ESO is going with subscription model. Bye Bye ESO.

World of Tanks is f2p action tank shooter, not RPG of couse but its free. For money you can buy premium tanks (that have lower stats than usual), and premium account that gives +50% money and experience per battle. And they have enough money, trust me.

Nick Konkle said

There are three different items you can feed your mount, either Oats, Apples or Wheat. Depending on which of the three you feed the mount, it will gain in either bag space, speed or stamina.

Whoaaa. How long you thinking about adding that very weird system? Tell me the secret what I need to give to Arabian horse to make it Percheron? No answer, yeah? Fuck immersion!

I expect we’ll see a lot of crafting driven forum discussion.

No, you will not see. Month after release there will be forum topic with all recipes. That's all.

Or a group of crafters gets together and forms a guild where they can offer anything you may need as far as crafted items go, you join, do your shopping and then drop back out or whatever.

The first right thing you said. Do you know how guild have formed in Middle Ages? Profession based. Five guilds? Friends, family, old guild, new guild? Have you ever play any MMORPG? Players join guild that give benefits in progression, raiding and dungeon! Guild is source of pride! Five guilds! Are you nuts?

Well, first and foremost is the metagame system we just talked about, the Emperor system, which is going to be a great encouragement to get out there and PVP.

The game, based on pure PvP. Do you really think its something new? Why you can't put any aim for players, not just "kill each other to become emperor for a day". The global goal, to work together, to compete with other aliance without PvP? I have tonn of ideas, because I'm player. And you haven't, because you are developers. Paradox.

Should I?

Should I post any improvements here as I see them?
1) Graphics level. Since ZOS aim for Europe and NA players first, I don't think that they need to make a game for computers with low performance. Sure I don't know what prices exactly on PC parts in other world but here in Russia I bought my computer, which capable to run Crysis 3 on almost max settings for 625$. It costs me almost 2 month salary (Yes, you can count me as homeless but there is Russia - richest country in the world ). 
Back to graphics. Animation didn't count as most demanding option for graphic card. The most demanding is high resolution textures, anti-aliasing and other additional features. So why not to add animation from Skyrim? It looks quite good for me. Weapon unsheathe, swings, movings, magic casting and other examples are pretty good and immersion (hate this world). 
Horse. Much better to make horse be spell. When character summon horse he make same hand movings as for teleporting. As for me, of course, horse should be always with you, act in combat (but way bit smarter then in Skyrim), and when you want to take any item from horse bag, must be some nice interaction animation.
And characters models. Armor that deformating with character? Bad, bad designers.
2) Sounds. Just improve it, find more actors, i don't know, make sounds from real life. Watch this for example.

3) Overall. Combat from first person view will never find it place in MMO. You need to see whole situation around you, watch you back for enemy attack, watch both sides and you teammates around you. Even 3rd person view made bad, like in Dead Space. You didn't see anything that happen to left from you. Don't try to make your game different adding some doubtful things.

I just left it here

Some useless topic from foundry

Since most of players just know how to hail each other and nothing more, I'll summarize what I want to.

1) How dumb you should be to not understand what going on on live stream from Quake con? LMB attack, RMB block. This has been said so many times, all this described in post has been said hundred of time or even more? Do you really think you following the news, huh? Don't produce nub news for nubs.

Now some features from game, I don't really remember if I mentioned any of them.

2) Synergy existed even in WoW, existed long ago. Haven't you remember any mobs packs that use CC on players and put firewalls? And warrior that pull bleeding and rogue putting disorientation forcing player to wandering aimlessly? Did you really think that ZOS made something new? Don't be idiot!

3) Avoid powerful attack? Ohh. Whatch the floor for blue puddle. Ohh. Was in all games. Called AOE damage or spacial boss attacks. Was always in ALL games. Again, don't be idiot.

4) For LMB and RMB. Just rebind them to 1 and 2 button. Bingo. Game become same as any other MMORPG. I mention WoW every time though I didn't play it currently because it is the most popular game to explain. So warrior in WoW have block ability, that can work as block! Bind it to RMB. Bingo! Bind some base attack to LMB. Bingo! You got it? Scroll down to first view and you will get same splashes as you saw in ESO, same fast movements and hardlock. 

ZOS made nothing, accept it. Other games can make their advertising on same level but they jsut don't need it. 
You are free for discussion.

Live stream at Quake Con

Total disappointment. Mark 2 out of 5. And do not tell me that this is "only closed beta". Developers team have outstanding experience of making games and still didn't pay attention to what they must make at first:
1) I was a bit late for stream, so first thing I saw was a horse summoned from nowhere. God, please, make it as in all other games in series, let the poor horsy exists while you not ride them.
2) Graphics. Yes, WoW  funs stunned by it, but this ones who played Morrowind know, that the graphics level is of Morrowind time. And if you put some new textures in Morrowind it will looks even more better.
3) Animation. Combat and moving. Unhuman movings with no sense of gravity. Speed of actions is ruins all. Magic animation make nothing but eye pain - fast splashes and glimmerings will cause epilepsy among players.
4) Sounds. Showing the bow, you have to be sure that sounds is perfect. But they not. Game sounds awful and there is nothing to discuss. I only waiting for some combat music with the hope of a masterpiece.
And all other little things I saw and didn't mention. TES funs still can say how game is good and "give me my beta keeeeeeeyyyyyyy". But as MMO player I see no difference between this game and any other.
PS: immersion? You call such dungeon grinding immersion? Pff. Pfffff. Pfffffffffff.

