The announcement of The Elder Scrolls Online has been a long time coming, but some fans weren't sure how the series' tone would transition to a larger world. The Elder Scrolls is known for being a large-scale, solitary experience, and the player is featured as the center of all the plot. The game's creative director, Paul Sage, has explained how he doesn't believe the core experience of The Elder Scrolls needs to change much.

"You absolutely get that same experience of the world with that distraction-based gameplay where you really get to control your own destiny in how you experience the game," Sage told Game Informer. "I don't think [being the hero] is much different in an MMO than it is in any other medium, really, any other typical RPG. I think this just gives us more opportunity to make you the hero."

He suggests that being the hero of the main story, normal quests, and Guild quests, will be largely the same. "When I'm looking at the screen, when the NPCs see me, they see me as the hero, they react to me as the hero," he said. "When you're playing with a group of friends, or even strangers, and you're a healer, and you heal that guy that's on his last leg -- it sounds silly, but in a way you're that person's hero. I think that's a big thing for people, it reinforces that social bond. You get to be a hero amongst your friends."

As for mods, which have proven very popular for Skyrim, Sage says the studio hasn't planned far ahead for them, but it will be a balancing act. "We do have plans for things like our UI, allowing the community to look at the UI and say, 'okay, what changes would I make?' So there are definite ways the community is going to be able to change their game experience," he said. "But you have to be really careful with this because you can't allow players to change other players' game experiences or they get a little upset with you."