Finally, skills dont get rusty or stop at 50 either, so you can choose to go max anything and everything if you want to. All on the same character. Want to be a beefy dual-wielding, heavy armor wearing sorcerer? Go ahead. Desire the werewolf life? Sure. "Quote" This isnt something new. Games like Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn give players the opportunity to do it all on one character -------------------------- But FFxiv kinda locks your choice when you unlock certain classes like Dragoon, who can only use mostly MRD or LNC abilites and thats it, and there are not many choicds, think like 1-3 skills IF you get that class to max level. ESO seems a bit more flexible in class regard. Not knocking FF either, i enjoyed playing it. but it seemed from what they were saying you would have a tad bit more freedom of class/skill choices. good read ty
I feel like this is what has been missing from MMO's for a while now. I'm really looking forward to this "endgame" system. I think it'll be a breath of fresh air with a little nostalgia mixed in. Good job on this article! I enjoyed reading it.
werewolf life? What have you been smoking, this is no Skyrim. Werewolf means you ll have an ability to transform yourself in order to have a new set of abilities temporarily. Doesn't mean you ll be changing under the full moon or that you're stuck being a werewolf whether you want it or not until the sun comes up. The game is not very RPish, doesn t give you enough freedom for it so take that idea out of your head.
There is still a level cap, there is still an invisible wall. It's just called level 50 veteran rank 10 lol. Call it level 60 if you want. Since the story quest will be over by then you ll just be doing the generic region quests of other factions bumped up in difficulty. At least we hope it will be challenging as there are reports of the game being too easy.
Your endgame is questing like a maniac which you can do perfectly by yourself, you don't need a MMO with a sub fee for that do you?
You miss the point of what a MMO really is, a social experience with lots of player interactivity. Right now the only true player interactivity in ESO is Cyrodiil and crafting, that's it. The rest is like a single player game with a few co op features.
I m still gonna buy and try the game out, but I don t lie to myself about what the game truly is. The information is out there and you played the BETA probably, don t kid yourself.
My MMO is not your MMO.
How many people long for that "past, simpler, and better world," I wonder, without ever recognizing the truth that perhaps it was they who were simpler and better, and not the world about them? R.A.Salvatore
"Others choose to focus upon what a game in particular “lacks” rather than what it has to offer"
The glass half empty people... bringing everyone down since the dawn of time.
3 days and a bit... can't wait.
"Social media gives legions of idiots the right to speak when they once only spoke at a bar after a glass of wine, without harming the community ... but now they have the same right to speak as a Nobel Prize winner. It's the invasion of the idiots”
― Umberto Eco
“Microtransactions? In a single player role-playing game? Are you nuts?” ― CD PROJEKT RED
Good article. I though it would complement ZOS latest blog about 'endgame', oddly it didn't. What they offered in that blog would greatly add to the arcticle. Adventure zones are a great way to add to the after-level-cap experience as it offers a complete map to be played by groups with story, overland, quests and even more dungeons. And if you are up to a challenge, there are 12 people instances with ever increasing difficulty for the daring folk.
Great stuff, still three days to go... can't wait.
It all depends on how one wants to see it; in my eyes, unlocking content that should have been accessible from level 1 (and the areas where it can be found too) is not endgame - it simply shows lack of a clear vision as to what the game should be about.
Also having this content phased where the player will not meet any opposing faction players...well, not my type of thing. But to each their own i guess.
I think it is nice idea that you can see whole game with your max char why should i need to do alt to see whole game?
Take SWTOR to see the all class quest you need to make all class and you have go through all content just so you can see class quest or spam dungeon which is also same which is really boring or take WoW to see horde or alliance version of any expansion you need to have go through all content at least 2 time or spam dungeon fact is that all 3 factions in ESO have different story line and if you dont want do alt why do need to do it think it is nice idea.
Take if want change profession in real life do start all over as baby???
No you dont you do to a education center and learn it there why can do same in a mmo game why do i need to make new char to try out new thing like profession why should mmo be so different.
It was pretty much nailed at the ending paragraph, if you're a raider then ESO more than likely isn't for you. It's the same with GW2, if you're a really casual player, and you don't care for a hardcore endgame pve content, there is nothing there for you.
