If ESO doesn't succeed it's not zenimaxes fault, it's the fault of everyone who didn't like the game.
If you don't like the game it's because you're an impatient gamer that wants everything handed to them.
That in a game run on a single server, that creates phases based on population, you can tell that there are "lots" of people still playing.
That a game that was hyped as the second coming of RvR, because...Matt Firor, no one ever talks about it.
That after spending hundreds of millions of dollars zenimax will be ok with ESO attracting only a niche audience.
I don't see the game doing any better on console. It's an MMO based on a series of games that is founded on giving players freedom within a large open world. They didn't provide the same base experience that the single player games thrived on.
If you're going to make a MMO for the fans of elder scrolls it would probably behoove you to make one that actually provides that same sandbox, open world freedom that has driven the success of every other game in the franchise.
Bethesda literally has a philosophy when it comes to the development of the elders scrolls games. Matt Firor and zenimax online did not follow that philosophy when developing ESO.
They should take a cue from square enix and final fantasy14.
and the truth about MMO gamers is, most have gotten used to jumping MMO to MMO all the time, they make a reason to quit one MMO so they can jump to the next, rather then stay and enjoy a game that is pretty great, fact and point back 10+ years ago MMO gamers would stick to 1 MMO, in part because there were not many MMO's and there were not many getting released all the time,
But now there are like 10-15 new MMO's getting released every year, many Free to play, some P2P, and 95% are casual, and what we all know about casual mmo's is it takes no time to get to End game,
and it may have been a fun ride to get to end game, but then you hit a wall, and jump to the next mmo.
because of this we are getting more and more MMO's that devs don't put any real time to develop to make the game good, they make it so you have enough to get to end game, and that's it.
and it's getting worse, there are many mmos coming out these days that if your lucky are 60% done but released anyways so the developers can make a buck while they make the rest of the game.
What we really need is a good game, not some half baked MMO.
though not saying TESO is bad by any means I been playing it, and it's pretty fun, but if things don't pan out in the next 3-6 months it could turn into another MMO, that fell short.
my advice is that you take your time. It is apparent that the craglorn area should have been open to VR10+ players only. what you see now is VR1 players grinding away to VR12. in effect sidestepping a lot of questing content from the 2 other factions. I can understand the appeal of this grinding method but I would have thought it would be gear driven. but unfortunately there are no faction rewards to grind for. just drops. what I can also see occurring is a lot of players with lesser skills at endgame because running in circles in a 12 man group isn't going to teach you how to handle harder mobs. I opted to go the road of "endgame" pre-craglorn and completed the other 2 factions, arriving to the new zone by VR10
as the OP has stated ESO is very much solo friendly but upon arriving in craglorn the case is the exact opposite. basically every pull will get you 4+ attackers to which I can barely handle now as a VR12. (lower than VR10 just doesn't belong there). even have to leave the area to fill gems.
no one seems to be queuing for "VR1-10" dungeons and I've only completed 2/6 of the vet dungeons due to groups grinding sewers for exploits. it's very hard to find others to do quests with, being at different stages of a quest always apparent. using the group finder for the zone seems to get you VR1 players to group with but inevitably fail in any delves.
so aside from PVP, running the trials, crafting/farming there's isn't a hell of a lot of options to keep "endgame" interesting. the fact that eveything in craglorn is group oriented after all the other content is basically solo kind of brings everything to a grinding halt.
I farm nodes in craglorn now, scan chat for anything other than "pro grinding groups" while considering rolling a new toon even though all content is playable with 1 toon... it's a lot of sitting around. even if I do trials over and over.
basically the game needs a proper endgame. V12 only dungeons, zones, quests, that draw players to continue atleast for improved gear (although there seems to be a limit with crafting and upgrading, I mean what comes after legendary?)
One thing I've noticed, and given, I haven't done a whole lot of AvA yet, is that while there are a bunch of AvA campaigns to chose from, there is generally only one that is active. It takes 90 days to switch between campaigns, and you can't have characters from different alliances fighting in the same campaign at the same time (for many obvious reasons).
I am an alt-aholic, unfortunately. I would like to experience AvA with all of them. I don't want to have to wait 90 days to fight in a populated cyrodiil.
This in no way detracts from the very fun leveling experience of the PvE portion of the game, but I kind of feel like I'm not working for any real end goal (I hate raids with a passion) if I can't play test all of my alts in AvA in a reasonable amount of time against a reasonable amount of people.
