Why do you play? A question for hard-core PVE player.

washbern

I have abandoned this game a while ago. Most of my guilds are dead. Most of my toons are geared. All of the story and overland content is done. I have done all the vet trials and most of the dungeons excluding the most recent ones.

So, for those who are still all about raiding and downing content, why do you play and what keeps you coming back?

peacenote

My friends. I've always been here for the MMO part of this game. I don't spend much time in ESO solo.

phaneub17_ESO

Dirty casual, solo player, altoholic. Companions are my primary even with all their flaws and simple ai script. I solo run overland, delves, public dungeons, group dungeons, and arenas with them by my side. I raid on WoW as a feral druid in a casual guild, we accept anyone who wants to raid so we don't cut anyone out; currently at 7/8 on normal and 5/8 on heroic Aberrus.

ProudMary

washbern wrote: »

I have abandoned this game a while ago. Most of my guilds are dead. Most of my toons are geared. All of the story and overland content is done. I have done all the vet trials and most of the dungeons excluding the most recent ones.

So, for those who are still all about raiding and downing content, why do you play and what keeps you coming back?

U35 ran off more than 50% of the end game players, and I think that 50% is a conservative estimate. I think the actual percentage of dedicated players dropped closer to 80% with U35. Nefas and several other end game streamers and build masters made videos explaining why if you want to look up how and why this happened.

And those of us end game players still logging on daily or nearly daily have drastically reduced our play time. ZOS had it explained to them in painful detail by many players why this would happen before they dropped U35, but they still dropped it essentially unchanged, so players started actively searching for alternatives or just quit gaming as much.

Most of us left are just waiting for another option that has good combat.

ESO is exclusively catering to the casual player now IMO. IMO housing was the beginning of the end, then it was companions (yeah, companions in an MMO???), then it was a card game as a main feature. There's still a chance ZOS could bring back the lost end game community, but they seem to be continuing to try and run us off with more deleterious changes in U38, like the removal of an entire campaign of rewards in Cyrodiil and the removal of one of the primary goals in Cyrodiil by removing the faction health bonus for achieving emp. They won't even explain why they made this change or even if the change is intentional or not. ZOS just keeps making changes that discourage the end game community from sticking with the game.

Nestor

Because TV sucks. And the game does not.

washbern

Yeah, I'm the u35 leaver. Got so mad and could not recover the desire I felt prior. Something about this game makes me want to play but then I log in and....... wamp wamp.... no desire to repetitively do the same thing yet again.

I also migrated to WOW for now. Also casual. But yeah... thought I was missing something.

Soarora

Endgame is dead, there’s no doubt about it. But I found positivity in playing after taking a break due to the importance the game has to me as a TES player. I’ve quit doing dailies unless I actually want to do them and luckily the people I play with are still around.

That said, I’m only still here because Necrom’s actually good and zos seems to be trying to be better (although failing in some regards). I’ve been waiting a year with the plan that Necrom was going to be make-or-break for me.

ADarklore

Reminds me of FFXIV, where the real endgame is fashion. I'm OK with that, because with all my alts, I still have years worth of quests to complete if I can ever stick with one character for long.

Ragnarok0130

washbern wrote: »

I have abandoned this game a while ago. Most of my guilds are dead. Most of my toons are geared. All of the story and overland content is done. I have done all the vet trials and most of the dungeons excluding the most recent ones.

So, for those who are still all about raiding and downing content, why do you play and what keeps you coming back?

I like the challenge of tackling new content at progresssively harder levels, I like the team work with a raid team and I like the friendships and socialization that comes along with forming a team and being part of a guild. As much as I love the ESO story lines it's the PVE group content that keeps me playing rather than knocking out a chapter's story line and logging off until the next one drops like I did early in the game's history.

Ragnarok0130

Soarora wrote: »

Endgame is dead, there’s no doubt about it. .

It's not dead but it is greatly diminished compared to the thriving end game we had in U34...perhaps on life support is more accurate. U35 was a worse Morrowind IMO and it'll take a long time to recover and it's all because of certain "people" not listening to end game players about the hugely negative impact U35 would bring to the end game.

