I understand spending money on things is my issue and reasonability, I'm not here to trash the game or cry about a refund. Or anything along those lines. I want to open a forum of conversation to see perhaps if people feel the same way as me for a game i love and will always shave a special place for.
So i pre-ordered blackwood, first and only time I've ever done that. I've been playing ESO since Summerset, so i've had pretty extensive playtime but throughout it all, I stuck with it. I assumed kinks and issues were only as prevalent due to the issues going on in the world and in due time will be fixed. However they haven't, lag is still crazy even in PVE. When you're doing a dungeon and you press the weapon swap bar 3-4 times only to change the last second causing you die, it a frustrating experience or seeing the old animations. And for 2 years we've been promised changes to the performance. Yet here we are. But I digress.
Back to my main point is, I paid 50 pounds and i feel as if though that money was sorely wasted but i am in my rights to give a stern critique. Now I am not conceited enough to believe my view is is the ONLY view. So take this how you want.
Main features of blackwood:
- Oblivion Portals
- Companions
- New city
These features are the main bulk of why players pay for the expansion + Sub fee.
Companions: Yet Companions has been shipped broken, and still are broken in many regards. Despite having a long time in development to get it fixed. Now, if this was say, a genuine miss from the devs, it would have been easily excused. But it's not, it's another drop into a otherwise overfilling bucket of problems. This is why issues regarding this game are usually touted all over forums and reddit. Not because everyone is inherently toxic but because a lot of old players are getting tired and new players are just in limbo weather this game is good or not. Now it's only natural for players to come in and defend that game, but majority players only represent the casual side. For example, if some person would make a post on how easy and mind numbing overland is, another person would comment saying they enjoy the game bc of how easy it is. Akin to many other forums. It's a common theme for ESO, for people to use the game as a story alternative but get their competitive kick elsewhere in another game. But those players do not represent that audience im trying to speak to, that have been playing this game for a while but have been forgetting due to ZOS catering to one audience that values Story/easy content over a long burn story with relatively engaging combat and bosses. Companions being the main advertised feature and releasing broken to have patches so far wide-spread only add insult to injury. Again, many people will come at me saying "Devs have a hard job" "give it time" or "devs already have too much work to do" I'm sorry, but these are asinine points. What are they doing? We had 0 meaningful systems implemented apart from the addition of Necromancer. No new weapons, classes or skillines. No actual performance updates, only fluff systems to make us shup up and get by. So what exactly are they doing? we've been promised performance updates for 2 years. Yet PVP still lags, bar-swapping is laggy. and weapon/skill animations are still unfinished and barebones. No real innovation has been made regarding systems and gameplay since 2014.
Anyways moving on to avoid risking this post...
Portals: Oblivion portals are not at all satisfying all, after 2-3 times they become inferior like Dolemens, there's was 0 innovation with Oblivion portals. Instead they randomly appear to only have people in there spawn killing everything. Where is the innovation ZOS? Where is the difference? You literally reskinned dolmens and we ate it up like baby food, and many players still do. Why not make a myriad of new mob types so every Portal isn't a rehash? Randomised map layouts to make it each encounter more unique? A unique activity/puzzles doable in portals other than spawn-killing the easy and laughable "boss"? [snip] Portals offer nothing, and the lack of innovation not only in this aspect but others is something that will make a lot of players move and new players avoid joining. Suspending this MMO into limbo just like SWTOR is. I played SWTOR ages back, and i saw this exact trend kill that game. Catering towards players who finish the story in 3 hours then log out but whilst playing fashion-scrolls. I don't even blame this players and now i became one of those as nothing is making me want to spend time in ESO. I want to have a reason to spend hours and hours in ESO not money. It's sad to see money being valued over time.
The story: The story was good,. 7/10. However some glaring issues come up and have been so for a while. SPOILERS AHEAD. Its time zos. to stop making the most obvious guy the betrayer. Like literally, we get it. Villains are given a almost childlike approach, the most obvious person is the double-crosser and they speak in a annoying suspicious tone that from the get go you can tell he is going to be the evil guy. ZOS, you're player base compared to any other MMO houses the most mature players. numerous polls around reddit and the forums indicate at least 70% of your player population is 25 plus. With a good majority of those people voting in the 40+ bracket. So what's with the lack nuance? Lack of choice? Why are you building a story where lines don't matter or create distinction in the world? Why don't we get to be more than "the goody goody that saves everything and there's a happy ever after" The elder scrolls franchise is notorious on choice and player expression. You can literally be whatever and whoever you want. So why is when the IP finally makes a multiplayer game, everyone is the same. The big hero. You literally added Necromancers yet pigeon hole every playthrough and story to be one of hope ray and sunshine. Where is innovation? Diversity? Player expression? It's 2021, we cant just act like there limitations anymore, many MMOS allow your choices to be of consequence so why is the one IP that used to do it great, missed to blatantly on an MMO of all things?
Instances: The lack of instances is crazy, immersion breaking and just downright annoying . Why is it that mid-story im meant to go to "a forbidden zone" or a "place no man or mer has been in millennium" but when i zone in there's 20 players [snip] inside killing everything. ZOS, you yourself have decided to change the genre from MMO to ONLINE RPG. You chose to cater to the story over competitive systems. [snip] Make it so, when people are literally doing a main quest, it's not overshadowed or broken by random players who have 0 consequence to our story or world. And before that one person decided to make that point "you cant have thousands of instances" that's not what people want, there are a myriad of technological ways to combat this issue and there are myriad of games that DO do it, so it's not something that's not feasible, it's just something that no one is deciding to fix.
Story length: By far the biggest reason why the chapter feels underwhelming. I paid 50 pounds for a 3-4 hour story? only to have to wait to pay for a sub to finish it? I'm sorry Side quests don't matter in this equation. I love SQ's but in this regard, it's used to fluff up gameplay time. I want to know MORE about the deadlands, actually explore it. Not hop in a portal, get 10 minutes of voice line exposition then hope back out. That is not what ES IP is about. I can't recall how many times corners were cut with portals and over exposition. [snip]. I don't need to hear what literally happened 2 minutes ago, we don't need it to be dumbed down. And the puzzles.. My god. I remember being stuck in skyrim looking for clues to open up a door to somewhere remotely important. Yet in ESO you need to literally spin 3 cubes in some order (they literally give you no clues, so you just spinspinspin till its right) to literally open up a door to the DEADLANDS. Half the story was me running from a to b, going in a portal or listening to over-lengthened voiced lines.
I genuinely do not believe that year long expansions work, perhaps it did for elsewhere as then it felt like an adventure. Zone was harder, activities were fun and new and overall looked pretty. Leyawiin looks pretty but offers nothing for those wanting to explore. The cities themselves offer NOTHING new. Imagine if they focused on innovation, and actually made a card game that makes sense to travel to each city and explore its people and culture. But no. We are given a pretty and beautiful town with 0 substance other then your typical crafting and selling that literally every other city gives. I from the bottom of my hear love ESO and the only reason i made this post was because i want to show people who also love eso, how fundamentally flawed the game has become.
I want ESO to become more innovative, not just provide us with a fragmented, over-exposed and short story over the year. and we as PAYING customers just eat it up. I understand many people may feel differently, but you need to realise for this game to feel empowering, enticing and fresh. You need various groups of players to make content meaningful, and each groups, whatever box they may fall in should be focused on. I'm for the player, not the big corporations that tell us what to enjoy at the cost of innovation.
Thank you for listening and i hope to see your thoughts and opinions.
[edited for baiting and inappropriate content]