Akatosh Living Armor Senche - Free?!??!?!

spartaxoxo

Pixiepumpkin wrote: »

spartaxoxo wrote: »

Pixiepumpkin wrote: »

spartaxoxo wrote: »

Pixiepumpkin wrote: »

spartaxoxo wrote: »

Pixiepumpkin wrote: »

sarahthes wrote: »

Pixiepumpkin wrote: »

LordDraw wrote: »

Pixiepumpkin wrote: »

So unless you knew over a year ago to save for these free items (which no one did), then and only then could they be "free".

So I'm "no one" because I saved enough (I also missed buying some cosmetics like Dancer personality from Carnaval Crates btw) and when Akatosh vs. Alduin Crate appeared, I had....57280 seals of Endeavor. And yes, I bought Dragonclash Living Armor Senche, World-Eater's Living Armor and Time's Herald Living Armor for seals.



Note that there's still plenty amount of time to get either seals or crown gems to snatch them.

One can amass roughly 2125 seales per month. So roughly 25500 a year. Obviously that is playing EVERY day and doing endeavors EVERY day on top of weekly endeavor grinds. Forget that people work, goto school and have a myriad of other things that keep them from a leisurly experience making playing every day and grinding all of these endeavors out a near impossibiliy...lets forget all of that.

So if someone played every day, saved all their endeavors, not spending any of them. Saving all of them for that cool free mount that they do not know even exists (crown crate information is not published a year or more in advance). Then and only then would this mount be "free".

And TECHNICALLY speaking, nothing in this game is "free". The base game has a cost and chapters have a cost or subbing to ESO+. Not all endeavors are base game only.

I personally find it extremely interesting that you had 2 years of endeavors saved up, never swayed or persuaded by any previous offering during that time period, but had them ready for this one, that no one knew was coming.

What I said remains true. These are a FAR cry from "free".

Why is that interesting? The last time I spent endeavors on any mount was over 18 months ago as well, at least that's my best guess given I have around 25K and I don't pay attention to them, I just earn them passively when the endeavor tasks match my normal gameplay.

1. Endeavors can buy more than mounts. Meaning the lure to buy something is much greater than "just mounts"
2. I find it interesting because this person rarely posts, odd day to come out and be the one scenario (blind squirrel catches a nut case) to "refute" my claim (which it does not, their endeavor count is not illustrative of the population as a whole).
I see a lot of these kinds of posts...its almost too coincidental.

There's always going to be disagreement. This game has millions of accounts. If you make a claim that's true of 99% of the population, that's still 1% of the population that doesn't apply to. There are 25 million accounts so that's 250k people who could be scrolling through the official website, see something they didn't agree with because they're living proof it is not 100% of all players, and decide to post about it.

Except that there are not 25 million accounts scrolling through the forums. Take the player base who have multiple accounts (one of my guildies has 10 accounts himself), get rid of the ones who tried eso and left because they did not like it, etc etc etc and your numbers fall drastically.

Its still a convenient coincidence.

That doesn't matter to the overall point that there would still be millions of people who are playing this game and therefore have reason to scroll through the website.

It's not a convenient coincidence. It is basic math. That's why sweeping, unsubstantiated claims generally weaken your argument not help it. Because claims that "nobody" does this or that is easily refuted by literally one person coming in and doing it.

Except I never made a sweeping unsubstantialted claim. Go read the OP. I just stated numbers. The one rare person with enough points to "refute" my argument (I already stated this) does not "refute it" as they project.

As the saying goes. "Even a blind squirrel can catch a nut once in awhile". Or "A broken clock is right two times a day".

I am going with convenient coincidence.

Sure, I'll reread. It's right here.

So unless you knew over a year ago to save for these free items (which no one did), then and only then could they be "free".

Here you did and this is the one the person was refuting. They didn't know it would be the living senche armor but they knew they wanted to be ready for something they wanted that was very expensive and saved accordingly. Lots of people do that, actually. They save until something comes along that they absolutely can't do without and save a ton of seals to cover any price it could be.

This person did that and got the living armor. Good for them. That took discipline.

There is not a soul alive that does not work or is affiilated with zenimax online that knew these mounts would come out at this time with free offerings requiring 25000 endeavors a year ago. Nothing I stated was incorrect, or even hyperbole.

I already addressed that. They didn't know it was specifically the Living Armor Senche, but they did know something expensive that they liked would come along eventually and planned accordingly. Plenty of people do that.

Pixiepumpkin

spartaxoxo wrote: »

Pixiepumpkin wrote: »

spartaxoxo wrote: »

Pixiepumpkin wrote: »

spartaxoxo wrote: »

Pixiepumpkin wrote: »

spartaxoxo wrote: »

Pixiepumpkin wrote: »

sarahthes wrote: »

Pixiepumpkin wrote: »

LordDraw wrote: »

Pixiepumpkin wrote: »

So unless you knew over a year ago to save for these free items (which no one did), then and only then could they be "free".

