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The Elder Scrolls Online is an upcoming massively multiplayer role-playing video game developed by ZeniMax Online Studios, to be released in 2014. It is a part of The Elder Scrolls video game franchise, of which it is the first open-ended multiplayer installment. It was announced on May 3, 2012, in an exclusive reveal by Game Informer and formally revealed in the same month's issue of the magazine.

Setting
The game will be set in the continent of Tamriel from the main series, and feature a storyline indirectly connected with the previous games. The game will be set a millennium (1000 years) before the events of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and around 800 years before The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind and The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, with the Daedric Prince Molag Bal appearing as the main antagonist as he attempts to pull all of Tamriel to his realm of Coldharbour by using "Dark Anchors". These Dark Anchors are vortexes of evil magic that weaken the barrier between worlds.

Admist all this chaos, three factions are warring over the throne of the Emperor of Tamriel. First is the Aldmeri Dominion, which is represented by an eagle, contains the races of Altmer (High Elf), and Khajiit. This faction is led by Queen Ayrenn of the Altmer.

Second is the Daggerfall Covenant, which is represented by a lion, contains the races of Bretons, Redguards, and Orsimer (Orcs). This faction is led by High King Emeric of the Bretons.

Third is the Ebonheart Pact, which contains the races of the Nords, Dunmer (Dark Elf), and Argonians. Due to the deep rooted hatred between the races, this is a very uneasy alliance. The hate between the Nords and Dunmer is shown in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, especially in Windhelm. This hate has been caused by a long history of conflict between the two. The Argonians were also enslaved by the Dunmer for thousands of years. This surprising faction is led by Jorunn, the Skald-King.

Most of the continent of Tamriel will be playable in the game (although much of it will be locked off for expansion content), and players will have the opportunity to join any of the three factions.

Development
The Elder Scrolls Online had been in development for 5 years prior to its announcement in May 2012. It is the first project for ZeniMax Online Studios, which was formed in 2007. Matt Firor, studio lead at Zenimax Online, is also the director of The Elder Scrolls Online.

While there have been rumors of a massively multiplayer The Elder Scrolls game for years, accurate information about the game and its imminent May 2012 announcement was leaked in March 2012 to online publication Tom's Guide by an anonymous industry source. According to the leak, the game was scheduled to be shown at E3 2012 in June (which it was) and QuakeCon 2012 in August. The current release date is Spring 2014.

Published November 8, 2012, Bethesda released a video on YouTube called "An Introduction to The Elder Scrolls Online", in which the game's developers talk about the game's content and how it was made.

On January 21, 2013, Beta sign ups for The Elder Scrolls Online began. On March 26, 2013, the first round of closed beta invites were sent out. On April 8, 2013, the second round of closed beta invites were sent out. Despite the end-user license agreement, which clearly states that any news leaks are strictly forbidden, many gameplay footage leaks surfaced on social networks and video-sharing platforms in March and April 2013. Bethesda sought to remove the material, but certain footage can still be viewed and downloaded as of September 1, 2013. On July 9, 2013 the third round of closed beta invites were sent.

On June 10, 2013, Sony announced that The Elder Scrolls Online would be available on PlayStation 4 by showing it off at their E3 press conference. It was later clarified by Bethesda that it would also be available on Xbox One.

On August 21, 2013, at Gamescom in Cologne, Germany, it was announced that The Elder Scrolls Online will have a monthly subscription fee upon release for all platforms.

Gameplay
ESO aims to take its first/third person Role Playing Game series into a Massive Multiplayer Online realm. It is basically meant to be an improved and fully fleshed out Elder Scrolls game that covers all of Tamriel, all races, and is a multiplayer experience, all while trying to maintain the same level of detail and similar gameplay as their previous games.

In ESO, factions are vying for power over Cyrodiil and are constantly trying to place their strongest player as Emperor of Cyrodiil. The current faction in control of the throne automatically places a player as Emperor. The game decides which player gets the throne by choosing the player with the most "Alliance Points" from that alliance, which are gained for damaging foes, healing allies, and other PVP tasks that will be spread throughout all of Tamriel. The Emperor receives bonuses for the faction and his/her guild, however Zenimax Online has not yet released the details on the specific bonuses.

The Alliance War campaigns are designed to feel persistent. Each campaign lasts three months and at the end only leaderboards and score are “reset”. Keeps, scroll ownership, emperor status, and where you are in the world aren’t reset. There are also campaigns with special rules you can choose to be apart of, such as higher level requirements.

When attacking or defending a keep, there can be all three alliances involved at once. For example, Ebonheart controls a keep. If the Daggerfall covenant and the Aldmeri Dominion can attack the same keep at the same time, but if they choose to momentarily join together, they still must fight it out in the end to see which alliance gains control of the keep.

Players are allowed to use any armor or weapon type with any class. Each type of weapon and armor type has its own skills and skill tree, very similar to Skyrim. Also many of the skills in the game do not have prerequisites so you are allowed to often pick and choose what skill you want to fit your play style rather than having skills that won’t be used. Additionally, players only have a limited number of ability slots, which can vary depending what weapon the player is carrying. Abilities also have to be slotted before battle and cannot be changed mid-conflict. There is also a way to continue to gain different skills after characters have reached their max level. There is a Veteran Rank system that allows players to gain “Veteran Points” and when players advance a Veteran Rank they earn a skill. Veteran Ranks allow players to increase their stats as well, but not as rapidly as during normal level progression. Players gain Veteran Points by accomplishing certain tasks in the game. Some of these tasks include completing quests, earning them in PVP, and Adventure Zones. There are also special cosmetics that are unlocked as your Veteran Rank increases. Zenimax is currently saying that there will be “very cool cosmetic things” such as “gear looking like a Golden Saint’s, but all stats of your gear stay the same.” Certain brand new gear is also unlocked when certain Veteran Ranks are reached.

Every race has its own set of weapons and armor that progress in looks. Early level weapons will look vastly different from late game weapons. Each set is meant to look very different from any of the other race’s sets in order to provide more customization. There are also unique weapons and armor, different tinted weapons and armor, and various materials armor can be comprised of.

In PVP, you can resurrect fellow players that have died in combat.

Economy
The economy in ESO is planned to be ran largely through guilds. Guilds are allowed to open shops that only members of the guild are allowed to buy from. The guild may allow certain people outside the guild to post items to the store but the sellers set their own prices. When guilds gain control of keeps they are allowed to open a public store there that allows non-members to buy from.

There also will be banks in ESO. Also, all characters you own share the same bank.

There will be no auction house.

Character Creation
The new character creation system is a vast improvement on Skyrim’s system. Players can now drastically change the height, weight, and muscularity of their characters. There are also more options for body art and unique marks such as full body tattoos. They also allow torso size, chest size, gut size, waist size, arm size, hand size, hip size, posterior dimensions, leg size, and foot size to name a few additions. Also all the fine tuning with facial features are all there and expanded upon even. Many of the features showcased so far revolve around changing the body rather than the face which will be quite different than Skyrim.