I was invited to a preview of The Elder Scrolls Online's 10th anniversary Direct showcase earlier this week—and it looks like it's pulling out all the stops. TESO has spent the last 10 years hopping from setting to setting, taking players on a world tour of Tamriel—to Morrowind, Elsweyr, Blackwood, Telvanni—you name it, players have probably gone there.
After a decade of that structure, though, ZeniMax is keen to "shake things up"—while the MMO had been operating on a more-or-less annual chapter system, it'll be heading to a more seasonal structure going forward. The first of which, Seasons of the Worm Cult, sees a return to the game's OG storyline.
"This is a sequel to the base game storyline," explains game director Rich Lambert. "Ten years in the making."
The chapter takes place on a new tropical island by the name of Solstice, where outcast Argonians and Altmer have come together as outcasts do—in a weird, politically tense blend of culture. The Order of the Black Worm is back, manned by a new leader called Wormblood—which feels like a self-fulfilling name, and a bit unfair from their parents, but hey. You gotta play the hand you're dealt, I guess.
Alongside promised quality of life features to help returning players get stuck back in, this whole gear-shift feels like a reset for ESO's long-lived story, and a decent starting-off point for new players as well. Old characters, like Razum-dar, Skordo the Knife, and Vanus Galerion are making a return to help get folks settled in.
Speaking of, ZeniMax is working on a proper "welcome back" feature for returning players, though details are mostly vague, and is set to update tutorial zones with graphical facelifts. It's clear that the developer really wants to bring lapsed players back into the fold, outright stating that it'll be focused on addressing "long-standing player feedback".
ZeniMax seems to be emphasising that there'll be a focus on experimentation, too. Seasons might be "short or long", and there's even talk of "remix" seasons—carrying echoes of WoW's Mists of Pandaria Remix—in the works.
Alongside other features, like a 12-person raid dubbed "The Ossian Cage", ESO players'll get to work together to topple The Writhing Wall, a big barrier cleaving Solstice in twain. They'll get to build fortifications, siege weapons, and improve defenses in order to take it down.
What's more, progress will be tracked on a server-by-server basis, so it's entirely possible one server might get to see the end of the storyline before another. The final update to the season—coming sometime "in the fourth quarter"—will see Eastern Solstice unlocked for players to romp around.
Now for the bad news. A seasonal structure means a new content pass to actually play it, one which won't be wrapped into an ESO premium subscription. Mind, past expansions weren't either, and given the breadth of content on display here I'm not sure it's a jerk move so long as the pricing remains reasonable.
Still, in a post-stream Q&A session, Lambert reassured players that there wouldn't be much FOMO involved: "We will sometimes bring things back. We will also make sure that super exclusive things are generally easy to get so you don't feel like you have to grind every day of the season in order to get it."
That's easier said than done, mind. There are some growing pains to be had when moving from your standard MMO structure to a more seasonal model, but experimentation like, say, adding subclasses to your game after a decade, can bring a lot of life back to a game. Not that TESO needs it. It's actually been a huge financial success for Bethesda, raking in over $2 billion in its lifetime.
The introductory chapter for Seasons of the Worm Cult will be available as soon as The Elder Scrolls Online direct showcase goes live, with the majority of content releasing in June—the public test server will be spinning up very soon, with Lambert suggesting it might be available as soon as next week.
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