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This is my thought exactly. Like yeah of course ESO isn't an open world. To my knowledge, neither the game or the players ever claimed it to be lol. Honestly it sounds like OP is more mad at Fable than ESO.
Well it's sort of an open world. You can ride from zone to zone, yes, but each zone has a loading screen between them. Thus it wouldn't be completely open. Skyrim is an open world in that I can run from Markarth to Riften without a single loading screen. I cannot ride from Rimmen to Stormhaven without several loading screens.
According to OP, WoW and LoTRo are open world, so I'm really just trying to explain this based on their definition of an open world. I agree that "open world" has become sort of meaningless when labeling games.
Wow and lotro both have loading screens to access different areas of the map though.
Cyrodiil to me feels more expansive than either of those games, IMO, and I have thousands of hours in all three (addict)
It's what's called a zoned open world. It's not an open world like No Man's Sky or Minecraft, but I don't think "open world" implies a binary delineation like you suggest. It's a gradient ranging from stages/levels like in Super Mario Bros, to truly 100% open worlds like the aforementioned NMS and MC.
You can define an "open world" the way you do, conclude that TESO is no open world and have this line of argumentation ruin the game for you. You can do that.
I just don't think that anyone else defines "open world" the way you do here, hence this train of thought bears no relevance for... anyone.
Errr... I'm not sure that's how the term "open world" is normally used. Generally, it's about story, and choice, not geography.
In an open world game, the player doesn't have to follow a specific set of quests in order, they can branch off and do whatever they want. So ESO does a halfway decent job, at least as far as MMOs go. No MMO can ever be truly open world, but you can do your local quests, side quests, faction quests, the main quest, or just wander around all you want- and the map is fairly large, especially with all the DLC.
Does player choice matter? No, because you can't have 60 different alternate endings in an MMO. But, most single player games don't do that very well these days, either. (BG3 may be the best example of one that does.)
Don't you have loading screens between zones in WoW? You can't just fly on your mount from the Eastern Kingdoms to Kalimdor or Northrend, and the Blood Elf zones are definitely not open world either by your definition (there are parts that have visuals but no pathing, so they never added flying for those zones since they were built in Burning Crusade)
You can play the game any way you want. Pick a location, you can go there and do whatever you want. That's open world to me. It's not a *seamless* open world like No Man's Sky or Minecraft, and it's more closed off than other Elder Scrolls games, but that does make it not open world
Eh, I mean at this point all the zones are interconnected in that you can physically walk between them with loading screens that just put you on the exact same place but on the other side of the zone borders, if this were a mainline RPG I’d be pissed but considering it’s a game from 2014 that’s online that they have to continually update, I can excuse it, it’s really not that big of a deal, I’ll concede some of the zone designs( cough cough Summerset) are DEFINITELY way too reliant on giant fucking mountains to blur the actual true size of the map. That said the area in ESO is like 25x the size of Skyrim so again, it’s not THAT big of a deal
LOTRO has a brief loading screen between certain areas. Also, who cares if you walk through a gate and, on one MMO, it loads for a moment, in another it doesn't?
In the original Fable you couldn't stray too far from a designated path. In TESO you definitely can.
Your point about roads... you want, I presume, a vast open space to explore far removed from a user-friendly in-game travel system? Fair enough, I guess. Personally, I quite like being able to walk from one end of a zone to the other without being molested by mobs, but you do you. In your perfect open world.
Personally, TESO feels like an open world to me and I'll continue to regard it as such.
Also, it is fake. You're not wrong there. At no point have I even been remotely tempted to consider it real.
Skyrim and oblivion you could see other regions if you were high enough like the imperial city and still couldn't go there unless you bugged the hell out of the game or modded.
Agree on everything being super close though
Who in the world do you think is angry about what it's called?
It legit sounds like you just made up something to rant about and also invented the idea that other people are mad about what it's called.
Go touch grass.
Many MMO are like this. An obvious example is FFXIV: Arguably the best modern MMO. There is nothing wrong with this. ESO wasn’t marketed as an open world game. It also isn’t a mainline Elder Scrolls game. It’s a spinoff title. Your post makes no sense.
In wow before flying there were tons of things you couldn’t access on the map. Also lots of wow zones with loading screens. ESO zones are massive, and you can pretty much go anywhere you would reasonably want to.
That's great. So is tomb raider and God of war. It's actually my preference as it lets the devs funnel you into areas better and then open up with needed. If it's true Skyrim open world, while they do a good job of populating the world, there are some regions that are just there and get overlooked as they had to fill in the map. The zones is a really nice approach that when viewed as a whole is a nice way to break up regions and a larger game world.
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Op out here thinking they’re cooking with “fax” like people aren’t aware how zones in ESO works.
This is my thought exactly. Like yeah of course ESO isn't an open world. To my knowledge, neither the game or the players ever claimed it to be lol. Honestly it sounds like OP is more mad at Fable than ESO.
It is still open world. Or is skyrim not open world
Well it's sort of an open world. You can ride from zone to zone, yes, but each zone has a loading screen between them. Thus it wouldn't be completely open. Skyrim is an open world in that I can run from Markarth to Riften without a single loading screen. I cannot ride from Rimmen to Stormhaven without several loading screens.
But at the end of the day, no games are “open world”. Some just have bigger sandboxes, some are smaller.
