Here's the full magazine article leak. Photo Album - Imgur

It's going to be a steaming pile of s**t. I seriously am so livid after reading that that it'll be hard to stay within language filters. They are making the most generic, WoW clone possible. It looks like a money grab and it looks incredibly lazy. The art direction looks so bad, but that's nothing compared to reading about some of the details.

One that stuck out to me was player housing. They won't have it because it will be "too hard." It's 20 friggin' 12. FFXI had player housing 10 years ago. LotRO has some of the best player housing available in MMOs. Don't give me that BS.

How is it people haven't realized that making WoW clone, 3rd person, hotbar MMOs DOESN'T WORK?! WoW did it better so you're not going to unseat the king by making a half-assed copy. Now WoW is in decline. Do you really think now is the time to make a WoW clone with an uninteresting art style? It's been done... to death.

Just look around at all of the flash-in-the-pan MMOs. They don't make it. Aion, Rift, Star Wars... everyone gets excited about it for about 3 months and then either goes back to WoW or stops playing MMOs until the next big thing shows up on the horizon. But of course, the next thing on the horizon is always WoW clone with a handful of new features that is doomed to short-lived success and a quick trip towards failure.

I mean, Star Wars got everyone so excited, all of the press people were all jittery about it and loved it when it came out, but here in May nobody is playing it and there's already talk of server consolidation.


The MMO that's actually going to make it in a world full of WoW clone fatigue is going to be one that tries something different and doesn't end up being the same mindless Skinner box that most of us are onto by now.

TES would've been a great candidate for that. They already have a rich back story and adoring fan base, but instead they are going to take all that lore and wipe their asses with it to make a generic MMO. They have so much working for them that other MMOs don't have (namely and established lore), but they look like they are doing even less with it than most. I think the only people who are going to take the crown from Blizzard are going to be Blizzard. I expect they will be wise enough to actually move their next MMO in a new direction and then we can watch another decade of people being hopelessly addicted that that MMO while the pathetic money grab clones are made all around that new model.




I've been worried about the idea (of a TES MMO) for a long time and even more worried when I heard about the actual rumors a few months back. Sure, once upon a time I liked the idea, but then I realize that TES games work because the world centers so much on the player and their interactions with it. As I weened myself off of MMOs I realize that TES had what, after years of MMOing, I really wanted... an offline MMO. Skyrim is basically and MMO without the douchebags shouting random crap and being idiots that take you out of the game and keep you from having a good time. TES games are very immersive and it's hard to have that in an MMO.

Still, I was trying to look on the bright side. The initial bits of news I heard early today had me a little excited... but then I read the full article and I could flip a table I'm so mad. They are taking an opportunity and trashing it. Maybe the direction will change, but with an estimated release of 2013 that's unlikely. They are in for a quick grab and a bit of milking the cash cow that Skyrim has proved to be. Funny, they've spent the last two TES games catering more and more to the consoles and blown off the PC community to a large degree and now it's the PC people they will expect to play their hobbled piece of garbage MMO.

Sadly, I'm likely to at least try it even if I'm convinced it's garbage near launch... but I said that about FFXIV and stayed away from that which apparently seems like it was a good move.