Has anyone else had no drive to play ESO?

Jarl_Ironheart

First off I wanna say I'm a Mega Elder Scrolls fan. I've played morrowind, I LOVE oblivion, played skyrim a ton and I've been playing ESO since 2016. I even have a character outfit I do for photos shoots based off my elder scrolls character. But lately... I have had zero drive or want to play the game.

I usually play daily and definitely play events but I haven't logged on in a couple weeks. I still have a ton of stuff to do in game so I didn't run out of content. For example the stalwart sovangarde style is a outfit ive been wanting and huntjng for awhile but they cant even make my log on. I don't know if I'm burnt out or what. Is anyone else having a hard time getting onto ESO or am I just weird.

Soarora

Sounds like burnout to me. Don't stress about it, instead have a nice break. You'll enjoy the game more when you come back since it'll all be more fresh again.

FluffWit

I took about 3 months off, getting back into it now.

Wouldn't say it was burnout, just got frustrated with how my builds became trash after u35. Still cant be bothered trying to adjust to those changes but I'm getting back into doing the events and trading.

I'm also playing Fallout 76, it's really fun but at end game there just isn't much to do. ESO.... I just never run out of stuff to do.

OhDios

Same as you my friend, I stop playing at U35, with my pockets full of gold, legendary items, Achievements, etc.
I just lost my will to play, everything became routine, each new chapter the same farming for new items, and the stories more and more silly and lack of content, the quests monotonous ...without history... without lore.

I know Steam isn't the whole TESO player base but check out the tendencies this is a Year to Year Comp.
https://steamcharts.com/app/306130#All
October 2018 18,229 players
October 2019 21,527 players
October 2020 33,807 players
October 2021 29,949 players
October 2022 22,010 players

I remain hopeful that the game's management realizes that the sales and marketing group is destroying their player base, and gives the story makers once again the importance they deserve at the drawing table.

KlauthWarthog

Well, I uninstalled this week, so there's that.

Cryptor

Sounds like burnout to me. Take a break from gaming, and come back reinvigorated Personally, i am the opposite, playing daily right now and I think will be doing a deep dive during winter.

whitecrow

I've been playing the event to pass the time, but it's mostly because I don't have any social activities in real life.

When the event is over I suppose I'll go back to Firesong, but I have no real drive, as you say.

Vrienda

ESO’s a habit for me at this stage, I log on, claim the daily, do the event. Only do Endeavours if I can be bothered. Log off.

But I definitely feel more down in it lately. This year’s been the worst in the game’s history bar the one gleaming spark that is one bar Oakensoul builds, which basically reinvigorated the combat for me.

The one problem is that the content always feels the same. Every year since Elsweyr stories, gameplay types of content have been the same repetitive slurry. ZOS needs to break out, take a risk. Cut some dungeons and use it’s quarterly slot to do something different. Abandon the year-long “adventure” style of design and obsession with freezing the timeline in place that’re leaving the setting so stagnant and bland.

Otherwise this game’ll just fizzle out.

If next year winds up being a botching of Telvanni lore for the sake of pushing another stupid cult down our throats then I dunno if I’ll make it to the 10 year anniversary. Elsweyr’s dragon cult? The Court of Bedlam? Gray Host? Waking Flame? Ascendent Order? Worm Cult? What’s the bloody difference? Do something new PLEASE.

markulrich1966

I'm actually very unmotivated.

I strife through Galen, having picked up the 3 daily quests.
Finish them, head back to the questgiver.

All I get as reward are 2 pieces of jewelry and some minor gear.

I have done 2000-3000 daily quests in the past, mainly summerset and Elsweyr, as those were rewarding (Culanda Laquer, shimmering sand, crafty alfiq for sale, sapiarch motifs). This kept me repeating the quests, and I even enjoyed it, as both regions are visually pleasing.

Galen (and High-Isle) look good, too, but the terrible rewards can not convince me to continue. I suddenly feel "lost". Why do I even waste my time with this?
Just ordered an xbox series S today (black friday), and already ask myself, if this was a good idea. Because I currently feel just like logging out after I did my dailies and tried hard to motivate me doing Galen quests on three characters.

Carcamongus

Jarl_Ironheart wrote: »

First off I wanna say I'm a Mega Elder Scrolls fan. I've played morrowind, I LOVE oblivion, played skyrim a ton and I've been playing ESO since 2016. I even have a character outfit I do for photos shoots based off my elder scrolls character. But lately... I have had zero drive or want to play the game.

I usually play daily and definitely play events but I haven't logged on in a couple weeks. I still have a ton of stuff to do in game so I didn't run out of content. For example the stalwart sovangarde style is a outfit ive been wanting and huntjng for awhile but they cant even make my log on. I don't know if I'm burnt out or what. Is anyone else having a hard time getting onto ESO or am I just weird.

