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Life's Distractions - Journey to Tamriel a Columns at MMORPG.com
SBFord
Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
Life's Distractions - Journey to Tamriel a Columns at MMORPG.com
I’ve felt a little lost this weekend. I don’t know whether it’s my age, the fact my children occupy most of my time or that my tastes are simply changing, but many games I have are failing to capture my attention. Several times on Saturday I attempted to play Guild Wars 2 only to login, stare at my character, and wonder what it is that I could actually do that would hold my attention for more than five minutes.
Comments
In the last few years I have become a "game hopper." I seem to be much more interested in how the game works than the actual game. Once I learn the mechanics and understand how the world is built, ie itemazation, skill rotations, earning cash, see the regions and vistas... after that I get bored and move on. I have no desire to invest hours and hours to get anywhere. I just smell the flowers and then look for new ones.
Is it me? I think so. Or maybe it is the current state of game design as you hint at.
Most of the time we play and they just say daddy, mommy go there, or lemme get that.
Oldest son, does the mario jump all the time when we are outside and run like crazy and say I got the star daddy.
I've been an Elder Scrolls fan since the old school Daggerfall days, and while I have ESO, I didn't play much before all MMOs went off the table for me. Thinking of maybe getting back into it for a bit.
"You'll never win an argument with an idiot because he is too stupid to recognize his own defeat." ~Anonymous
Can't wait to try new EVE clone state and ESO.
With One Tamriel you can go anywhere, but I recommend finding a single zone with a good story and playing through that zone. One Tamriel is great because you can always play with your friends, but there is so much content in the game, if you get too spread out you can get a little lost.
Since there is an Orsinium Event going on right now, I would recommend that. Great zone, great story, etc. If you haven't done so already, also focus on the main quest line, fighter's guild quest line, and mages guild quest line. Getting these done along with the zone you are working on will take some time and they all have good benefits.
Since the One Tamriel patch I have had a chance to leave my own factions area and explore freely, and am constantly amazed by the size and variety of the maps, and the sheer number of quests and places to explore.
As I get higher level (I am 250CP now) I am discovering the myriad ways I can customise my character, and its become more and more addictive. I admit I mostly PVE, as I did in EQ2, but they have created a wonderfully deep world to get lost in (imho)
"When people don't know much about something, they tend to fill in the blanks the way they want them to be filled in. They are almost always disappointed." - Will Wright
I don't game hop as much these days, though I do try other titles now and again just out of curiosity, because I realise that people are as important as anything else to the enjoyment in MMORPGs. There are a ton of games better suited to extended solo play, after all.
Jumping into a bunch of games for 1-3 hours a week just to solo around the world before moving to the next game... The thought makes me shudder. I would just rather play Civ or whatever.
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Best thing you don't get disconnected in BDO for being afk. Nothing bothers me more than some of my sub games booting me few min while afk when I pay for my game time. Wish more of my titles had these features.
Since you haven't played it before the whole new feeling and similarities to single player ES titles will be exciting for a while. Yet, eventually that wears off as ESO is a very different game in terms of being heavily instanced. The story is less linear with 1T sure, but it will make very little sense unless you pay close attention to it since you can hop around anywhere now, and such a key feature like factions are almost meaningless.
It comes down to if your a casual pver'er or roleplayer there is a large chance you will thoroughly enjoy the game for quite some time. If you're a hardcore pve'er you will enjoy it for a bit, mainly since it's knew, after a while though a lack of appealing mechanics/systems/updates will become apparent for a hardcore player. If you're a hardcore pvper, seeing as you were playing GW2 you might be, the game's current pvp is the worst since launch with a few brief exceptions in minor areas.
There's a reason the pvp community is so small and you can count hardcore guilds left per faction on one hand. If you're a casual pvp'er the current state of the game's pvp is easier/more casual oriented than it was 1-1.5 years ago. Yet, it still has a steep learning curve, broken mechanics, lag, imbalance, lack of content, and such a small community. I'd recommend starting with the non-vet pvp campaign, then the champion point free campaign, and then champion point campaigns at 300+. Unfortunately, really only one champion point campaign has a significant population left, due to issues stated above, but best of luck.
21 year MMO veteran
PvP Raid Leader
Lover of The Witcher & CD Projekt Red
The lure of guilds have faded for me because of that. I'm busy in rl my game time is valuable being a slave to one game and or one guild is out weighed by being able to come and go as I please. I enjoyed many years of Battlefield, Mech Warrior clans and my many WoW guilds but it was extremely time consuming, sometimes viral.
Games run their course people move on, game friends fleeting. LFG, soloing or grabbing a rl friend now and then my game time feels much more entertaining if that makes any sense.
The grind and pop-up has had its day with me.
The Elder Scrolls Online's Orsinium expansion arrived one year ago this month. To celebrate, Bethesda is launching a promotion where you can get the DLC for 75 percent off and enjoy double loot, among other bonuses.
Originally launched on November 2, 2015, Orsinium added a new zone that boasts a reported 20 hours of story content, as well as new dungeons. The expansion normally sells for 3,000 Crowns ($25), but with the 75 percent off discount, you can get it for around $6.25. Orsinium is included with Elder Scrolls Online Plus membership, which goes for $15/month. http://www.gamespot.com/articles/elder-scrolls-online-orsinium-expansion-is-75-off-/1100-6445184/
"We all do the best we can based on life experience, point of view, and our ability to believe in ourselves." - Naropa "We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are." SR Covey
Then I got into a random Heroic Dungeon group. They complained that my DPS was too low after the first boss and kicked me from the group.
Oh, yeah, thats why I stopped playing. The horrible community.
Uninstalled for good this time.
When grouping I found there are three things:
1) Join friendly PVE/PVP guilds for your timezone. This is probably intuitive but if you solo and/or don't join an active & large enough guild you will miss out in raids & fun PVP in Cyrodil.
2) Learn about the PVE a little before hand so you don't upset people's expectations who invite you into the group. You don't have to be the best build but you should have a coherent playstyle that you can explain to the group leader as well as communicating your gear defiencies. Most leaders will give you a shot as long as you listen to them regardless of playstyle and equipment.
3) Don't expect to faceroll PVP unless you have all the tricks and best build and cohesive and large groups. You should enjoy the little things in PVP such as good castle attacks/defenses, the PVP play in general, and teamwork. It's normal for one faction to have long runs at domination at certain hours at least so enjoy the small fights and don't get stressed out holding onto a small portion of the map at times. The map is large enough where you can find fun if one fight isn't getting anywhere. Joining multiple PVP guilds is worth it to get into one when the other isn't active (in my opinion).
I may try BDO one day. But I'm afraid its just like Archeage.
I find myself jumping around from game to game. Are our tastes just a little more refined? Is it that we're potentially a little "better off" than we were when we first started gaming, and can now afford any "AAA" title as soon as it comes out? Is it that the market is relatively saturated with quantity over quality?
It truly is a downward spiral, as someone has mentioned before. As I distribute my time amongst more and more titles, I fall behind the curve in each.
Disagree. If a game felt like home, you won't be hopping. The illusion of 'home' isn't the same as the real thing.