The Elder Scrolls Online's Main Story Is Focused on Solo Players

The Elder Scrolls Online has caused quite a lot of waves since its announcement earlier this month and now the team at Zenimax Online Studios, which is developing the MMO, is trying to ease the worries of fans who aren't happy with this new direction for the series.

Elder Scrolls games delivered massive worlds that the players could explore in any way they wanted. The Elder Scrolls Online, however, makes some changes, like separating continents or taking away some of player's options.

This, as you can imagine, hasn't really pleased fans, but, according to the game's director, Matt Firor, the game will still feel like a single-player Elder Scrolls experience, just like previous games in the series, including Skyrim, Oblivion, or Morrowind.

"In The Elder Scrolls games, you’re always the hero, whether you want to be or not. You go out there and you kill the dragons, you kill Mehrunes Dagon in The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, you’re up in Morrowind fighting the Tribunal — those are huge, global, and epic things that you don’t want to stand in line to do in an MMO," he told Game Informer.

"The last thing you want to do is have the final confrontation with Mehrunes Dagon as he’s stomping across the Imperial City, and you see like 15 guys behind you waiting to kill him because they’re on the same quest."

In order to recreate those great single-player moments, The Elder Scrolls' battles will be instanced, meaning every player will get to fight his own battles, without worrying that other people will join in or ruin his or her experience.

"As we’re MMO designers, the thing we wanted to make sure we hit the most was that feeling of you’re awesome; you’re the hero. And we do that through a mix of technology, where when I am confronting a major foe in the game, I’m doing it in an instance where I am alone. And we have a whole part of the game that is 100 percent solo, which is the main story. The world focuses on you — you’re the hero, everything you do is solo, and the world reacts to you that way."

The Elder Scrolls Online is set to appear in 2013, on the PC and Mac platforms.