The Horse ain't Dead Yet!

So Elder Scrolls Online is starting sign up for Beta testing and put out this little cinematic to tease us all with. If the game is as interactive as it's showing, I'm a lot more interested now. And I applied for Beta because I've been bitching about it a lot on both sides of the isles, and part of the problem with that is that it's a partial picture. I can't see how it plays or how the races interact if all I see is screenshots and their blog posts. The cinematic is pretty and exciting, but it's not gameplay. Arena had cool box art, but didn't really live up to that.

Expectation

reality.

Well either way I'm off to go play me some Dawnguard and Bloodmo-I mean Dragonborn.

And I peeked at a guide and was so happy to learn that Cliff Racers aren't in there.  

More ESO updates.

So Elder Scrolls Online has some new screenshots. And in someways my opinion has improved. They've shown me Argonian soldiers, which actually look pretty good in both keeping to the source material and adding to it.

It they toned down the Argonian colors, which in someways make sense in someways, but it might not be popular with all. I'm really curious in how the Khajit will be done. 

These are Khajit:

So are these:

They are both canon and according to UESP:

Khajiit are each subtly bound to the Lunar Lattice, a mysterious force entitled the ja'Kha'jay in their native tongue. The Lunar Lattice determines the form a Khajiit assumes in life, according to the phases of Masser and Secunda at the time of their birth; while Khajiiti newborns appear incredibly similar to one another at birth, their future form becomes clear in a matter of weeks. This is due in part to the fact that, although born smaller than the children of either man or mer, the Khajiiti mature at a significantly faster rate.

It is imperative to note that while the Khajiit derive their natural form from the moons of Nirn, their peculiar tie to such is in no way related to lycanthropy, for, unlike that disease, it is neither contagious nor temporal. A Khajiit will retain its form of birth throughout their life and the moons, although they affect in what form the Khajiit will be born, do not affect it after that. Furthermore, there are no known shapeshifting Khajiit.

So the ones in Arena being the Ohmes and the ones in Skyrim, Oblivion, and Morrowind being Suthay-raht. So what's ESO going to do? Just go with Suthay-raht or actually have a couple different types? It seems like they are just going with one type. And I know I'm not the only one who knows this.

I hope they don't betray the Orc strongholds that they set up in Skyrim. It's not a subtle hidden thing either.

Their new demo video has got my interest peaked. One tiny thing bugged me in that at one point in the movie they show what looks like a Dunmer and the white hair made it look a little too drow-ish for my taste.

On to the graphics.
On the armor and the scenory:
You've done it again you magnificent bastards.








On the colors and some of the characters:
Meh. Sometimes it looks too much like Wow. And that isn't necessarily a good thing. They keep saying they're not another WoW clone but they need to prove it to us skeptics. It's pretty, but even after playing Oblivion which is the brightest of the later 3 games, it seems too bright. You don't need to focus on the people you've already won over. The Bethesda obsessees and the MMO freaks you'd really have to piss them off to get those guys away. Try getting the cheap asses and the people that aren't sure about going back to MMOs. I haven't been on one in a while. Don't do monthly payments, it's dying. Do something so that "everyone can play" like you said. Show me why I should play more PC online games, give me an excuse to use my docking station for my laptop for something other than homework. That is my challenge I give to you Bethesda. Do you accept this quest?

Looking at Why Subscription games are failing

So Wow is free up to level 20, the Free to Play section in Steam is now a few pages and growing, and now there's talk about once the Elder Scrolls Online starts it might eventually go to Free to Play.
So why is it that almost every subscription game is going to some form of a freemium. Well, it's a survival method, because obviously the old way isn't working.
And subscriptions aren't new, whether to news, music, cable, and obviously games. I remember when I was a kid Disney had some Club type thing that was a monthly subscription, and I was annoyed when we stopped getting it. But why now of all times is the subscription payment fading out?
My theories are:
The Economy- As everyone knows, the economy is a hot mess. And when the economy is a hot mess, everyone has to trim fat. And you do that in things like less cable channels, maybe staying with the same car instead of getting a new one, and cancelling your monthly gaming subscription.

And that makes Blizzard a Sad Panda.

Demographic Shift- So a lot of the original WoW players have grown up, gotten jobs, gone to college, etc, etc. And whether they needed to make ends meet with a Ramen and free WiFi budget, or if they just simply don't have the time for gaming. You don't have much time for gaming if you work 8 hours a day and still have to do other adult activities. And for most adults that have those few days on the weekends to play, $15 dollars a month doesn't seem worth it for a few hours, when you can get a brand new game for $60 and play multiplayer endlessly. That brings me to my next point. What we're playing on has changed in a few years. 

