Former The Elder Scrolls Online lead says Bethesda was such an amazing partner that it was harder to make a WoW-free MMO than it was to make a good Elder Scrolls MMO

Despite the high expectations from Elder Scrolls fans, according to The Elder Scrolls Online's former creative director, Bethesda's help meant that the harder challenge was finding a way to distinguish the game from World of Warcraft.

While The Elder Scrolls Online may not be as big as Blizzard's domineering WoW, it has certainly cemented itself a place in the wider MMORPG landscape. That being said, in an interview with former creative director Paul Sage, he says that setting TESO apart from WoW was one of the biggest challenges the team faced during production. 

Sage had felt that players expected certain things from an MMO, many of which came about directly as a result of WoW's influence. While the team had enough creative freedom, they were somewhat bound by the influence of WoW, and sought ways to differentiate TESO from the Blizzard behemoth. "One of the things we had to do was break out of the WoW mold, more than break out of the Elder Scrolls mold", he explains. "So whereas I felt that you could still really be creative, there were still those marks of like, 'here's what people expect from an MMO'".

In comparison, Sage found working within the bounds of The Elder Scrolls universe to be far easier, partly thanks to how easy Bethesda were to work with. "I'm an Elder Scrolls nerd, right? I love that franchise so much that it was a joy to work on", Sage remarks. "And actually, Bethesda, to their credit, were amazingly generous with what they allowed us to do on the MMO."

10 years on from the initial release of TESO, it appears the hard work of Sage and the team at ZeniMax Online Studios has paid off, with the game continuing to play host to tens of thousands of Elder Scrolls and MMO fans alike every day.

If you're interested in games like The Elder Scrolls Online, check out our list of the best MMORPGs to play.