Shock

Mount summoned from nowhere, graphics level of 2004 year game, sounds like a garage music band, and a first person view that looks unplayable in all kinds - this is the Elder Scroll Online from Quake Con.

Some stunning news

Matt Firor interview
There is nothing worse than answering to each station of interview so I will comment only few, the most stunning ones.

buffed: But you can lock on to friendly targets, I’ve done that with my tab key and a white border appeared around my target. Is this a hard- or softlock?

Matt Firor: It is the hardlock. We support tab targeting for dungeons when there’s a lot going on on your screen.

Oh my God, hardlock. The ESO just find its place near WoW.

TESO is not a “Tab Target Game.”

Man, you really need to change something: your own opinion about the game or the game itself. Giving players ability to hardlock will eliminate softlock and all other things, making game looking like other MMORPG. 

buffed: But if your equipment is maxed out then there is nothing more to buy.

pupil - I know, I know, may I? 

teacher - Yes, We know

pupil - You can add new items in new patch.

teacher - Well done, We know.

buffed: In March you announced that you will have a European and a North American mega-server. Have you already decided where the European one will be?

Matt Firor: Yes, I think it is in Frankfurt (am Main, Ed.)

buffed: Oh, that’s very good for us! Short distance, short latency.

Matt Firor: It’s good for all of Europe as Frankfurt is centrally located.

How about China and Russia players, Matt? Australia may be?

You’ve always talked about 200 players per battle which isn’t very much on a mega server with potentially millions of people.

World of Tanks have about 600k players on server and got in Guinness book with record of 815k in March 2013. ESO will never beat this record, so don't even talk about millions.

Some polls discussing

This one
According to what I saw in 2 polls -what activity will you enjoy in Cyrodiil and what role will you pick in ESO (ESO poll of the week) - I concluded that almost all have their mind clouded with single player gamestyle from TES series. And so I made the picture of typical ESO player: nightblade who ganking people with his bow. If we look on role poll we can see that 25% will play for nightblade class and probably some % from hybrid heals/dps will play for it. So I think about 30-35% will play nightblades of different kind. This is fucking awful. Next we saw that only 5% want to be healers and 6% tank/healer. This one means only that about 10% have their brain in health state because my game experience show that healers always the most competent and wise players in games. And guess who the most brainless one? Who playing DPS only: warriors, assassins, mages. Because being healer or tank means to be responsible for other people life, for their comfortable gameplay, be the heart of the party. Also poll about activity show that defending keeps in less priority than sieging or world PvP that prove my conclusion that most of attackers haven't brain unlike defenders (healers and tanks). But I'm satisfied with this poll results. This is good for me, as long as I want to play tank-o-healer. Well done, my vegetable friends.

Not that much to discuss since almost all news in past three weeks is full of speculation of old news. Even Paul Sage interview didn't give anything new and interest that make ESO different from what exists now. Let's wait another week.
P.S.: templar not best tanking class...pffff...

Video answer to all those who think that character customization does matter

This post
Holy trinity exists because it is natural appearance. In real war you have tanks, armored vehicles; you have artillery as damage and planes too; you got hospitals, mediсs to treat soldiers. Skyrim is most freak game if we consider RPG part. Just imagine, if Zenimax aim for immersion, how can it be, that dedicated assassin that spent whole life to master bow arts will become a healer in a moment? Why noone NPC in TES never participate on more than one guild? If you warrior - you warrior, if mage - mage. And only player is GOD, who can all. Probably you the one who missed fireballs in Assassin Creed. I'm not telling even about balance aspect of game: party of 4 templars can switch between dps, tank and heal in a moment, providing instant heal for whole party or damage burst to kill any enemy on sight. Such game won't go far.

Inside ESO dungeons question

1. First thing is how you planning to protect game from one class overwhelming? I mean, templar class probably the most universal one: it can dps, tank and heal. With combat switching it will be almost impossible to kill party of 4 templars since they will switch between builds every now  and then. 
2. Would it be possible for dedicated dragonknight to heal itself with restoration staff? Will this be effective enough to go through dungeon without healers only with party consist of 4 dps with staffs?
3. Is there any resurrections spells in the game that can be casted in combat? Will there be possible to skip some rooms in dungeon using the run-and-res tactic, when tank grabbing all the mobs in the room and died while rest of party successfully pass and then got resurrected?
4. Will mage class be able to heal only with staff? Since I heard only templar have healing spells in build and can heal without staff.
5. Wouldn't it be that such thing as restoration staff will make dungeons much more easy to pass? Since in normal MMO main thing for all party is to try to mitigate the damage taken since the healer is only one who usually can heal.
6. Will there any protection against CC/AOE cleaning of dungeons? As far as I see in most MMO games existed some number of CC that can move enemies so tactic reduced to the point of grabbing enemies to one point and smash them with AOE.