There are times when I don't feel like logging and so I just do endeavors, claim the daily reward, maybe do a daily quest and then leave. That often happens after an event's over, but it can also be because of my mood.

Maybe you could try different activities? Since you're a TES fan, you probably like the lore, so one thing I do every now and then is visit UESP and read a little. Since ESO covers much of Tamriel, there's a good chance locations mentioned in the lore will be present in the game, so I visit them. You can also come up with your own quests or objectives: I realized I was spending very little time in Blackreach, so for a while I'd go there every day to explore and admire that place's beauty. Note that these two examples involve no RNGeesus, which is, quite frankly, a big source of burnout in the game.

There's nothing wrong with taking a break, of course. But if you hesitate to do that, you can try to come up with your own adventures.

Elsonso

Soarora wrote: »

Sounds like burnout to me. Don't stress about it, instead have a nice break. You'll enjoy the game more when you come back since it'll all be more fresh again.

Wishful thinking. In my experience, it doesn't really get fresher with time away. It gets more dated, and the poor design decisions that were once accepted or overlooked now stand out. It doesn't help when they have events like the one running now where the main event quest is poorly designed and the event tickets are super expensive when compared to Witches Festival.

FluffyBird

I'm tired of how QA is nonexistent and writing gets worse every season, so I'm out. Will jump in to grab the last hourglass piece, because that would be a shame to miss, but that's it. I mean, if a weekly endeavor and putting old loot on sale feel like too much effort - it's time for a break.
I don't know what they have to promise for the next season for me to play again. New team, I guess.

Casdha

I struggled with this before (losing motivation) but I just can't seem to quit completely so I came up with a solution that works for me and it is simple I don't worry about missing time anymore.

I don't try to keep up with changes and my only goal is to complete story content when it comes out. I do take random romps in some of the events when the mood hits me but it isn't something I feel I have to do and I no longer have fear of missing out on something because anything other than story has become nothing more than an occasional time killer for me. Heck I don't thing I've changed the look of my main two characters since Summerset came out.

If I continued to worry about all of the changes in this game I would have probably given up in year 2. I refuse to be a competitionist with this game being as I loath a big chunk of what some of this game has changed into since launch. That given, I still like the lore and the world and I will continue to play this,,,,,,, at least until 6 comes out.

I'll be honest, after being here for as long as I have and the size this game has grown to, I have a fear that 6 will never live up to expectations in comparison,,,,, other than the technological jump it will take.

DMuehlhausen

It's ok to take a break.

phairdon

Kind of burned out and losing interest. Time for me to take an extended break, which I've done before.

FeedbackOnly

My feedback and own opinion is that they got to do better next year.

We had issues before this year but failures this year were unexcusable. Like I don't want another letter nor pet, I want to have fun in game.

My personal problem is they are listening far worse this year.

PTS major bugs go live again

Changing entire gameplay of class dps in update 35 wasn't okay. It's not the dps lost but entire different game kind of shake up

The chapter was not listening to players. While the card game is fun, it wasn't right time. It's not okay to not have a real combat addition after so many years.

The server update was disaster for PC NA . We had nearly 2 weeks of game being literally Unplayable for majority of people.

Let's talk update 36...does the block bug still exist?

Then their was twitter episodes showing disregarded for feelings of community


It is my personal opinion that the game could do a lot better this upcoming year, respecting player base. We are here because we want to enjoy the wonderful world.

Jarl_Ironheart

It would be nice if they really tried to make combat fun again and challenging and make enemies unique to fight or make stories that aren't very copy and paste.

I really wish we could have more difficult combat, I love harder games. ESO content is just brain dead easy even with no gear and no cp at lvl one. Some world bosses are hard but other than that it's very meh and boring

FeedbackOnly

Jarl_Ironheart wrote: »

It would be nice if they really tried to make combat fun again and challenging and make enemies unique to fight or make stories that aren't very copy and paste.

I really wish we could have more difficult combat, I love harder games. ESO content is just brain dead easy even with no gear and no cp at lvl one. Some world bosses are hard but other than that it's very meh and boring

I would settle for another group finder. There's things to do but it's just you can't do them all alone or it's boring

Help me group for world events, questing like hews bane we're it is an arena fight, even world bosses

phaneub17_ESO

Can't talk, playing Dragon people.

SownRose

I took a break after the first story part of this year in high isle. I actually went back and started playing tes 3 morrowind again. I came back for the end of the story. I've enjoyed a few days in Western Skyrim. I'm kind of disappointed tonight with how Mel's story ended...the big boss won't spawn. Some of the people there were saying it's because people were standing on the spawn point. I guess I'll try again tomorrow. But I can see myself going back to Morrowind in less than a month. But I've done this before and taking breaks does help. I'll go play fallout 3 or something for a few months and then come back and it's like new again!

rpa

It's not your duty to keep playing if you dont enjoy it. My first break from ESO was couple of years and last was about half year. There is a silly little Steam game "Stanley Parable" which has an achievement from not playing it for 5 years. I'd get that if I bothred to reinstall it.