As a whole, people have been playing less "serious" video games on computer, and more on one of these systems. 

And since this picture, the smartphones have also taking a good chunk of would be subscription gamers. This being said, why pay $15 a month for one game when for $25 for 3 months for whatever games you have. Does the cost of games cancel out any money saving argument, yes. But it doesn't change the demographic that I am more likely to find my friends and friends of their friends on console games versus a subscription game like WoW. 

Bang for Your Buck- A lot of games, as everyone knows, I get for cheep or free. And I'm okay with games Like League of Legends telling me to use real world money to buy stuff. I'm not paying them and in turn I get a basic package.Where as WoW's free to play is only up to a certain level and then when you pay monthly it's still a pretty basic package. If you want Worgens or Goblins, you have to buy the prerequisites before buying Cataclysm. And to me, that annoys me. If I'm paying them money for the privilege of playing their game, I should get whatever they make, not just what the standard package comes with. Maybe I'm just spoiled but I feel like it's the same argument for on Disc DLC. I payed for the damn game, I should get everything of the game. It's not the same as flat rate or Freemium games. If there is a one time payment or none, I don't have problems with that. But if I'm paying you monthly to be entertained, and I shouldn't have to pay for more races or higher levels at that point, especially if it has to go into to download so I can see what I'm missing out on anyways. 

I know that I'm mainly basing my knowledge on WoW and that that's not the only subscription game out there, but they were one of the first and that's what a lot of models of others are like. That and examining every subscription game would make this ridiculously longer. 

Elder Scrolls online is making me depressed

So the more I've seen it, the less I like it. First off, the picture on the official site that greets you as soon as you go to it.

The Nord looks alright, and the imperial thief-type class is ok, from what I see, but wait, what in the holy hell?
The female elf mage, what the hell?

Is that a bosmer? It has to be, altmers are golden and dunmers are grey. But she's too damn pretty, and cleavage armor, really Bethesda?

You went from this:

To this pretty girl. I can't handle it. It annoys me to no end.I'm scared of what they'll do to both the Altmer and bosmers. And oh god what they might do to the beast races.

Oh god why did you do that to the Khajit? I kid, I kid this pic is from this forum

And that's just the tip of the iceberg. 

The pacts I under stand, but I have a bit of the problem with a couple of facets. The Ebonheart pact makes the most sense from the grouping race wise. These are the three races that although they don't like each other, they don't tend to like anyone else either. And the Ebonheart in this is different then the one in Morrowind. The one in Morrowind is on Vvardenfell, this one is on the main land. So I bet you Vvardenfell will be an expansion pack/DLC/whatever, if they're honest to their own lore. Oh and I get my Elder Scroll lore from uesp.net so if you want to see where I get my Lore facts from, it's from there. 

 The DaggerFall one is what gets makes no sense for one reason only: The orcs. The Bretons and Redguards aren't busy fighting each other yet, so those two make sense. But the orcs, well, have a history of being attacked by both neighboring races, so I find it odd that their teaming up with the two races that have a history with them, unless its a way they're people pleasing to include it. Or to make the teams even.

And the third: the Aldmeri Dominion, the Bosmer, Altmer, and Khajit. The khajit are just kind of there, for being there and needing to fit in an aligince and everyone has already teamed up. Like the kid who came in late to class and he makes an odd number so he's teamed up with the best buddies that ignore him.

And the graphics are pretty and all, but it still feels like it's going to be a yet another WoW wannabe. 

Elder Scrolls Online

So I'm not sure what to think of it. At first I was like this:

but with online, but the more I think the more skeptical I am. On one hand, going through dungeons with friends and being able to possibly do a market thing and sell my wares to other than just shop keeps I like the idea of.
 But the open world feel and the sociological density can't be like that on Morrowind through Skyrim. It says on the wiki they have up that you can look up here that right now they only have plans on the three provinces. I can understand that in the quality over quantity idea. And the plot seems pretty cool, but some of the race characteristics they've built well, will probably go away.
For example, Altmers are jerks. In every game since Morrowind, they will act superior over you. But since you have people playing as all races,the snobbishness is going to rub away.
It also sounds like they're bringing back classes, which unless they're doing XP based I'm not too excited about, but that's for another post.
I'm also guessing it'll be a monthly payment kind of thing, so I won't be able to play it. But I'll comment as more is revealed.