The lifting of the NDA is going to prove to be a blessing and a curse for Zenimax and Elder Scrolls Online. It is a blessing because true fans of the Elder Scrolls can now openly express their opinions of the game. Sure, there are purists who go into beta with a preconceived disposition to hate the game because it isn’t single player but if they drop their preconceived expectations, they come to love the game for what it is.
Now for the curse and it is a dozy, the rumor mill of what is and isn’t happening in the closed beta is now running rampant. There is currently a rumor that starting islands are being removed from the game. Since no beta invites have been issued yet for the much anticipated and hoped for beta this weekend, it can only be assumed that the rumor was instigated by someone in the ongoing 24/7 closed beta testing group or an individual with malicious intent.
Personally, I’m thinking that the rumor was started by someone in the 24/7 beta test group who violated their NDA. Now there is the expectation that the starter islands are gone and that players will immediately go from Cold Harbor to the first city of their faction.
What the rumor actually states is that the starting islands are now optional. This will be a boon to those individuals who rush to the “end game” and then begin to whine and moan about how the game is a failure because they’ve reached level cap and there is nothing for them to do. Sure, starting islands aren’t going to make that much of a difference to those that rush, which begs the question why make them optional in the first place?
Making the starter islands optional does provide and element of freedom that has been present in all of the single player games, I freely admit this benefit. But this isn’t a single player game and those couple of levels that you gain on the starter island may mean a shift in your play style you didn’t anticipate when you made your character. You may discover that you hate the way that the Assassination line plays while fighting creatures of equivalent levels or that you are breezing through enemies as a Dragon Knight utilizing a Restoration staff. Making those discoveries as a level three player against creatures several levels against you will not be a pleasant experience.
I won’t be skipping starter islands, there is too much to experience and figure out on them. I have enjoyed the stories and quests on every single starter island. I will have done them multiple times by the time the game releases and I still won’t be skipping them. If you aren’t an Elder Scrolls lore junkie, then skipping the starter islands won’t help you get immersed in the world either. You won’t meet characters whose families were devastated by the last war with the Akaviri (2E 572) or meet soldiers stranded by a hurricane out of nowhere. Personally, meeting these characters made the MMO version of the Elder Scrolls feel like an Elder Scrolls game.
There are plenty of places to roam and explore on the starter islands. I have yet to feel constrained because I landed on a starter island and couldn’t “escape” until I completed the requisite quest chain. It’s an Elder Scrolls game after all. Quest chains are how the story progresses and moves forward. Quests and the non-player characters are what gives any Elder Scrolls game it’s “flavor” and character.
Personally, I think making the starter islands skippable is a mistake on the part of Zenimax. It caters to the crowd that rushes to the end game and in the end, that same crowd destroys the game in the long run. This move is the first in what is a slippery slope for Zenimax in catering to the “wishes” of the loudest whiners. I pray that it isn’t a slippery slope they traverse long and that Zenimax stays true to their vision of the game and doesn’t try to continual edit a game based on popular opinion. That is the slippery slope of doom and will destroy the game.
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