We chatted to Studio head Matt Firor about what is coming for the next 10 years of Elder Scrolls online, celebrating the last 10 years, spellcrafting and tips for new players.
00:00Congrats on 10 years, that's absolutely huge.
00:03I think that just shows kind of the commitment that the players have to the game and also that we at Zenimax Online have.
00:11You know, it's hugely successful and we love working on it.
00:14What advice do you have for someone approaching the game for the first time today?
00:18Someone who has never played ESO before is just play it like you would an Elder Scrolls game.
00:23There are almost no decisions you can make in the early part of the game that you can't redo at some point in the game.
00:29Don't sweat it, just go in and have fun, explore the world, meet great characters, meet other players.
00:35Don't think you have to min-max everything to have fun because it's not that kind of game.
00:41Even right now, the energy and passion for this game is tangible in the room.
00:46What do you personally attribute that to, the enduring enthusiasm for this title?
00:50If you ask five of the people out there that are playing the game right now to describe ESO to you,
00:56you'll often hear the description of five different games.
00:58You know, there's, I know that there's influencers out there who just do housing,
01:02and then there's some that just do PvP.
01:04The fact that ESO is so all-encompassing that it allows people to kind of live their virtual Elder Scrolls life the way they want,
01:10I think that is a major, major component into making the people that play the game feel like they're part of the game,
01:17and then the fandom comes from that.
01:19Looking ahead at the next ten years of ESO, what are some of the, just the very broad strokes of kind of the direction,
01:25the philosophy, the design philosophy that you want to take ESO?
01:27We are not afraid to make changes when changes are necessary.
01:31So I think looking forward, I think we'll continue to look for graphical upgrades, you know, as we go.
01:37Every time we have a big event, players that haven't played in two, three, four years will come back.
01:44We don't have a lot of systems built into the game to reintroduce them to the game when they do come back.
01:50So if we're going to do some systems things like that, it might be around things like catch up, like,
01:56here's where you were, you know, what do you want to do now?
01:59Here's a thing, a quest you haven't done yet, right?
02:01Other games are starting to do that now, and now that we have such a large user base of people that come back from time to time,
02:08we probably need to welcome them back a bit better.
02:10Sure.
02:11Just on stage, Rich said that scribing is kind of Gold Road's like back of the box feature, right?
02:15It could even be the precursor to spell drafting.
02:19Again, just what advice would you have for someone approaching that for the first time, not entirely familiar with...
02:24Yeah, so scribing, for those that don't know, is a system that we're introducing in Gold Road that allows you to
02:30create your own abilities using a pre-selected menu of different types of things that an ability can do,
02:39like you can have a shield bash that heals.
02:41Obviously, that is a system that you can do in the first hour of gameplay if you want, but you don't have to, right?
02:46You should probably play the game for a while before you get into that.
02:49If you really want to go and make your character super unique, we also have styling, which is kind of a subset of scribing,
02:57which just lets you change the color of your abilities and, in some cases, the graphics associated with it.
03:04Like, these are all customization things that just make you feel like you're more part of the world.
03:10So, for a new player in the game, I think they need to know it's super cool and you can make you customize your character
03:16in every way, appearance, including what abilities you use, but you don't have to worry about it at first.
03:22Like, get into the game and then learn how to do it.
03:24Can you walk me through the conversation in the room when it was decided that Gold Road would be ESO's 10th anniversary chapter?
03:30I think, for Gold Road, what we wanted to pick was a super welcoming art style and hallmark area of the game.
03:39But we also needed to finish the story of Athelia, the new Jadric Prince that we started last year with Necron.
03:47So, I think, even though it's the 10th anniversary, it's a time to step back and take notice.
03:52But we're still telling stories and we're still, you know, chugging along.
03:56So, don't expect to see a, this is the 10 year anniversary story or anything like that.
04:01It's more like, hey, let's stop and take notice and just keep playing the game that we love.
04:06People are really enthusiastic about Oblivion.
04:09I mean, similar question to before, but like more specifically toward those players who might be nostalgic for that game and maybe grew up playing that game.
04:17What sort of approach would you recommend for those players?
04:20So, you will feel right at home if you played, you know, Elder Scrolls IV.
04:27In many ways, I don't know if we did for this zone, but in most of the other parts of Cyrodiil that we did, we actually used some of the height maps from Elder Scrolls IV.
04:36So, it really feels similar.
04:39We're set 700 years before Elder Scrolls IV.
04:43So, we can look a little different and a little fresher and newer, but it's still the same.
04:48Like the alien ruins around Skingrad are going to be the alien ruins around Skingrad from Elder Scrolls IV.
04:54They might look a little different because of the time difference, the time that's elapsed.
04:58So, that is all will feel super nostalgic, but we also have kind of this invasion of Valenwood into the West Weald, into the area around Skingrad.
05:11And so, that gives us the ability to like bring some Bosmer culture in because we don't have a lot of Bosmer culture since launch.
05:17So, it allows us to visually change things a little bit and have the blight kind of move in and more jungle-y, vine-y stuff.
05:24Which you wouldn't expect as part of Skingrad, but the story explains why that is.
05:29So, that gives us really some cool, interesting twists on a nostalgic feeling area.
05:35Is there anything I left out that you might want to communicate?
05:38The amazing achievement that 10 years in this is and the amazing success that we've achieved, I think it speaks for itself.