Elder Scrolls Online is fundamentally broken with Zenimax having handled this game poorly on many levels. Between the ominous silence coming from their camp most of the time, the shoddy pre-order bonuses which undermined core design systems in the game, and the complete disconnect between Veteran levels and 1-50, it is clear the team behind ESO is not fit for this project. Too many amateur mistakes (and really too many mistakes in core design to hash out in this post) were made during the development of this title, and there is no real way to fix the issues without going back to the drawing board. Unfortunately for Zeni, ESO, and the players this will never happen, so the only thing left is to either accept the product as is and just step around the broken pieces while trying to enjoy yourself or to simply move on to other games with developers who have the understanding Zenimax lacked.
If ESO doesn't succeed it's not zenimaxes fault, it's the fault of everyone who didn't like the game.
If you don't like the game it's because you're an impatient gamer that wants everything handed to them.
That in a game run on a single server, that creates phases based on population, you can tell that there are "lots" of people still playing.
That a game that was hyped as the second coming of RvR, because...Matt Firor, no one ever talks about it.
That after spending hundreds of millions of dollars zenimax will be ok with ESO attracting only a niche audience.
I don't see the game doing any better on console. It's an MMO based on a series of games that is founded on giving players freedom within a large open world. They didn't provide the same base experience that the single player games thrived on.
If you're going to make a MMO for the fans of elder scrolls it would probably behoove you to make one that actually provides that same sandbox, open world freedom that has driven the success of every other game in the franchise.
Bethesda literally has a philosophy when it comes to the development of the elders scrolls games. Matt Firor and zenimax online did not follow that philosophy when developing ESO.
They should take a cue from square enix and final fantasy14.
Finally someone who makes sense. And the sarcastic first part made me chuckle
ESO hasn't been without its issues, but it is a very good game. Unfortunately, I think the gaming community at large "wants" it to fail.
It bothers me that some games with the very same issues have been easily forgiven. Carbine has made a few mishaps, all of which have been tossed aside and forgotten.
ESO is solid through and through. Its a shame the community at large seems so hard pressed to hate it.
So there was some big meeting in a dark room where the collective gaming community decided to dislike poor ol' Elder Scrolls Online? Seriously? There is no conspiracy here so stop brandishing the victim card.
I seriously doubt you have played WildStar since you believe ESO shares the same problems with that game. Look, you may enjoy the game in its current state but that has no bearing on whether the game is actually designed well. ESO has fundamental problems that caused it to receive the reaction it has. "Solid through and through" is not the description anyone needs to give ESO, especially when there are problems with the basic infrastructure (phasing and grouping issues say hello).
You want to know the difference between Carbine and Zenimax? It isnt that one is given preferential treatment by the gaming community (yet another conspiracy theory, *sigh*). Carbine operates like veterans of the MMO community while Zenimax is consistently held back by their amateur approach to this genre.
This game is absolutely the biggest piece of fail I have played in a while. Which is a HORRIBLE thing to say because this IP deserved TOP LINE TREATMENT from its devs.
I have been playing the Elder Scrolls since the 90s. Zen took that IP, and spent 200 million screwing around. They factionalized a game that has NEVER been about the story of factions other than in books. Its about the PLAYER and HIS story as HE BECOMES PART OF THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD! Its been about conquering a world and leaving a million small footprints! NOT saving every king and baron in the kindom!!! (Literally man, HOW MANY FRIGGIN TIMES did I save a baron or king or someone important from assassination in ESO? It was so rediculous, by ESO standards, a person in power has a 3 month reign cuz somebody is gonna assassinate something unless I show up! lol
And furthermore... WHERE are MY ASSASSINATIONS!? Thats whats missing, How come I cant walk up and change the world with a knife stroke! TES gave you the ability to leave a mark. Theres no mark here. Its fake. ESO is a FAKE TES game. Theres ways to make this game WORK! They were just too friggin ignorant, and NEVER listened to the TES PLAYERS, and those players could have done some great things for them!!!
They put leveled zones in, instead of letting the players take control of their universe.
This game failed because Zen. If they created a whole new game, they were afraid the skill systems would be to foriegn and they wouldnt get the numbers from the WoW and GW players. Its always been overly apparent that was what Zen wanted to do since back in Sept in the beta. And numbers is ALL Zen has cared about for a LONG LONG time here.