That the first questions I want to ask developers. Sure there is much more of them but this ones is present the most exasperating features in MMORPGs.

A bit of comments.

and the four of you will have a version of the dungeon (and its bosses and loot) all to yourselves.

I really want to hear about that public dungeons thingy not that usual grind-till-die version.

 In many MMORPGs, players are locked into performing one role in a group

 Because if we introduce some class that can do more then one thing it will become imbalanced and be able to make dungeons may be not alone but in party with same class characters.

You swap your two-handed sword out right in the middle of combat 

You really will ruin game with this. Allowing players to swap is good but swapping in battle...I already see unkillable characters who tank and heal then swing with sword and heal and there is no way to kill them.

Immersive criteria
To be honest I never see such an non-immersive world as I saw in Skyrim. Sure NPC that coming home from work, wandering around city or spend their money in the inn look qiute "living" but if you see this every day, in the same time in the same place it become boring. I see no difference between WoW guard wanderers and Skyrim NPC that make same actions every day. I'm talking about Skyrim but I mean every TES game. Morrowind was much better but this is only because it was so long ago and game of such quality as Morrowind can't be bad back to 2002. Skyrim already king of grind among games. We got same ruins, same monsters, same quests. As archer, my progress through Skyrim  consist in hide-and-shoot. There was no problem to run through any dungeon in 5 min, oneshoting everyone. Same traps, same draugrs,  same ghosts. NPC in any city have same gossips, innkeepers have same tasks, and guards are dumb as hell. There was no living creature in whole game. Every step is predictable, every end-room is known. Just pick and shot. I know I want a lot from game but there is so many egregious things that want to be fixed. Here just short list:

1. A lot more greetings for vendors.
2. More "life" behavior for citizens when you break into their house.
3. More realistic trade system (damn homeless sold me robe for 6000 gold and bought my daedric sword)
4. Changing look of stalls on markets squares.
5. Damn weather change (spring summer you know)
6. Cease bullshit 3x time speed.
7. Make guard guarding not chasing my character.
8. And add some real prisoners in prisons. Make some work for court system.

Just a very short list. I forgot a lot already since I stop playing Skyrim about year ago. But when I play its like every 10 minutes I cried: "Did the developers blind? How they can make such as nonsence thing?" I just can't remember all right now. Skyrim can be immersive only for people who want to be immersed in the game. But if we take random player... Game must offer something more life-looking than it got now. Every game we start as prisoner that save world. It doesn't looks cool. Make us usual citizens. This will be much better. And make progress really hard. Try to play cosmic simulator X2 or X3. You should spend about half year there playing every day to build up you very first station and buy a decent ship. Life is HARD so make it that way.

Don’t have a PC or Mac? Don’t worry! You’ll be able to play this game if you have a console! Just think about that for a second. ZOS has just potentially tripled their player base by coming to console. That’s three times as many players that can enjoy this game now, three times as many players can have fun wandering around Tamriel without feeling alienated because they don’t have a computer to play on. This is huge.

Taken here ESO on consoles

There so huge buzz really about this console thingy. You know, it is astounding holy war between PC and console users when it comes to gaming. Personally, I am a PC user. Not a notebook even. A rough, heavy and powerful desktop computer. But let's stop this pointless holy war. When we look at gaming I think it's doesn't matter where to play. Concoles designed to play games, to play with friends and have fun. Computer for single use mostly and allows you to do some other things while playing, like computing something in background and so. And more important I don't like wars. Not a fun of PvP, you know. And here, where I'm living, not many people have consoles so as for me this news is completely unimportant. That's all what I want to say for now. Have a good day, consolefuckers.

This is some nice screenshots about how mass PvP looking from first-person view. Sure it is bad graphics from past century but the main idea is amount of spells effects and characters running around. I'm wonder how it will be implement in ESO.

Some thoughts about ESO "random" items like books or skyshards. In TES games all items, that give you some skill points or something else valuable have their constant location and after one or two weeks hardcore players will make a full guide about all locations in game - just take and go. In ESO, I believe, there will be nothing like this, skill books will be randomly generated but the names must be same. So after one week there will be book table so you don't even need to open all the books just the necessary one. With the addon that show skill book's names with special color, process of searching can be way much easy. Skyshards must be not that easy to find that all players think. Probably they will be in endrooms of dungeons, protected by power enemies. But even if so, some of skyshard can be constantly on same place. These places will be hardcore grinded.

About public dungeons. Long time ago I heard the anecdote. 
Two friends speaking about Morrowind.
-This will be so astounding If you can play with some other people in same world, battle with them, trade and speak. May be there is such games like Morrowind to play with other people?
-You really think so? Do you think that someone will enjoy sharing their world with other people? Share loot and items? And power, contest each other, loose? You have really good work, wife and soon kids, so remember, that there is no such games.
-Yeah, you probably right. Noone want to share things.

May be I'm not good storyteller but the point is that noone want to give anything to other players. I don't know how will public dungeons works, but I don't want someone to disturb me or my party with dumbasses questions or asking me for help, or even looting my items and taking my exp. For me dungeons - is way to unite with closest friends to enjoy freedom from random "dears" and I don't want anyone to help me (read 'mitigate the complexity of the game') or disturb. And especially I hope that players of different alliances can't enter me dungeon and kill me on boss fight, taking the loot. 

