Recording some things for posterity while I wait for the Elder Scrolls Online to officially open at 7am EDT this morning.

I think this was the second invitation I received. I somehow managed to trash the first, probably during one of my mass purges of my email recently.

After every beta test was over, I’d receive a message that looked like this:

I sent a note the first time, explaining that I had a Mac and there was a message that the Mac client wasn’t available, so what should I do? The response was to write back every time saying that I had a Mac, which is what I did with each beta invite that came.

Each beta test without a Mac client available added to my eagerness to try the game, though. It was almost like waiting for Christmas before you learned to read a calendar as a child.

And of course, ZOS would send things like this out to tease me, reminding me of what I couldn’t play yet (remember I’d been waiting for a new Elder Scrolls since counting down the days to Skyrim and then realizing it wouldn’t run on either my old PC or my Mac).

I still remember the day I got my invitation to join the Psijic Order. I was still waiting for a Mac version, but now as soon as one was available, I knew I wouldn’t have to wait for the next beta test.

And soon enough, the Mac version was ready to play. On that day I’m pretty sure I jumped up and down in excitement and did a happy dance or two for good measure. 🙂

Once I could download the game, time went fast. I spent the first 10 days or so getting my feet under me, figuring out what was what and what was different than I was used to. Oh, and of course there were the bugs just to keep the game interesting. But, bug finding was why we were playing, after all, and it is kinda fun stumbling across a new issue the first time, especially if it’s a funny one, like falling through the ground.

It seemed like almost no time before we were getting ready for the last couple beta tests. The NDA had only recently been lifted, and we could now share what we’d been experiencing while we explored Tamriel. The only limit still left was a request for us not to run live video feeds during the week.

On the second to the last beta, we were allowed to invite a friend, and I had another friend who had an invite he wasn’t using, so I sent them to a couple friends I thought would enjoy testing the game out.

Two weeks later, we were on the last beta test and the end of testing was rushing toward us.

And then it was finally here, the last few days of testing and then a few days with everything closed while ZOS managed to finish up the things they needed to do before the game officially opened.

And now we’re actually here, the first day of early access is upon us, and Tamriel awaits. See you in the game!