I can remember the first E3 appearance. They said, "Build your character how YOU want to build him, and play him the way YOU want to play him." And it was a flat out lie. The moment they put a focus on levels, and gear, was the moment you failed at Elder Scrolls. The MOMENT YOU MAKE ME CHOSE A CLASS TO BE AND SKILLS I MUST HAVE THIS IS NO LONGER A GAME OF CHOICE! Not everyone is the same... SURE. But about 1 in 12 ARE EXACTLY THE SAME.
Any stat heavy game is nothing more than a race to the end. TES armor and weapon stats, unless it was a daedric artifact, were never more than a few points different from eachother. It was about HOW you played, not WHAT you played. And thats why this game is a failure. Because everyone is cornered into skilling a certain way, and ONLY using a few BORING skills over and over and over and over.
If I wanted to play GW or WoW, I have top level toons in those games, why waste money and months on this wate of money, where theres a billion bugs, and PVP looks cool but is a joke, and the bots in nearly every dungeon make it impossible to kill a boss!
I posted here and on the forums in ESO the first month. I said this game was doomed from the moment you made any person pick a class to be. I played as a beta tester since last friggin september... and in EVERY review email I told them to NOT make the game class dependent and item dependent.... They failed every gamer who loves this franchise, and they failed themselves. I for one will NEVER trust Zen again. They dropped the ball hard here. And all they needed to do was take a skyrim engine, enlarge the world, and let players create. Would have saved a lot of money, and gotten alot more respect. Instead I have armor painted on my char like they were doing when WoW came out, yeah thats next gen... And so many quests in a zone I feel like all I do is quest for other people, and NEVER for MYSELF!!
TES is a great IP because there is no class. There is YOU. And what YOU do. Bethesda can simply create a 3 man multi-player in the next TES, and that will be good enough for this IP. I hope everyone who created this game never works again personally, but life is not fair like that.
It was great from 1-49 levels. Quests, enviroment, music, atmoshphere - made you not think about certain bugs etc
But reaching lvl 50 with my templar made me understand, that ESO right now is in closed beta state at best. Play as you want, like in other Elder Scrolls games? Sure, as long as you are using staff and light armor and actually your class is sorcerer or dragonknight.
The class and build issues are not bugs - all those problems are by design - or to be more precise - by total lack of it. Im wondering, if class and skill designers have ever played any of Elder Scrolls games before.
So... it ended in cancelled subscription. I have never cancelled mmo so fast, i endured Age of Conan 4 months, but i could not imagine, that i will quit Elder Scrolls game after just 2 months.
This is really sad. I hope, that they will review all those issues and redesing and fix all those things, or this game is going to Nine Hells really quick.
If you think lvl 1-49 was a GREAT experience, then basically you are saying that ESO is a great game.
NO ONE is forcing you to continue playing after you reach VR1, go play an ALT in another realm and experience that instead, since you obviously dislike what happens as you turn max level.
Heck you can play 2 ALTS for Another 4 months GREAT gameplay.
6 Months ..That must make one heck of a value for your Money...
As an example, I like Diablo 3 but only once(or maybe twice) I do not want to run around and do the same story all over again and again just to get some stuff, for me that is totally pointless, so I did not do it, and since Diablo 3 really DOES not offer an alternative like ESO does , I quit the game.
Being in a niche of it's own (unique) doesn't mean being good.
In my opinion this mmo should never have been p2p. This is one of the main factors ppl bitch about it. What u get vs. what u pay for....specially when u have better overall 1 time pay mmos out there.
By the time they get this game in a decent shape other mmos will be out. In this day and age u either get shit right from the start or u don't and fail. The time when we had to wait years for a game and because of that we were giving chances to make it good, are gone. Now games come out on a daily basis.
If they don't go f2p or 1 time pay..they already missed their chance to increase their player base. Even with all the fixes they will do, their player base will still stay as is and decrease gradually. Getting ppl back in or fresh ppl in will be extremely hard to do close to impossible specially with the absurd amount of better alternatives.
If they don't go f2p or 1 time pay..they already missed their chance to increase their player base. Even with all the fixes they will do, their player base will still stay as is and decrease gradually. Getting ppl back in or fresh ppl in will be extremely hard to do close to impossible specially with the absurd amount of better alternatives.
