Will you be able to play ESO when the servers go down in 20 years?

OutcastVP

Ok, this may sound like a silly point and question to some, but have there been any word on what will happen to ESO when the plug is pulled? I have a hard time investing in a game that may go "dead" in the future. I still play Elder Scrolls Arena and Daggerfall now some 20 years later.

Will we be able to play the game even if it would go offline? (As a singelplayer game, or by player hosted servers)

Or will the game be totally useless the next time the Elder Scrolls Anthology is released?

rawne1980b16_ESO

If someone takes the initiative and makes a private server then yes .... otherwise no.

When an MMO closes it's servers it generally means that game is gone for good.

Unless some kind people take it upon themselves to get the source code and remake it themselves then you won't see that game again.

WAR - gone.
City of Heroes - gone.
Tabula Rasa - gone (depending who you ask that's either a really good thing or a really bad thing).
Matrix Online - gone but someone has rebuilt the game although I don't know how far they got. Last I heard there wasn't much to do.
SWG - gone but, again, someone made a private server that has quite a few people playing it.

So it all depends on who, if anyone, is willing to take it on once it shuts down and if Zenimax allows it.

joshweps

It won't die

Chirru

Ah.... question...how old are you?

Why the question...will you still be alive in 20 years.
okay...I will be positive and assume you are still alive then...

in 20 years time the game industry
will bring out games that make ESO a dinosaurs, and everyone
will be playing these new virtual reality games.

If the game really finds a following then there will be follow up ES games...single and MMO's

OutcastVP

I am 30. So in 20 years I will be 50. But as I stated I still play Arena, and that game is 20 years old.

I would not need ESO to be online really. The game is playable offline without any other players as it is now. I would almost rather play the game now offline. (Apart from the Cyradill war).

So they could at least allow you to play offline when it goes down to just do the quests?

PBpsy

When the servers are down they will be down for good.

But do you mean to say that you only play games that you think that you will be playing in 20 years? I can think maybe at most 20 games that I have played in the last 10 years that I will maybe touch in the next 10 years. I do replay about a dozen games from the mid/late 90s early 2000 relatively often. Games that make you come back over and over are rare and you usually can't determine that when you play them for the first time. At the moment the decisions about ESO sould be "Will I resub next month? Will I be here in three months or six months?"

Elsonso

Why would you say that the game is playable offline?

rawne1980b16_ESO

OutcastVP wrote: »

So they could at least allow you to play offline when it goes down to just do the quests?

Never known that to happen so I highly doubt it.

As I said, when an MMO goes it's gone for good unless someone else picks it up.

It's not like a single player game, a lot of what you see in ESO is server side and it would take work to remake it into a single player game that doesn't use those servers.

Ri_Dariit

This one forgot Moore's law. Outcast can probably play game in 20 years with small portable device as "server".

Pelerin2014

Like others have said, unless someone creates a private server it's very unlikely - when the servers go down, the game is gone.

Also, you should probably stop worrying about what's gonna happen to the game in 20 years and enjoy it now, while you can.

Even when the game does disappear, what's most important is that you had fun when you were playing it and servers going down won't change that.

Strontium

20 years? Unless they fire Zenimax and hire a competent publisher, this game will be shut down in 6 months!

Edda

Fan made servers is a thing. Sometimes they exist with the original game creators blessing. Like the original Star Wars Online game.

On the other hand I don't think it's very expensive to keep a game running on the backburner, even after a lot of the player base has left. As long as there is 50K players, or so, they can just merge servers (eu/us etc) and just stop or slow down releasing expansions. Everquest 1 is still around even though I'm sure their population has probably dropped 90% since their peak.

Usually it's really obvious when a game needs to be taken out behind the shed and put down, because the game has been a mess for too long and everyone got pissed and left. Like with Sony and Star Wars Online. Other times it's NOT so obvious that a game has run it's course and I just wont buy a game from that publisher again, ever. Like with NcSoft and City of Heroes.

Pelerin2014

Strontium wrote: »

20 years? Unless they fire Zenimax and hire a competent publisher, this game will be shut down in 6 months!

6 months, really? Nice crystal ball you got there.

Also, Zenimax Online developed the game, Bethesda is the publisher.

Thechemicals

Has anyone bothered to ask what exactly are he is doing in elder scrolls arena nowadays?

Pelerin2014

Thechemicals wrote: »

Has anyone bothered to ask what exactly are he is doing in elder scrolls arena nowadays?

I regularly play older games like DooM or Diablo. Arena and Daggerfall (and the more recent Morrowind) are still awesome games.

OutcastVP

Yes Moores law might be the answer to all computer problems.