50+ Zones

So my little thoughts about it. Developers made world and just decided to split it on 3 alliances but keep all territories available for other faction after reaching level 50. This enhance end-game largely since we have, to be honest, three times more quests, so firstly we leveling to max level, spending x hours, than made quests in next zone spending again x hours, and last zone again x hours. 3 in 1 of leveling quests. That means more gold, more useful things if there be any. I never understand people who make characters of another faction and start playing with them. In my opinion, if you find your main character boring, you made wrong choice at start. Wasting time on alt characters will make your main one weak and non competitive. So such zones for me is very good: I will increase my own wealth, exploring new territories. As for lore part, just one simple quest can repair all: make the character double/triple agent, that work on profit of all three alliances.

About the evolution of MMO games.

You ask me - what the main key to game suceess? Players, I'll told you and how you keep that players in game. So as for me, the main question of game development is how keep players busy and interest. Since most of player's time taked by gearing and getting end-level equipment/scrolls/runes/gems/glyphs/trinkets and so on (in most of RPG games) or just new cars/tanks/mechs or achievments or other same-looking activity, developers made the biggest mistake ever by introducing same activity in new patch. 
Let's just model the situation: we start game, leveling some time, gearing some time and finally got super-puper-end-top-high level gear. The game for us is ended and we awaiting next patch. 

Second scene: new patch. We start leveling with top gear, and some other new player, that started game late, will start leveling with average gear from quests. At this moment we will spend 1-2 days to get new max level and start gearing again, and new player will spend 1 or 2 weeks to get new max level due to gear difference. Than he start to get top gear, one by one, probably he will start even from getting old top gear as a boost. So to the middle moment between two consequitive patches we already will have top gear, and new player will have only started pack. Rest of time we will spend on farming gold or other extremely rare resources so to the moment of next patch we will got some new fancy relic plus end gear, and new players will have fifty/fifty of something. This prosecc will repeat until ∞. In result we will have: old player with all possible relics and top gear and new player with started-pack relics and some kind of pre-top/top gear. What I want to say? There is almost impossible to reach the level of old players in games, when the main activity is based on time spending: the more time you play - the more powerful you become. Live to win.
The answer is not introduce new activity that looks like old one. In first patch players get gear and use it till patch number 5, for example. In patch number 2 players of same faction working on build some tower, getting resources in dungeons. In patch number 3 they fight each other in massive PvP. And so on. Every next patch force players to make some different activity and all other activity is connected with main one. That's my vision of game evolution.

Tribute to The Tamriel Chronicle, Issue #10 and connected topics from here. Part 1.

About builds and weapons and armor. As i see in many games not all builds and characters set-up's are  playable. Yes, developers made them, but they are not viable. Like healer who try to tank or warrior with off-heal. The build will mean something only in solo fights; in party fighting friends will help you not to disgrace. As far as I see, in ESO developers cut out a lot of things that can interfere the balance. Only 4 class, limited amount of weapons and armor pieces, only 6 action bar buttons. Also they force players to choose from a lot of possible builds (that is good coz make some difference between characters of same class; but not excellent). As you know, build in MMO divide on a lot of types such as: PvE or PvP (main division), Solo or AoE damage, Solo or AoE heal, support heal, support tank and so and so. With only 2 possible set-up's we will be able to pick up 2 deep build cause making hybrid one with only 6 action button not the right move. We'll see. Since the Morrowind time I hoped that in online version of the game we will be able to construct character like we make it before, from the set of 20+ abilities and schools of magic. That may lead to really interesting combats in PvP and a lot of strategies and more realistic gameplay. But to my disappointment we will end with typical MMO type of action when if you meet mage you always know that he/she is paper boy and you must survive his first fire comet, than start close combat and kill him.

Now some nice quotes from link in top of post.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, character customization is one of the most important aspects of an RPG.

 You need to be a total idiot if you even pay a little attention to how looks your character. Probably you are the one who try to persuade orc not to attack you because you are elf with boobs. Character customization only for roleplay pussies.

Players can enter houses and businesses and pick up all the little things like plates and cups, even loot the family’s wardrobe looking for that old sword passed down by Grandpa.

So it is the thing which I hate mostly in TES. Tell me please, what will you do if someone break into your house? I'm sure you will attack him if you have sword or axe (as far as I saw all NPC in TES have weapons). So it is normal to make NPC attack you if you enter their house and try to walk here and there or hide behind closed bedroom doors.

If Elder Scrolls is known for one thing, it’s be the ability to tell stories in detail. 

I was through a lot of games and to be honest all games have lore of some kind. But amount of players that enjoyed lore part is so small that when you ask in raid consisted of more than 30 players "Who know why this boss lives in castle and put in chains?", only things i heard "GTFO and let's kill him" From my experience only about 5-10% of ppl even try to read quests. Since game will be world-wide and the amount of language usually 2-3: English, German, may be French or Italian, a lot of players found it hard to read stories so they just skip it. It consumes a lot of time, you know, to read all of this lore when you don't get any profit from it. The reasonable question is: if only 10% of people read the lore (and enjoy it, keep it in mind, "engrave" themselves in the matter of the game), why pay so many attention to it? What you can offer to the rest of players?

