The Like/Hate Thread

[Jonathan Meer]

I thought that the missing part of TES was the lack of multiplayer. I'm more concerned with the way it will play, most popular MMO's use point/click and autotarget to reduce lag issues. If TES keeps going toward more realism it could be a problem -- good luck using a bow and arrow with a .5 second delay as your system contacts the server.

I don't think there'd be any real latency issue. If Battlefield 3 and CoD can be seamless with 16+ players, I'm certain TES could work out an economical solution. [EDIT: Unless you mean 'Skyrim gameplay in MMO form'. Then yeah. No clue how they'd do that.

I would definitely like to see a multiplayer component to a 'core' TES game (an MMO doesn't count), but I'm guessing we won't see one that's got any substance. As awesome as TES is for their big-budget production values and shit, it also acts as an inhibitor on any innovation. Skyrim didn't really innovate over the core engine, beyond a neat tweak to the magic system (which was desperately needed). All of the new things it implemented (some of which were pretty damn elaborate, such as the dynamic spawning and interactions of dragons in an open world environment) were essentially improvements on what they've done in the series before.

What I'd REALLY like to see is Bethesda releasing a truly significant API for their product that supports the generation of more substantial user content. Like a multiplayer system. I'd also like to see a license that allows the creators of these modules to charge (thereby encouraging the people who have actual talent to sit down and hammer out all of the concerns of getting a multiplayer system to work). Definitely can't fault them for the Creation Kit (which is more access than most game studios ever provide), but I want more.