What is the Target Market for the Elder Scrolls Online?

In a way, every major MMO is kind of a Frankenstein's monster, cobbled
together from assorted parts exhumed from other games or wired together in
strange new ways. Usually, we can tell what kind of monster it's going to be
during the development stage - the marketing gives us a glimpse at the final
form by skewing towards a specific type of player. For example, if the game is
being built with hardcore gamers in mind, the marketing will focus on the lore
of the setting, building up a world that these players will want to immerse
themselves in. If the game is being marketed to a more casual or young crowd,
the marketing will focus on stuff that can be enjoyed in short, infrequent
sessions (like PvP matches). If the game is being sold to MMO players, the
marketing will focus on the social aspects of the game.

The marketing for The Elder Scrolls Online, however, is all over
the map. It seems to be trying to appeal to everyone at once - hardcores,
casuals and MMO'ers. This is kind of confusing from a company like Zenimax Online,
which usually knows exactly who is buying its games. On the other hand,
according to Game Director Matt Firor in their YouTube video, An
Introduction to The Elder Scrolls Online
, it may be intentional. "We're
bringing two different groups of players together," he says. "We've got the
Elder Scrolls crowd, which is used to great games like Skyrim and Oblivion and
Morrowind and the older games, and then we've got the MMO crowd which is used
to all the great MMOs from the last 15 years."

Target Market for Elder Scrolls Online

The Elder Scrolls series has had an interesting history. The first game,
Arena, was clearly marketed at the hardcore gamer crowd - it was difficult
enough that many new players had a hard time surviving through the
introductory dungeon. Daggerfall stayed on that same track, giving players a
super-massive game world to explore paired with an incredibly detailed
character skill system that included languages and other non-combat skills.
Morrowind, the first in the series to be available on consoles, eased back a
bit on the difficulty in favor of ramped-up visuals, and this trend continued
with Oblivion and Skyrim. Each game looked better than the last, and the UI
and character system became more console-y.

Much of ESO's official press so far has been filling out the setting. The
"Ask Us Anything" feature on the official site has been largely focused on the
three player factions. In their Development
news
section, every article so far has been lore-based. This is a fairly
clear appeal to the hardcore fans of the Elder Scrolls series - Zenimax Online is
letting us know that this is, after all, an Elder Scrolls game, and the lore
will be consistent. The setting will be familiar to those of us who have
immersed ourselves in the previous games, who have read the hundreds of books
we "accidentally stole" from bookshelves in NPC homes.

To be fair, the single-player RPGs in the series have been outstanding, and
the underlying lore is vast. There's a reason that the "Elder Scrolls Crowd"
is as large and devout as it is, and a reason why their expectations for ESO
are sky-high. The promise that ESO will have everything the other games had is
a big one.

Target Market for Elder Scrolls Online

There will be one rather significant thing missing from TESO that has been a
constant draw for the series' previous titles: user-generated content. The
Elder Scrolls Construction Set, which allowed players to mod or create pretty
much anything in the single-player games, is not likely to be an option for a
massive MMO. This is going to be a disappointment for some - particularly the
fans of the H-Cup lingerie mods of the single-player games - but it makes
sense. Single-player games need mods to extend the gameplay, but MMOs by their
very nature do not, really. In a single-player game, you run a dungeon once,
kill the boss, get the loot and it's done. In a MMO, you can run the same
dungeon a dozen times and each time is slightly different.

The MMO Crowd is being lured in by the proposed integration of social
networking websites. Players will be able to create a guild page on Facebook,
have their friends and guildies join up there, and then import it directly
into the game when it launches. Twitter and Google+ will also be integrated
into the game. This will mean that guilds can be managed without third-party
websites that do essentially the same job - leaders can schedule events on
Facebook, tweet important announcements, share awesome screenshots on Tumblr
and who knows what else. Basically, anything you can do on your average
pre-made guild website will be seamlessly integrated through the social media
sites that everybody already uses - no more signing up for the umpteenth
account, forgetting URLs and passwords and all the other hassle of adding
another new website to your long list.

