Elder Scrolls Online focused on being ‘good game’ before being ‘good Elder Scrolls game’

ZeniMax’s biggest priority with Elder Scrolls Online is to make the game a uniquely great experience ahead of making a good Elder Scrolls game, creative director Paul Sage has said.

In an interview with GameInformer, Sage asserted that “we have to make our own game.” The recently announced MMO has already attracted attention for adopting a different art style to the single-player Elder Scrolls games.

“We want to make a good game first,” Sage added. “Not a good MMO, not a good Elder Scrolls game, we want to make a good game first, a great experience for the player.”

Sage also thinks the experience of playing the ‘hero’ – a quintessential part of any Elder Scrolls game – won’t be any different in a MMO.

“You absolutely get that same experience of the world, with that distraction-based gameplay where you really get to control your own destiny in how you experience the game,” he said, adding that playing the hero isn’t “much different in an MMO than it is in any other medium, really, any other typical RPG.

“I think [The Elder Scrolls Online] just gives us more opportunity to make you the hero,” Sage added.

The Elder Scrolls Online will be released for PC in 2013.