While it's great they have a lot of leveling content to keep people busy, and this will definitely what keeps people around for more than 2 weeks. But the question is what will people do when they run out of things they want to do. Not everybody wants to max every skill. As much as I love TES games, I was never interested in maxing everything. I don't think people who want to max every possible thing represent a significant number of players. Also with no real reason to make alts, that is actually less to do. Whether or not you want to call it end game doesn't really matter, the question stays the same, when the players are done with(for whatever reason) the content you shipped with the box, what is going to keep them interested and playing? We are still basically talking about a finite amount of quests even if it is more than most games have. People will finish them all, and likely before anybody anticipated they will. What happens next? All of those quests, I get those in a solo RPG and with much more immersion, but why pay a sub for a solo game? Endgame or whatever you want to call it doesn't have to be raiding, but it has to be something. And realistically not 1 or 2 somethings but many many somethings that appeal to a variety of players. Hopefully ESO has these somethings planned out otherwise I expect after about 3 months they will lose a lot of players.
When I learned about the endgame in ESO I got off board right away and decided to wait it out. If in this post is all that ESO has to offer I made the right choice. Talk about dodging a bullet.
Not to say that this style of gameplay won't appeal to anyone. Just because I think that the path they took was absolutely silly does not mean that the game won't get subs. All I can say is I'm so glad I got out.
I'm pretty sure there's some stats floating around on the 'net that shows that less than 15% of all MMO players are active "raiders" in the classic big group style raids. The very fact that you need a large group who are all available at the same time (and can commit an uninterrupted hour or two to playing as a group) makes it a niche activity in most MMO's.
Originally posted by SpottyGekko I'm pretty sure there's some stats floating around on the 'net that shows that less than 15% of all MMO players are active "raiders" in the classic big group style raids. The very fact that you need a large group who are all available at the same time (and can commit an uninterrupted hour or two to playing as a group) makes it a niche activity in most MMO's.
All interesting endgame activities in an MMO are niche activities, raiding, PvP, housing, crafting, roleplaying and other things. If you remove all niche activities the only thing you are left with are questing, EZ-mode group-content, battlegrounds and pet collections.
Iselin: And the next person who says "but it's a business, they need to make money" can just go fuck yourself.
When 1/4th the game world is dedicated to PvP, its clear what the end game is mostly going to be. Everything else said is just smoke and mirrors to get people to buy the game as if its somehow providing something they haven't done in previous MMOs. And if you have done it before, you grow tired of it faster and the more the game has that previous games had, the faster the game itself will lose its appeal.
Since there have been zero actual stories about the games innovations, it means there are none and that means this game had better have stellar PvP, which I don't see it having since the combat hasn't been improved beyond being average.
Yes, ESO is changing it up. Sick of the "playpen filled with baby toys model". Immersion is far superior to the gear grind and pvp numbers idiots. For the most part the ESO community has a huge split with its player types. I've seen so many people that don't understand anything beyond Riad or pvp, that all they want is the Playpen experience and think that's all there should be to an MMO and they want to throw away the RPG aspect of the MMO. Not even going to touch the API issue. So many people want to ruin the RPG aspect for many of us so they can football their way to the top and then move on to the next mmo to do it all over again...
When 1/4th the game world is dedicated to PvP, its clear what the end game is mostly going to be. Everything else said is just smoke and mirrors to get people to buy the game as if its somehow providing something they haven't done in previous MMOs. And if you have done it before, you grow tired of it faster and the more the game has that previous games had, the faster the game itself will lose its appeal.
Since there have been zero actual stories about the games innovations, it means there are none and that means this game had better have stellar PvP, which I don't see it having since the combat hasn't been improved beyond being average.
When 1/4th the game world is dedicated to PvP, its clear what the end game is mostly going to be. Everything else said is just smoke and mirrors to get people to buy the game as if its somehow providing something they haven't done in previous MMOs. And if you have done it before, you grow tired of it faster and the more the game has that previous games had, the faster the game itself will lose its appeal.
Since there have been zero actual stories about the games innovations, it means there are none and that means this game had better have stellar PvP, which I don't see it having since the combat hasn't been improved beyond being average.
It all depends on how one wants to see it; in my eyes, unlocking content that should have been accessible from level 1 (and the areas where it can be found too) is not endgame - it simply shows lack of a clear vision as to what the game should be about.
Also having this content phased where the player will not meet any opposing faction players...well, not my type of thing. But to each their own i guess.
Well technically you can access that content from level 1 onward.
yes, with an alt.
But then why would i redo content i've already done -albeit with a different character- at level 50?
Well considering the whole decision was made based on a lot of complaints about not being able to "see it all" on one toon, it's a bit backward for the players to be worried about that :P. Not to say it's not a legit complaint, as it is, I'm just saying, it was the playerbase that spawned this, not exactly Zenimax.