One of the great things about the Elder Scrolls games is the immersive open world. Since the MMORPG genre is such a perfect fit for the virtual world aspect, it is baffling that the developers somehow came to the conclusion this wasn't of any importance when designing ESO.
I get that maybe some MMOs are made full on theme park, but never would I have imagined a game titled Elder Scrolls Online to have a world that feels so little like a world.
Hey, what are ya gonna do? May was a hard month for me. It got warm outside. There has been grass to mow, multiple birthdays and mothers day to celebrate, work got busy, and plus I am finally catching up on some painting and carpeting that has needed to be done.
Still though, I log in every couple of days to make sure that my research is still progressing (I am very near finished on all of it and capable of making 5 skill buff armor on a lot of different things, which is nice, go Vampire's Kiss, as well as creating the glyphs to make those items even more powerful) and I will take that time, if I have it, to knock out a few more quests as I finish up Alik'r and move on to Bankgorai.
Of course, most people that I know are either ahead of me or almost completely lapping me. I'm level 41, though and I'm still having a good time. And more importantly than that, I am powerful to a level that I know a lot of others aren't simply because I don't have to rely on drops to almost always be wearing the best gear the game has to offer.
Most drops to me are just things that are either going to get deconnned, researched, or sold. All drops actually. I wear nothing off the ground.
And the moment I get everything settled I'll be right back into it for my regular 2 or 3 hours an evening and as much as I can on the weekend sessions.
I'm even more excited to get back to it hearing that it gets harder once you hit the veteran levels.
But I do see that a lot of people have slowed down or stopped playing as well.
What can you say though? You spew your load, sex is over. Meaning that a lot of these folks were already VR1 two weeks into release. So it's no wonder that they're done.
The rest of us just have to find each other.
Now the moment that I pop in here and tell you all that I'm bored, or ran out of stuff to do, that's when you will know for sure that someone, somewhere, has messed up. Because I am banging that game in all of the rooms in the house right now plus living a life.
Everything else though, at least in my opinion, should be taken with a grain of salt.
It was a decent game, but apparently it needed another year of beta or better devs. I've never encountered so many bugs in a game in my life. But what finally made me quit was a game breaking bug being left for 3 days with no response from devs. I and at least some others couldn't kill Molag Bal, they broke it after the last patch. Without finishing the final quest you can't go on to veteran content. They did fix it after the 3 days, but at that point I was done. I might check it out in 6 months or if it ever goes F2P. But I really can't recommend the game in the shape it's in.
Hey, what are ya gonna do? May was a hard month for me. It got warm outside. There has been grass to mow, multiple birthdays and mothers day to celebrate, work got busy, and plus I am finally catching up on some painting and carpeting that has needed to be done.
Still though, I log in every couple of days to make sure that my research is still progressing (I am very near finished on all of it and capable of making 5 skill buff armor on a lot of different things, which is nice, go Vampire's Kiss, as well as creating the glyphs to make those items even more powerful) and I will take that time, if I have it, to knock out a few more quests as I finish up Alik'r and move on to Bankgorai.
Of course, most people that I know are either ahead of me or almost completely lapping me. I'm level 41, though and I'm still having a good time. And more importantly than that, I am powerful to a level that I know a lot of others aren't simply because I don't have to rely on drops to almost always be wearing the best gear the game has to offer.
Most drops to me are just things that are either going to get deconnned, researched, or sold. All drops actually. I wear nothing off the ground.
And the moment I get everything settled I'll be right back into it for my regular 2 or 3 hours an evening and as much as I can on the weekend sessions.
I'm even more excited to get back to it hearing that it gets harder once you hit the veteran levels.
But I do see that a lot of people have slowed down or stopped playing as well.
What can you say though? You spew your load, sex is over. Meaning that a lot of these folks were already VR1 two weeks into release. So it's no wonder that they're done.
The rest of us just have to find each other.
Now the moment that I pop in here and tell you all that I'm bored, or ran out of stuff to do, that's when you will know for sure that someone, somewhere, has messed up. Because I am banging that game in all of the rooms in the house right now plus living a life.
Everything else though, at least in my opinion, should be taken with a grain of salt.
I could have posted that .
The only thing i'm really missing in this game are solid guilds (rp pvp). They're probably there but i cant seem to find them.
