood does every summer, and it's easy to understand why.

Every year, we get a collection of big budget blockbusters that are basically carbon copies of the movies that did well the previous year. When movie studios have a massive budget to work with, they don't want to take any risks. They play it safe by just recreating the last successful property.

That doesn't work so well with games, of course-- and we've seen one big budget flop after another, as studios prove that "playing it safe" in game design is suicidal.

CatAtomic999

Ehhh... I dunno man.  Maybe in the past we have had some huge big budget stinkers... but in recent years, there have been a lot of really huge movies that have been successful too.

Most of the Marvel super hero movies have been very successful, with the exception of one or two not fairing AS well as expected.  The Avengers was fantastic and deserve every bit of its success.  Man of Steel had an astronomical budget, and it was a pheonomenal film that KILLED at the box office, breaking opening weekend records even - and its still going strong.  The Dark Knight (though somewhat older now) and The Dark Knight rises were extremely good movies that made good money.

I think the Spiderman reboot was just a case of being "too soon", though it was of good quality.  Still, it did not meet expectations on sales.  John Carter was a total dud.  Green Lantern was... whatever.  Oblivion was a good movie, but it wasn't The Avengers or Man of Steel.  Star Trek 2 was actually a great film, but there was just no way it was going to hold onto anyone's attention with Man of Steel opening the very next weekend.  That was a bad play from a business standpoint, I think.  It's a shame too, because that was a quality film.

These are exciting times to be a popcorn enthusiast.  Being an MMO enthusiast?  Not so much...

I'm actually looking forward to a reboot, but at the same time, I'm also not looking forward to a reboot.  Here's why:

They're taking this new "realistic" approach to Lara Croft.  While this is admirable, I don't see how making her a "real" character is more realistic than she already was.  Look - I study social behavior, specifically dealing with the effects of abuse on a person.  I can tell you right now, they're going to turn this "rape" thing into a moment of strength for Lara.  The problem is that is totally bogus.  That's "Hollywood" realism, and it's a total farce.  People, especially women, do not suddenly find courage and strength after a traumatic, abusive experience.  That's just not how people actually react to abuse, rape being the most dehumanizing.

So while I am all for a reboot with a realistic approach, I am so sick of this fake crap being forced down our throats as being "real."  It's been going on in the movie business for the longest time, and games are starting to do it too.  The reason is because they aren't using real writers who think about their characters as real people as subject matter.  They're action-figures.  They dress them up in cool costumes with realistic art design, and then we end up thinking their behavior and characterization is real.  It's just a rhetorical, persuasion card.  It's the same fake crap we've always had in a different box.

You can tell.  Instead of oversexualizing the character of Lara, they can't shutup about the actress playing her.  We get it - she's totally gorgeous and hot.  But that isn't what they tell us.  All they talk about is how smart and great for the role she is.  But who really cares?  She's gorgeous!  The truth is... we care BECAUSE she is gorgeous... because we're MEN... and we're SUPPOSED to respond to beautiful women we are attracted to.

Lara Croft the character used to be this way.  But since that's "objectifying women", she is no longer marketable in that way.  Now we are just going to objectify and sexualize the actress playing her.  Do you think anyone would care about the voice actor for this Lara Croft before they played the game if she wasn't a perfect 10 in looks?  No.

I'm sure this new game will be fun.  And I hope they do well to make it something that can live up to the franchise.  But as long as they keep going down this path of a Lara Croft as a character who is anything more than a hot chick who knows she's hot and that's all the reason she needs to do whatever she wants.... I simply don't care about the story.  I never did anyway.  I enjoyed Tomb Raider because of the adventure, exploration, and platforming in familiar mythological inspired labrynths.  The icing on the cake was her tongue-in-cheek teasing.  The games were great anyway.