The Elder Scrolls Online gets live demo at QuakeCon

With QuakeCon in full swing, Bethesda decided to celebrate the festivities with a livestream of The Elder Scrolls Online , giving those of us who didn't make it into the closed beta a small taste of what's yet to come. Those who missed the livestream can find the archived version here , though you'll want to skip to the 41 minute mark unless you want to see the same trailer over and over again.

Creative Director Paul Sage begins the demo assuring players that the often despised third person view is viable option for those who want a more traditional MMO experience. Sage also mentioned that none of the classes restrict what armor or weapons you can equip but left it at that. Heavy armor typically comes with some kind of toll for magic users (in most RPGs anyway) and we wouldn't be surprised to see that in ESO.

Sage went on to describe the fast travel system which involves teleporting to previously visited waypoint call “wayshrines” The developer playing the demo cast a teleport spell to initiate fast travel, but it's unclear whether you can cast it in the midst of battle.

The rest of the demo showed off ESO's combat and party systems while exploring an early-level dungeon. Sage described how the enemy AI uses what he calls “pack behavior” where certain groups of enemies will work together to take out your party while others hang back to see how the battle plays out. Loot's also been instanced, meaning there's no need to squabble with party members over that enchanted battle axe that you saw first .

The livestream closed with Sage saying The Elder Scrolls Online will available for everyone sometime in Spring 2014, but encouraged those interested to sign up for the closed beta . Maybe then someone could tell me how much horse armor goes for in the online world.

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