Hm, regarding the actual topic of the thread...
I just read on Joystiq that the MMO is going to take place ~1000 years in the past compared to Skyrim.
I wonder, does that mean there will be Dwemer in the game, or had they all disappeared already by then?
AFAIK, the Dwemer have been gone for ~3500 years in Skyrim so no, they're long dead even during that time period.
I'll hate this if it means no more single-player Elder Scrolls game, as that fact also made me hate SW:TOR (and even Galaxies) when it meant no more single-player KOTOR games, and WoW when it meant no more Warcraft games.
There are two factors why I probably will never, ever play a MMORPG:
1- I want the NPCs to be actors in the story, I want them to at least "try" to be life-like. I don't want them to "know" they're characters in a videogame. I want them to act as if their life depended on the situation, talk as if they're living in the game. I want them to be scared when faced with a threatening situation,
I
don't want to have my game infested with high-pitched and weakly-moustached teens making jokes about my mother every time I do something wrong, constantly jumping around and trying to place their characters into something that resembles a sex position, leaving in the middle of a situation because they have to go to school or their mom called them to dinner.
One of the things about (good) RPG videogames that attract me the most is that they take me away from reality during the time I'm playing. I really enjoy that "time-off" during those ~6 hours/week during which I turn into a "gamer hermit".
Therefore, I don't want to play a RPG that brings into its world any kind of reality other than my own.
Sure, I also play party games and a couple of coops but that's a social event for me, that I play with family and friends. That's not more of a "gaming experience" than it is a social one.
2 - My social + professional life wouldn't allow me to spend enough time leveling up a character that's strong enough to "make a difference".
I'd never be competitive enough for that, as I've never been competitive enough in a multiplayer game of any kind.
And I don't want to, either. If I have to spend time "leveling up", I'd rather do it in real life where the perks I get are a lot more rewarding.
I would be completely oblivious to this announcement,
if history didn't tell me that so far, every franchise turned into a MMO has pretty much killed all future single-player sequels.
Then again... it's being made by ZeniMax and not Bethesda Game Studios.. So BGS is still free to do their thing..