Elder Scrolls Online The Alliances Cinematic Trailer

Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you:

No adverts like this in the forums anymore.
Times and dates in your local timezone.
Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance.
Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely.
Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net.

If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

**Lynata**

Morathi's Darkest Sin wrote:I love the trailer, but I think one of the bullet points for the crew was 'make a character look cooler than Legolas' the Breton assassin was a little *just a smidge* over the top.

It actually put me off. I generally like cinematic trailers, but there's only so much surrealistic asskicking and cliché I can swallow before my dislike for invincible marysueish uberheroes kicks in. I really hope this isn't becoming some sort of fashion in the art of trailer making, like some sort of virtual cock size comparison and one-upsmanship about whose hero gets to pull the most stupid stunts.

Also, the trailer unfortunately told me very little about the setting. I've played Oblivion, but all I got from this video was a bunch of Vikings, elves and the guy from Assassin's Creed fighting the Roman Legion.
I remember enough to know about Nord and the Empire, but really ... how about some story? Background? Maybe...? I mean, it's not like the Elder Scrolls setting is common knowledge, and the visuals are arguably not very unique. How many people would have recognised the setting if the video wouldn't bear the game's title?
Personally, I'd prefer if a trailer would try to soak me into its world, even if it's just with a few spoken lines of a historical narrative at the start.

**Amaya**

Skyrim had an estimated 10 million copies sold by July 2012.
Oblivion had several million as well, can't find any good data on it quickly. Number I see it for was 3 million within a year.
Morrowind had around 4 million lifetime sales.

TES has been around for the better part of two decades. Oblivion and Skyrim have been played by very large variety of people, its not just RPG fanatics picking them up. If you don't have a passing familiarity with the setting AND you play video games you're a bit out of the loop.

**WhazzDakka Da 3rd**

You would think they would make a co-op elder scrolls game, that would have been great enough. Being the mmo junkie I am, ill definitely be giving this a shot.

**Corpsesarefun**

Lynata wrote:
Morathi's Darkest Sin wrote:I love the trailer, but I think one of the bullet points for the crew was 'make a character look cooler than Legolas' the Breton assassin was a little *just a smidge* over the top.
It actually put me off. I generally like cinematic trailers, but there's only so much surrealistic asskicking and cliché I can swallow before my dislike for invincible marysueish uberheroes kicks in. I really hope this isn't becoming some sort of fashion in the art of trailer making, like some sort of virtual cock size comparison and one-upsmanship about whose hero gets to pull the most stupid stunts.

Also, the trailer unfortunately told me very little about the setting. I've played Oblivion, but all I got from this video was a bunch of Vikings, elves and the guy from Assassin's Creed fighting the Roman Legion.
I remember enough to know about Nord and the Empire, but really ... how about some story? Background? Maybe...? I mean, it's not like the Elder Scrolls setting is common knowledge, and the visuals are arguably not very unique. How many people would have recognised the setting if the video wouldn't bear the game's title?
Personally, I'd prefer if a trailer would try to soak me into its world, even if it's just with a few spoken lines of a historical narrative at the start.

The Elder Scrolls setting isn't particularly unique in itself to be honest.

**Amaya**

Corpsesarefun wrote:
Lynata wrote:
Morathi's Darkest Sin wrote:I love the trailer, but I think one of the bullet points for the crew was 'make a character look cooler than Legolas' the Breton assassin was a little *just a smidge* over the top.
It actually put me off. I generally like cinematic trailers, but there's only so much surrealistic asskicking and cliché I can swallow before my dislike for invincible marysueish uberheroes kicks in. I really hope this isn't becoming some sort of fashion in the art of trailer making, like some sort of virtual cock size comparison and one-upsmanship about whose hero gets to pull the most stupid stunts.

