Elder Scrolls Online: Answered and Unanswered Questions

As Elder Scrolls Online approaches, more and more questions go unanswered.  This post is aimed towards closing that gap.  Also, this is to help me keep up with you, the community want to ask about ESO.  Be sure to catch ESO All-Stars monthly to get more in-depth discussion of some of these topics.  Post your questions and answers below and I might be able to feature you on the next podcast.

Answered

Emotes and walk function?

J3NN3RS asks, “As an avid role-player, will there be a plethora of emotes and a walk function?”  To this I would say I can bet there will be plenty to role-play your heart out with; this is Elder Scrolls we are talking about here.  As of now Emotes have been confirmed, as to how much of a plethora there might be, I am not certain.

Dual wielding and blocking?

A question from shawn.zylla is if we will have the ability to dual wield swords.  If so, can we still block while dual wielding.  I can confirm the ability to dual wield swords.  I can also confirm that you will be able to block with any weapon, obviously shields will block more damage than a sword.  Magic abilities won’t be affected by blocking.  Find out more on Zenimax’s Ask Us Anything post about combat.

Elder Scrolls Online Beta?

Closed Beta is already underway, sign up here.  When I say closed Beta, I really mean closed.  They are being very selective at this current stage of Beta.  I give it another couple months before the Beta invites start to flood out so they can start to really stress testing their mega server.

What Classes are in ESO?

The classes they’ve announced are:

• DragonKnight – Think warrior with magic abilities in the mix.
• Templar – Think paladin
• Sorcerer – I think you can figure this one out
• Nightblade – Yup, you guessed it, think rogue.

What Races and Factions?

Ebonheart Pact

• Argonian
• Dunmer
• Nord

Aldmeri Dominion

• Altmer
• Bosmer
• Khajiit

Daggerfall Covenant

• Breton
• Orc
• Redguard

Unanswered

When is the Elder Scrolls Online release date?

Zenimax is aiming for a late 2013 release, but remember we are talking about an MMO here.  Do MMO’s ever come out on time, this is why I am leaving this as unanswered.   Expecting ESO in less than a year I think is a safe bet, before 2014? Maybe.

Will ESO have a multi-guild system?

(A Comment from Anun.)

Anun references the fact that Guild Wars 2 has the multi-guild system and it causes a problem with “guild hopping and a complete lack of loyalty to guilds”.  The other side to this  is that it might be a trend forming in MMO’s now, where people prefer to have multiple guilds and it just seems to fit the general play style of most.  So maybe Zenimax is doing the multi-guild system to foster this trend.  At the same time though trying to force this trend might have some repercussions, only time will tell at this point.  This is a very important question that needs to be answered and so far I’ve come across no answer.  I will be keeping my eye out and we will discuss this on the next ESO All-Stars.

How will ESO PvP work?

This one is a doozy.  The main topic of PvP that I have seen come up is how world PvP between factions will work.  So far the only PvP confirmed or elaborated on by Zenimax has been that it will take place in Cyrodiil only.  The epic interactions that will take place in Cyrodiil are very intriguing and exciting.  The problem though is that people want and expect to be able to raid opposing faction cities outside of Cyrodiil.  As far as I can tell thus far, that will not be an option.  The answers on how that will work are also unclear.  I have gathered that the mega-server will deal with opposing factions being in opposing territories.  More is to be released on this and I will come back to it as more information is announced.

Will ESO allow mods?

(Question brought up by Followthategg)

Skyrim for the PC is modifiable.  This has fostered a great community of modders around Skyrim.  They are able to create armor, weapons, dungeons, and small basic mods to enhance gameplay.  This is extremely vital in my opinion to make a lasting game.  I hate to bring WoW into this, but here, I have too.  One of most important factors, if not THE MOST important factor, that brought WoW its major success is it’s incredibly modifiable interface.  The mods range any where from functionality and short cuts to full UI changes.

What this did was–really, many things–first and foremost is that players made functionality in the game that before didn’t exist and gave Blizzard absolute direct feedback on their default game.  For example: the Quest Tracker mods. Blizzard obviously realized that a huge percentage of players used it, so they built it into the game and perfected it.  Some people would argue that things like this broke the game, but I feel it made the game insanely better.  The community made what it wanted in its game and gave Blizzard a perfect self developing tool to engage it’s player base.  ESO needs to use this and foster another huge modding community.  The modding community is one of the most powerful tools to keep a huge, ever growing and evolving community around a game.

So back to my point, ESO needs to allow for modding in all forms, functionality building, UI changes, and if they then also give the ability to players to make armor, weapons and dungeons, I could see ESO going a long, long way.  As of now, Zenimax is hesitant to clarify their plans on modding. 

What is the ESO Business Model? F2P, Buy to Play, Subscription, or… ?

This is still highly debated.  Zenimax has not made any mention of their plans for business model yet.  I personally think they should go with a subscription model, but there are still many other options that they will be considering.  I will clarify as soon as Zenimax makes an announcement.  With release coming in the next year or less I’m sure we’ll know soon.

Check Back for Updates

This is a running post that I will continually update in cooperation with our podcast, ESO All-Stars.  This is monthly podcast that we began between Lord Hammer from Guild UMBRA, the Joes of Elder Scrolls Off the Record, Josh and Kyle from ShoddyCast, Andrew(Atropos) from Tamriel Foundry, Jessie Cox and myself.

Any questions not covered here?

Comment below and I will add it to this post and maybe even feature your question on ESO All-Stars.

Any of the answers to these questions incorrect?

Tell me I’m wrong and give me a source – I’ll update the post and credit you.