Writhing Wall Event – My First Real Post in 10 Years, Because Wow

Islyn

Agreed. I do the 3 gold box a day and proceed as if nth happening.

Justosay

Totally agree with the topic starter.
This chapter (or season) is the worst in the game. "Early access" doesn't work in games like this, but ruins the game's reputation. It's a complete marketing failure.

Ttree

Its really substandard not what we paid for

Deedleqwerty

I don't even bother with the gold boxes. The rewards are underwhelming. The quests, at best, are tedious. The Writhing Wall so far has been a huge disappointment.

~Deedle

guarstompemoji

I don't log in for the event. It made me sad.

Aram500

Could not agree more with the main post. Worst grind, for very little reward...............

Petoften

Welcome to "Microsoft fired a third of the studio" for profit increasing cost-cutting.

I'm surprised no one has mentioned that as related to the underwhelming event. Prices didn't go down, just content.

But hey, someone at Microsoft got a bonus for some short term profits, however much the game is damaged by it.

I also play another MMO, World of Tanks, that launched 15 years ago.

They just had a major content event in September that was hyped for a year, the 2.0 version of the game, and it was widely praised. It came with a top new level of tanks, wide redesigns, very generous bonuses.

Syldras

colossalvoids wrote: »

This article quote is downright diabolical level of marketing. We're getting a "unique", "saga", "wonderful opportunity", "huge ... and unexpected". Still a bit funny how it says they're taking a full advantage of it knowing what we got now with the story and event both. That's the most forum friendly and short way I can say it, at least.

@colossalvoids

Even past the whole typical marketing/ad words telling people how awesome and special everything is, the whole article makes me wonder; there are so many things described as ideas or visions they had in that text - but why do they not really show in the finished content? Do they believe they have met these expectations, I wonder? Or did they change plans inbetween somehow? It's just like what they describe there, and how the final content looks, doesn't match for me.

This passage...

“[For ESO’s 10-Year Anniversary] we wanted to do something special, a story that revisited and built upon that original main story,” says ESO’s Project Narrative Director Bill Slavicsek. “And what better enemy to bring back than the nefarious Worm Cult? So, we came up with a story that builds on the launch game narrative and continues the tale as a true sequel.”
While creating a sequel to ESO’s base-game presented unique challenges, the team also enjoyed the new opportunities it generated.
“In our previous Chapters and DLCs, we couldn’t assume that the player had done any particular content,” explains Rich Baker, one of ESO’s Senior Writers. “However, because Seasons of the Worm Cult was conceived as a sequel, we could have characters refer to those events and set a new story on top of that pedestal.”
Of course, you don’t need to have completed the original story to play Seasons of the Worm Cult, but veteran players who have confronted Molag Bal in Coldharbour will enjoy the continuation of that narrative.
“We made sure to do our best to bring newer players along in a natural and unobtrusive way,” says Slavicsek. “It was fun to actually get to advance our timeline a bit in order to tell this new story.”

I don't want to spoil Part 2 of the story, of course (so I'll leave out that part here), but really, the new story doesn't feel like a meaningful continuation, or some progressing of time that would have an impact of the fictional world somehow. Yes, a certain someone died in base game, that certain someone returns, then it's Planemeld again, but just reverse this time... I especially disagree with that part about "veteran players" enjoying the story even more - I actually think especially for people who know the old main story, it's disappointing, because there's almost nothing spectacular or new (and of course, in comparison with the writing we had in the base game, it's especially disappointing).

Apart from Mannimarco cooperating with Molag Bal again after his betrayal not making any sense - couldn't he and his cult come up with something different than a Planemeld this time? He's supposed to be a highly intelligent man, with different talents including rhetoric and diplomacy, we have background lore about him interacting with different rulers of Tamriel, court intrigues, whatnot... We know that in TES2 Daggerfall he has no relations to Molag Bal anymore and has different plans to become a god. So why a second Planemeld again? Why not progressing this character, who is an important figure of TES lore as a whole, to more than we saw in the base game, why not adding on his background lore, why not bridging his portrayal from base game ESO closer to how he is later on the timeline in TES2? A second Planemeld is just no interesting story... And honestly, with that announcement of "a true sequel", "advancing the timeline" and "building a new story on top of the base game" I expected more - much more.

And then all that stuff about the Worm Cult being evil:

It’s no secret that the nefarious Worm Cult has returned. The band of necromancers, formerly led by the Worm King Mannimarco, now plagues the island of Solstice.
“I love the Worm Cult because they’re over-the-top bad guys,” says Baker. “As they say, every villain is the hero of their own story, however misguided it might be. However, the Worm Cult is a different kind of villain. They’re irredeemable, power-mad megalomaniacs. You never have to ask yourself if it’s right for you to stop them, because they want bad things for bad reasons. That’s fun!”
“They’re just so serious about their goals and their mission,” says Slavicsek. “And they’re utterly evil. How could we not find a way to bring them back to the forefront for the anniversary story? We’ve even added some new faces to their ranks that I think the players are just going to love to hate.”

How about actually just showing us, within stories, what they do and let us get to our own conclusions instead of telling us how we're supposed to feel? Especially considering what we got, I've been wondering whether they told us so thouroughly in that article how to feel is based on there not actually being much in the game itself (the weirdest thing to me is being told that something "is fun", though - I'd like to make my own judgement, thank you).

The team is also bringing back a host of fan-favorite allies

Sigh.

“Whenever we look to add recurring characters to a story, we ask ourselves if they’re the right fit,” explains Slavicsek. “Why are they here? What’s their purpose in this scenario? Then we work to make them integral to the tale we’re telling. And for this anniversary story, we wanted to include as many returning characters as we could get.”

Why do some appearances not make much sense then? Remember these words when you play part 2...

And then that last part about using the dialogue system to make jokes and "say things you don't dare to say in real life"... I'm not sure if that's what people who wanted different dialogue options had in mind for their wish? I certainly hadn't.

Anyway, that was a long enough rant now. More shortly put, this year's whole content doesn't really fit the expectations, including the Wall event. It's not like the announcement made one expect. Plus, some premises already seemed weird from the beginning to me... As stated above.