So I'm "no one" because I saved enough (I also missed buying some cosmetics like Dancer personality from Carnaval Crates btw) and when Akatosh vs. Alduin Crate appeared, I had....57280 seals of Endeavor. And yes, I bought Dragonclash Living Armor Senche, World-Eater's Living Armor and Time's Herald Living Armor for seals.



Note that there's still plenty amount of time to get either seals or crown gems to snatch them.

One can amass roughly 2125 seales per month. So roughly 25500 a year. Obviously that is playing EVERY day and doing endeavors EVERY day on top of weekly endeavor grinds. Forget that people work, goto school and have a myriad of other things that keep them from a leisurly experience making playing every day and grinding all of these endeavors out a near impossibiliy...lets forget all of that.

So if someone played every day, saved all their endeavors, not spending any of them. Saving all of them for that cool free mount that they do not know even exists (crown crate information is not published a year or more in advance). Then and only then would this mount be "free".

And TECHNICALLY speaking, nothing in this game is "free". The base game has a cost and chapters have a cost or subbing to ESO+. Not all endeavors are base game only.

I personally find it extremely interesting that you had 2 years of endeavors saved up, never swayed or persuaded by any previous offering during that time period, but had them ready for this one, that no one knew was coming.

What I said remains true. These are a FAR cry from "free".

Why is that interesting? The last time I spent endeavors on any mount was over 18 months ago as well, at least that's my best guess given I have around 25K and I don't pay attention to them, I just earn them passively when the endeavor tasks match my normal gameplay.

1. Endeavors can buy more than mounts. Meaning the lure to buy something is much greater than "just mounts"
2. I find it interesting because this person rarely posts, odd day to come out and be the one scenario (blind squirrel catches a nut case) to "refute" my claim (which it does not, their endeavor count is not illustrative of the population as a whole).
I see a lot of these kinds of posts...its almost too coincidental.

There's always going to be disagreement. This game has millions of accounts. If you make a claim that's true of 99% of the population, that's still 1% of the population that doesn't apply to. There are 25 million accounts so that's 250k people who could be scrolling through the official website, see something they didn't agree with because they're living proof it is not 100% of all players, and decide to post about it.

Except that there are not 25 million accounts scrolling through the forums. Take the player base who have multiple accounts (one of my guildies has 10 accounts himself), get rid of the ones who tried eso and left because they did not like it, etc etc etc and your numbers fall drastically.

Its still a convenient coincidence.

That doesn't matter to the overall point that there would still be millions of people who are playing this game and therefore have reason to scroll through the website.

It's not a convenient coincidence. It is basic math. That's why sweeping, unsubstantiated claims generally weaken your argument not help it. Because claims that "nobody" does this or that is easily refuted by literally one person coming in and doing it.

Except I never made a sweeping unsubstantialted claim. Go read the OP. I just stated numbers. The one rare person with enough points to "refute" my argument (I already stated this) does not "refute it" as they project.

As the saying goes. "Even a blind squirrel can catch a nut once in awhile". Or "A broken clock is right two times a day".

I am going with convenient coincidence.

Sure, I'll reread. It's right here.

So unless you knew over a year ago to save for these free items (which no one did), then and only then could they be "free".

Here you did and this is the one the person was refuting. They didn't know it would be the living senche armor but they knew they wanted to be ready for something they wanted that was very expensive and saved accordingly. Lots of people do that, actually. They save until something comes along that they absolutely can't do without and save a ton of seals to cover any price it could be.

This person did that and got the living armor. Good for them. That took discipline.

There is not a soul alive that does not work or is affiilated with zenimax online that knew these mounts would come out at this time with free offerings requiring 25000 endeavors a year ago. Nothing I stated was incorrect, or even hyperbole.

I already addressed that. They didn't know it was specifically the Living Armor Senche, but they did know something expensive that they liked would come along eventually and planned accordingly. Plenty of people do that.

No you did not. You need to re-read my OP VERY CAREFULLY. Because what you are asserting I said, I never said.

spartaxoxo

Pixiepumpkin wrote: »

spartaxoxo wrote: »

Pixiepumpkin wrote: »

spartaxoxo wrote: »

Pixiepumpkin wrote: »

spartaxoxo wrote: »

Pixiepumpkin wrote: »

spartaxoxo wrote: »

Pixiepumpkin wrote: »

sarahthes wrote: »

Pixiepumpkin wrote: »

LordDraw wrote: »

Pixiepumpkin wrote: »

So unless you knew over a year ago to save for these free items (which no one did), then and only then could they be "free".

So I'm "no one" because I saved enough (I also missed buying some cosmetics like Dancer personality from Carnaval Crates btw) and when Akatosh vs. Alduin Crate appeared, I had....57280 seals of Endeavor. And yes, I bought Dragonclash Living Armor Senche, World-Eater's Living Armor and Time's Herald Living Armor for seals.



Note that there's still plenty amount of time to get either seals or crown gems to snatch them.

One can amass roughly 2125 seales per month. So roughly 25500 a year. Obviously that is playing EVERY day and doing endeavors EVERY day on top of weekly endeavor grinds. Forget that people work, goto school and have a myriad of other things that keep them from a leisurly experience making playing every day and grinding all of these endeavors out a near impossibiliy...lets forget all of that.

