I have read an incredible amount of negative commentary over the past 24hrs, so I wanted to express my own experience of the recent patch and ESO in general. For context, I tend to play solo and was more interested in Elder Scrolls Online as a Skyrim replacement than for its player-v-player action. I'm playing via an iMac and I'm currently Level 37/38.
Since the update, I'm crashing out less than I was in the early days of Skyrim on an Xbox. Importantly, if I experience a crash, I'm almost always exactly where I was when the crash took place, when I log back in. Thumbs up.
The size of the patch is a bit of a pain as it seems to take forever to download. Realistically, though, this is simply the price you pay for online gaming, surely? Frustrating, but I guess I'm more frustrated at my connection speed than anything else.
There are still quest bugs, but I appreciate that this is a massive piece of gaming architecture and that it will take a long time to iron out the kinks. Again, from my experience there are fewer quest bugs than in the early days of Skyrim.
I don't understand the issues with certain skills being modified in order to create a balance across the game. I lost a couple of skills in the latest update and had the choice to either drop a skill point in a new place, or repurchase the lost skill in its new configuration. I am cool with that - I just don't get that this is a problem.
Finally, I really appreciate that new content is being added AS WELL AS bug patches being rolled out - I want to know that the game has a future. I might be at the level to use the new content, but it is good to know that I'm heading towards something.
So, there you have it. I'm really enjoying ESO. I was worried that the cost wouldn't be worth it, but for me it really has been and will continue to be for quite some time to come. Forever? Well, who knows? I'm not really concerned about forever.
As an aside, I love this forum, too. Generally speaking some great people taking out time to help one another. It would be good if we could have a category called "Whingers" so that the noisy, unhappy few who want to decry content, bugs, world peace, etc., can do so outside of the helpful stuff.