How Skyrim Sold Me On Elder Scrolls Online - The RPG Files at MMORPG.com

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How Skyrim Sold Me On Elder Scrolls Online - The RPG Files at MMORPG.com

When The Elder Scrolls Online came out, one of the most common critiques on social media was that it made players want to go back to Skyrim. This week, Chris discovered that the coin had finally flipped. Playing Skyrim made him want to play ESO. Has The Elder Scrolls Online finally become the living, breathing alternative RPG players hoped it would be at launch?

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Ikeda

We shall have to agree to disagree. ESO, I keep going back to. It hits all my checkboxes for an MMO. I boot it up, pay for a month, play once or twice, and go back to Skyrim. EVERY SINGLE TIME. There's nothing interesting in ESO for me. The lore doesn't quite sync, there's no need to group, and when you do nothing feels quite right. The entire overhaul with the level scaling is ok at best but I never feel progression on my characters. Just a new round of skills or some new subset I just added where the skill gets a new feature.

And Marvel Heroes seems to have generated a hugely negative impact. For being their "biggest patch evar" it sure sounds like they screwed the pooch making way for the release of the game on consoles.

Margrave

Love my ESO. Such a great game!

Slaymore

I liked ESO for awhile. It lost me when I as an assasin was pressed by other players to get robes and a staff. If not they wouldnt group with me. I didnt choose assasin to play as a wizard. I wanted to dualwield. Then you had to animationcancel your abilities to get enough dps...even WITH the sad staff and robes.... maybe its just the community....I dont know.

Sovrath

Ikeda said:

We shall have to agree to disagree. ESO, I keep going back to. It hits all my checkboxes for an MMO. I boot it up, pay for a month, play once or twice, and go back to Skyrim. EVERY SINGLE TIME. There's nothing interesting in ESO for me. The lore doesn't quite sync, there's no need to group, and when you do nothing feels quite right. The entire overhaul with the level scaling is ok at best but I never feel progression on my characters. Just a new round of skills or some new subset I just added where the skill gets a new feature.



And Marvel Heroes seems to have generated a hugely negative impact. For being their "biggest patch evar" it sure sounds like they screwed the pooch making way for the release of the game on consoles.

I'm kind of with you. I really want to love Elder Scrolls Online but I hate the combat (I hate the "skills/abilities") and though I think the quests are good the exploration just doesn't find anything all that interesting except more quests.

In Skyrim or Morrowind (or Oblivion for that matter) I could find a ruin, tomb, cave, etc that was actually interesting to explore.

I just don't find that in Elder Scrolls Online. It's usually a circular gauntlet that to me is just not interesting. Yet still I forge on.

FelixMajor

ESO feels like an empty husk of a world. Yeah it seems busy with all the people running around and whatnot. The game is still extremely bland. The world is depressing, and everything revolves around combat.

It never grabs me like the true ES games, where you can just wander and stumble upon treasures or traps, and meet interesting characters.

Wighty

Slaymore said:

I liked ESO for awhile. It lost me when I as an assasin was pressed by other players to get robes and a staff. If not they wouldnt group with me. I didnt choose assasin to play as a wizard. I wanted to dualwield. Then you had to animationcancel your abilities to get enough dps...even WITH the sad staff and robes.... maybe its just the community....I dont know.

This is what is killing it for me as well... I typically hate "magic classes" and the forced FOTM Meta builds of recent at least seem to direct you to "magika builds" which is not really up my alley.
My fav class is the NightBLADE not NightSTAFF

Filbur

FelixMajor said:

ESO feels like an empty husk of a world. Yeah it seems busy with all the people running around and whatnot. The game is still extremely bland. The world is depressing, and everything revolves around combat.

It never grabs me like the true ES games, where you can just wander and stumble upon treasures or traps, and meet interesting characters.

I have to agree. The biggest hurdle for me is the dead, lifeless and oftentimes ugly world (especially at night), and I can't help the feeling of playing a Hero Engine game, because SWTOR or The Repopulation use the same type of blocky structures and sparse vegetation.

Apridise

Filbur said:

FelixMajor said:

ESO feels like an empty husk of a world. Yeah it seems busy with all the people running around and whatnot. The game is still extremely bland. The world is depressing, and everything revolves around combat.



It never grabs me like the true ES games, where you can just wander and stumble upon treasures or traps, and meet interesting characters.

I have to agree. The biggest hurdle for me is the dead, lifeless and oftentimes ugly world (especially at night), and I can't help the feeling of playing a Hero Engine game, because SWTOR or The Repopulation use the same type of blocky structures and sparse vegetation.