As you can tell by my impressions here, Elder Scrolls Online’s storytelling has left an impact on me. I was more impressed with the tale told in this brief quest chain than I ever was in my hundreds of hours exploring World of Warcraft’s barebones stories

You guys just have prejudice about WoW and ESO. The quests in WoW and it's storyline have great history too but i bet that you just was young to understand that and probably still young to judge fairly now.

Also Rus McLaughlin of VentureBeat told a lot of quite right things especially about side quests. In TES series side quests do nothing just some crap item, crap armor and weapons. Only profit was from guilds quests lines, such a thief guild which gives you Nightingale armor. So same was in other MMO, where side quests needed only for crap "green" drops, small amount of money and so. Only main chain matter, only valuable end-game rewards make difference, only things, that makes you stronger than your enemies are important. Side quests, that didn't provide it are condemned to skip as a time-wasters!

As a bonus, it's how combat in Skyrim works and probably why people want to play nightblades. It's my gameplay, after I mastered bows and stealth to max (oneshots being hidden on clear space). Hope nothing of this will be in ESO.

Ohh yes, this video. What interesting about graphics here. First of all is movements of characters, they are way too fast and looks not real. It's hard to make it looking good in game that must suits video cards on slow PCs but the way it's done in ESO - it is looking quite ugly even for 2006 year game. One more thing that I notices secondly is "life armor". Probably it is new kind of armor in ESO that looking like steel one but moving as it is was leather! It stretchs like tights! Probably developers just make it as covering textures for character, without thought about physics and good looking but as for me such a small detail ruins all the armor exterior. This is same as hair - make hair little more streaming, I don't know, flying a bit and characters, especially woman ones will looking much more better. And combat in total looking like in Morrowind: fast simple moves, sharp turns and so on.

Seems I saw it already somewhere

One month after our last journey, we lick one's wounds and took another contract. We should go to much safer place, far from any borders and alliances, just to meet innkeeper and take a bottle of special wine. The reason to hire a group of mercenaries was dictated by a small chance of bandit's assault along the way. We arrived to inn in time and without any troubles but innkeeper said that the wine was taken by another group day before us so there is no work for us anymore. A bit frustrated and surprised, we asked him is there any duties for mercenaries around this place. He pointed his finger to close hill and said that there is giant's cave there and if we will kill some of them, he will be very pleased. As soon as we got to place we saw a bunch of mercenaries like us, wandering around and seems looking for same giants. Was a pity to hear that all giants are killed long ago by some one else. But there was a gossips around that in cave far to east was a goblin's settlement and that they collected gold from robbed caravans for decades. Disappointed by two fail missions, we headed to cave in hope to get some gold coins from weak goblins. Shame but we spent about 4 days just to pass the guards. Settlement was surrounded by a border with watchmen, equipped with long bows, and goblin mages. Our last attempt was to make a some kind of catapult out from fallen tree to send me over the gates so I can kill the guards and we infiltrate the settlement. The landing was a bit hard but I succeed and open gates. We decided to pass some goblins and headed right to the treasury deep inside the cave. It was the fifth day since we heard of that place and seems there was no trace of other mercenaries inside. But to our regret all we found in strong steel chest was yellow mammoth tusk and steel blade.
Wasted week.

Well, what this all about? The main idea is that real life system will not work for MMO games. When we making something in real life, it's special things that can be done only by us: no one can go to school instead of us, no one can go to shop, to work, and wash our dishes. In MMO there is no such duties so all players can make all things. That's why quest places always overflooded by players, quest mobs killed as soon as possible and all of this looking quite unpleasant to lore part. In ES we have another situation. There is number of locations that can be explored, also in Skyrim there is random quests from inkeepers to kill something around and get gold. But to be honest, this false randomize and tonn of same-looking dangeons have same level of borinness as farm/grind quests in all MMORPG games. I bet that ESO will take a lot from Skyrim since it's last game that loved by all the players of school age (the main part of players). But tell me how many times you was excited in Skyrim? Yes, there was such places and events: first fight with dragon, Winterhold colledge and Blackreach. But what next? Goblins, bandits, caves, caves and caves, that can be passed within 10 min. Same quests, same duties. I have only one question: if all of this is boring, why not introduce something similar to real life? Why not to make duties available only for you? Why not make a professions like tailor or trader or something, and so players can become a professional, making useful thing for other players on professional base. I mean, for example, I'm armor crafter. Another players can ask in some kind of world chat to buy armor they need, or I can tell that want to sell armor that I made. Why not to make quests between players? One player come to me and ask to make him armor, so I receive quest, must collect some ingredients, make armor, get reward. Looking like more interesting and more "live". Or I can be trader, own my personal shop somewhere in Balmora, just sit there whenever I want and sell some goods for travelers, instead of boring and lifeless auction house. Also I'm pretty sure, that if players will be allowed to suggest their personal quests to game, amount of quests will be enormous and they will be much interesting than created by devs.

