The awaited reveal of The next big expansion of The Elder Scrolls Online was recently revealed to yield High Isle, a new Middle Ages-inspired locale aimed at harkening back to classic Elder Scrolls games. In addition to the wealth of quests, storylines, and loot that will encapsulate the experience, players will also see a new ‘game within a game’ introduced in the form of Tales of Tribute, an in-universe collectible card game.

Upon the announcement, one can’t help but compare such an addition to Gwent, CD Projekt RED’s own deck builder popularized by the release of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. The Witcher card game became a memorable side activity for Geralt of Rivia throughout the third entry, as the powerful monster hunter was given the option to pursue “a round of Gwent” with legions of NPCs, often to a meme-friendly degree. The game’s popularity was even enough to spawn a full-blown spin-off for PC and mobile devices.

A similar system now looks to be in the works for The Elder Scrolls Online. Though, rather than Gwent’s more combat-based approach, Tales of Tribute is more of a resource builder, as players compete to reach a victory point goal through a variety of different strategies. To start, players draw two personal decks and, as an added challenge, opponents will shuffle each other’s selections together and play from the same card pool. This seems to be a decision aimed at placing newbies on equal footing with experts so that anyone can pick up and play.

While the exact rules aren’t yet known, the card game is playable in a similar manner to Gwent in The Witcher 3, with users able to strike up a game in taverns as well as with NPCs in the world. However, ESO has the added benefit of challenging other players in PvP and the advent of its own online leaderboards. Outside of glory, playing Tales of Tribute can earn a wide array of rewards (cosmetics, furnishings, gold, crafting material, etc.) and can even advance quests when challenging certain NPCs.

As High Isle is still months away from release, it’s unknown whether Tales of Tribute might replicate the heights of Gwent, but the idea seems to be at least partly inspired by the Andrzej Sapkowski creation. While it’s impossible to say for sure, ZeniMax does appear to be crafting something substantial for Tales of Tribute, especially by the looks of the released artwork, seen above. More details about the game, including a “deep dive” were teased to be unveiled in the months ahead of release.

The Elder Scrolls Online: High Isle releases June 6th for Mac, PC, and Google Stadia, as well as June 21st for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.

What do you think? Are you ready for a round of Tales of Tribute in The Elder Scrolls Online, or do the other features of High Isle have your eye for the time being? Let us know in the comments below and be sure to follow Don’t Feed the Gamers on Twitter and Facebook to be informed of the latest gaming and entertainment news 24 hours a day!​

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