So if someone played every day, saved all their endeavors, not spending any of them. Saving all of them for that cool free mount that they do not know even exists (crown crate information is not published a year or more in advance). Then and only then would this mount be "free".

And TECHNICALLY speaking, nothing in this game is "free". The base game has a cost and chapters have a cost or subbing to ESO+. Not all endeavors are base game only.

I personally find it extremely interesting that you had 2 years of endeavors saved up, never swayed or persuaded by any previous offering during that time period, but had them ready for this one, that no one knew was coming.

What I said remains true. These are a FAR cry from "free".

Why is that interesting? The last time I spent endeavors on any mount was over 18 months ago as well, at least that's my best guess given I have around 25K and I don't pay attention to them, I just earn them passively when the endeavor tasks match my normal gameplay.

1. Endeavors can buy more than mounts. Meaning the lure to buy something is much greater than "just mounts"
2. I find it interesting because this person rarely posts, odd day to come out and be the one scenario (blind squirrel catches a nut case) to "refute" my claim (which it does not, their endeavor count is not illustrative of the population as a whole).
I see a lot of these kinds of posts...its almost too coincidental.

There's always going to be disagreement. This game has millions of accounts. If you make a claim that's true of 99% of the population, that's still 1% of the population that doesn't apply to. There are 25 million accounts so that's 250k people who could be scrolling through the official website, see something they didn't agree with because they're living proof it is not 100% of all players, and decide to post about it.

Except that there are not 25 million accounts scrolling through the forums. Take the player base who have multiple accounts (one of my guildies has 10 accounts himself), get rid of the ones who tried eso and left because they did not like it, etc etc etc and your numbers fall drastically.

Its still a convenient coincidence.

That doesn't matter to the overall point that there would still be millions of people who are playing this game and therefore have reason to scroll through the website.

It's not a convenient coincidence. It is basic math. That's why sweeping, unsubstantiated claims generally weaken your argument not help it. Because claims that "nobody" does this or that is easily refuted by literally one person coming in and doing it.

Except I never made a sweeping unsubstantialted claim. Go read the OP. I just stated numbers. The one rare person with enough points to "refute" my argument (I already stated this) does not "refute it" as they project.

As the saying goes. "Even a blind squirrel can catch a nut once in awhile". Or "A broken clock is right two times a day".

I am going with convenient coincidence.

Sure, I'll reread. It's right here.

So unless you knew over a year ago to save for these free items (which no one did), then and only then could they be "free".

Here you did and this is the one the person was refuting. They didn't know it would be the living senche armor but they knew they wanted to be ready for something they wanted that was very expensive and saved accordingly. Lots of people do that, actually. They save until something comes along that they absolutely can't do without and save a ton of seals to cover any price it could be.

This person did that and got the living armor. Good for them. That took discipline.

There is not a soul alive that does not work or is affiilated with zenimax online that knew these mounts would come out at this time with free offerings requiring 25000 endeavors a year ago. Nothing I stated was incorrect, or even hyperbole.

I already addressed that. They didn't know it was specifically the Living Armor Senche, but they did know something expensive that they liked would come along eventually and planned accordingly. Plenty of people do that.

No you did not. You need to re-read my OP VERY CAREFULLY. Because what you are asserting I said, I never said.

I quoted you directly. But sure, I'll do it again..

The cost of the items using endeavors is greater than what one can save in a year of endeavors. So unless you knew over a year ago to save for these free items (which no one did), then and only then could they be "free".

You asserted that no one could have known to save for these items.

Someone else said "I'm no one because I knew to save." (Paraphrase).

You claimed that's too convenient. And I addressed the situation by pointing out that you're correct that they couldn't have known to save for the Living Senche in particular, but not correct that they couldn't have known to save for these items in general because some people save for items they don't know. They save for them under the principle "I don't know what the item will be. But I do know that they will eventually release an expensive item that I want." And then they save tons of seals until that happens.

So could they have known it would be this specific item? No. Could they have known to save for it anyway? Yes. They could have. And at least one person did and posted about it here.

Anyway, that's the last I'll say on this. Didn't intend to get in a back and forth. But I wanted to say something in support of that user because I respect their discipline and also know other players who do the same thing. I have tried to do it but I have also gave in and bought a ton of random stuff with seals over the years.

Vonnegut2506

I had 18k seals because I haven't liked any of the radiant mounts for a while. It's not that hard to save up seals if the only thing I ever spend them on are radiant mounts that I like. I used 16k this time because I did like the radiant mount this bundle.

Danikat

Pixiepumpkin wrote: »

So you can get the Akatosh Living Armor Senche and or the Alduin Living Armor Senche for "Free", but only if you first get the Dragonclash Lving Armor Senche and the Times Herald Living armor first through the crown crates.

We have to buy crowns to get crown crates or sub to ESO plus to get crowns. Neither are free
We then have to use those crowns to obtain nearly impossibly, low % chance drop items from the crown crates. These crates are not "free".
The cost of the items using endeavors is greater than what one can save in a year of endeavors. So unless you knew over a year ago to save for these free items (which no one did), then and only then could they be "free".