In keeping with the social-networking theme, the use of the "mega-server"
means casual players won't have to scour through lists of game servers and
shards to find their buddies. Everyone gets pooled into one giant server and
area populations are kept manageable via instanced zones - the game will place
players in zones according to their friends lists, guilds and play history. In
addition, players will be able to fill out some kind of questionnaire or
survey to help determine their play style, and the game will use that
information to place the player in zones with others who share his play style.
Loners get matched with other loners, PvPers get matched with other PvPers and
so on.

This sort of conflicts with the lore-heavy spin we've been getting from the
official site. The social aspect of the game appeals to a very different crowd
than does the knowledge that Bosmer cannibalism will play a subtle role within
the Aldmeri Dominion. There are two kinds of people in the world: those for
whom Bosmer cannibalism and how it will be potrayed in future games is a
subject of scholarly interest (like me), and those with bustling social lives. Very rarely do
these two interests converge.

Target Market for Elder Scrolls Online

The PvP aspect of the game has also been the subject of much discussion.
Because of the Megaserver technology, this is not World-vs-World or
Realm-vs-Realm, but Alliance-vs-Alliance. And it's not the Rock-Paper-Scissors
style of 3-sided PvP that we find in other games, because all three alliances
have the same character classes (and classes are essentially meaningless
anyway), and if history is any indication, racial bonuses won't provide a
particularly significant advantage. It will be a game of Rock-Rock-Rock.

PvP is going to center around control of Cyrodiil, and will range from
open-world grand-scale battles to limited skirmishes between small groups.
Large full-raid-size groups can battle over control of keeps, but small farms
can be conquered by small 3 to 5-man groups. Players will be able to control
siege weapons to destroy castle walls, and rebuild them later when the keep
has been captured and controlled. Supposedly, players can even become Emperor
of Cyrodiil, thought the details on what happens then are not currently
available.

The open-endedness of the game will be familiar to the Elder Scrolls crowd,
but probably pretty strange to players accustomed to the "cookie-cutter"
template-style character classes that are part of so many other MMOs. In other
games, we can say "mage tank" to elicit a sardonic giggle, but a mage tank is
completely viable in the Elder Scrolls. Character classes are a starting
point, and gear is not class-limited. Heavily-armored fireball-chucking mobile
artillery will be just as common as stealthy ninja-healers and shirtless dudes
or busty amazons with giant two-hander swords. The MMO Holy Trinity of Tank,
Healer and DPS will surely exist in the Elder Scrolls Online, but it is likely
to take on some surprising and creative forms.

Target Market for Elder Scrolls Online

The Elder Scrolls single-player RPGs have carved out a legacy that leaves us
with very high expectations for any new title in the series, but there is
simply no way that a massively multiplayer game could ever be "Skyrim II." The
experiences are just too different.

In the single player game, the player is the only hero running around shaping
the world, and is singularly responsible for the events of the epic story.
Once a dungeon is conquered, it basically stays conquered - the mobs might
respawn after a few hours, but the key loot stays looted. In a MMO, there are
thousands of heroes running around doing the exact same thing. The world is
not typically reshaped by their actions, though TESO's phasing might change
that aspect of it. Dungeons never stay conquered, but are run over and over
again for key loot, which always respawns.

In a single-player game, you don't need to resort to devious creativity to
give your character a name with the F-word in it, and no one will report you
for doing so. And if you're the sort of person that is bothered by people
trying to get away with a stupid, offensive name, you never have to see one.
You don't need to worry about having hundreds of other people going after the
same six quest mobs as you, and having to queue up to kill a boss or other
rare spawn. Introducing these complications to an Elder Scrolls game is likely
to reduce the experience of deep immersion that these games have given players
over the years.

Target Market for Elder Scrolls Online

It's hard to see what direction the game will take in its final form, but
that hardly matters at this point. It's an Elder Scrolls game, and that's
going to draw the Elder Scrolls crowd, and it's a "Triple-A" MMO, and that's
going to draw the MMO crowd. But at the moment, Frankenstein's monster is
still being sewn together. Only time will tell if the parts will fit as
promised, or if the beast will live up to the mad doctor's reputation.


To read the latest guides, news, and features you can visit our The Elder Scrolls Online Game Page.

Last Updated: Mar 29, 2016

Comments

Related Content