I don't think their issue is about having it be unlocked at level 50, it's about having the other faction content locked in the first place. Methinx the complaint stems from the GW2 model, where you can pretty much go to any faction's zones and do the quests to level. Or even WoW, where you can choose to go behind enemy lines.
I'm not advocating either way, but I'm pretty sure that's what their point was.
The games end game is not what I want to do at end game therefore it is an unfinished product and an IP cash grab. Oh and it should also be F2P. Because all games should be free.
Originally posted by SpottyGekko I'm pretty sure there's some stats floating around on the 'net that shows that less than 15% of all MMO players are active "raiders" in the classic big group style raids. The very fact that you need a large group who are all available at the same time (and can commit an uninterrupted hour or two to playing as a group) makes it a niche activity in most MMO's.
All interesting endgame activities in an MMO are niche activities, raiding, PvP, housing, crafting, roleplaying and other things. If you remove all niche activities the only thing you are left with are questing, EZ-mode group-content, battlegrounds and pet collections.
Yet raiding remains to this day as practically the only content to offer vertical progression at end game with some exceptions for pvp. RPGs at their heart are about character progression and placing most if not all of it in a singular activity seems not only harsh for those who prefer other play styles, it begs the question of whether it is smart business sense.
Originally posted by SpottyGekko I'm pretty sure there's some stats floating around on the 'net that shows that less than 15% of all MMO players are active "raiders" in the classic big group style raids. The very fact that you need a large group who are all available at the same time (and can commit an uninterrupted hour or two to playing as a group) makes it a niche activity in most MMO's.
All interesting endgame activities in an MMO are niche activities, raiding, PvP, housing, crafting, roleplaying and other things. If you remove all niche activities the only thing you are left with are questing, EZ-mode group-content, battlegrounds and pet collections.
Yet raiding remains to this day as practically the only content to offer vertical progression at end game with some exceptions for pvp. RPGs at their heart are about character progression and placing most if not all of it in a singular activity seems not only harsh for those who prefer other play styles, it begs the question of whether it is smart business sense.
well i feel christina didnt explait what should be explained with an article name like this one she basically just covered the part of the 50+ and 50++ avoiding trials adventure zones veteran and normal dungeons and AvA ...but maybe its no need for that as they copypaste the zenimax article wich covers them...but still liked the article interesting opinion
To be absolutely honest, I think the writer is wrong.
Not about ESO particular but in regards to the whole notion of what End Game is and why it's important in a MMO. End Game is what separates a MMO from a single-player game. It's what you can do endlessly and with constant entertainment when the game mechanics have been beaten and the level cap reached. It's where the whole MASSIVE MULTIPLAYER part of MMO comes into play and where your constantly interesting playing experience is based on playing with lots of different people or with the same people and optimising your play experience.
"Optimising" is here used very loosely, as optimising could ofcourse mean go dominate any PvP element with your Guild, beat the Raids and gear out all your mates' toons, but it could also mean becoming the most well-known roleplaying guild, the best at playing in-game instruments as a quartet or whatever. But at it's core, End Game is something that is still changing and entertaining due to the involvement with other players even though the actual game is static and doesn't offer anything new (you're seen it all).
If a MMO doesn't offer meaningful and entertaining End Game it fails as a MMO.
The term endgame doesn't minimize what you along the way, by its very nature, any discussion of endgame has absolutely nothing to do with the leveling process. From the side of the endgame, they exist as worlds apart from each other. What you do after hitting level cap cannot possibly affect your leveling experience. If you want to talk about how developer use of resources on endgame leads to a minimizing of the leveling process, well okay, but it's not the term itself which is doing anything.
Comments
"Quote"
This isnt something new. Games like Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn give players the opportunity to do it all on one character
--------------------------
But FFxiv kinda locks your choice when you unlock certain classes like Dragoon, who can only use mostly MRD or LNC abilites and thats it, and there are not many choicds, think like 1-3 skills IF you get that class to max level.
ESO seems a bit more flexible in class regard.
Not knocking FF either, i enjoyed playing it. but it seemed from what they were saying you would have a tad bit more freedom of class/skill choices. good read ty
Anybody else feel like its the same 5 topics over and over except only the names have changed?
"You can build your own endgame."
I feel like this is what has been missing from MMO's for a while now. I'm really looking forward to this "endgame" system. I think it'll be a breath of fresh air with a little nostalgia mixed in. Good job on this article! I enjoyed reading it.
My MMO is not your MMO.
