It would be interesting to know how a video game like ESO is made, financed and kept alive.

Lebkuchen

I would like to know what it takes to make a game like ESO and who decides what happens. Is there a way to get a full history/overview/manual on a game like ESO? All about the money, people, hardware, software, art... I mean every single information there is about the game. Not just bits and pieces from old articles.

merpins

Lebkuchen wrote: »

I would like to know what it takes to make a game like ESO and who decides what happens. Is there a way to get a full history/overview/manual on a game like ESO? All about the money, people, hardware, software, art... I mean every single information there is about the game. Not just bits and pieces from old articles.

MMO's don't make a ton of money through the amount of players that are playing it, but instead through micro transactions generally. So most of the money the game makes is through the cash shop. As for why it was made, it was probably made knowing that MMO's generally don't make a ton of money, so the model was designed with the buy the game, play forever model, but with paid DLC and an optional subscription that solves a problem that the Devs intentionally put in the game as to incentivize a player to pay to remove that problem. But the main reason it was probably made was to facilitate the loot box system. From a shareholder point of view, I mean. Devs probably just wanted to make a cool game in general.
EDIT: the game released as a buy + sub model with no cash shop, but that's probably because the game released before it was ready, hence it being a giant buggy mess on release. It was probably designed with the cash shop in mind as I stated, but they didn't want to release it until after the game's bugs were fixed and the sub became optional, 6 months after release.

Kesstryl

MovesLikeJaguar wrote: »

Lebkuchen wrote: »

I would like to know what it takes to make a game like ESO and who decides what happens. Is there a way to get a full history/overview/manual on a game like ESO? All about the money, people, hardware, software, art... I mean every single information there is about the game. Not just bits and pieces from old articles.

MMO's don't make a ton of money through the amount of players that are playing it, but instead through micro transactions generally. So most of the money the game makes is through the cash shop. As for why it was made, it was probably made knowing that MMO's generally don't make a ton of money, so the model was designed with the buy the game, play forever model, but with paid DLC and an optional subscription that solves a problem that the Devs intentionally put in the game as to incentivize a player to pay to remove that problem. But the main reason it was probably made was to facilitate the loot box system. From a shareholder point of view, I mean. Devs probably just wanted to make a cool game in general.

The first year of ESO did not use this system. It was a 100% buy and subscribe model. We had Veteran rewards for milestones of how long we subbed for. At some point it was decided that changing to a cash shop, buy once and free to play model with optional sub for perks. Many of us feared the quality would go downhill from this.

merpins

Kesstryl wrote: »

MovesLikeJaguar wrote: »

Lebkuchen wrote: »

I would like to know what it takes to make a game like ESO and who decides what happens. Is there a way to get a full history/overview/manual on a game like ESO? All about the money, people, hardware, software, art... I mean every single information there is about the game. Not just bits and pieces from old articles.

MMO's don't make a ton of money through the amount of players that are playing it, but instead through micro transactions generally. So most of the money the game makes is through the cash shop. As for why it was made, it was probably made knowing that MMO's generally don't make a ton of money, so the model was designed with the buy the game, play forever model, but with paid DLC and an optional subscription that solves a problem that the Devs intentionally put in the game as to incentivize a player to pay to remove that problem. But the main reason it was probably made was to facilitate the loot box system. From a shareholder point of view, I mean. Devs probably just wanted to make a cool game in general.

The first year of ESO did not use this system. It was a 100% buy and subscribe model. We had Veteran rewards for milestones of how long we subbed for. At some point it was decided that changing to a cash shop, buy once and free to play model with optional sub for perks. Many of us feared the quality would go downhill from this.

Yeah that was the first 6 months and it's unlikely they didn't have something like this in mind when they released the game. They released it in an unfinished and buggy state, so they probably were pressured by shareholders to release the game before it was ready, and gave players rewards for sticking with the game despite it being bad on release. They didn't seem surprised that the game was in a buggy mess on release.

SkaraMinoc

Lebkuchen wrote: »

I would like to know what it takes to make a game like ESO and who decides what happens. Is there a way to get a full history/overview/manual on a game like ESO? All about the money, people, hardware, software, art... I mean every single information there is about the game. Not just bits and pieces from old articles.

I don't think this information is available anywhere. If there was a book about the history of ESO development, I would buy it.

Here's my thoughts:

MMORPG is the most difficult game to make.

In the 2000s I tried to make one by myself. I created a high performance TCP networking library w/ custom message protocol that could support up to ~100k connected clients. It took me 4 weeks and I hadn't even started on any gameplay systems or client yet. At that point I abandoned the project and understood why companies like ZOS used the Hero Engine to get started. Creating your own engine from scratch is a huge effort. It's why Camelot Unchained is in development hell.

In the olden days the business model was buy once + subscribe to play. This has obviously changed over the years and now MMORPG games must use some type of f2p model w/ microtransactions. F2P lets players try your game out and get hooked. Some of those convert to paying customers and some of them end up whales.

Without the crown store, ESO would have died a long time ago I think.

SilverBride

A book like that would be outdated before it was even printed.

EozZoe1989

its cool i like game and others do if like it then play it if you pay to win the play to win lol its up to all and if anything i love playing elder scrolls games they fun..

SkaraMinoc

SilverBride wrote: »

A book like that would be outdated before it was even printed.

No I mean a book about the story of ESO's early development. Not a book to learn the client/server architecture.

Kind of like The WoW Diary by John Staats. For example, the WoW team was in crunch near the end of development and they still didn't have an end game raid. So they asked him to make something fast and he built out Molten Core in a single day.

Something like that for ESO would be a fun read.

Marto

ESO is undoubtedly one of the most expensive MMOs to maintain. The voice acting alone likely pushes development costs far above other top MMOs like WoW or FF14. Not to mention the orchestral soundtrack. And the art assets. And the dozens upon dozens of motifs and outfits. There is just so much stuff in ESO.

ESO has also barely slowed down development for the past 5 years.

We're still getting 4 dungeons, a trial, and two zones each year. Each denser and more detailed than the last.

Go play Cradle of Shadows, then play Unhallowed Grave. Compare how many lines of dialogue the NPCs have, and how many times you're able to talk to them.

Of course, each chapter will naturally have slightly less new art assets, sound effects, animations, and particles. Once ZOS makes a very pretty tropical tree, then can continue to reuse it any new zone that would have such a tree.

The whole "Year of" thing was likely implemented as a cost saving measure, too. It means the art team has 9-12 months to build the aesthetic of High Isle and all its assets, while they probably had less than 6 months to figure out the same for Summerset, so they could have time to pivot to the entirely different artstyle of Murkmire.

But even then they still make an absurd amount of new assets every single update. To the point it almost feels wasteful. Do we really need new cups, chairs, crates, and rocks in every new zone?