The Tamriel Chronicle, Issue #8

Inflation in MMO games produced in 99% cases by expansions and increasing unbalance between player and NPC monsters. In example, we have end-level player with basic gear. He can pull up to 3 monsters at the time and kill them but after getting end-game gear he can pull up to 10 monsters that increasing gold income from killing for example 3.33 times. Also almost all expansions bring new content and farm activity in game which increase inflation too. By the way you must know that there is in human psychology to gather more money that he needs so inflation will always be happen, even if there will be a lot of "spending" activity. And about developers: it is their duty to make inflation bigger just to keep players in game to farm or increase money income to game. About Empreror's gear and so. I think amount of players that will race for the top places in game not that big enough to push inflation too high. 
As for me there is exist a lot of events or activities that can help inflation to stay low. First of all, 'wasting events' as I called them. Every random amount of days (20-40) in game starts fair that offer useful items of all kinds to players. This will low amount of gold in game and inflation plot will looks like saw, with slow increase areas and sharp fall regions. As system analyst I can say a lot about it but the main options here is to analyze average income of players of different categories and develop offers according to their demands based on average farm rate. A lot of work with databases.

Gathering and exploration breakdown
"Wow. How can so much goodness be contained in one 1:30 long video?"
Yeah, I was excited too to see such a many crap things without any useful notices in one video. Collectible items exist in all TES series so why they will be removed here? Yes, this is not common for MMORPG but this is ESO so why you excited? 
Fishing was in WoW. Cooking was in WoW. I don't know about you but in my guild with about 100 or smth (7 years left since that moment) I was only one who leveled both professions to max level. No one use that shit because the profit is too low. Still I don't know about TES but I never use cooking in any game because soup that gives you 1 Stamina regeneration point in comparison with any other sources of stamina is nothing. And I don't like to use things that gives nothing. Crafting...Again crafting. I hope they will make more potions useful since in Skyrim only useful potion was healing one, sometimes poison and that's all. All this resist lowering potions and other drain magica and so from enemies just useless because enemies died from one hit. Bonus resistance seems to be not working since dragon killing me in 4 sec if I stand under his breath - with or without potion +70% fire resistance. 
And finally tell more about gearing and spending-time activity. How many hour must we grind to find skyshards? How many hours we must farm to get end-game armor? Will be there any benefits (aka unbalance) for crafters (bound armor)? How you going to regulate inflation with all this respawn collectable items? And a lot more questions much more important.

The Tamriel Chronicle, Issue #7

Second poll results. Aldmeri Dominion. I'm really wonder why so many people going to play altmers. They are freaking ugly in all games in series -  yellow, high and arrogant and looking like Mongolians

It's the last race to play I will ever choose. From the other hand, in video like cinematic trailer, boobs of altmer girl made good boost for this race.

 Daggerfall Covenant. Redguards. Why so low percent? Because they not normal human race, they are...black. I have nothing against African but seems not all people thinks like me. And about race\class breakdown. Have your ever see 150 kg orc rogue or black mage? Yo bro! Ima fire pro! 

Ebonheart Pact. Well what to say? I will be argonian templar, rushing with two-hand sword in solo PvP, trying to reach Emperor throne and get a wife and own house. If you understand what I mean. Something like that 

Drakkenfan's Skyrim Art - Chorrol.com

About the rest of results. I don't think that standard deviation is small enough to say that there is some difference between alliances in PvE and PvP activity. Even more, activity are dynamic quantity so if less people interest in crafting - more people will become craftsmen, than again less people become craftsmen and so on. This theory know all about our world. 

Another interesting post was about gearing system. I sent question for developers about it but I think it will be left without answer. So WoW is WoW but the dynamically generated stats is so common that i saw it even in first Sacred or first Allod game in early 1999 or even earlier. So as for me there is no difference between statical stats and dynamical since in both cases you will go to forest, find strongest mob and grind it till you got the best drop you can ever get. More, it's fucking boring, much fucking boring, grinding one mob, hoping that he will drop that best of the best dps sword. Much better when you know for sure, which weapon and with which drop rate you can get from enemy. Another opportunity is to upgrade gear. It's like you got base armor and add some nice fancy things to it, making it more powerful. I can speak a lot about it, since i saw a lot of things, but in result we came to same thing - all got top armor/weapon and become bored because gearing is the CORE of any MMO. It's first wrong move of any developer. There must be same situation in ESO as it was in TES series when after 2 days of playing you can find daedric set and that's mean finish your gearing and focus on GAMEPLAY, focus on your skills, on world, on relations, on whatever but not on stupid grinding of mobs, killing, obtaining ingredients to upgrade items. Last time I launched Morrowind I found daedric dagger in canalisation within 5 min after start game. So make just 3 types of armor, make customised appearance and this enough, let people play not grind for new helmet for months.

