The Balancing Act will be released prior to the Beta and once the NDA is lifted to discuss issues that will arise if The Elder Scrolls Online is designed with an imbalance in one particular aspect of the game, and how this will ultimately affect the entire game play as a whole. This series will discuss the warning signs of these imbalances, and what Zenimax can do to reverse or minimize the impact of the results of them.

It's suggested that everyone first read The Balancing Act: Content Expansion Part One before reading this article!

While last week’s article discussed the difficulties of simply adding in new areas to TESO, this week takes a deeper look at the implications of adding new content to those areas over the course of months and even years. While it may seem easy to know what to fill new areas with, it can be a challenge to understand what players in the community want, and what should be done to meet thier requests. Multiple factors need to be analyzed including the changes of expected play time, difficulty in leveling or completing quests, rewards provided by quests, and even the resources required for development. Ultimately the addition of new content into the game will result in the complete success or failure of the entire MMO, making it one of the most important topics to be discussed!



One of the first results that content releases can have over the life of an MMO is manipulation in the time expectancy to reach the player level cap. While it may seem like adding more content will obviously increase how long you’ll play, it can sometimes have adverse effects by increasing experience gain for lower levels. An example of this could be the addition of a new 2 hour quest series that unlocks a new method of transportation. This method of transportation could allow for all subsequent quests to be completed approximately 10 minutes faster than normal by reducing travel time. If the new quest series was completed by a new player early in their TESO career, it may result in faster level capping than previously expected and a net loss of game content.

Many content developers identify potential problems such as this, and will enact level requirements to ensure that low-level players don’t receive end-game rewards. There have been level requirements present in previous Elder Scrolls games, although it was much harder to identify the exact requirements in Skyrim as compared to Oblivion. There’s a change that TESO quests may also have both skill requirements as well as combat level requirements, but very little discussion has occurred concerning these details. It will be interesting to note if quests will provide us with their requirements, or we’ll need to figure them out ourselves instead.

Another problem that Zenimax will need to face is if they choose to add additional content to progress from previously existing quests that will be released upon launch. Personal choice and phasing account for a huge portion of the game, and it becomes more and more difficult every time a new choice is added. Players who are group questing may be surprised to learn that they can no longer help each other due to a single choice that was made, such as choosing to let a NPC live or die. Expanding off a quest series requires Zenimax to take every possible choice into account, resulting in hundreds of potential scenarios that need to be designed and planned for. This can also include having two quest lines interact with each other, further multiplying the possible outcomes of the quests. One possibility is to simply have all endings re-converge to a singular point again, allowing for players to continue the series regardless of their choices made in previous quests. While it may be a nightmare for the developers to expand off existing content, this aspect of TESO will be extremely exciting and enjoyable for the players!



One risk that they run with allowing new rewards and items into the game involves releasing an overpowered item that only one Alliance has access to. This could dramatically effect PvP if players aren't allowed to trade to other alliances (I see that as a bad idea for many reasons) resulting in economic imbalances as well. Over time players are going to demand the release of new and powerful weapons, and it will be Zenimax's job to make sure that they don't create a welfare system as the years go by. Players should be forced to work hard for their rewards, and there should be an estimated amount of time it takes for the average player to not only reach specific levels, but also obtain armor or weapon types as well.

Eventually The Elder Scrolls Online is going to contain an imbalance; every game ever designed has them, and players are great at identifying them and abusing them for personal advantages. What's important is that Zenimax recognizes these problems through community feedback and actually acts upon them rather than simply ignoring them altogether. This can be done many ways, including the release of further content or the manipulation of in-game abilities or gear strength. Changes to the game should only be made when absolutely necessary, so it will be Zenimax's job to thou roughly test their content before releasing it to the public. As long as they carefully consider the effects of these content releases, we can expect The Elder Scrolls Online to grow into one of the best MMO's of the century!