This little blog will put my initial thoughts of my experiences with Elder Scrolls Online (ESO). I have not reached max level yet; currently I am level 16, so I still have a fair amount of content to go. My goal here is just to kind of blabber on a bit and hopefully someone may find this information useful.

ESO is a game that will seem familiar, but yet different. This familiarity will come in two forms. One will be the similarities it naturally has with other Elder scroll games, such as Oblivion and Skyrim, while other similarities will come from previous MMORPG games. These similarities play both pros and cons to the game. In my opinion I feel there are more pros than cons. The game feels like an elder scrolls game; not in the sense of how the game play works, but the atmosphere, the vibe, the artistic style, the wonderful music that plays in the background, the sound effects, the wonderful (most of the time) voice acting. When you dive right into the game you will get the sense "this is an elder scrolls game." However, this is just a feeling you will get in the beginning. When you dive deeper you will get the sense of other MMORPG's creeping in the background.

Elder scroll games took pride in giving the players freedom to explore. Do not get me wrong, this game does have a strong focus on exploration, but not in the sense that Elder Scroll veterans will be used to. You cannot steal everything in the game, kill people for the sake of killing an NPC, you are not able to search every nook and cranny to find loot; you still can search many different boxes, jars, book shelves, and other such objects to grab crafting items, lock picks, as well as recipes. The depth is just not to the normal depth that Elder scrolls have offered before. This is understandable because this is not a single player game; this is meant to be different from the offline versions.

ESO does not reinvent the wheel, just like many other MMORPGs in the past. Games borrow mechanics from each other. Each company tries to refine those mechanics to make them unique to themselves and ESO is no different. There are instances, there is a strong focus on end game content, there is a somewhat focus on being social. This feels like what an MMORPG should feel like. Quest, grab loot, do dungeons, rinse and repeat. The one MAJOR difference with this game is there is not as much of a strong focus on being social with each other; this is extremely strange. Due to the Mega Server there is no auction house. Players can search for items on an approved ESO message board system. Majority of quests can be easily done alone, and feel natural to do alone. If you party and do quests, quests seem to not acknowledge your party members. If you complete a quest with them, they will need to do the quest again as well. I have a feeling this will change due to this game feeling more anti-social than any other MMO I have ever played. However, this being said, I took a more "single player" approach to this game and I am having an absolute blast. Not everyone will have that same mentality, but if you are looking for a major social experience it does not seem present just yet in ESO. To be honest, I am not in a guild so this could very well be the reason I feel this way.

Is ESO a good purchase? Currently it is hard to say. I do like a good MMO, but I find myself getting bored sometimes when I play these types of games. World of Warcraft I did achieve max level, when max was level 85, and I soon after did hit max I than did a heavy focus on PVP, which I absolutely loved. As of right now I have not experienced all that ESO has to offer. Currently I do enjoy it. I find myself getting lost in the game world as I did with Skyrim, however just not as absorbed. I feel there are still improvements to be made; I also feel that the game will need to have some major mechanical changes to stay competitive. Zenimax nailed some aspects, but completely missed the boat on others. This being said, I am still very happy with my purchase. Will I still be playing the game a month from now? Yes -- I believe I will be. How about 6 months from now? Anything is possible.

What are your guys’ thoughts? I would love to hear some of them.