Also, the trailer unfortunately told me very little about the setting. I've played Oblivion, but all I got from this video was a bunch of Vikings, elves and the guy from Assassin's Creed fighting the Roman Legion.
I remember enough to know about Nord and the Empire, but really ... how about some story? Background? Maybe...? I mean, it's not like the Elder Scrolls setting is common knowledge, and the visuals are arguably not very unique. How many people would have recognised the setting if the video wouldn't bear the game's title?
Personally, I'd prefer if a trailer would try to soak me into its world, even if it's just with a few spoken lines of a historical narrative at the start.

The Elder Scrolls setting isn't particularly unique in itself to be honest.

The original idea behind Arena wasn't, but over time it evolved into being one of the more original and captivating worlds in fantasy. Oblivion and Skyrim didn't just dumb down gameplay mechanics, they dumbed down the setting. The Cyrodiil in lore pre Oblivion is nothing like what is represented in the game.

**Cheesecat**

I tend to prefer fantasy settings that are a bit generic but leave a wide range of options.

**Amaya**

I can't really think of an RPG that gave more options that Morrowind or Skyrim...with maybe the exception of Arcanum.

**Cheesecat**

Amaya wrote:
I can't really think of an RPG that gave more options that Morrowind or Skyrim...with maybe the exception of Arcanum.

I'm not an expert on RPG's but Dragon Age: Origins had quite a bit of options as well and I'm sure that a lot of people probably found it's setting generic too, although I'm wondering if people are confusing generic with genre conventions like when I play a game in a fantasy setting dragons,

orcs, elves, etc are expected it's like complaining that action movies are violent..

**Amaya**

DA: Origins was extremely lacking in comparison to golden age RPGs.

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/StandardFantasySetting

Common ingredients: • Post-Tolkien, this usually has at least three of the standard Five Races of heroic peoples: ◦ Dwarves (The Mighty Glacier)
◦ Elves (The Fragile Speedster)
◦ Humans ■ As an alternative, Humans can be divided into races. Normally, this is done by using hair color and/or a Fantasy Counterpart Culture.
■ Any of the above being called by a different name is allowed. That applies to humans, too.

◦ In addition, most settings also have a Fantasy Axis of Evil consisting of Evil Counterparts of the Five Races which the heroes have to fight or otherwise deal with.
◦ Fantastic Sapient Species Tropes in general.

• Our Monsters Are Different
• Functional Magic ◦ Magic A Is Magic A, almost invariably
◦ Black Magic (Dark Is Not Evil is allowed as an implementation detail)
◦ Squishy Wizards
◦ Linear Warriors, Quadratic Wizards

• At least two of the following: ◦ The Empire
◦ The Kingdom
◦ The Alliance
◦ The Horde (usually Undead or Orcish, and every so often, Beast Men, when the author wants a little variety or is a fur-fan. For even more variety, all three at once.)

• Standard royal courts
• A (usually) European-style Pseudo-Medieval setting. ◦ Often one or more Fantasy Counterpart Culture
◦ Generally Medieval Stasis; the general dividing line is that any technology that Leonardo da Vinci wouldn't have drawn renders the setting non-compliant, unless said technology is a Relic Of The Past. ■ Fantasy Gun Control: You'd better learn how to use a bow, Mack, 'cause that gun's just gonna click.

◦ The Sword And Sandal subgenre thrives in a Fantasy Counterpart Culture in the ancient world and — just to make life confusing — can cheerfully co-exist with other portions of the world having a pseudo-medieval setting.

• Fantasy Character Classes, if the work in question is a Roleplaying Game of some kind, though this is not a necessary element. If it's not a game it may still feature some of the character archetypes that inspired the modern classes.

**Corpsesarefun**

Amaya wrote:
Corpsesarefun wrote:
Lynata wrote:
Morathi's Darkest Sin wrote:I love the trailer, but I think one of the bullet points for the crew was 'make a character look cooler than Legolas' the Breton assassin was a little *just a smidge* over the top.
It actually put me off. I generally like cinematic trailers, but there's only so much surrealistic asskicking and cliché I can swallow before my dislike for invincible marysueish uberheroes kicks in. I really hope this isn't becoming some sort of fashion in the art of trailer making, like some sort of virtual cock size comparison and one-upsmanship about whose hero gets to pull the most stupid stunts.