If i read some of the wall of text, i am glad that al lot people leave the game. The worst tankplayers i have had in this game, ala wowkids who think tank is imba. If noone try to explore the world, your fault it´s great and often you get quests etc. that are awesome..but i know the kids today need to be max. lvl in 2hours your fault, not zeni. If i see the chat in the last or 2 weeks, the people who want play the game still in it, and enjoy it. The others maybe back to wow, or wildstar and i am glad that they have gone. I got a friendlist near 150 ppl. and only one or two were gone. The rest enjoy the game. For my opinion: Best game in the last 5 years. And the whiners will leave wildstar in a few weeks too and have the problem, that they have nothing to do in real life..Hf all the poor guys, i have to look for the last 1274 books in teso....
I dont like how ppl try to "lure" players into their "vision". Game is good. Its not empty but its clear that it has lost at least 1/4 of the base in the last months. There are high hopes that the console versions will revitalize the game so I really belive that the game has life for at least a year.
The sour note is that pc headstarters had been the beta testers while paying fully. I enjoyed my time but cant stop felling being used as a guinea pig that has to pay to be tested with. Also those ppl that say that their guilds are growing are new to mmos or are just trying to "sell" the idea of great succes to justify their expenditure cause is a known trend that solo players try the game fora few months before looking for guilds/teams. No magic there. Just normal mmos behaviour that says nothing at all about how the game is going.
I've enjoyed the series since I started Daggerfall as a young lad, but I do have reservations about this one.....I figured it would be pretty hard for them to give us a multiplayer version of a past ES game.....I'll check it out when/if it ever goes f2p.
ESO was fun but I found that I nothing to work for. With the way crafting is dungeons and the like are pointless as the only "rewards" are a skill point and components.
The development of this game started with a huge enthusiasm for making something new in ES world, something new in the world of MMOs.
This same enthusiasm was probably present through most of their dev cycle and maybe even into the first beta.
Than it suddenly disappeared. Suddenly the devs, or the suits, were presented with reality that was served to them via beta testers and the experience of a game outside of their dev environment. And that reality was so removed from their dreams and visions, they simply faltered and stopped in their amazement to the public's response and game's inability to perform.
Since then, they have forsaken their rose tinted glasses and are in a state of panic. A panic that has led them into making so many restrictive (to legitimate players) choices and questionable decisions, one is wondering how many experienced MMO devs ESO really has. So many of their decisions seem to have been made in an office far away from any dev environment and by the suits that have almost to none interactions with devs or designers.
Game works well on paper, but if fails in real life.
Comments
What I've learned from this discussion:
If ESO doesn't succeed it's not zenimaxes fault, it's the fault of everyone who didn't like the game.
If you don't like the game it's because you're an impatient gamer that wants everything handed to them.
That in a game run on a single server, that creates phases based on population, you can tell that there are "lots" of people still playing.
That a game that was hyped as the second coming of RvR, because...Matt Firor, no one ever talks about it.
That after spending hundreds of millions of dollars zenimax will be ok with ESO attracting only a niche audience.
I don't see the game doing any better on console. It's an MMO based on a series of games that is founded on giving players freedom within a large open world. They didn't provide the same base experience that the single player games thrived on.
If you're going to make a MMO for the fans of elder scrolls it would probably behoove you to make one that actually provides that same sandbox, open world freedom that has driven the success of every other game in the franchise.
Bethesda literally has a philosophy when it comes to the development of the elders scrolls games. Matt Firor and zenimax online did not follow that philosophy when developing ESO.
They should take a cue from square enix and final fantasy14.
and the truth about MMO gamers is, most have gotten used to jumping MMO to MMO all the time, they make a reason to quit one MMO so they can jump to the next, rather then stay and enjoy a game that is pretty great, fact and point back 10+ years ago MMO gamers would stick to 1 MMO, in part because there were not many MMO's and there were not many getting released all the time,
But now there are like 10-15 new MMO's getting released every year, many Free to play, some P2P, and 95% are casual, and what we all know about casual mmo's is it takes no time to get to End game,
and it may have been a fun ride to get to end game, but then you hit a wall, and jump to the next mmo.
because of this we are getting more and more MMO's that devs don't put any real time to develop to make the game good, they make it so you have enough to get to end game, and that's it.
and it's getting worse, there are many mmos coming out these days that if your lucky are 60% done but released anyways so the developers can make a buck while they make the rest of the game.
