Elder Scrolls Online beta applications

By Kyle Orland - Jan 22 2013, 12:15 P.M. EST

Bethesda Softworks announced today that it has started taking beta applications for the upcoming Elder Scrolls Online MMO based on its popular single-player RPG series.

The beta signup page features a live update of your chances of selection for the limited beta as you fill out information like previous MMO and RPG experience, play style, and system information for your computer. "Completing all the optional sections will significantly increase your chances of being selected for beta participation," the site advises.

Bethesda also used the beta signups as an opportunity to release a new five-minute CGI video promoting the game, shown below. The video is suitably epic—it would serve as an excellent trailer for a fantasy movie—but it bears only a passing resemblance to what actual gameplay will look like.

I got a short preview of the game back at E3, where the creators stressed that quests would all factor into an epic storyline, without any of the pointless "kill ten rats"-style chores that plague other games. The developers went into more detail about their goals in a November preview trailer.

It's hard to get a real feel for this type of game without fully inhabiting it for a while. And it might be a while before we get that chance; the beta is still undated, and the game is only set for a vague "2013" release. Still, the Elder Scrolls series has definitely already put in the requisite world-building effort, and it has a suitably developed mythos to build an MMO on top of already. Then again, so did BioWare's The Old Republic universe, and that MMO has been struggling a bit to live up to its lofty WoW-killer ambitions.



Kyle Orland / Kyle is the Senior Gaming Editor at Ars Technica, specializing in video game hardware and software. He has journalism and science degrees from University of Maryland. He is based in Pittsburgh, PA.