ZOS, using the advertising lable as "Free" comes across as disingenuous.

Serious question: How do you think they should label it?

It wouldn't be accurate to say it 'costs' the other two mounts, because that would imply you lose them to make it (like the event items where you lose the base indrik or the pet wisp or whatever to make the final item). For the same reason it wouldn't be accurate to say it costs 24,000 seals because that's the total cost for all 3.

I can see why the current format could be confusing, but I can't think of a description they could realistically put on a store icon which explains it more clearly than free once you meet the requirements and unavailable if you don't.

kevkj

98 Argonians perished to sufficiently tame these beasts to be ridden. The next time you complain about the cost, just remember that the proceeds from the 1500 crates you purchased will go directly to their surviving families. Your crown purchases are literally saving lives in Tamriel.

ADarklore

I had just enough seals to buy JUST the polymorph... which I think looks awesome. Now, I'll have to spend hundreds on Crates to get the three. If these weren't senche, I wouldn't bother... since I only ride senche. But, they are senche and look awesome.

Jaimeh

Yep, these are not 'free', they are 'complimentary with prior purchase'. Said prior purchase costs:

-32k seals of endeavour (16k for the base senche, 8k for the yellow poly, 8k for the red poly). That's an insane amount of seals, and of course if you haven't been saving them for a couple of years it's not possible to reach it until this crate season ends.

-3.3k gems (2.5k for the mount, and 400 each for the polies)

-An unknown amount of real currency due to the variability of crate RNG and gem yield.

Edit to add: the crate system in the game has been escalating in terms of rewards and currency obscuring since its introduction. We had the crates, then radiant apex, then gem exclusive, then bundles, now this new feature. Also, 1) a lot of things moved up a tier for no reason in recent years, ie., some collectibles (like costumes) went from 100 gems to 400 gems. Undoubtedly this was because of the introduction of seals of endeavor and around the same time we also had 2) lower gem yield from conversion. It's designed to obscure the real cost of something and it's been getting exponentially more expensive for the same type of items.

DeadlySerious

...as ZOS steps on a rake again and again gives themselves another black eye....


This is the kind of marketing that makes companies look super greedy and untrustworthy. I have plenty of crowns and seals to buy these items, but I'm not going to. I don't participate in these kinds of purchases based on principle. I feared this was the direction things were heading and chose not to buy the season for the same reasons.

If you have to buy something to get something else, that something else is not free. It's a carrot or a gimmick or pick whatever term you want, but free is not the term to use.

tsaescishoeshiner wrote: »

It's not "bait" to call it free when that just indicates that it's free when you have the requirements, which do themselves cost endeavors/gems/Crowns/gold for gifting trade.

Everything in the shop lists its price. Otherwise people wouldn't know how much it cost if they met the requirements.

AzuraFan

Jaimeh wrote: »

-32k seals of endeavour (16k for the base senche, 8k for the yellow poly, 8k for the red poly). That's an insane amount of seals, and of course if you haven't been saving them for a couple of years it's not possible to reach it until this crate season ends.

Because of the number of seals you need, most players who want the mount will have to buy crates to either get lucky, or get the gems they need to buy the prerequisites (and that could be a lot of crates!). No reasonable person would conclude that this isn't trying to entice people to buy crates. I don't know what regulation made ZOS introduce seals, or if it was guidance from Microsoft, but this offer seems to be working against the spirit of that. Big time. They're really skating on thin ice, here.

In my opinion, this is the slimiest marketing tactic they've used so far.

spartaxoxo

Danikat wrote: »

Serious question: How do you think they should label it?

Bonus item with purchase

sarahthes

AzuraFan wrote: »

Jaimeh wrote: »

-32k seals of endeavour (16k for the base senche, 8k for the yellow poly, 8k for the red poly). That's an insane amount of seals, and of course if you haven't been saving them for a couple of years it's not possible to reach it until this crate season ends.

Because of the number of seals you need, most players who want the mount will have to buy crates to either get lucky, or get the gems they need to buy the prerequisites (and that could be a lot of crates!). No reasonable person would conclude that this isn't trying to entice people to buy crates. I don't know what regulation made ZOS introduce seals, or if it was guidance from Microsoft, but this offer seems to be working against the spirit of that. Big time. They're really skating on thin ice, here.

In my opinion, this is the slimiest marketing tactic they've used so far.

That's every crown crate season.

They're all designed to make you want to spend money.

Jaimeh

AzuraFan wrote: »

Jaimeh wrote: »

-32k seals of endeavour (16k for the base senche, 8k for the yellow poly, 8k for the red poly). That's an insane amount of seals, and of course if you haven't been saving them for a couple of years it's not possible to reach it until this crate season ends.

Because of the number of seals you need, most players who want the mount will have to buy crates to either get lucky, or get the gems they need to buy the prerequisites (and that could be a lot of crates!). No reasonable person would conclude that this isn't trying to entice people to buy crates. I don't know what regulation made ZOS introduce seals, or if it was guidance from Microsoft, but this offer seems to be working against the spirit of that. Big time. They're really skating on thin ice, here.