I've had quite the opposite experience, running through the world it seems MUCH more alive then Kkyrim. For one the players, in Skyrim it feels like your very alone, then there's the Dark Anchors that everyone rushes too, then the holiday events that just happened, there's PVP and finally dungeons. So I really don't get what's dead about the game, hell it feels lately there are WAY more people on then there were six months ago. When it comes to the ugly terrain, well I can't say that I thought anything was ugly, even when compared to other recent mmo's and Skyrim it seems in my opinion to be on par.

WellzyC

Only thing ESO and Skyrim have in common is the same coat of paint, that's it.

josko9

ESO has actually a much more lively world than Skyrim. Skyrim was like playing vanilla WoW, with all the shitty low quality stories and quests, and mostly barren zones in between. And well every so often you'd get attacked by bears or dragons out of nowhere, to give you some "sense" of danger. Yeah for a few seconds..Immersive world my ass. Not to mention most of the dungeons were short and duplicates (kinda like early ESO delves, before ZOS reworked them).

As for the combat, Skyrim was slow, clunky and just..boring. ESO to me feels a great mix between something like GW2 and The Witcher 3. I don't know, Skyrim just never felt like a great game to me. Sure I have harsh criteria, but come on, Skyrim is nowhere near Morrowind in quality. ESO replicated a lot of the feels I've had back then when I played Morrowind. And is as proper TES game as it can get (minus spellcrafting).

Agent_Joseph

I love TES  games , but I cant get in ESO who is too much limited , for me TES game is about unlimited freedom 

Sovrath

Torval said:

The new remastered Skyrim looks really good. I was surprised at how well that was done. My son is playing remastered on PS4 and he's having as good a time as his modded Steam version.

That said, every single time I play Skyrim I end up doing some short deed and logging into ESO. With the way it's grown and progressed ESO is a better game in every possible way.

Skyrim questing feels so on rails. The werewolf quest chain is a good example. Don't want to become a werewolf then your time with them has ended even though you've been through thick and thin with them. Suddenly they have nothing else to say and the narrative at that corner of the world dies. It's no more permissive than ESO to me.

Skyrim feels empty. That sort of feeling I remember getting when going over to my grandparents as a kid, to take care of the house, when they were away. It just felt empty like all the reasons you enjoy visiting are missing - the people. The rest is just window dressing.

Combat in ESO is so much better for me. It feels tight and interactive. Skyrim combat feels clunky like they wanted the flexibility of turn based decision making in an action system. It's one of the most immersion breaking combat systems I've ever played. The constant pause and menu surfing drives me crazy. Yeah, I'm going to eat a full meal between turns to regen. Lame.

ESO looks better. The character models. The world. Everything. I don't play with Skyrim mods really because I want the play the game the creators made, not some hobby project by modders. If I just wanted single player eye candy I can get it in other titles without having to deal with modders.

I think it probably comes back to how people sort of "interface" with these games.

While the Elder Scrolls games aren't perfect (very few games are) and I know exactly what you are saying about the werewolf questline, I think the people who are less "about quests" and more about "the world" will tend to enjoy a game like Skyrim/Morrowind/Oblvion more than Elder Scrolls online.

For example, people have said before that Skyrim feels empty (just as you did). I think the people who like it wouldn't have it any other way because they don't take that expanse to be emptiness but it's 'the world".

One of the reason that Lord of the Rings Online drives me nuts is that there are places where one can't move 20' without encountering another mob. Sometimes you just want to gallop across a valley, get a sense of place, of the world and not be acosted by something every few feet.

There's a certain sense of adventure to be out in the wilderness and not know what is around the corner.

Heck, a friend of mine only plays elder scrolls games, rarely does the main quests, and loves the worlds that they create. He just likes the world because he feels like "it's a great adventure".

Octagon7711

Sovrath said:

Torval said:

The new remastered Skyrim looks really good. I was surprised at how well that was done. My son is playing remastered on PS4 and he's having as good a time as his modded Steam version.

That said, every single time I play Skyrim I end up doing some short deed and logging into ESO. With the way it's grown and progressed ESO is a better game in every possible way.

Skyrim questing feels so on rails. The werewolf quest chain is a good example. Don't want to become a werewolf then your time with them has ended even though you've been through thick and thin with them. Suddenly they have nothing else to say and the narrative at that corner of the world dies. It's no more permissive than ESO to me.

Skyrim feels empty. That sort of feeling I remember getting when going over to my grandparents as a kid, to take care of the house, when they were away. It just felt empty like all the reasons you enjoy visiting are missing - the people. The rest is just window dressing.

Combat in ESO is so much better for me. It feels tight and interactive. Skyrim combat feels clunky like they wanted the flexibility of turn based decision making in an action system. It's one of the most immersion breaking combat systems I've ever played. The constant pause and menu surfing drives me crazy. Yeah, I'm going to eat a full meal between turns to regen. Lame.

