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The main story in The Elder Scrolls Online will be a solitary experience, game director Matt Firor revealed in a video interview with Game Informer.

"In the Elder Scrolls games you're always the hero, whether you want to be or not," Firor said. "You go out there and you kill the dragons. You kill Mehrunes Dagon in Oblivion. In Morrowind, you're up there fighting the Tribunal - those are huge, global, epic things that you don't want to stand in line to do in an MMO. The last thing you want to do is have the final confrontation with Mehrunes Dagon as he's stomping across the Imperial City, and you see like 15 guys behind you waiting to kill him because they're on the same quest.

"We have a whole part of the game that is 100 per cent solo, which is the main story, where the world focuses on you. You are the hero, everything you do is solo and the world reacts to you that way," Firor said.

Previous details do include PvP matches of up to 200 players, but those are obviously separate from the main quest. The Elder Scrolls Online will be played in a third-person perspective and is attempting to be a "modern" MMO, blending The Elder Scrolls features into this new genre. Not all Elder Scrolls fans are happy with the new title's angle, but Firor said that's just fine.

"The worst situation for a game community to be in is where no one posts on the boards because they don't care," he said. "If they post on the boards, they care, even if they're not being so polite about it. But that's a fact of life: You're an Internet game, you're on the Internet, you have an Internet community. And the Internet community is always very vocal.

"So what you do is learn from it. You make sure you do the best job to deliver the best game that you can and they you go from there."

Game Informer has picked up the first official screen of The Elder Scrolls Online (above) and, well, hmmm. I feel like, if I sighted it while at some sort of game screenshot social gathering, I’d congratulate Kingdoms of Amalur and WoW on their successful coupling, and ask them what they’re naming it. Then Elder Scrolls would walk up and inform me that it – and not Kingdoms of Amalur – is currently seeing WoW, and a lightbulb factory’s worth of scandalous thoughts would pop up in everyone’s heads, but no one would say anything. It’d be really awkward.

And yet, despite the inbred fantasy genes of that image, I’m still rather interested in this game. Why? Well, it might not be the Elder Scrolls you know and love, but maybe that’s not such a bad thing. If done properly (and, mind you, that’s a big if), it could be even better. Let’s explore.

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The reaction to the first screenshot of ZeniMax Online Studios' upcoming The Elder Scrolls Online was not overwhelmingly positive for a few reasons. Its art style doesn't scream Elder Scrolls, really, and series fans have a lot of expectations about exploration, combat and story for an online version of a beloved role-playing franchise that's been defiantly single-player since its inception...

The Elder Scrolls Online was just revealed to be ZeniMax Online's long-rumored MMO. Game Informer's next cover announced the game this morning. The mag says The Elder Scrolls Online will take place across the "entire land of Tamriel," approximately one thousand years before Skyrim's place in time. The story will focus on daedric prince Molag Bal as he attempts to make Tamriel part of "his demonic realm."

The game's director is Matt Firor. "It will be extremely rewarding finally to unveil what we have been developing the last several years," he says. "The entire team is committed to creating the best MMO ever made - and one that is worthy of The Elder Scrolls franchise." The game's July cover reveal will detail a variety of the game's possibilities: soloing, public questing, and a unique new take on player-vs-player, in which the three factions battle over sections of land or a desired position of power.

More will be revealed tomorrow in a "brief teaser trailer" of the game, GI says. We've got our double-horned helm on while we wait, just in case.

Update: Bethesda's PR says the game will launch for both PC and Mac.

We know next to nothing about Elder Scrolls Online at this point, but we may have our first glimpse of what the game will look like. A smattering of images, including concept art and what appear to be either screenshots or target renderings, have been published by All Games Beta. Elder Scrolls fans will certainly spot a few familiar elements, notably a flame Atronach.

Details from Game Informer's Elder Scrolls Online cover story have already begun appearing online, it would seem. The game has been in development since 2007 by a team of 250, according to a post on NeoGAF. It will feature full voice acting throughout and will be played from a third-person perspective (generally not the most efficient way to play previous Elder Scrolls titles). As mentioned in yesterday's announcement, The Elder Scrolls Online takes place 1000 years in the past and will span almost all of Tamriel, though certain areas are being saved for the purposes of future expansions.

Zenimax Online is reportedly doing its best to strike a balance between the Elder Scrolls series and traditional MMOs, trying to appeal to players of both. In other words, yes, expect to use a traditional MMO hotbar to access your skills. You can also expect epic player-vs-player battles - up to 100-vs-100 in some instances - as factions compete to take over Cyrodil's Imperial City, with the winning faction installing its greatest champion as emperor. The NeoGAF post has plenty of other details and, of course, July's issue of Game Informer has even more.

Old alliances broken, new things forged, the enemy of your enemy is your friend ... and all that faux-wise voice-over material culminates in another shot of the triple ouroboros. Enjoy this teaser for The Elder Scrolls Online that tells you less than is already known.

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