In my opinion, this is the slimiest marketing tactic they've used so far.

That's why I mentioned the seals, the gems, or the unknown amount of money that you'd need depending on crate RNG/gem, yield. These are all examples of how the items are not actually free.

reazea

sarahthes wrote: »

AzuraFan wrote: »

Jaimeh wrote: »

-32k seals of endeavour (16k for the base senche, 8k for the yellow poly, 8k for the red poly). That's an insane amount of seals, and of course if you haven't been saving them for a couple of years it's not possible to reach it until this crate season ends.

Because of the number of seals you need, most players who want the mount will have to buy crates to either get lucky, or get the gems they need to buy the prerequisites (and that could be a lot of crates!). No reasonable person would conclude that this isn't trying to entice people to buy crates. I don't know what regulation made ZOS introduce seals, or if it was guidance from Microsoft, but this offer seems to be working against the spirit of that. Big time. They're really skating on thin ice, here.

In my opinion, this is the slimiest marketing tactic they've used so far.

That's every crown crate season.

They're all designed to make you want to spend money.

This is different. The difference this time is you have to gamble on crates to get "free" items. This has never happened before and is an incredibly bad look for any company to engage in this kind of predatory marketing.

sarahthes

reazea wrote: »

sarahthes wrote: »

AzuraFan wrote: »

Jaimeh wrote: »

-32k seals of endeavour (16k for the base senche, 8k for the yellow poly, 8k for the red poly). That's an insane amount of seals, and of course if you haven't been saving them for a couple of years it's not possible to reach it until this crate season ends.

Because of the number of seals you need, most players who want the mount will have to buy crates to either get lucky, or get the gems they need to buy the prerequisites (and that could be a lot of crates!). No reasonable person would conclude that this isn't trying to entice people to buy crates. I don't know what regulation made ZOS introduce seals, or if it was guidance from Microsoft, but this offer seems to be working against the spirit of that. Big time. They're really skating on thin ice, here.

In my opinion, this is the slimiest marketing tactic they've used so far.

That's every crown crate season.

They're all designed to make you want to spend money.

This is different. The difference this time is you have to gamble on crates to get "free" items. This has never happened before and is an incredibly bad look for any company to engage in this kind of predatory marketing.

We have to agree to disagree then. I think crown crate gambling is already as low as they can get. I don't think there's anything redeeming about it, so it's not possible for it to be worse than it already is.

reazea

sarahthes wrote: »

reazea wrote: »

sarahthes wrote: »

AzuraFan wrote: »

Jaimeh wrote: »

-32k seals of endeavour (16k for the base senche, 8k for the yellow poly, 8k for the red poly). That's an insane amount of seals, and of course if you haven't been saving them for a couple of years it's not possible to reach it until this crate season ends.

Because of the number of seals you need, most players who want the mount will have to buy crates to either get lucky, or get the gems they need to buy the prerequisites (and that could be a lot of crates!). No reasonable person would conclude that this isn't trying to entice people to buy crates. I don't know what regulation made ZOS introduce seals, or if it was guidance from Microsoft, but this offer seems to be working against the spirit of that. Big time. They're really skating on thin ice, here.

In my opinion, this is the slimiest marketing tactic they've used so far.

That's every crown crate season.

They're all designed to make you want to spend money.

This is different. The difference this time is you have to gamble on crates to get "free" items. This has never happened before and is an incredibly bad look for any company to engage in this kind of predatory marketing.

We have to agree to disagree then. I think crown crate gambling is already as low as they can get. I don't think there's anything redeeming about it, so it's not possible for it to be worse than it already is.

Ok, what was the last "free" item that necessitated a crown crate purchase to get?

Adaarye

spartaxoxo wrote: »

That doesn't matter to the overall point that there would still be millions of people who are playing this game and therefore have reason to scroll through the website. (Edit: We have no way to know the number of players of this game, so sticking to the official player numbers is best practice for rhetorical conversations.)

It's not a convenient coincidence. It is basic math. That's why sweeping, unsubstantiated claims generally weaken your argument not help it. Because claims that "nobody" does this or that is easily refuted by literally one person coming in and doing it.

"In May 2025, The Elder Scrolls Online (ESO) on Steam had an average of 13,203 players and a peak of 22,800 players. However, Steam player counts only represent a portion of the total ESO player base, as many players access the game through other platforms like consoles or the standalone PC client according to a Reddit thread. Some estimates suggest that Steam users make up only 30-48% of the total player count."
~Google search ~ AI response

I'd love to believe that millions still play but I'm not so sure, especially after the new "season pass" content and multiclassing.

I like multiclassing but the lack of content compared to the cost of this last expansion, pass, (whatever it is) compared to past expansions is disappointing. I'm not trying to speak for the "masses" but based on what I've been reading here in the forums recently I don't believe I am the only player that feels this way.

IMO this kind of thing most likely will not help matters.

