Housing business decisions

Alexsai

I have been playing MMORPG's since there was such a thing. After purchasing Elder Scrolls Online a couple of years ago while housing was still in development, I finally loaded it up and subscribed when housing launched. I am still a subscriber as of this month but I’m losing interest.

The game is fantastic for many reasons. I have played many fantastic games over the years. Like a lot of people, I have time to play, and money to pay for, one or maybe two games at any given time in my life. Housing is the reason I chose to subscribe to this one at this time.

I've been reviewing the housing issues noted here over the months since housing was added. Many paid subscribers and others have raved about the beauty of the houses but complained about the lack of interaction and life in the houses.

Yes and yes, I agree completely on both. I am very confused as to why the company made the decision to put so much time and talent into creating the absolutely stunning homes and properties but left them lifeless.

After several months I no longer can make myself log in during my free time. For a few weeks at first, I bought a couple of big houses and added some furniture, and went to many more house previews. But after putting some furniture in them and moving a few things around, I cannot get a "feel" for what I would do in the houses even if I sunk a couple more (or easily several) hundred dollars into buying houses and furniture. There is nothing to do. I just look around. Then I leave.

Expensive – Yikes. The houses and furniture are so expensive that even if I wanted to just buy and furnish lifeless houses for a few weeks or months to keep some semblance of creativity flowing, there is no way I could or would put that kind of money for the little I would get in return. I am already paying a monthly fee. With some of the houses costing over a hundred dollars and each piece of furniture very expensive, it can take MANY MONTHS of crowns as a subscriber to buy ONE house. It would take TWO MONTHS of paying the monthly subscription to buy one crafting station. Along with many other things, that is what I had hoped to do in my house but the cost and the lack of interactive storage options and things that go with crafting, it just does not look fun.

So as it stands today, it’s just a matter of time before I pull my subscription and spend the money on some other game that comes along which makes me feel excited to play again. And that makes me really sad. I told my family and friends about the great new housing in this game and they subscribed but we can’t even muster time and interest to get on together and play, it’s just boring in the houses and there is no reason for us to go there. And I can’t get motivated to join a guild in this game because there is not enough interesting stuff to do and flexibility to build and interact with the environment in housing and guild halls and such with other players. Another item that is like glue to a player - Joining a guild.

I played UO and SWG for years so considering the era, I am pretty spoiled where housing is concerned. With my gaming history I really expected that ESO was going to do something as interactive, if not far MORE interactive and fun than those older games. Storage utilities. Interractive furniture. Vending machines. Flowing fountains. Moving and interactive pets and NPC’s and communities and cities. I know everybody has their own expectations those are just a few of mine. I have not seen any plans to implement any of these things. The one "fountain" I researched to buy this weekend turned out to not even have flowing water. That is not a fountain.

Point is, your development team must understand the reasons housing is important to the future of the game. It's not just about creating beautiful houses, even though they ARE very stunning. There needs to be a better understanding of what value the house brings to the player of the game and why and how and where are questions that do not seem to have been asked and answered. Hopefully not asked and answered YET?

The company should realize that housing is like GLUE to a game – It binds players like me to your game because it has functional and fun stuff to do. It makes us feel like we have our own permanent part in a virtual world. It gives us a feeling of belonging in the world you have created and a place to literally hang up our hat when logging off.

So I am asking for a closer look at the business end here. SELL me. It feels to this player like the business decision makers said “Let's make some great houses and say we have housing now. But let’s wait not spend the resources on the content". Maybe they plan to develop these things in the coming weeks and months (years?). Well those of us who are bored because of the limited nature of the housing functionality the first several months will be gone in the coming months and years. We are not seeing much said about future development in this area. (If it IS being posted somewhere, please let me know, looking for hope here.)

Players like us can find challenging beasties and beautiful scenery in many games. I thought this one would be my “for years” game. One like that doesn’t come along very often. And ESO...so close.

To anyone who might have the urge to say “Quit complaining, you don’t have to play” like I have seen some players tell others many times when voicing their opinions here, save it. It’s like telling your internet service provider you think the service should be better. You PAY for it and you have choices on whose service you use. If it works for you PART of the time, while other times it is too slow or disconnects you, you ask them to improve the service you are paying for to better meet your expectations. If they do not, you switch services to one that hits on your expectations.

This one is not hitting the expectations I have of housing. Not for the money. I Hope someone in a place to make decisions starts telling us what’s coming for housing, if anything.

Thanks for listening.

Omega_Cumulonimbus

Good post and understand your frustration. I do however, believe Housing within ESO is still in its infancy and will be expanded upon based on the very vocal community. Will these presumed housing expanses meet your time frame? I would doubt it as I believe it will be a slowly implemented trickle vs. major revamp. However, I would forecast that in a years' time a housing enthusiast will be able to reflect on housing with sentences such as 'remember item count limits? - remember no storage ability?-remember no NPC servants/deco's?'.

I will say I belong to a GREAT housing guild that has really evolved into its own great social hub called Hearthlight which has really brought a great aspect to my own gaming experience. I would highly suggest other housing enthusiasts as yourself and your friends look into joining. We as a guild can offer alot that would really add to the vaule of your ingame time-too much to mention honestly.

My last suggestion would be STOP SPENDING CROWNS ie REAL MONEY. It is not necessary (for the most part, based on wants). These are things that I and the guild I belong to can help with, and do for many on a regular basis. ESO-like UO (yep-6 yrs there myself) is an expansive world and its up to the player to 'blaze the trail' in many regards. I really think your just a bit lost on WHAT to do which is keeping you from-as you stated-logging on, whereas many of us find there is SO much to do we cant do all we want to in a single sitting.

Hope this helps direct you a bit-would be happy to meet up in game any time. My tag is my name-hit me up!

Jayne_Doe

I agree with the suggestion to not spend crowns on housing and furniture. It is much more satisfying to me to save up gold to purchase houses and then furnish them by crafting and buying from other players. It is time consuming and expensive (in-game gold-wise), but it is worth it to slowly see your house come together. Plus, it gives you incentives to play the game to earn gold.

However, if you're not a master crafter, it is difficult to make most of the furnishings, and it does take some time to become a master crafter. But, you can purchase furniture from other players, so you would just need to work on earning the gold.

Also, I do think that the housing system would look much different if ESO still had a subscription model. I don't think that furnishing plans would be as difficult to find or the furniture as difficult to make, if it weren't for the fact that they really want players to purchase these things in the Crown Store. I think we might also have more functionality, like storage. I suspect we'll have storage when they've figured out the best way to monetize it.

But, like other things in this game, it feels to me that ZOS has approached housing from an awkward or simplistic vantage point. Perhaps they designed a system that is too rigid or simple and without a lot of work, it can't accommodate what players actually want from it. Didn't they poll players on what they wanted from housing before starting? Perhaps they did, and then, classic ZOS, they just decided to do what they wanted or what would take the least amount of time/money/effort. Perhaps it's because the system was really designed for the Crown Store and was essentially made as a vehicle to generate real word money.

karrie7

Well if the furniture limit was higher you would have fuller houses and they wouldnt feel empty,also you can buy furnishings from guild store with in-game gold.

Romikov

agree i play AION, Dungeon and Dragons Online, and i must say the housing and guild houses in this games are usefull, for long time bufs and cultivation items and comunity contakts, Aion hawe rly good system, and the system is rly good for owner fame. In DDO same. - I must add that, notwithstanding the absence of a guild house, we are very lacking assessment of the quality and success of the guild.