SeaGtGruff

All my life I've tended to wander from one shiny object to another, pouring a lot of time and energy and money into one thing after another, and shelving interests for years at a time before eventually returning to them.

Gaming has been no exception, and I stopped gaming for several years before rekindling my love of RPGs by repurchasing Morrowind, Oblivion, and Skyrim on Steam with all expansions. Arena and ESO followed shortly after, and I've been playing ESO daily ever since, even expanding my playtime to play on two servers. While I don't have 18 characters per server-- just 8 on one and 7 on the other-- and I play almost exclusively on my two mains, I can always switch over to one or more of my alts if I get bored with my mains.

I suppose that one day I might shelve my gaming again, but right now it's difficult to imagine that happening anytime soon. On the other hand, my manner of playing ESO has changed from my initial got-to-run-everywhere-see-everything-and-do-all-quests hyper excitement; for the last several years I've slipped into a much more leisurely daily routine where I'm no longer driven by the same degree of intensity. However, that isn't a reaction to any updates or changes in the game; it's merely a relaxing of my gameplay to fall into an enjoyable I'm-going-to-be-here-for-a-long-time sort of groove. I'm spending more money on ESO than ever, not less, so that should speak volumes about how I feel about the game.

Some of the things that I think have helped me to keep holding strong and avoid burnout in ESO are (1) a lack of grinding for things like Set gear, Antiquity leads, and Achievements; (2) a lack of focusing on, or getting "too caught up in," my characters' builds and particulars such as their DPS; (3) an appreciation and enjoyment of just about every aspect of the game, such that I can focus on different portions of the game from one day or week to the next rather than just doing the same thing day after day; and (4) continuing to play the single-player TES games on a more-or-less daily basis, such that I can always switch over to a few hours of Arena, Daggerfall, Morrowind, Oblivion, or Skyrim if I start to feel like I need a change of pace.

If you're feeling burned out with the game (or anything else in life), don't hesitate to put it aside so you can do other things for a while. But also, don't resist the idea of sticking with it but doing a major shift of gears or direction so you aren't continually pushing yourself toward the same goal(s) and can keep things fresh and interesting for yourself. Or, if you feel you've already done everything and tried every approach, then by all means, take a break and give it a rest if that's what you need.

Stridig

It comes and goes. Most friends are gone, monetization driving people away and no PvP content make it hard to play sometimes. It's great if you like decorating homes.

Oakenaxe

Yeah, I stopped playing after U36 but have been disappointed with the way things were going since U35. The things I used to enjoy the most about this game are in a bad shape these days, and the lack of communication from the company saddened me, making it difficult to trust that things will get better in a near future.

Mesite

I've been spending more time on my second account. It doesn't have any chapters or DLC just wrothgar and morrowind so I can enjoy the base game without feeling like I need to find all the antiquities, or psijic rifts etc.

Chill for a while, it's fine.

axi

It's the poor server performance for me. Lately it got noticably worse. Missing every 4th or 5th ability that I click and sometimes being forced to click some skill 5 times just for it to not fire or fire with massive delay or to perform some wierd shenanigans on screen is really not fun.

TaSheen

I'm playing as much as or maybe more than I did in the past. Log in for hours every day.

Kingsindarkness

I play every day...and laugh when I see a forum name run by that has supposedly "quit the game in such and such patch"


Sounds like the OP is more into single-player RPG's but I understand we all get burned out...take a break, have a Kit Kat.


mmmmm Kit Kat.

KMarble

I stopped doing trials because I was getting lag so bad, my skills would only fire after the bosses were defeated. I stopped running dungeons because HA was (still is?) unreliable - the last drop was when I saw a lightning bolt go off my staff straight behind my character.

When U33 came, I stopped my subscription due to how the whole thing came down - not so much because of how convoluted it became to play with alts, but for the way we were treated.
Housing and daily writs are now out of the list of activities in game for me due to lack of space to place furnishings down and to store mats. Farming nodes is also out.

I stopped farming for furnishing plans after Fargrave came out. Stealing lost its luster due to very low drop rates, instead we now get a random room we're supposed to steal from for an achievement.

I finally went to High Isle around the time of the event there and found a new bug! Every now and again, while fighting stronger enemies, like WBs, my char will freeze as if I was about to get a disconnect, then a random window from the menu pops up - not because I clicked a button, the window is translucent and won't go away when hitting the alt button. After a few seconds I can finally dismiss the phantom window, and if I'm lucky my char won't be dead.
No point in being subjected to that annoyance every day just for a very small change of getting a motif or furnishing plan drop.

What is there left for me to do? Ah, yes! The story... Where my char is hard of hearing, has severe short term memory loss and has such low IQ, the best she can do is fetch stuff for NPCs.

xilfxlegion

for about 5 years now

Cadbury