The Elder Scrolls Online is designed to give the players a proper challenge, so much that it requires your full attention while fighting monsters.
Gameplay designer Maria Aliprando has mentioned that they do not want the players to feel that fighting monsters are boring, and they can do miscellaneous activities like eating something while fighting them.
“We want monsters to be a challenge to the player every single time you fight them, not a speedbump for the player. We don’t want fighting monsters to be boring or you can eat a sandwich or do five other things while fighting a monster,” she told PC Gamer.
“We want to reward you for executing moves and fighting against monsters as well. So when monsters present their dynamic behaviours we don’t want to confuse you with UI all over the screen; we want you to be in there fighting with the monster at the moment.”
Creative director of the game, Paul Sage, echoed the same thing, and mentioned that creating a fun game is on the priority list.
“We’ve really got to create a compelling game first,” he explains.
“It needs to be comfortable for people who are coming in from a typical massively multiplayer game that has the same control mechanisms, but it also has to appeal to Skyrim players. You want to hit those touchstones, but more important than that, you’ve got to create an experience that’s unique and fun.”
It seems that the most people in influential positions at Zenimax Online Studios know exactly what they have to deliver.