ADarklore

Just wanted to update... spent $300 on crates... was down to the second to last crate and still needed a couple hundred more gems to buy the senche mount... and suddenly THERE IT WAS! I couldn't believe my luck... albeit expensive luck. So now I have all three mounts and a lot of other things I wanted along the way. And... still have a lot of gems left that I didn't need to spend on buying the mount.

sarahthes

reazea wrote: »

sarahthes wrote: »

reazea wrote: »

sarahthes wrote: »

AzuraFan wrote: »

Jaimeh wrote: »

-32k seals of endeavour (16k for the base senche, 8k for the yellow poly, 8k for the red poly). That's an insane amount of seals, and of course if you haven't been saving them for a couple of years it's not possible to reach it until this crate season ends.

Because of the number of seals you need, most players who want the mount will have to buy crates to either get lucky, or get the gems they need to buy the prerequisites (and that could be a lot of crates!). No reasonable person would conclude that this isn't trying to entice people to buy crates. I don't know what regulation made ZOS introduce seals, or if it was guidance from Microsoft, but this offer seems to be working against the spirit of that. Big time. They're really skating on thin ice, here.

In my opinion, this is the slimiest marketing tactic they've used so far.

That's every crown crate season.

They're all designed to make you want to spend money.

This is different. The difference this time is you have to gamble on crates to get "free" items. This has never happened before and is an incredibly bad look for any company to engage in this kind of predatory marketing.

We have to agree to disagree then. I think crown crate gambling is already as low as they can get. I don't think there's anything redeeming about it, so it's not possible for it to be worse than it already is.

Ok, what was the last "free" item that necessitated a crown crate purchase to get?

Any of the bonus items for getting the 25 crate packs? It's worded differently but it's still an incentive to spend more.

Crown gem exclusive items? There's been tons of those over the years, starting well before endeavors were available.

The whole system is predatory by default. I just don't think there's degrees to it. It's either predatory or it isn't, no middle ground.

Pixiepumpkin

spartaxoxo wrote: »

Pixiepumpkin wrote: »

spartaxoxo wrote: »

Pixiepumpkin wrote: »

spartaxoxo wrote: »

Pixiepumpkin wrote: »

spartaxoxo wrote: »

Pixiepumpkin wrote: »

spartaxoxo wrote: »

Pixiepumpkin wrote: »

sarahthes wrote: »

Pixiepumpkin wrote: »

LordDraw wrote: »

Pixiepumpkin wrote: »

So unless you knew over a year ago to save for these free items (which no one did), then and only then could they be "free".

So I'm "no one" because I saved enough (I also missed buying some cosmetics like Dancer personality from Carnaval Crates btw) and when Akatosh vs. Alduin Crate appeared, I had....57280 seals of Endeavor. And yes, I bought Dragonclash Living Armor Senche, World-Eater's Living Armor and Time's Herald Living Armor for seals.



Note that there's still plenty amount of time to get either seals or crown gems to snatch them.

One can amass roughly 2125 seales per month. So roughly 25500 a year. Obviously that is playing EVERY day and doing endeavors EVERY day on top of weekly endeavor grinds. Forget that people work, goto school and have a myriad of other things that keep them from a leisurly experience making playing every day and grinding all of these endeavors out a near impossibiliy...lets forget all of that.

So if someone played every day, saved all their endeavors, not spending any of them. Saving all of them for that cool free mount that they do not know even exists (crown crate information is not published a year or more in advance). Then and only then would this mount be "free".

And TECHNICALLY speaking, nothing in this game is "free". The base game has a cost and chapters have a cost or subbing to ESO+. Not all endeavors are base game only.

I personally find it extremely interesting that you had 2 years of endeavors saved up, never swayed or persuaded by any previous offering during that time period, but had them ready for this one, that no one knew was coming.

What I said remains true. These are a FAR cry from "free".

Why is that interesting? The last time I spent endeavors on any mount was over 18 months ago as well, at least that's my best guess given I have around 25K and I don't pay attention to them, I just earn them passively when the endeavor tasks match my normal gameplay.

1. Endeavors can buy more than mounts. Meaning the lure to buy something is much greater than "just mounts"
2. I find it interesting because this person rarely posts, odd day to come out and be the one scenario (blind squirrel catches a nut case) to "refute" my claim (which it does not, their endeavor count is not illustrative of the population as a whole).
I see a lot of these kinds of posts...its almost too coincidental.

There's always going to be disagreement. This game has millions of accounts. If you make a claim that's true of 99% of the population, that's still 1% of the population that doesn't apply to. There are 25 million accounts so that's 250k people who could be scrolling through the official website, see something they didn't agree with because they're living proof it is not 100% of all players, and decide to post about it.

Except that there are not 25 million accounts scrolling through the forums. Take the player base who have multiple accounts (one of my guildies has 10 accounts himself), get rid of the ones who tried eso and left because they did not like it, etc etc etc and your numbers fall drastically.

Its still a convenient coincidence.

That doesn't matter to the overall point that there would still be millions of people who are playing this game and therefore have reason to scroll through the website.

