14 DAY TRIAL // The development team at ZeniMax Online is keen to change the way players look at the MMO genre with their upcoming The Elder Scrolls Online and will make sure that the User Interface will never get into the way of the gameplay and the immersion.
Nick Konkle, who is a lead gameplay designer working on The Elder Scrolls Online, has told PC Gamer that, “I think a lot of the previous generations of MMOs a lot of the game is looking at that UI and playing it.”
The developer added, “Technical restrictions were such that we couldn’t have that sort of fully immersive battle experience because people weren’t where they were, where you would see them, they were somewhere else.”
“But we wanted to create an immersive experience because that’s the modern game, that’s the modern RPG,” was Konkle’s conclusion.
Modern MMOs, including World of Warcraft from Blizzard and Star Wars: The Old Republic from BioWare, have pretty busy UIs because there’s a lot of information that needs to be relied to the player and a lot of character options that the gamer needs to be aware of.
It’s not clear how The Elder Scrolls Online might revolutionize this feature of the MMO genre, but the developers might try and streamline the choices and give more contextual clues describing the player’s situation.
The Elder Scrolls Online will take place 1,000 years before the events of the single-player series and will see the player join one of three factions in order to fight against undead armies that the Imperial faction are using to dominate Tamriel.
ZeniMax Online has been working on the concept of the MMO since 2007, and they say they have complete freedom when it comes to story development.
The Elder Scrolls Online will be officially out during 2013, exclusively on the PC.