Bethesda's Vice President of Public Relations and Marketing talks about MMOs and Elder Scrolls V.
Pro-G recently had a chat with Pete Hines, Vice President of Public Relations and Marketing at Bethesda, and we took the opportunity to quiz him on the future of the Elder Scrolls series.
Firstly, although the success of Oblivion makes it a cert, don't expect Elder Scrolls V any time soon.
Advertisement"Well, I can tell you that since Oblivion has been such a smashing success that I'm sure we will do it [Elder Scrolls V], but there are no immediate plans right now," said Hines. "We're finishing up Oblivion then shifting our focus to Fallout 3, which is our next big role-playing game."
Hines also revealed that Bethesda has discussed the idea of making an MMO but notes that it would have to be based on a fresh idea.
"Certainly, there's a chance, it's something we've talked about, but it's not anywhere in our immediate future. I don't think we could do an MMO unless it was with some fresh idea that no one has ever tried before," said Hines.
Turning his attention back to the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions of Oblivion, Hines revealed that the game is really only scratching the surface of what is possible despite being able to offer visuals and AI that simply were not possible on previous generation hardware.
"Next generation allows you to do far better graphics and there's more horse-power so you can do things like AI routines for all the NPCs. That takes a lot of time and effort; it's like herding cats. We're only scratching the surface really," explained Hines.
Check out the full Shivering Isles interview for more on the upcoming expansion.
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If it's any help, there ain't much out there in the mmo department based on the Roman Empire, e.g.:
Start as a slave, win your freedom in the Colosseum, choose a side (Brittania, Germania, Rome, North Africa, Middle East), build a home, fight to defend it and get involved in campaigns that take you all over the globe. Discover Ireland in an expansion and go beat up some leprechauns for loot. Unleash your testosterone/oestrogen in PvP arena based combat (team and solo), decorate your homes with trophies, take part in border skirmishes, group up with others to raid neighbouring areas for more goats or lead a nomadic existence as a mercenary for hire with any of the factions in any of the nations and spend your time developing your whittling skills and working out how to forge bronze so you can make your own uber arrows. (And the odd arrow +1!).
See?
End game could involve becoming either a hero of the arena with fame throughout the empire for your charioteering skills, continuously upgrading the rugs in your home to show off to everyone that visits (long as they wipe their feet), or going out with a few mates and conquering Russia just for a laugh.
Include a decent fishing mini-game, preferably involving boats going out to sea which no other developers seem to bother with, some Vikings for everyone to have a go at and Oblivion's skill-based levelling system (whereby it's the skills that dictate your level not the amount of time you've spent killing the same level 1 boar over and over and over) and you're onto a winner.
What would make it ultimately unique is that "Empire: Death or Glory" (getting carried away, named it already) there wouldn't be any magic, just extra skills to make up for it, e.g. you can poke a spear, learn a new skill to throw one, learn another skill to throw multiple spears (AoE effect), flaming spears etc. Having said that you could throw in a token witch here and there (adept at potions), the odd Rogue (charm abilities), basically all the preset classes in Oblivion could be reworked somehow with more realistic skills.
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