ESO looks better. The character models. The world. Everything. I don't play with Skyrim mods really because I want the play the game the creators made, not some hobby project by modders. If I just wanted single player eye candy I can get it in other titles without having to deal with modders.

I think it probably comes back to how people sort of "interface" with these games.

While the Elder Scrolls games aren't perfect (very few games are) and I know exactly what you are saying about the werewolf questline, I think the people who are less "about quests" and more about "the world" will tend to enjoy a game like Skyrim/Morrowind/Oblvion more than Elder Scrolls online.

For example, people have said before that Skyrim feels empty (just as you did). I think the people who like it wouldn't have it any other way because they don't take that expanse to be emptiness but it's 'the world".

One of the reason that Lord of the Rings Online drives me nuts is that there are places where one can't move 20' without encountering another mob. Sometimes you just want to gallop across a valley, get a sense of place, of the world and not be acosted by something every few feet.

There's a certain sense of adventure to be out in the wilderness and not know what is around the corner.

Heck, a friend of mine only plays elder scrolls games, rarely does the main quests, and loves the worlds that they create. He just likes the world because he feels like "it's a great adventure".

And when you add on community mods the game stays fresh.  New companions, new pets, new skills, new quest lines, new areas to explore.

Sovrath

Octagon7711 said:

Sovrath said:

Torval said:

The new remastered Skyrim looks really good. I was surprised at how well that was done. My son is playing remastered on PS4 and he's having as good a time as his modded Steam version.

That said, every single time I play Skyrim I end up doing some short deed and logging into ESO. With the way it's grown and progressed ESO is a better game in every possible way.

Skyrim questing feels so on rails. The werewolf quest chain is a good example. Don't want to become a werewolf then your time with them has ended even though you've been through thick and thin with them. Suddenly they have nothing else to say and the narrative at that corner of the world dies. It's no more permissive than ESO to me.

Skyrim feels empty. That sort of feeling I remember getting when going over to my grandparents as a kid, to take care of the house, when they were away. It just felt empty like all the reasons you enjoy visiting are missing - the people. The rest is just window dressing.

Combat in ESO is so much better for me. It feels tight and interactive. Skyrim combat feels clunky like they wanted the flexibility of turn based decision making in an action system. It's one of the most immersion breaking combat systems I've ever played. The constant pause and menu surfing drives me crazy. Yeah, I'm going to eat a full meal between turns to regen. Lame.

ESO looks better. The character models. The world. Everything. I don't play with Skyrim mods really because I want the play the game the creators made, not some hobby project by modders. If I just wanted single player eye candy I can get it in other titles without having to deal with modders.

I think it probably comes back to how people sort of "interface" with these games.

While the Elder Scrolls games aren't perfect (very few games are) and I know exactly what you are saying about the werewolf questline, I think the people who are less "about quests" and more about "the world" will tend to enjoy a game like Skyrim/Morrowind/Oblvion more than Elder Scrolls online.

For example, people have said before that Skyrim feels empty (just as you did). I think the people who like it wouldn't have it any other way because they don't take that expanse to be emptiness but it's 'the world".

One of the reason that Lord of the Rings Online drives me nuts is that there are places where one can't move 20' without encountering another mob. Sometimes you just want to gallop across a valley, get a sense of place, of the world and not be acosted by something every few feet.

There's a certain sense of adventure to be out in the wilderness and not know what is around the corner.

Heck, a friend of mine only plays elder scrolls games, rarely does the main quests, and loves the worlds that they create. He just likes the world because he feels like "it's a great adventure".

And when you add on community mods the game stays fresh.  New companions, new pets, new skills, new quest lines, new areas to explore.

I mostly download new dungeons and quests. The second thing I download would be the occasional new weapon or armor mod.

DAS1337

It may just be as simple as not having another ES title to play once you either finish, or get so bored of Skyrim in the 200th hour of your playthrough. Plus, its a single play game, so there is no one to show off your goodies to.

Sovrath

DAS1337 said:

It may just be as simple as not having another ES title to play once you either finish, or get so bored of Skyrim in the 200th hour of your playthrough. Plus, its a single play game, so there is no one to show off your goodies to.

Well, I suppose one's mileage may vary on that. I have about 1,300 hours in skyrim and have started new play throughs in the new version.

doorb7

here are my impressions of the game for those interested. Any advice or subs would be grateful whilst I'm starting out. Have a great day all.

holdenhamlet

Glad people enjoy it but I found the combat horrid and the world ugly and without a soul.