Also, the trailer unfortunately told me very little about the setting. I've played Oblivion, but all I got from this video was a bunch of Vikings, elves and the guy from Assassin's Creed fighting the Roman Legion.
I remember enough to know about Nord and the Empire, but really ... how about some story? Background? Maybe...? I mean, it's not like the Elder Scrolls setting is common knowledge, and the visuals are arguably not very unique. How many people would have recognised the setting if the video wouldn't bear the game's title?
Personally, I'd prefer if a trailer would try to soak me into its world, even if it's just with a few spoken lines of a historical narrative at the start.

The Elder Scrolls setting isn't particularly unique in itself to be honest.

The original idea behind Arena wasn't, but over time it evolved into being one of the more original and captivating worlds in fantasy. Oblivion and Skyrim didn't just dumb down gameplay mechanics, they dumbed down the setting. The Cyrodiil in lore pre Oblivion is nothing like what is represented in the game.

So what you're saying is Arena is bland, Skyrim is bland and Oblivion was bland leaving only Daggerfall and Morrowind. Daggerfall wasn't particularly interesting either so really it's just Morrrowind that was original and captivating.

**Amaya**

The concept and execution of Arena was bland.

The visuals of Daggerfall are certainly dated and unimpressive, but I wouldn't call the setting, the story, and certainly not the conclusion bland.

Oblivion retconned a good bit of lore concerning Cyrodiil. Skyrim isn't bland, but it isn't as original as Morrowind or Daggerfall. It is also nowhere near as generic and boring as Oblivion.

**Corpsesarefun**

Morrowind as a location isn't bland but overall I'd say TES games are pretty uninspired in setting...

**Cave_Dweller**

Meh. And not sure if it has been addressed, but will this be F2P or P2P? Big question in this market with subscribers jumping from pay-to-play games like rats from a burning ship at sea.

The last major bastions of this business model are WoW and EVE online, if I'm not mistaken. And I don't see EVE lasting much longer, and WoW, well does anyone still play this other than chinese farm bots?

Anyways, I just don't see this game as being a success. It looks bland. Generic. Looks like Vanguard 2 or something. Which wasn't really all that bad of a game, but didn't make you want to play it like a full-time 2nd job either. In fact it didn't want to make you play it at all. And I'm not seeing anything here that makes me want to play this game, either.

Jeez, this sounds jaded. But I guess I am jaded. I love all the Elder Scrolls games, played the hell out of them. But MMOs, they have no end, and just end up being miserable, ultra-repetitive grind-fests when you boil down all the fluff and graphics and stuff.

**Sir Pseudonymous**

Amaya wrote:
The concept and execution of Arena was bland.

The visuals of Daggerfall are certainly dated and unimpressive, but I wouldn't call the setting, the story, and certainly not the conclusion bland.

Daggerfall was an unplayable mess of bugs and terrible gameplay.

Oblivion retconned a good bit of lore concerning Cyrodiil. Skyrim isn't bland, but it isn't as original as Morrowind or Daggerfall. It is also nowhere near as generic and boring as Oblivion.

What exactly did Oblivion retcon? I recall hearing something about cyrodiil being a jungle, and vague implications that the dragonfires sealing off oblivion was just propaganda, but I've never seen canon accounts backing these u. Vvardenfell was absolutely amazing, visually, and neither oblivion nor skyrim really managed anything half so good, stylistically speaking (in terms of outright visuals, skyrim wins hands down).

**Amaya**

The jungle bit and a bits of lore about the various cultures of Cyrodiil and some other geographical elements were changed.

Oblivion really came off to me as an attempt to capitalize on the success of the Lord of the Rings films.

Then there's the whole bit of GoT's becoming a sleeper hit followed by Skyrim a few months later, the first TES game to feature dragons prominently. I feel as if a bit of Skyrim's success is due to GoT. Now if only there was an ASoIaF total conversion for Skyrim.