The Tamriel Chronicle, Issue #6

About the Emperor role. Did you think that ordinary man that just become the Emperor can have any significant abilities like fire rain or tactic improvements? It is just same man as it was, it's not Emperor in 7rd generation blessed with dragon blood or whatever, it's same man as you and me. So for me emperor must be just a buff-giver like +5% to gold obtained by alliance or something. No one developer will never give any significant power to a dumb player which are 99% of total amount of end-game hardcore players. Do not forget how easy to kill emperors in TES4 or TES5 - they are wearing cloth!!11 

About business system. Told so many things, so many polls. Will anything change from your polls, users? Don't be stupid! Business system will be such as to provide maximum income of money to developers. Only question is - will be there any things, available only for money, that will affect game process in huge manner? That the only question.

And the most interesting post with a lot of polls. The most useful post from all issues. So what we see here. Still about half of our community is dumb school boys, who like to lie. How that can be that almost all have experience in MMO games but two-handed weapons, restorations stuffs and tank class with heal (Templar) got lowest poll results from all? Are you fucking nuts? In PvP you will not be able to shoot with bow like in skyrim or dominate with your dual-wield weapons. There is no such game, only two hand axe can smash the enemies, only tanks and healers always valuable in games in parties (tank&healer is even better). 

The average amount of good players in game will be about 10%. This is that people who not decided race which they will play. Why? Because it's fucking doesn't matter which race to play, good players play the race that have best race skills and buffs.

Guilds and alliance preference. Bullshit same as before. Amount of players will be the same in all alliances, average deviation will be 5-10%. And strongest people will be in strongest guild. Just take it as it is.

Small/large group activity. Nothing new. No one like world PvP, no one like raids. The gold mean in "a bit of dungeons, a bit of zerging enemy with your guild, a bit of slacking in the forest". Most of people don't know anything but doing quests and failing dungeons. Just a loosers.

About interest poll. Why all talking about crafting? Is it so important? Is it only me who never craft anything in TES series because there is so many stuff around to put on you?  Exploration for fucks sake. Who this people whom not interesting in roleplay but interesting in exploration? What will you do in game? Printscreen trees on your way? Only thing I'm wonder is that why so little amount interested in achievements? No one wants to become emperor? What a shame, that means that large PvP areas will be empty. Sadness.

And a bit about that new video about Coldharbour. It's only closed beta but still why you making video using Morrovind textures and tree, and this mushrooms, and all the rest? This looks ugly as fuck!

Ask Us Anything: Variety Pack 4

So here another portion of stupid questions from some one who thinks that the multi player games created for lore-lovers. Bullshit! If you want to stare at the boobs of your beloved elf girl, go fap to single-player game. In the same place you can discuss about armor styles, housing, aged elfs and how will slavery works. What the same place? Rhinoceros ass! There is no place for such dumbasses in MMO who spending hours in activity that will not bring him to top of lists. This is kind of people who moan everydays in main city of the game, moan about how weak they are and try to buy new fucking outfit for their warrior troll. Will we see Tribunal - wanna fap on Almalexia boobs, sucker? Is there Dragonborn thuums in game - wanna compensate family violence in game by showing how strong is your cry? Only one fucking worth to ask question is about CC since it's very important part of PvP. No fucking questions about more profitable leveling quest lines, about gearing and armor improving, about why the fuck half of people wanna play assassin not the damn tankhealers class. How long will take PvP battles, will I be able to quit them without losing progress? And so many other questions, that are 10 times more important for gameplay than how the fuck looking your character. Enemy archer wouldn't looking how beautiful are you, he just blow up your stupid head with arrow.

About strong enemies, or how some games born to die

Today we went to ruins of Eastgard, the ancient burial chamber, north east from Dune. I wasn't encouraged by this journey since it was graves of my nation inside. But I was only one khajiit here and money from contract was too big to not accept it. So we headed to Eastgard with hope to finish it fast, obtain needed scrolls and get the reward. On the second day of journey, 5 miles far from ruins we met ebonheart's party, consist of 2 battlemages, scout and a warrior. It was too late to change the path since we almost faced foreheads with warrior who walked behind all to cover the back. I recognized him immediately by his cloak made from pieces of  skin flayed from fallen enemies.  There was White Horn, leader of White Bane clan, famous for his madness in battles. Our healer, Mart, died from ferocious throw of the axe which almost split him apart. Do'kir, our warrior, tried to protect him, but Horn crashed his shield with only one fist and then bashed him in chest, stopped his heart in one moment. All this time I tried to shoot him with the best ebony arrows enchanted with flame from atronach heart. Once he faced me after killing my companions, I managed to hit him in right leg, stopped him for a moment long enough to let me run. I've been running for almost an hour, until I saw a outpost of Valenwood, where I finally feel save.

Let the drop lore part away and face the first problem of every MMO, RPG or not. This is the problem of balance. Balance is the first thing that need to be adjusted and which never adjusted. Keep the game unbalanced is fine way to keep players bought stuff from in-game shops for real money or bought premium things, and so. I saw a lot of games of RPG type with leveling and items/gears and MMO of Counter Strike type, without anything that can be upgraded or improved. Let's look on first type since ESO will be of this one.

To this type belongs almost all MMORPG. Unbalance here cames from different sources: unbalance between classes, between new and old players, between frequently playing people and those who have real life etc.