What we really need is a good game, not some half baked MMO.
though not saying TESO is bad by any means I been playing it, and it's pretty fun, but if things don't pan out in the next 3-6 months it could turn into another MMO, that fell short.
:-/
The game needs to pull a FF14:ARR and completely reboot.
FF14 has proven that the MMO community will give a game a second chance if the correct adjustments and fixes are made.
It is apparent that the craglorn area should have been open to VR10+ players only.
what you see now is VR1 players grinding away to VR12. in effect sidestepping a lot of questing content from the 2 other factions. I can understand the appeal of this grinding method but I would have thought it would be gear driven. but unfortunately there are no faction rewards to grind for. just drops.
what I can also see occurring is a lot of players with lesser skills at endgame because running in circles in a 12 man group isn't going to teach you how to handle harder mobs.
I opted to go the road of "endgame" pre-craglorn and completed the other 2 factions, arriving to the new zone by VR10
as the OP has stated ESO is very much solo friendly but upon arriving in craglorn the case is the exact opposite. basically every pull will get you 4+ attackers to which I can barely handle now as a VR12. (lower than VR10 just doesn't belong there). even have to leave the area to fill gems.
no one seems to be queuing for "VR1-10" dungeons and I've only completed 2/6 of the vet dungeons due to groups grinding sewers for exploits. it's very hard to find others to do quests with, being at different stages of a quest always apparent. using the group finder for the zone seems to get you VR1 players to group with but inevitably fail in any delves.
so aside from PVP, running the trials, crafting/farming there's isn't a hell of a lot of options to keep "endgame" interesting.
the fact that eveything in craglorn is group oriented after all the other content is basically solo kind of brings everything to a grinding halt.
I farm nodes in craglorn now, scan chat for anything other than "pro grinding groups" while considering rolling a new toon even though all content is playable with 1 toon... it's a lot of sitting around. even if I do trials over and over.
basically the game needs a proper endgame. V12 only dungeons, zones, quests, that draw players to continue atleast for improved gear (although there seems to be a limit with crafting and upgrading, I mean what comes after legendary?)
One thing I've noticed, and given, I haven't done a whole lot of AvA yet, is that while there are a bunch of AvA campaigns to chose from, there is generally only one that is active. It takes 90 days to switch between campaigns, and you can't have characters from different alliances fighting in the same campaign at the same time (for many obvious reasons).
I am an alt-aholic, unfortunately. I would like to experience AvA with all of them. I don't want to have to wait 90 days to fight in a populated cyrodiil.
This in no way detracts from the very fun leveling experience of the PvE portion of the game, but I kind of feel like I'm not working for any real end goal (I hate raids with a passion) if I can't play test all of my alts in AvA in a reasonable amount of time against a reasonable amount of people.
Elder Scrolls Online is fundamentally broken with Zenimax having handled this game poorly on many levels. Between the ominous silence coming from their camp most of the time, the shoddy pre-order bonuses which undermined core design systems in the game, and the complete disconnect between Veteran levels and 1-50, it is clear the team behind ESO is not fit for this project. Too many amateur mistakes (and really too many mistakes in core design to hash out in this post) were made during the development of this title, and there is no real way to fix the issues without going back to the drawing board. Unfortunately for Zeni, ESO, and the players this will never happen, so the only thing left is to either accept the product as is and just step around the broken pieces while trying to enjoy yourself or to simply move on to other games with developers who have the understanding Zenimax lacked.
Finally someone who makes sense. And the sarcastic first part made me chuckle
Where does it say the game cost $200m?
Lately since swtor i see many people saying that $200m is average for making an mmorpg...
TSW - AoC - Aion - WOW - EVE - Fallen Earth - Co - Rift - || XNA C# Java Development
So there was some big meeting in a dark room where the collective gaming community decided to dislike poor ol' Elder Scrolls Online? Seriously? There is no conspiracy here so stop brandishing the victim card.
I seriously doubt you have played WildStar since you believe ESO shares the same problems with that game. Look, you may enjoy the game in its current state but that has no bearing on whether the game is actually designed well. ESO has fundamental problems that caused it to receive the reaction it has. "Solid through and through" is not the description anyone needs to give ESO, especially when there are problems with the basic infrastructure (phasing and grouping issues say hello).
