After 10 years, The Elder Scrolls Online is still going strong. This game opens up all of Tamriel to explore, but how do the developers keep track of what’s going on everywhere and what parts of the world they should let players explore?
Bill Slavicsek, narrative director at ZeniMax, states that the studio leads decide where to focus the players’ exploration. Regions with a capital city and areas that have already been seen in previous games are explored. Once the foundation is set, the creators look for unique qualities of the region to create stories based upon.
Having such a broad range of games and regions to draw inspiration from is both a blessing and a curse. With established characters and stories, there exist lore restrictions and timeline constraints that must be considered. “We love to find ways to incorporate existing lore into our time period, as long as it makes sense for the story and the history of the world,” says Slavicsek. Fortunately, The Elder Scrolls Online is set years before any known games and offers the ability to explore new characters and ideas.
When new characters or events are introduced, they must be grounded in the lore and cultures of the world. In the upcoming DLC “Gold Road,” a new Daedric Prince will be introduced. Even though this character won’t be seen in the future, the creators made sure the story dealt with that in a satisfying, surprising way.
If you spot any lore discrepancies in The Elder Scrolls Online, fear not. Zenke explains that historical documentation is an unreliable source, especially in a world like Tamriel. “That’s part of the secret sauce of ESO,” he says.
“The only place we want consistency is in the tone and feel of the world, that every story we tell feels like an Elder Scrolls story,” says Slavicsek. “Our goal is to always continue the Elder Scrolls tradition—the story is the story of your character and what they experience.” As the world got bigger and the technology improved, the focus has always remained on the tradition of Elder Scrolls: the story is the player’s story
Read the full article on NME here: Read More