Elder Scrolls Online: "You can compete with your friends to catch the biggest fish"

The Elder Scrolls Online is having a tough time winning over fans of the single-player series. By design it's erected walls and boundaries to work as an MMO with thousands of heroes and not just one. But at the same time it has to look and feel like Elder Scrolls otherwise what's the point?

This latest video is more encouraging, and concerns gathering and exploration in the world. Not only does the MMO look visually more accomplished in this snapshot, the game also displays some of the freedoms - hallmarks - of adventuring in a single-player Elder Scrolls game.

"When you dive into The Elder Scrolls Online, one of the first things you're going to notice is that there's a lot of interactivity in the world," promised creative director Paul Sage in the video.

There are open bags of grains and vegetables that you can see and rummage through for appropriate loot - food stuffs you can use for recipes later on. Books litter the world too, and flowers can be picked and ground down into potions when you have the necessary equipment in front of you.

There are chests scattered around the world to discover, and there's a lockpicking mini-game more engaging than the one in Skyrim. Five sprung tumblers need pushing down to appropriate levels with a lockpick in a certain amount of time before the lock will open.

Throughout the world you'll find Mundus (Moon-dus) Stones to give you special powers and Sky Shards to increase your skills, too.

Best of all, though, there's fishing - the MMO and RPG gift that keeps on giving. The bait you attach to your line will factor in what mouth you snag, and, "You can compete with your friends to catch the biggest fish."

What more could you ask?