But it is not so much an IF question. If i will play this game in 20 years. It is as much a thing of principle. I just don't like the way the medium is going if something you buy today can be a brick in a year or two. It's like if you bought a new car, but if the manufacturer goes away the car won't start anymore.

I might want to play this in 20 years, who knows, and then I want to be able to do that. Not just with this game but with any games. Its the principle.

As for online or offline. I don't see any reason why they could at least let us play this offline if the servers would go down. We would just need a patch that did not require to log in to the server. There is really no point at all in other players even being in this game apart from the Cyrodiil war. Nothing would be lost or different if there was no other players around when I am doing my random missions and running around killing monsters. (That is another problem though in most "mmorpg:s" today, but that is covered in another topic..)

As for why I am still playing Arena.. Many players will probably play Arena now when Bethesda just released the Elder Scrolls Anthology pack that includes all Elder Scrolls games.

Shimond

It'd be tricky to play an "online only" game without servers.

Crumpy

Are you saying that you are not sure you want to buy/sub ESO in case, in twenty years hence, they turn the servers off?

That a mere 20 years worth of playing time may not be enough or worth the cost?

Talk about a 'glass half-empty' mentality!

Willow

If the game is going to be around for 20 years I sure hope they offer a lifetime sub for $199.

Miths

20 years from now?!
Damn, I think I'd be spending my entire life sitting in a catatonic state if I had to worry about whether my next purchase/friendship/relationship/hobby/whatever would still be available or viable in two decades (and I'm 37, so I'm not quite a youngling who can't imagine that kind of time span).

Not that I've never enjoyed a game that was more than a decade old, but if they hadn't been available I'd have been just as happy (re)playing something much more recent.

But to each their own of course.

rawne1980b16_ESO

OutcastVP wrote: »

We would just need a patch that did not require to log in to the server.

I don't think you understand how MMO's work.

When you log into the game, all that stuff you see is on the server.

Your characters are on the server.

The vast majority of the game is on the server.

If they gave you a patch to play it offline ... you would have nothing.

You don't like the way the medium is going but it's ALWAYS been like this with online games. They come and they go, it's a risk when you buy them.

Honestly, and i'm not flaming here, but I just don't think MMO's are for you. Stick to single player games. You will not find what you are looking for here.

If this game ever closes it's servers it's gone for good. It will never be a single player game. It may end up on a private server but there will still be other people.

Thechemicals

Ultima online is still around and its 17+ years old. They also have private servers for it. All you need is the source code and you can take it to your coffin.

Crumpy

I can't help but feel this thread is a little... previous, I think is the term.

Vikova

I was trying to think of a response. But, I can't think of anything novel. Mostly just bafflement, on my end. You are concerned about playing a game because it might not be playable in two decades. I don't even, just. Sheesh. If I was worried about the state of a game in two decades I'd be paralyzed from playing anything.

DeathTrap

No. You will not be able to play ESO if the servers are shut down. They will not release an offline version of it. There is no benefit to them to do so - the money spent doing something like that would not be regained by any additional sales they might make.

Gedalya

When ESO goes down for good it will be replaced by ESO 2; ESO players who sign-up for ESO 2 will receive a pink mudcrab although it will be tied to your character and not your account.

ESO 2: This Time its Personal

OutcastVP

The difference of ESO and other modern mmo:s and Ultima Online is that in Ultima you need to be onilne, the game would be pretty much pointless if not. In ESO i don't see any reason at all why you could not play without other players if it comes to that. Just transfer your character to your computer and done. There is no meaningful interaction with other players or the server anyway that prevents you from playing the game as usual. (Beside Cyradill).

You just run around doing quests and there are other players running past you sometimes or standing in a big lump at the bank. Would not be different AT ALL without any other players around.

Gedalya

Cyradill

Actually it's Cyrodiil.

Mailmann

I'm not about to judge... I still break out the original Sim City from time to time and it came out in 1989.

Gedalya

Mailmann wrote: »

I'm not about to judge... I still break out the original Sim City from time to time and it came out in 1989.

Agreed: Sim City, Half Life 2 (and tons of other FPS), Arena, Morrowind, Oblivion, Skyrim, and I don't doubt ESO as well; I would love to see them patch the game for offline play when the time comes to talk end of life for this product.

Sarenia

The difference between Daggerfall and Elder Scrolls Online is that one runs in DOSBox and the other requires a remote server hosting proprietary code.

The game will shut down when it shuts down. It may be in a decade (few MMOs make it that far), or it may flop in the same timeframe as Warhammer.

It's possible they'll release it to the public when it shuts down, but I doubt it. More likely they'll reuse the assets, or sell them for use in some other project.

Personally just going to enjoy it while it lasts. With any luck I'll be playing TES 12 in 20 years.