How many people long for that "past, simpler, and better world," I wonder, without ever recognizing the truth that perhaps it was they who were simpler and better, and not the world about them?
R.A.Salvatore
"Others choose to focus upon what a game in particular “lacks” rather than what it has to offer"
The glass half empty people... bringing everyone down since the dawn of time.
3 days and a bit... can't wait.
“Microtransactions? In a single player role-playing game? Are you nuts?”
― CD PROJEKT RED
Good article. I though it would complement ZOS latest blog about 'endgame', oddly it didn't. What they offered in that blog would greatly add to the arcticle. Adventure zones are a great way to add to the after-level-cap experience as it offers a complete map to be played by groups with story, overland, quests and even more dungeons. And if you are up to a challenge, there are 12 people instances with ever increasing difficulty for the daring folk.
Great stuff, still three days to go... can't wait.
I think it is nice idea that you can see whole game with your max char why should i need to do alt to see whole game?
Take SWTOR to see the all class quest you need to make all class and you have go through all content just so you can see class quest or spam dungeon which is also same which is really boring or take WoW to see horde or alliance version of any expansion you need to have go through all content at least 2 time or spam dungeon fact is that all 3 factions in ESO have different story line and if you dont want do alt why do need to do it think it is nice idea.
Take if want change profession in real life do start all over as baby???
No you dont you do to a education center and learn it there why can do same in a mmo game why do i need to make new char to try out new thing like profession why should mmo be so different.
When I learned about the endgame in ESO I got off board right away and decided to wait it out. If in this post is all that ESO has to offer I made the right choice. Talk about dodging a bullet.
Not to say that this style of gameplay won't appeal to anyone. Just because I think that the path they took was absolutely silly does not mean that the game won't get subs. All I can say is I'm so glad I got out.
All interesting endgame activities in an MMO are niche activities, raiding, PvP, housing, crafting, roleplaying and other things. If you remove all niche activities the only thing you are left with are questing, EZ-mode group-content, battlegrounds and pet collections.
When 1/4th the game world is dedicated to PvP, its clear what the end game is mostly going to be. Everything else said is just smoke and mirrors to get people to buy the game as if its somehow providing something they haven't done in previous MMOs. And if you have done it before, you grow tired of it faster and the more the game has that previous games had, the faster the game itself will lose its appeal.
Since there have been zero actual stories about the games innovations, it means there are none and that means this game had better have stellar PvP, which I don't see it having since the combat hasn't been improved beyond being average.
You're not correct.
You are not correct.
As a [very] old pragmatic [and ornery] engineer, allow me to bestow some wisdom upon you:
The glass is neither half-empty nor half-full; it is improperly designed for the amount of fluid contained within.
Fire the guy who wrote the requirements document! Emasculate whomever translated the requirements into a specification!
I don't think their issue is about having it be unlocked at level 50, it's about having the other faction content locked in the first place. Methinx the complaint stems from the GW2 model, where you can pretty much go to any faction's zones and do the quests to level. Or even WoW, where you can choose to go behind enemy lines.
I'm not advocating either way, but I'm pretty sure that's what their point was.
The games end game is not what I want to do at end game therefore it is an unfinished product and an IP cash grab. Oh and it should also be F2P. Because all games should be free.
Sad but this is how some people think.
Yet raiding remains to this day as practically the only content to offer vertical progression at end game with some exceptions for pvp. RPGs at their heart are about character progression and placing most if not all of it in a singular activity seems not only harsh for those who prefer other play styles, it begs the question of whether it is smart business sense.
Cool Story Bro
"If I offended you, you needed it" -Corey Taylor
To be absolutely honest, I think the writer is wrong.
Not about ESO particular but in regards to the whole notion of what End Game is and why it's important in a MMO. End Game is what separates a MMO from a single-player game. It's what you can do endlessly and with constant entertainment when the game mechanics have been beaten and the level cap reached. It's where the whole MASSIVE MULTIPLAYER part of MMO comes into play and where your constantly interesting playing experience is based on playing with lots of different people or with the same people and optimising your play experience.
"Optimising" is here used very loosely, as optimising could ofcourse mean go dominate any PvP element with your Guild, beat the Raids and gear out all your mates' toons, but it could also mean becoming the most well-known roleplaying guild, the best at playing in-game instruments as a quartet or whatever. But at it's core, End Game is something that is still changing and entertaining due to the involvement with other players even though the actual game is static and doesn't offer anything new (you're seen it all).
If a MMO doesn't offer meaningful and entertaining End Game it fails as a MMO.