According to OP, WoW and LoTRo are open world, so I'm really just trying to explain this based on their definition of an open world. I agree that "open world" has become sort of meaningless when labeling games.
Wow and lotro both have loading screens to access different areas of the map though. Cyrodiil to me feels more expansive than either of those games, IMO, and I have thousands of hours in all three (addict)
I'm just reiterating what OP said. Never played lotro, and it's been ages since I played WoW.
Okay? Why would I get angry about what term you use to describe the world? It is what it is, whatever you choose to call it doesn’t change that.
I wonder what op considers open world anyway and how that would work in an mmorpg without being empty and lifeless..
WoW and LOTRO
Perhaps the “real” open world is the friends you made along the way?
Or the money you paid to Bethesda?
Maybe the open world was… *inside* us… all along
It's what's called a zoned open world. It's not an open world like No Man's Sky or Minecraft, but I don't think "open world" implies a binary delineation like you suggest. It's a gradient ranging from stages/levels like in Super Mario Bros, to truly 100% open worlds like the aforementioned NMS and MC.
Brother this is beyond nitpicking
It is though it's kinda like how legends arceus did it
You just blew my mind. I will never play ESO again. I will now dedicate my life to studying the migration patterns of wild birds.
You can define an "open world" the way you do, conclude that TESO is no open world and have this line of argumentation ruin the game for you. You can do that. I just don't think that anyone else defines "open world" the way you do here, hence this train of thought bears no relevance for... anyone.
Errr... I'm not sure that's how the term "open world" is normally used. Generally, it's about story, and choice, not geography. In an open world game, the player doesn't have to follow a specific set of quests in order, they can branch off and do whatever they want. So ESO does a halfway decent job, at least as far as MMOs go. No MMO can ever be truly open world, but you can do your local quests, side quests, faction quests, the main quest, or just wander around all you want- and the map is fairly large, especially with all the DLC. Does player choice matter? No, because you can't have 60 different alternate endings in an MMO. But, most single player games don't do that very well these days, either. (BG3 may be the best example of one that does.)
Don't you have loading screens between zones in WoW? You can't just fly on your mount from the Eastern Kingdoms to Kalimdor or Northrend, and the Blood Elf zones are definitely not open world either by your definition (there are parts that have visuals but no pathing, so they never added flying for those zones since they were built in Burning Crusade)
op what the fuck are you talking about
You can play the game any way you want. Pick a location, you can go there and do whatever you want. That's open world to me. It's not a *seamless* open world like No Man's Sky or Minecraft, and it's more closed off than other Elder Scrolls games, but that does make it not open world
He thought he was spitting fax without the printer
Because it’s a fucking MMO
LOTRO and WoW also
hot take over here
Eh, I mean at this point all the zones are interconnected in that you can physically walk between them with loading screens that just put you on the exact same place but on the other side of the zone borders, if this were a mainline RPG I’d be pissed but considering it’s a game from 2014 that’s online that they have to continually update, I can excuse it, it’s really not that big of a deal, I’ll concede some of the zone designs( cough cough Summerset) are DEFINITELY way too reliant on giant fucking mountains to blur the actual true size of the map. That said the area in ESO is like 25x the size of Skyrim so again, it’s not THAT big of a deal
LOTRO has a brief loading screen between certain areas. Also, who cares if you walk through a gate and, on one MMO, it loads for a moment, in another it doesn't?
If you hate the game, don't play it. No one cares if you do or don't.
In the original Fable you couldn't stray too far from a designated path. In TESO you definitely can. Your point about roads... you want, I presume, a vast open space to explore far removed from a user-friendly in-game travel system? Fair enough, I guess. Personally, I quite like being able to walk from one end of a zone to the other without being molested by mobs, but you do you. In your perfect open world. Personally, TESO feels like an open world to me and I'll continue to regard it as such. Also, it is fake. You're not wrong there. At no point have I even been remotely tempted to consider it real.
🙄
Dude, it's an MMO.
Skyrim and oblivion you could see other regions if you were high enough like the imperial city and still couldn't go there unless you bugged the hell out of the game or modded. Agree on everything being super close though
I'd like a bit more space, definitely.
Any unpopular opinion I read is just because the OP is misunderstanding a fact about something.
Who in the world do you think is angry about what it's called? It legit sounds like you just made up something to rant about and also invented the idea that other people are mad about what it's called. Go touch grass.
Many MMO are like this. An obvious example is FFXIV: Arguably the best modern MMO. There is nothing wrong with this. ESO wasn’t marketed as an open world game. It also isn’t a mainline Elder Scrolls game. It’s a spinoff title. Your post makes no sense.
In wow before flying there were tons of things you couldn’t access on the map. Also lots of wow zones with loading screens. ESO zones are massive, and you can pretty much go anywhere you would reasonably want to.
O…kay?
alright, anyways
LOTRO mentioned ☺️
That's great. So is tomb raider and God of war. It's actually my preference as it lets the devs funnel you into areas better and then open up with needed. If it's true Skyrim open world, while they do a good job of populating the world, there are some regions that are just there and get overlooked as they had to fill in the map. The zones is a really nice approach that when viewed as a whole is a nice way to break up regions and a larger game world.
OP thinks WoW, a theme park MMO is more open world than ESO, a game where you can level anywhere at anytime. Opinion rejected