Unbalance between class always exists in games since there is very hard work to balance all the classes in every aspects. In addition, hard to balance when one have PvP build and second one have PvE and so. So the balance between classes must be in next spheres of game
Balance in PvP (1vs1, 1vsCrowd). This is most frequent situations in fights against players. Fights of type 1vs2 can be assigned to 1vsCrowd. Here and further all characters have same gear level and same builds (here I mean both have PvP or PvE build, or in case of no builds in game, all trained/equipped/adjusted for same type of activity). Balance of 1vs1 fights must be established by at least one thousand fights between each class against each class, and the amount of wins must be 50/50. This is the criteria from probability theory, 50/50 mean that the classes are balanced when fight in same surrounding. Balance in 1vsCrowd situation is only needed for check, if AoE spells strong enough or not. I mean when mage, for example, smash the crowd of enemies with fireball and explosion so strong that all of enemies left with half health and so the second fireball kill them, and this way mage own crowd in two spells. Or another situation, when warrior, equipped with strongest armor, charge through the crowd and didn't get any damage since he got a lot of health and armor and almost immortal.
Some can ask: "Why it's so important to make so precise balance?" Because if we take character of each class and perform 100 fights with random players, some of classes will have win percent more than another, that means that some classes will be more valuable to make and play. And tell me, who want to continue play with character which not best of the best? No one, I will answer. In situation of 50/50, there is no such questions. That helps to keep players in game, that most import for game growth.
Balance in PvE. Situation here is better, since in almost all games there was no classes able to run instances in one face or with party full of characters of same class. But anyway tests are needed here. Main things that needed to be adjusted is: who's the main dps class in game, who's the main healer class in game, who's the best tank in game etc. So if healer tried to deal damage he must not over damage mage who is specialist in this. And scout must not sustain more damage than warrior in full steel armor. Of course, there must be warrior in light armor but he still warrior not scout or rogue. Since if scout can tank in some way and deal damage same moment why you need to play warrior? Same dilemma as before, no one want to play weak characters. Each character must have special feature for PvE, that makes him important in party.

Why all above? Of course I didn't get invite to ESO yet but all I heard and saw was about huge unbalance in game. I strongly believe that I mistaken but even from cinematic trailer when Nord own whole dungeon almost alone, Breton killed about 10 guards alone also, and the Altmer mage make dust out of Imperials. Yes yes, alone too. And the system, that allow all classes to wear any gear and any weapon. Pray the Gods not to see firemage with shield, as I played both in Morrowind and Oblivion and unstoppable own every one on sight. I hope there was not of such nonsense in ESO.

Next option - balance between old and new players. Ahh, my favourite one. Imagine some one who played game for 3 years. And some one who just started. Even with this equilibrium system, that make new players to max level in PvP, how I suppose to fight against some one who collected legendary artifacts and master abilities for 3 years? I think it is no way to win until donate some money for potions or...Let's imagine no buff things for real money. Then how should I play? And this mega server, all OP (overpowered) people running next to weak ones, it is always good when one of OP on your side but if there is 10 on opposite side? All of this is the reason to new players to leave the game. In most cases and games I saw, old players become so unbalanced, that their state can't be reached by new players even if they will play whole days. Only accurate and precise balance system can safe the situation when new players will never face old ones (of opposite alliance) until they become strong enough to make them some damage or even kill. Or protect system that do not allow old players kill new ones.
But let's not forget about old players too. How to award them for long play, how to make other people admire them? I'm pretty sure killing noobs not that thing. How about killing each other? Or killing dragon located far away from started location? Good enough i think. Let them do activity that not connected with activity of low players.
I heard about some rating system that will be in game. I hope when I start I will not fight against some one with rating ten times higher than mine. You must understand what I mean.

And finally how about those who play every day and those who play once per week, on weekend for example. They want to compete too, and kill too but they don't want to exchange real life for virtual one. Probably solution in activity that not required to use anything, that you accumulated in game. I mean some type of activity when only your brains are important. No gear, no spells, no abilities, only brains, may be reflexes, savvy or something. Like game-in-game. Chess. Chess good enough, and as reward you got some money. Or sharpshooter challenge, with default bow and no skills.Or PvP but using not your character but robots with same weapons. That out of the theme of article and probably I will add some ideas (which not new in games, I know) later but this things help people when they don't want to play frequently. And who said that you can't play football with dwemer sphere, huh?

I was born when Great Dark closed both Masser and Secunda. Dark, that emerged after the death of Kuelorul, one of the dwemer traitors, who was the cause of vanishing of dwemer race. He and his companions sold their souls to God which name is unknown in modern history; in exchange for infinite knowledge. And the God put part of his immortal flesh in their chests and let them leave in Saratanz, the dwemer city under water, deep in earth, under Sea of Ghosts. The only path there was from Nchardahrk near town of Dagon Fel. The reasons of Kuelorul's death is hidden far behind the doors of Saratanz but the part of God in form of Great Dark bursted through the water and closed sky just for a moment and then disappeared back to nowhere.

Masser and Secunda have great influence on our race. That very moment when sky was closed, I was born. Only one of that kind, bearing the knowledge and sorrow of past and future.

Let the misanthropy begins.