Alomar

Played ESO hardcore for over 2 years and at this point it only disappoints me and makes me want to play Skyrim and eagerly await ES VI. The current ESO and post-launch direction is aimed at casual pve'ers and roleplayers, anyone interested in deeper gameplay, mechanics, competitiveness, progression, etc. is unlikely to be satisfied by ESO for long.

Iselin

Wighty said:

Slaymore said:

I liked ESO for awhile. It lost me when I as an assasin was pressed by other players to get robes and a staff. If not they wouldnt group with me. I didnt choose assasin to play as a wizard. I wanted to dualwield. Then you had to animationcancel your abilities to get enough dps...even WITH the sad staff and robes.... maybe its just the community....I dont know.

This is what is killing it for me as well... I typically hate "magic classes" and the forced FOTM Meta builds of recent at least seem to direct you to "magika builds" which is not really up my alley.

My fav class is the NightBLADE not NightSTAFF

If you had said that in 2014, I could agree that the game pushed you heavily in the direction of staff wielding magicka builds. But it hasn't been that way for more than a year and half.

I barely play any magicka classes these days. My dual weilding + bow sorcerer is by far my favorite character and they are the current king of the hill running the solo raid, Maelstrom Arena, in veteran mode.

Of course if you follow the min/max hard mode trials crowd, they'll tell you there is only one build and one way to play and you have to animation cancel and yada yada. But If progression raiding is your idea of fun I guess you should listen to them and live in that hell lol.

Otherwise, you can safely dump anything they say including the need to animation cancel: for most gameplay, it's horseshit. It lets you squeeze out the last couple of K DPS so your raid leader won't banish you from vMOL raids.

This game can be enjoyed solo or grouped and for the PVE or PVP which plays much differently and where stamina melee builds are king.

xpsync

holdenhamlet said:

Glad people enjoy it but I found the combat horrid and the world ugly and without a soul.

That is exactly how i felt since it launched. After the update though, it's the only mmo i play anymore. Being an explorer type, ESO has turned a game i only dreamed about into reality. In some sense for me i really don't think of it as an ES title? it's a world for me to explore, harvest, craft, and along the way i pick up a quest or two in whatever area i happen to end up in.
For me everything was amazing until... i ended up talking to this guy who... well long story short introduced me to the Thieves guild, FUK ME, then along the way i entered the Dark Brotherhood, THAT'S IT!!!! uninstall every pos mmo on this PC I'm home for the next foreseeable future.
Thieves and DB for an explorer type player with the sneaking about, looting and fencing goods, go here, go there assassination missions, and to change things up I'll simply head in any direction which fancies me and explore for awhile and see what kind of adventures i'll get myself into. I'm home! Speaking of home, housing on  route... yea. for the foreseeable future.

MadFrenchie

The level scaling actually killed ESO for me. I lost all sense of progression within my character. Doing anything aside from fighting my way around the world searching for skyshards seemed like a waste of time. The game had become a great scavenger hunt; I just have no interest in playing a scavenger hunt MMO.

Wizardry

Funny ..or not so funny is that Skyrim is a game that left my gut with a sinking feeling.
What i saw was not a great game,definitely not worth buying a console just for that game but after a couple weeks and was bored i gave in.

I played for a bit thought ok,graphics over rated ,people don't know what graphics are i guess but i wasn't there for graphics,i was there after hearing all these great things about the game.

Well to justify buying a new console and the game ,i forced myself for a week to keep playing,that was it, had enough and gave my console and game away.I felt really dumbfounded listening to all the hype,ending up in some small circle where i had to kill a Dragon to move on felt so linear and cheap.What...that gate door won't open until i kill the dragon or what,how lame.
Imagine if i couldn't get out my front door until i paid the paperboy...yeah just saying...dumb.
I was unhappy still a year later for wasting my money which i can't remember how much but with the game was likely around 400 bucks for a total of maybe 10 hours game play.

So Skyrim is the sole reason,i will never buy another console ever again.Now to be a tad bit fair,i do sort of remember hearing talk the PC version was better quality but there were no PC versions in the store at the time.So now when i see all the Nintendo Switch advertising,i laugh and look the other way...no way in hell am i buying a crappy console.

Amjoco

Before the game released I studied the lore by watching youtube videos and reading hours of information. I wasn't naive enough to think the mmo would be anywhere near as in-depth as the single player games, but I was sorely upset that it came nowhere even close. I played a few weeks and occasionally go back, but its pretty much the same thing with way less content than other titles offer for a subscription. 
I wanted to find something new in a cave, or a hidden treasure in a crack behind a waterfall. There is no real exploring that made the franchise what it is. 
I love the idea of the game, but it just isn't fun to me.

Thebeasttt

Honestly this article is way off base. TESO is so vastly inferior, that playing Skyrim beforehand will only set you up for disappointment, as countless fans have expressed.