When I began to arrange an interview with the development team at ZeniMax Online a few weeks ago, The Elder Scrolls Online was already the most eagerly anticipated and speculated upon MMO to be scheduled for release in 2013.

In the midst of the hurly burly of development, Matt Firor, Game Director of ESO, was kind enough to answer a few questions on the game’s development. ZeniMax Online preferred not to discuss the details of the recent leak, but Matt Firor provided insight on the current phase of Beta that might answer some questions fans have raised since the video.

Playing an MMO at a convention or press event elicits a complicated mix of emotions. You sit down in front of a game that is intended to be played for hundreds of hours, but instead, your time could be cut off at any moment. What do you do? What should you focus on? My hands-on time with The Elder Scrolls Online has left me with a blur of scattered memories and ephemeral details. Among the dizzying array of mental pictures, there is one aspect of The Elder Scrolls Online that stands out clearly to me: skill lines.

Here he is, the Wamasu. This little beasty is a monster feared in Black Marsh; a continent thats home to the Argonians in the world of Tamriel. These monsters are anything but little, and legend says their blood is electricity. 

To portay the Wamasu in all their glory much time was put into creating a number of shocking animations to instill fear in the hearts of the most seasoned adventurer.

Their spine ripples with electricity and directs the monsters power into powerful blasts of plasma when they roar.

In another edition of Elder Scrolls Online's Ask Us Anything, PvP takes the spotlight. If you'er even half as excited for ESO as I am then you know the province of Cyrodiil is host to a three faction war. You and your faction will fight for control over the Imperial City and ultimately for domination of the White Gold Tower, one of the most famous monuments in Tamriel.

In order to spread your factions banner, siege warfare is necessary as you claw your way towards the Imperial City. Siege weapons range from mobile constructs like a simple ram, to stationary weapons like catapults and trebuchets. These weapons are purchased through a currency called "Alliance Points." Personally I think it would be interesting if crafters made the siege arsenal themselves, but the point system ensures any player is able to obtain these valuable weapons.

One question concerns a valuable strategic element: resources. Some keeps may be too strong to attack outright. In this case it may be in your best interest to cut off the keep's supplies. There are three supply depots with different effects and boosts to the keeps and its occupants.

• Lumber Mills: Make keep doors stronger, and allow doors to repair themselves over time.

• Farms: The supply of food helps keep guards stay in tip-top shape.

• Mines: Mines keep your fortress walls reinforced and allows them to repair over time.

Controlling all three of these will stop the other factions patrols in the surrounding area, and thus the war of attrition will begin!

Its been an important month for The Elder Scrolls Online. Closed beta invites are trickling out and people are getting even more excited for this upcoming MMO. With all that's going on it has been awhile since an Ask Us Anything has been released. This edition of Ask Us Anything is short, yet it is quite sweet.

The first two questions are about player versus player scaling and how quests will be received. For those of you who may not know, ESO features a three way battle between the three factions. The fighting takes place in Cyrodiil, which is a continent of Tamriel that was featured in the hit game The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion. When joining this war players are raised to max level, supposedly characters that are boosted will be able to compete with "true" max levels, but due to a lack of skills and experience they are at a disadvantage.

Questing in ESO will be handled in a very familiar way. According to the fine folks at Zenimax, quests first and foremost have to make sense in the context of the game world. This means that most quests will have a middle-man, some quest-giver who wheels and deals exp. and rewards to heroes and heroines. Rest assured there will be triggered quests; some examples that were given involved circumstances where you stumble upon a corpse or find a special book. A heavy emphasis was also put on the game experience outside of questing, it would appear Zenimax wants to put the spotlight on actions that happen naturally, like exploration.

As part of my visit to the hive of activity known as ZeniMax Online Studios last week, I had a thoroughly enjoyable chat with the driving force behind The Elder Scrolls Online, Game Director Matt Firor. We talked about how the game is progressing, what we might expect from Adventure Zones (or whatever they end up being called) and more.

After having played the game for the second time in the past six months, it was immediately noticeable how ESO (as it’s officially abbreviated) has moved forward since October. As we began our conversation I mentioned how much more responsive and engaging the combat was compared to the previous build. I asked Matt what the main focus of development has been since then.

The Elder Scrolls Online has caused frothing at the mouth for many gamers, either those who started flinging their money at the screen as soon as it was announced (hence an upswing in monitor sales before E3 last year), or those who found the whole idea of an Elder Scrolls MMO sacrilege.

Either way, interest for this game is higher than any upcoming MMO and it was with suitable anticipation that I visited ZeniMax Online Studios in Maryland last week. As part of the visit to the impressive locale, I was afforded the privilege of playing The Elder Scrolls Online for a few hours (for my first impressions back in October, read here).

Partly to overcome the staggering number of misconceptions that follow the game around (seriously, if I had a cent for every time I’d been asked if it had a reticule like Skyrim I would have $2.56), the ZeniMax team wanted to put the game in our hands. Whether that would mean the fears of some were assuaged or confirmed would be down to the game itself.

It had already been quite the day as I sat among a throng of other journalists at ZeniMax Studios. Matt Firor was about to begin the overview presentation for The Elder Scrolls Online, to broaden our knowledge of the later game after we had already played for a few all too brief hours that morning. Check out my hands on impressions article for more on that.

Not only did we get a helpful fleshing out of the game’s story, a demonstration of a four man dungeon and a live look at a massive RvR keep battle, we also got a couple of huge surprises.

Attending PAX East this year? If so then the team at Zenimax Online Studios is ready to take you on a trip through Tamriel in preparation for their upcoming MMO, The Elder Scrolls Online.

In another edition of Ask Us Anything, Zenimax sheds some light on how combat will work. Mainly the targeting system, how class customization is handled, how experience will be shared/stolen, and some details on pvp, like how skill plays into fights.

The Elder Scrolls Online uses a soft targeting system, meaning you have to aim your abilities and attacks, but they will go through enemies to hit your target.  Some juicy details were revealed on healing, specifically that they are mostly not targeted abilities but have areas of effect so healing is more about personal awareness and what is going on around your avatar.