[[Nice way to get hopes up, then smash them flat for some people ]]

http://www.destructoid.com/elder-scroll ... 3151.phtml

A while ago, Bethesda's parent company ZeniMax was spotted stumbling out of a seedy back alley bar, clutching only a bottle of gin and a domain name -- elderscrollsonline.com. The Internet leapt on this with fervor, eagerly anticipating the news that it could only hope was coming -- an Elder Scrolls MMORPG. Guess what ... the Internet was right about that.

Bethesda's very own Pete Hines has confirmed that yes, an MMORPG installment of the wildly popular Elder Scrolls series is on the way. In the announcement, Hines also stated that the company had already put $300 million into the project -- that's a fair bit o' gold! Said Hines:

I don't think that this funding changes our focus in terms of what we are about and are trying to accomplish. The additional resources will allow us to expand our publishing efforts-both our own titles and those of other studios-and to pursue development of more titles, working with internal and external development teams.

So there you have it. Elder Scrolls Online is a go, and I think it's safe to say that World of Warcraft may have its first legitimate challenge to the MMORPG throne, don't you? We'll see what happens in the future, but for now, Hines is saying nothing else. Personally, I am eager as hell to watch this one develop.

[Thanks Aerox]

[Update: It seems that the original story which Jim sourced in this article jumped to more than a few conclusions. We just got off of the phone with Bethesda's Manager of PR and Marketing Erin Losi, who wanted to clarify a few things.

For one, Bethesda has not announced or confirmed that an Elder Scrolls MMO is in the works. As she points out, the $300 million dollars in question was received by Bethesda's parent company, ZeniMax Media. This money will be invested across a "multitude of projects."

As for the an Elder Scrolls MMO, Losi told us that no such announcement has been made. Looking at the above quote from the original QJ.net story, it appears that some drastic leaps in logic were made to reach conclusion of a "confirmation." Regarding the registered Elder Scrolls Online domain, Losi points out that this is standard practice, where Bethesda will snatch up a number of domains related to their licenses.

We apologize for any confusion we might have caused with this story, and for now, the Elder Scrolls MMO simply doesn't exist. - Nick]

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"People sometimes say that ideas cannot be stamped out by force. The Albigensian Crusade proves them wrong. Ideas can be stamped out by the elimination of everyone who holds the ideas." - Quote :"Middle Ages" by Morris Bishop.

Yay! Whaaa....?

Awww

$300 mil seems like a lot of money, even when spread among multiple projects. Sooo maybe there will be one and they just aren't ready to announce yet? Or do I just really want it to be true? Heh.

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Is Elder Scrolls "wildly" popular? I mean, I'd consider like... Halo.. Final Fantasy, Mario, Metroid to be "wildly" popular but Elder Scrolls? Not so much...

At any rate, I'm interested to see what could come out, if anything -- ever... though I didn't like 3, I liked Oblivion.

You are confusing popular, with mainstream.

Yes, it's "wildly popular."

I have no idea what you mean, since the two are generally synonyms.

Not true. Carlos Mencia is mainstream, but he's far from "wildly popular." Meanwhile, something like Elder Scrolls is adored by its fans and is thus, "wildly popular," but it isn't really mainstream, since not everyone knows what it is. Ask a non-gamer if he has heard of Halo and he'll say yes. Ask him if he has heard of Elder Scrolls and I doubt he knows what you are talking about ("Daggerfall huh?").

And then you can go with the "crystal meth is popular, but I wouldn't call it mainstream" argument too!

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World of Warcraft: Kallaystra, Gweila, Steakumn, Tarathia [ Feathermoon/Horde ]

Awesome if true, just for that info I'm going to open up Oblivion and play it again...

Your simply changing what group or set is being talked about as you switch terms.

It's not the degree that something is liked that makes it popular; it's the size of the fan group. Popular and mainstream mean essentially the same thing.

I shudder to think how buggy an Elder Scrolls MMO will be.
The games are awesome, and normally ahead of their time, but fucking buggy as hell.

u r right fribur they r the same thing

Popular and mainstream are different.

EverQuest early on? Very popular among many gamers. Mainstream? Never. The majority of Americans never heard of 'EverQuest' as I'm sure all of you experienced at one time or another when people gave you a blank look.

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aha... I think I'm seeing it from you folks' point of view now-- in order for something to be mainstream, it must be popular among the entire general public, whereas popular could be used as a term for a smaller subset of the population.

Kinda like the Jock 'tards, and the Cheerleader Barbie wanna-be's in Junior high and High School were popular; but hardly members of the main stream class population?

It fits. yet, somehow, it doesn't....

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"People sometimes say that ideas cannot be stamped out by force. The Albigensian Crusade proves them wrong. Ideas can be stamped out by the elimination of everyone who holds the ideas." - Quote :"Middle Ages" by Morris Bishop.

keyword: doesn't

No. I would say that in order for that to work you'd have a different dynamic. Joe of the Chess club is popular with nerds. That popularity does not extend to the high school population.

Popular: Popular within it's own niche.
Mainstream: Popular in the 'whole'. That 'whole' can be a smaller group (A high school [but not all teens], The United States [but not the entire world]).

Also something can be mainstream yet not popular. I'd say everyone uses WD-40 because...well I can't think of an alternative to it. That makes it pretty mainstream. Is it popular? There's no real competition and people don't necessarily have fits of fandom over it...so I'd say no in that sense. But one could have different parameters there for 'popular', such as sales...then it would be yes it's popular, but I'd argue doesn't quite fit because it's like being alone on a desert isle screaming, "I'm NUMBER ONE! I'm NUMBER ONE!' ...technically you are...but it's because there is no number two.

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Also, the media has the opportunity to make things 'mainstream' by jamming them down our throats, even though we wouldn't consider them great and/or "popular" (since we are using that term in this conversation). You can call this the 'Dane Cook effect'.

Mmmm.

Reminds me of a while back, when MTV started playing TLC's Waterfalls. after the first time I watched it. I hated it (Never much liked them in any way at all), then started day, after day, after day, as they rammed that f*cking piece of sh*t down my god d*mn throat.

That's a good example of media ramming shit down MY throat at least... first time it ever really struck home they actually did that kind of thing.

Kinda like.. HALO?

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/article ... ion-Halo-3

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"People sometimes say that ideas cannot be stamped out by force. The Albigensian Crusade proves them wrong. Ideas can be stamped out by the elimination of everyone who holds the ideas." - Quote :"Middle Ages" by Morris Bishop.

You can't turn the TV off?


No one forces anyone to watch any particular show.

HEAD ON APPLY DIRECTLY TO THE FOREHEAD
HEAD ON APPLY DIRECTLY TO THE FOREHEAD
HEAD ON APPLY DIRECTLY TO THE FOREHEAD

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haha. I like how those commercials also say "This product has no medical basis." or something to that effect. Ha

Yeah it's homeopathy, which is utter bullshit, and IMHO should be illegal.

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i don't know if you knew this but saying "f*cking," "sh*t" and "d*mn" is literally as bad as saying "fucking," "shit" and "damn." the intent to say the word is still there, and you're executing the act of saying the word, except with some asterisks to make yourself feel better (I guess?). jesus will still judge you the same. it's not like you've found a super-secret loophole in being able to swear. also how is "fucking piece of shit down my god damn throat" any more effective than "song down my throat"?

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wh*t the f*ck

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So what you say is that Jesus will judge me at some point? How do you know that?

[valley girl] OH MY GAWD [/valley girl]

I should have remembered rule 34, and figured it also applied to fandom.

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