The Elder Scrolls Online's developers say that after reinventing the game for 10 years, they would only have done one thing differently. 'Pick out the game you want to create'

Harvey Randall, PC Gamer's Harvey Randall, sat down last week with the developers of The Elder Scrolls Online and discussed where the game is headed in its tenth year as well as how it has changed. Matt Firor is the studio director at ESO developer Zenimax Online Studios. He believes that the ten years of ESO have been a testament to Zenimax’s willingness to improve the game.

ESO has undergone some dramatic changes since its launch in April 2014. The game's launch was not well received. ESO's first major redirection took place a year after its launch. It dropped the traditional MMO monthly subscription model, and reworked its crime and justice system. The One Tamriel update of 2016 was the next major overhaul. It removed all faction barriers and replaced them with a system that allowed players adventure anywhere they wanted.

Since then, ESO has grown in size. The Khajiit homeland, Elsweyr was added, the Oblivion gates were reopened, players could return to Morrowind, Skyrim and more.

Firor said, "Sitting at this 10th anniversary you can take a look from 30,000 feet and see how much we've changed the game over the years." "We don't hesitate to change things if they need to be. That's our philosophy. The game industry is constantly changing, as are player habits and platforms. We embrace the fact that change is a constant.

Firor, despite his willingness to change, was asked if he would have taken a different approach 10 years ago, if given the chance. He said that ESO's initial stumbles were valuable in the end. Firor said, "I don't believe I would have changed anything."

When you look back at the history of ESO, it's tempting to say that Zenimax should not have launched ESO with a subscription requirement. Firor explained that the studio was able to find a better solution by assessing the game as it was played in real-time. Firor said, "We knew a lot more about the game once we switched to a new revenue-model." "We knew how to design it better, and we would never have had that insight."

Rich Lambert, the creative director of ESO, agreed. However, he said that he would have given himself a piece of advice if it was his first time. Lambert said, "The only thing I can think of is to choose the game you want to create." He said that some of the early struggles with the game were due to trying to juggle competing visions for its future.

"It wasn’t quite MMO enough, it wasn’t quite Elder Scrolls sufficient." Lambert said that they tried to find a happy medium between the two. It wasn't until Lambert said Elder Scrolls was first that things really changed.

Firor & Lambert say that ESO's reinvention was not easy. It has only been a benefit to reorient itself in order to elevate its identity as a Elder Scrolls game. In early versions of ESO, the quest design heavily relied on "phasing", similar to the way World of Warcraft's storylines change dramatically depending on where the player is. In ESO, this meant that players would have to watch their friends disappear when they entered an area as they were at different stages in the questline.

Firor said that the "multiplayer aspect of the game" was "ruined." Lambert suggested that the only solution was to redesign all of those quest areas in phases. Lambert said that he spent six months after launch reworking all the quest areas. "Six months just going through, fixing that stuff."

The Elder Scrolls Online is expected to make nearly $2 billion by April 2024.