You want to know the difference between Carbine and Zenimax? It isnt that one is given preferential treatment by the gaming community (yet another conspiracy theory, *sigh*). Carbine operates like veterans of the MMO community while Zenimax is consistently held back by their amateur approach to this genre.
This game is absolutely the biggest piece of fail I have played in a while. Which is a HORRIBLE thing to say because this IP deserved TOP LINE TREATMENT from its devs.
I have been playing the Elder Scrolls since the 90s. Zen took that IP, and spent 200 million screwing around. They factionalized a game that has NEVER been about the story of factions other than in books. Its about the PLAYER and HIS story as HE BECOMES PART OF THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD! Its been about conquering a world and leaving a million small footprints! NOT saving every king and baron in the kindom!!! (Literally man, HOW MANY FRIGGIN TIMES did I save a baron or king or someone important from assassination in ESO? It was so rediculous, by ESO standards, a person in power has a 3 month reign cuz somebody is gonna assassinate something unless I show up! lol
And furthermore... WHERE are MY ASSASSINATIONS!? Thats whats missing, How come I cant walk up and change the world with a knife stroke! TES gave you the ability to leave a mark. Theres no mark here. Its fake. ESO is a FAKE TES game. Theres ways to make this game WORK! They were just too friggin ignorant, and NEVER listened to the TES PLAYERS, and those players could have done some great things for them!!!
They put leveled zones in, instead of letting the players take control of their universe.
This game failed because Zen. If they created a whole new game, they were afraid the skill systems would be to foriegn and they wouldnt get the numbers from the WoW and GW players. Its always been overly apparent that was what Zen wanted to do since back in Sept in the beta. And numbers is ALL Zen has cared about for a LONG LONG time here.
I can remember the first E3 appearance. They said, "Build your character how YOU want to build him, and play him the way YOU want to play him." And it was a flat out lie. The moment they put a focus on levels, and gear, was the moment you failed at Elder Scrolls. The MOMENT YOU MAKE ME CHOSE A CLASS TO BE AND SKILLS I MUST HAVE THIS IS NO LONGER A GAME OF CHOICE! Not everyone is the same... SURE. But about 1 in 12 ARE EXACTLY THE SAME.
Any stat heavy game is nothing more than a race to the end. TES armor and weapon stats, unless it was a daedric artifact, were never more than a few points different from eachother. It was about HOW you played, not WHAT you played. And thats why this game is a failure. Because everyone is cornered into skilling a certain way, and ONLY using a few BORING skills over and over and over and over.
If I wanted to play GW or WoW, I have top level toons in those games, why waste money and months on this wate of money, where theres a billion bugs, and PVP looks cool but is a joke, and the bots in nearly every dungeon make it impossible to kill a boss!
I posted here and on the forums in ESO the first month. I said this game was doomed from the moment you made any person pick a class to be. I played as a beta tester since last friggin september... and in EVERY review email I told them to NOT make the game class dependent and item dependent.... They failed every gamer who loves this franchise, and they failed themselves. I for one will NEVER trust Zen again. They dropped the ball hard here. And all they needed to do was take a skyrim engine, enlarge the world, and let players create. Would have saved a lot of money, and gotten alot more respect. Instead I have armor painted on my char like they were doing when WoW came out, yeah thats next gen... And so many quests in a zone I feel like all I do is quest for other people, and NEVER for MYSELF!!
TES is a great IP because there is no class. There is YOU. And what YOU do. Bethesda can simply create a 3 man multi-player in the next TES, and that will be good enough for this IP. I hope everyone who created this game never works again personally, but life is not fair like that.
If you think lvl 1-49 was a GREAT experience, then basically you are saying that ESO is a great game.
NO ONE is forcing you to continue playing after you reach VR1, go play an ALT in another realm and experience that instead, since you obviously dislike what happens as you turn max level.
Heck you can play 2 ALTS for Another 4 months GREAT gameplay.
6 Months ..That must make one heck of a value for your Money...
As an example, I like Diablo 3 but only once(or maybe twice) I do not want to run around and do the same story all over again and again just to get some stuff, for me that is totally pointless, so I did not do it, and since Diablo 3 really DOES not offer an alternative like ESO does , I quit the game.
Being in a niche of it's own (unique) doesn't mean being good.