Gargath

I play because of an interesting lore, the lizards, cat folks and such, and because I came here after finishing Morrowing, Oblivion and TESV Skyrim for several times and wanted to continue playing Elder Scrolls.
ESO already became dull to me, with excessively repeating content, similar quests, annoying flashing mounts and abilities, flapping monstrosities, wall of text lines to click over and over, and immersion-breaking decisions of the Makers to change good things into rubbish (like with Plaguebreak) only because now they see something from different perspective.
I keep returning and even subbing the game, probably because I like to harvest resources, trade items and test different sets and abilities.
Though since last Plaguebreak change my willing to daily logging into game significantly decreased. Suddenly I noticed I have lots of other games installed that can also be interesting to play.

Castagere

I'M a solo player and have been a TES fan since the Daggerfall launch. So I play it like a mostly single-player TES game.

Braffin

Simply for the lore and the nice atmosphere this game still delivers. A casual game for playing with my girlfriend (we both did PvE endgame in eso when it still existed years ago).

Wouldn't bother with this game, if it weren't for tes-lore tho.

SeaGtGruff

I'm not an end-game player, but I do consider myself to be hardcore-- casually hardcore, or a hardcore casual.

I prefer to focus on mid-game, or all the things you do after you've leveled- and geared-up a bit but aren't ready to wrap up the main questline and all of the side questlines and then call the game done and move on. I'd rather live in the gameworld day to day so I can keep enjoying it.

That doesn't stop me from playing other games, because I do play other games-- currently other TES games, although I've got games from other series that I can dig into if I feel like it. I play different TES games for different reasons. Arena is good for relatively short dungeon crawls out in the wilderness. Daggerfall is good for much longer and more involved dungeon crawls. I'm also playing through Morrowind and Oblivion again, but am generally trying to take my time with them. More rarely I'll do a few radiant quests in Skyrim, or just run around fighting random enemies and enjoying the sights.

What I love about ESO is that there is so much to do-- not just a lot of places to explore, as in Daggerfall, but a wide variety of activities. I rarely get bored in the game, because if there's nothing else I feel like doing then I always enjoy running around in overland killing mobs and bosses, harvesting resources, and taking in the scenery. The daily endeavors usually serve me as a sort of daily to-do list, prompting me to do some activity I haven't done much lately, and I also have specific activities that I do every day as part of my routine.

For me, the trick is to avoid the temptation to become so powerful that most things become trivial, and I also prefer not to grind content over and over for some piece of gear, Antiquity lead, motif page, or other RNG drop; I let those things happen as they will, which makes them more of a pleasant surprise instead of "Finally!!!" an end to an agonizing, tedious, and frustrating grind. I've currently acquired only 3 mythics-- only 1 of which is very useful to me, and I use it only on occasion-- and I'm in no hurry to try to acquire all of the rest.

FantasticFreddie

I still have hardmodes to get

Tenthirty2

I play because I still enjoy it.

There is still a huge wealth of things to do for me and always new things to learn. Really loving Necrom and the new zones, new places for me to blunder into

I'm not going to list all the content bcuz we all know what it is. So yeah, all of that. That is what I enjoy
About the only piece of all available content I don't really bother with regularly is PVP.
That said, I do have a very good set of stealth gear that I like to run across Cyro with, farming and doing maps, etc. IC is pretty fun too, getting through without being seen

Here's the thing for me. ESO lets me look how I want, design what I wish, be whoever I wish to be and still enjoy the crafted content and stories.
I don't HAVE to play as Jeff the Sworddude, who wears only THIS outfit and swings only THIS sword and sleeps on a cot in a tent bcuz the writers only wrote the narratives for a "Jeff".

I can go through the same stories Jeff does but do them as the Great White Wolf Goddess of Elsweyr, Destroyer of Dragons, Protector of Furry Creatures and Lover of Cheese and Wine.
I can create my own backstories and histories, all of it. And still go through quests and stories, it all works well the same.

So I guess it's the flexibility to play whatever kind of character I wish, design whatever kinds of outfits and gear I like, place a cot in a tent or build a huge temple designed however I can imagine.
ESO isn't a completely unlimited game, but it's the closest I've found yet.

The only way I could see myself not feeling like playing is if another game sucked me in as much as TES does, that hasn't happened yet. Fallout has a similar draw, again due to the flexibility. I play other stuff sure, something like Starfield may drag me away for awhile, but I'll still be playing ESO too. I will likely be here until they turn the lights off for good.
And here's to hoping that never happens

AzuraFan

I'm doing stuff like chasing down lore books, and achievements I want but don't yet have. I'm also playing through Necrom right now.

Having said that, I expect to wind down a lot of my ESO time in the next couple of months due to some blockbuster single-player releases. I'm already splitting my time between ESO and single-player games.