It's not a convenient coincidence. It is basic math. That's why sweeping, unsubstantiated claims generally weaken your argument not help it. Because claims that "nobody" does this or that is easily refuted by literally one person coming in and doing it.

Except I never made a sweeping unsubstantialted claim. Go read the OP. I just stated numbers. The one rare person with enough points to "refute" my argument (I already stated this) does not "refute it" as they project.

As the saying goes. "Even a blind squirrel can catch a nut once in awhile". Or "A broken clock is right two times a day".

I am going with convenient coincidence.

Sure, I'll reread. It's right here.

So unless you knew over a year ago to save for these free items (which no one did), then and only then could they be "free".

Here you did and this is the one the person was refuting. They didn't know it would be the living senche armor but they knew they wanted to be ready for something they wanted that was very expensive and saved accordingly. Lots of people do that, actually. They save until something comes along that they absolutely can't do without and save a ton of seals to cover any price it could be.

This person did that and got the living armor. Good for them. That took discipline.

There is not a soul alive that does not work or is affiilated with zenimax online that knew these mounts would come out at this time with free offerings requiring 25000 endeavors a year ago. Nothing I stated was incorrect, or even hyperbole.

I already addressed that. They didn't know it was specifically the Living Armor Senche, but they did know something expensive that they liked would come along eventually and planned accordingly. Plenty of people do that.

No you did not. You need to re-read my OP VERY CAREFULLY. Because what you are asserting I said, I never said.

I quoted you directly. But sure, I'll do it again..

The cost of the items using endeavors is greater than what one can save in a year of endeavors. So unless you knew over a year ago to save for these free items (which no one did), then and only then could they be "free".

You asserted that no one could have known to save for these items.

Someone else said "I'm no one because I knew to save." (Paraphrase).

You claimed that's too convenient. And I addressed the situation by pointing out that you're correct that they couldn't have known to save for the Living Senche in particular, but not correct that they couldn't have known to save for these items in general because some people save for items they don't know. They save for them under the principle "I don't know what the item will be. But I do know that they will eventually release an expensive item that I want." And then they save tons of seals until that happens.

So could they have known it would be this specific item? No. Could they have known to save for it anyway? Yes. They could have. And at least one person did and posted about it here.

Anyway, that's the last I'll say on this. Didn't intend to get in a back and forth. But I wanted to say something in support of that user because I respect their discipline and also know other players who do the same thing. I have tried to do it but I have also gave in and bought a ton of random stuff with seals over the years.

You are still missing it.

I specifically stated

The cost of the items using endeavors is greater than what one can save in a year of endeavors. So unless you knew over a year ago to save for these free items (which no one did), then and only then could they be "free".

The keyword here is "for these free items". Not that other player, not you, not me, not a single person in these forums or ons team or XBOX or PS, NA or EU knew to save for THESE FREE ITEMS.

THESE TREE ITEMS means THESE THREE ITEMS specifically. That is what I said and what I said is 100% true. NO ONE ON THE PLANET EARTH (that does not work for ZOS or is a family/friend of) knew to save FOR THESE SPECIFIC ITEMS, that they would need to save over a years worth of endeavors to get the "free" (I use that term EXTREMELY LOOSELY) mount.

BetweenMidgets

These crates were a joke from the offset. Absolutely predatory.

IIR there were 2 different things in the apex tier that were just reskins.
1) 2 skins that are ever so slightly different in the color, but the exact same skin. One is just a bit more orange.
2) 2 polymorphs, one orage, one red, but everything else is identical.

[snip]

Add on more craftable furnishings, and motifs that we all probably have because they are dirt cheap. Dragonguard Style and Greymoor Style should absolutely not be in the legendary rewards.

It is honestly disgusting. I feel very fortunate that the over the top dragon crap doesn't appeal to me, because this is straight up a cash grab. Absolutely disgusting.

[edited for bashing]

Danikat

Adaarye wrote: »

spartaxoxo wrote: »

That doesn't matter to the overall point that there would still be millions of people who are playing this game and therefore have reason to scroll through the website. (Edit: We have no way to know the number of players of this game, so sticking to the official player numbers is best practice for rhetorical conversations.)

It's not a convenient coincidence. It is basic math. That's why sweeping, unsubstantiated claims generally weaken your argument not help it. Because claims that "nobody" does this or that is easily refuted by literally one person coming in and doing it.

"In May 2025, The Elder Scrolls Online (ESO) on Steam had an average of 13,203 players and a peak of 22,800 players. However, Steam player counts only represent a portion of the total ESO player base, as many players access the game through other platforms like consoles or the standalone PC client according to a Reddit thread. Some estimates suggest that Steam users make up only 30-48% of the total player count."
~Google search ~ AI response

I'd love to believe that millions still play but I'm not so sure, especially after the new "season pass" content and multiclassing.

I like multiclassing but the lack of content compared to the cost of this last expansion, pass, (whatever it is) compared to past expansions is disappointing. I'm not trying to speak for the "masses" but based on what I've been reading here in the forums recently I don't believe I am the only player that feels this way.