In my opinion this mmo should never have been p2p. This is one of the main factors ppl bitch about it. What u get vs. what u pay for....specially when u have better overall 1 time pay mmos out there.
By the time they get this game in a decent shape other mmos will be out. In this day and age u either get shit right from the start or u don't and fail. The time when we had to wait years for a game and because of that we were giving chances to make it good, are gone. Now games come out on a daily basis.
One of the great things about the Elder Scrolls games is the immersive open world. Since the MMORPG genre is such a perfect fit for the virtual world aspect, it is baffling that the developers somehow came to the conclusion this wasn't of any importance when designing ESO.
I get that maybe some MMOs are made full on theme park, but never would I have imagined a game titled Elder Scrolls Online to have a world that feels so little like a world.
Was... entertaining with friends, but got stale real fast.
Hit V10, did every dungeon, got top gear pre-craglor, got emperor.
Quit.
Doubt I'll look back at the game, was a hot mess that kept me chuckling, more so with its bugs than its humor.
Hey, what are ya gonna do? May was a hard month for me. It got warm outside. There has been grass to mow, multiple birthdays and mothers day to celebrate, work got busy, and plus I am finally catching up on some painting and carpeting that has needed to be done.
Still though, I log in every couple of days to make sure that my research is still progressing (I am very near finished on all of it and capable of making 5 skill buff armor on a lot of different things, which is nice, go Vampire's Kiss, as well as creating the glyphs to make those items even more powerful) and I will take that time, if I have it, to knock out a few more quests as I finish up Alik'r and move on to Bankgorai.
Of course, most people that I know are either ahead of me or almost completely lapping me. I'm level 41, though and I'm still having a good time. And more importantly than that, I am powerful to a level that I know a lot of others aren't simply because I don't have to rely on drops to almost always be wearing the best gear the game has to offer.
Most drops to me are just things that are either going to get deconnned, researched, or sold. All drops actually. I wear nothing off the ground.
And the moment I get everything settled I'll be right back into it for my regular 2 or 3 hours an evening and as much as I can on the weekend sessions.
I'm even more excited to get back to it hearing that it gets harder once you hit the veteran levels.
But I do see that a lot of people have slowed down or stopped playing as well.
What can you say though? You spew your load, sex is over. Meaning that a lot of these folks were already VR1 two weeks into release. So it's no wonder that they're done.
The rest of us just have to find each other.
Now the moment that I pop in here and tell you all that I'm bored, or ran out of stuff to do, that's when you will know for sure that someone, somewhere, has messed up. Because I am banging that game in all of the rooms in the house right now plus living a life.
Everything else though, at least in my opinion, should be taken with a grain of salt.
I could have posted that
.
The only thing i'm really missing in this game are solid guilds (rp pvp). They're probably there but i cant seem to find them.
I dont like how ppl try to "lure" players into their "vision". Game is good. Its not empty but its clear that it has lost at least 1/4 of the base in the last months. There are high hopes that the console versions will revitalize the game so I really belive that the game has life for at least a year.
The sour note is that pc headstarters had been the beta testers while paying fully. I enjoyed my time but cant stop felling being used as a guinea pig that has to pay to be tested with. Also those ppl that say that their guilds are growing are new to mmos or are just trying to "sell" the idea of great succes to justify their expenditure cause is a known trend that solo players try the game fora few months before looking for guilds/teams. No magic there. Just normal mmos behaviour that says nothing at all about how the game is going.
ESO was fun but I found that I nothing to work for. With the way crafting is dungeons and the like are pointless as the only "rewards" are a skill point and components.
Good game but nothing to aim for.
The development of this game started with a huge enthusiasm for making something new in ES world, something new in the world of MMOs.
This same enthusiasm was probably present through most of their dev cycle and maybe even into the first beta.
Than it suddenly disappeared. Suddenly the devs, or the suits, were presented with reality that was served to them via beta testers and the experience of a game outside of their dev environment. And that reality was so removed from their dreams and visions, they simply faltered and stopped in their amazement to the public's response and game's inability to perform.
Since then, they have forsaken their rose tinted glasses and are in a state of panic. A panic that has led them into making so many restrictive (to legitimate players) choices and questionable decisions, one is wondering how many experienced MMO devs ESO really has. So many of their decisions seem to have been made in an office far away from any dev environment and by the suits that have almost to none interactions with devs or designers.
Game works well on paper, but if fails in real life.