TaSheen

I'm not a hard-core anything even though I spend hours every day in ESO. I love it, so I play it.

@Tenthirty2 - you said the perfect mouthful, so thank you! Now I don't have to.

Tenthirty2

TaSheen wrote: »

I'm not a hard-core anything even though I spend hours every day in ESO. I love it, so I play it.

@Tenthirty2 - you said the perfect mouthful, so thank you! Now I don't have to.

/bows
Haha, you are welcome, always happy to be of service

Carcamongus

I play because the game, most of the times, makes me feel good. I'm not sure what the definition of hardcore player is, but I suppose having over 14k hours on my DK might qualify me. I do a little bit of everything, though housing has been taking more of my time lately, so it's harder for me to get bored with the game if this or that activity becomes dull. It helps I'm a TES fan, so the stories, people and places remain relevant to me.

Northwold

Housing, basically, and what's needed to support that. But also because I find pottering around the landscapes in the game can be relaxing in a way other games can't because the game is so huge that, eg, if I want to pop into a desert one day and stare at waterfalls the next, I can.

But I'm not a "hardcore" player and would never want to be. There is so much meaningless busy work in the game (crafting writs, dailies) and, especially playing solo, trying to keep up with stuff like that on a daily basis strikes me as not a sensible way to employ one's free time. The game simply ceases to be enjoyable and becomes like having an utterly pointless, mindlessly repetitive virtual job, otherwise.

Jaraal

I mostly PvP, but as far as PvE goes, most of my time is spent searching for and acquiring (and sometimes selling) rare items in the game. It's like a treasure hunt on a grand scale.

WeylandLabs

ESO saves me money IRL playing solo - having obligations to guilds or people in ESO I don't mess with anymore. But playing solo is just a fun time to pass the time if you're trying to relax.

Besides that ESO - I wouldn't allow myself to create personal relationships and/or internet friendships because after a while you feel, obligated to them. And having a real life doesn't mesh well with that. I'm an adult have adult responsibilities in the real world.

But I can say is guilds have made businesses out of it through boosting discord servers and if you can get a few 500 guilds to run stuff you can make a profit. But Zos really don't pay attention to that stuff so the reason why I think people in a lot other countries play ESO today. More people from North America have moved on I feel.

LittlePinkDot

washbern wrote: »

I have abandoned this game a while ago. Most of my guilds are dead. Most of my toons are geared. All of the story and overland content is done. I have done all the vet trials and most of the dungeons excluding the most recent ones.

So, for those who are still all about raiding and downing content, why do you play and what keeps you coming back?

PVP

EramTheLiar

I think it's a fun game. I think the devs made some... unwise decisions in u35, but because I don't play optimized I think most of it didn't affect me the way it affected the upper tier players.

Lumsdenml

First of all because it is set in the Elder Scrolls world. I fell in love with the lore, the stores, the fantasy of the world back when Morrowind (TESIII) came out and Elder Scrolls games have been my main game ever since. Secondly because there is always something to do. I don't limit myself to simply end game content. I chase achievements, I PVP, I do battle grounds I do the card game, I complete the overland maps, I do BGs, I do the antiquities. I'll focus on one thing, then when I get burnt out, I'll move on to something else. People complain about u35, but I actually had better DPS number after than before, and it didn't change anything for me. But I play mostly because I love the world.

Uvi_AUT

What happened in U35 that the Hardcores dont like?

As a casual I play because the game is just so huge. There is so much to do. ESO is as close to an infinite MMO as it gets.

Lumsdenml

Uvi_AUT wrote: »

What happened in U35 that the Hardcores dont like?

As a casual I play because the game is just so huge. There is so much to do. ESO is as close to an infinite MMO as it gets.

Base damage of all weapons no longer scale, but have a flat damage number

Uvi_AUT

Lumsdenml wrote: »

Uvi_AUT wrote: »

What happened in U35 that the Hardcores dont like?

As a casual I play because the game is just so huge. There is so much to do. ESO is as close to an infinite MMO as it gets.

Base damage of all weapons no longer scale, but have a flat damage number

And thats something Hardcores dont like? I dont feel any difference.

Zodiarkslayer

Because I want to.

colossalvoids

Guess I technically count as one even considering myself pretty casual.

It's people, I probably won't be coming back if it was just about content itself as it's dependant on other parts of the game that might change negatively for me despite encounter team doing incredible job overall.