IMO this kind of thing most likely will not help matters.

30%-48% playing through Steam seems very high considering ZOS has said the playerbase is split fairly evenly between PC, Xbox and Playstation and a lot of PC players don't use Steam. I wouldn't be surprised if the AI mis-reported numbers for the percentage who play on PC in total as people playing on Steam. It's a common problem with AI chat bots, they will never say they don't know something or voluntarily flag up errors in data, they'll just pick the nearest fit they have and present it as the answer to your question, even if a human looking at the same options would consider it obviously wrong.

Scaletho

This is another disgusting bait. THERE IS NO "FREE" STUFF THERE, ZOS. Shame on you!

LadyAstrum

My personal subjective view is based on how I felt seeing these "free" mounts, and the associated costs (in both real money and time) in order to obtain them: nauseous. It's not enough to bury items behind gems. Now, it's dangling a carrot in front of a potato. Buy the potato to get the carrot. I'll say no more, other than I'm astounded people defend these types of sales.

I'm also astounded this practice is still allowed. Hopefully, at some point, these kinds of sales tactics in the gaming industry will be stopped.

aneova_ESO

*munches popcorn in a corner enjoying the show*

Its_MySniff

I had almost 80k seals, so the purchase didn't hurt me too bad. Hated to use them, but I knew I'd never waste money on the crates.

silky_soft

When I saw the red writing I thought great I can do some random pve achievement. Nope it's a crowncrate achievement hahaha.

Unbelievable, didnt get any sale from unattractive content. Lost a large portion of players that are left, by adding a subclass system that circumventing the use of the passable scribing system. Now just pumping the crates.

AzuraFan

Jaimeh wrote: »

That's why I mentioned the seals, the gems, or the unknown amount of money that you'd need depending on crate RNG/gem, yield. These are all examples of how the items are not actually free.

Yeah, I was agreeing with you. Like you said, unless someone has saved a massive amount of seals, or has a lot of gems already (which they paid for), it's a very expensive "free" item!

Adaarye

Danikat wrote: »

Adaarye wrote: »

spartaxoxo wrote: »

That doesn't matter to the overall point that there would still be millions of people who are playing this game and therefore have reason to scroll through the website. (Edit: We have no way to know the number of players of this game, so sticking to the official player numbers is best practice for rhetorical conversations.)

It's not a convenient coincidence. It is basic math. That's why sweeping, unsubstantiated claims generally weaken your argument not help it. Because claims that "nobody" does this or that is easily refuted by literally one person coming in and doing it.

"In May 2025, The Elder Scrolls Online (ESO) on Steam had an average of 13,203 players and a peak of 22,800 players. However, Steam player counts only represent a portion of the total ESO player base, as many players access the game through other platforms like consoles or the standalone PC client according to a Reddit thread. Some estimates suggest that Steam users make up only 30-48% of the total player count."
~Google search ~ AI response

I'd love to believe that millions still play but I'm not so sure, especially after the new "season pass" content and multiclassing.

I like multiclassing but the lack of content compared to the cost of this last expansion, pass, (whatever it is) compared to past expansions is disappointing. I'm not trying to speak for the "masses" but based on what I've been reading here in the forums recently I don't believe I am the only player that feels this way.

IMO this kind of thing most likely will not help matters.

30%-48% playing through Steam seems very high considering ZOS has said the playerbase is split fairly evenly between PC, Xbox and Playstation and a lot of PC players don't use Steam. I wouldn't be surprised if the AI mis-reported numbers for the percentage who play on PC in total as people playing on Steam. It's a common problem with AI chat bots, they will never say they don't know something or voluntarily flag up errors in data, they'll just pick the nearest fit they have and present it as the answer to your question, even if a human looking at the same options would consider it obviously wrong.

Steam charts reflected 13k and the 22k

The AI was Google's built in AI. I have no idea of how accurate it's answers are. The quoted paragraph popped up when I did a Google search for "Elder Scrolls Online Population"

I'm not sure how much data the AI pulls from. I would imagine Google provides a big pool depending on how many people search ESO population numbers The only numbers I confirmed are the low and high for May 2025.

These numbers reflect online players peak and low point.

code65536

People in this thread seem to be pretty hung up about the word "free". We have a new Furnishing Vault that is "free" (if you pay a monthly subscription fee for ESO+), but I don't see people raising their pitchforks at that.

One of the fast food chains around here has "buy 1 get 1 free" offers, yet I don't see people complaining about how it's not really "free" if you need to buy the first item at full price.

As with many words, "free" has a lot of different definitions, and the one here, like the two examples above, is simply "no additional cost".

One more thing to note is that labels like "FREE" in the crown store are baked into the game itself. Adding a different label (e.g., "Bonus Item") would require an update to the game client, not to mention getting it localized in all the officially-supported languages. So from an engineering perspective, I can see why they'd prefer to use one label for a wide range of contexts rather than creating a number of different ones for slightly different contexts. (Though from a public relations perspective, this thread has demonstrated why it may be useful to have alternative word choices.)