Sometimes I feel like I'm the only one playing this as an ES-MMO, instead of just another MMO

iAmTheTot · May 2014

I actually read the books and notes. I actually listen to dialogue. It breaks my heart when I'm in a dungeon talking to an important NPC (or even a non-important one), and in the course it takes me to listen (or just read) the dialogue they have to offer, dozens of other players have run up, spammed through the choices, and are running off towards the next objective arrow without any clue what that person just said.

Then, on the flip side, I'm tired of advertising my guild as a social community only to have people whisper me asking for invites who then in turn contribute absolutely nothing to the guild. No "hello"s, no "goodbye"s, no conversation at all, never want to group with anyone, never want to do anything. Why did you ask to join a social guild if you're not social?!

Pendrillion · May 2014

Actually to make a quick buck on the folks who contribute in good faith.

And beside this... I am totally in the same boat as you Tot

Shaun98ca2 · May 2014

Yea I cant bring myself to read any book/note in the game....doesn't appeal to me though I have heard there is great stuff in there. But the dialog I must listen to every last bit of it.

Without the dialog the game is just boring running around and has no meaning AKA every MMO ever made except The Secret World & SWTOR.

Milanna · May 2014

I do it to. Stand around, listen, read, watching others scurry past. Much like real life.

Pendrillion · May 2014

I even play my lute for fun. Those melodies are quite catchy...

CelticMarauder · May 2014

I always listen to the dialogue and usually read the notes/books/texts. Sometimes I'll even sit and wait for a boss to respawn if I didn't hear all the dialogue, simply for story purposes. Occasionally though I'll skip through the books if I'm really pressed for time or I want to get out of a particular area relatively quickly.

Nox_Aeterna · May 2014

Nah , i usually listen to the NPCs , and rarelly i even read a note or a part of a book.

But i dont play this like i play ES.

Since the start , i always run an rogue/mage/vampire char in ES , and i always remain in first person.

This game im a vampire but i went for templar , and i never go into first person to actually play the game heh.

This is a MMO to me , if i wanted to play an ES game right now , i probably would play skyrim with a new selection of mods.

With that said , i do enjoy the ES theme and lore.

LadyLothi · May 2014

You certainly are not the only one, but reading the whining of the MMO crowd especially on the crafting forum, I actually believe the ES players are in a sad minority here.

I enjoy the writing in this game, I love reading the dialogue, the parchments, notes and books. Often enough, just a few diary entries or a note on the ground can help you maybe make that tough decision you have to make in a quest that much easier.

Catflinger · May 2014

I never played an ES game in my life before this, and I am reading every quest text and every note and book I find. That's my preferred method of MMO play -- as a consequence, I level at an absolutely glacial pace, but I play these games to enjoy the story and to immerse myself in a fantasy setting. Not to rush to level cap like a sugared-up toddler with ADHD.

Marika · May 2014

@Catflinger lol i totally agree with you ... but my ADHD comes out only when i gather lol .. try to quest like a good player does and then when i see something glowing somewhere i stop everything and start running like a crazed picking up everything lol

Catflinger · May 2014

Marika wrote: »

@Catflinger lol i totally agree with you ... but my ADHD comes out only when i gather lol .. try to quest like a good player does and then when i see something glowing somewhere i stop everything and start running like a crazed picking up everything lol

Ha ha ha -- actually, when it comes to gathering, I can be like that too! All bets are off if I see a node!

McUsher · May 2014

iAmTheTot wrote: »

...Then, on the flip side, I'm tired of advertising my guild as a social community only to have people whisper me asking for invites who then in turn contribute absolutely nothing to the guild. No "hello"s, no "goodbye"s, no conversation at all, never want to group with anyone, never want to do anything. Why did you ask to join a social guild if you're not social?!...

Maybe they're all listening to the NPCs and reading the Lore books

isengrimb16_ESO · May 2014

Marika wrote: »

@Catflinger lol i totally agree with you ... but my ADHD comes out only when i gather lol .. try to quest like a good player does and then when i see something glowing somewhere i stop everything and start running like a crazed picking up everything lol

But that's how you find those sneaky, hidden-in-the-middle-of-nowhere quests.

Yeah, it's taking me forever to level, too - and I'm not caring. I'm enjoying the journey that much.

I thought that I had just played so much WoW that the journey there died for me; but starting brand new on wildstar beta, I'm getting the same feeling I do in WoW, that I'm nothing more than a little stepping and fetching gofer being ordered around by my superiors in an army - ie, the way I felt my whole working life.

ESO (and Skyrim and presumably the earlier games) - Well, no one really owns me, do they?* While leveling restrictions of course bar you from wandering too far too soon (went into a level 40 zone instead of Greenshade by accident, ran right back out when I saw the level of the wild beast I was about to shoot), I don't feel like I'm "taking orders" when I talk to people; usually it's just they tell me their entire life story and all their problems - again, just like real life (I had to stop going to bars because of this) - the difference is, not only can I choose to help them or not (but of course you will for xp), but there are actually things I _can_ do to help these losers.

Sigh, it probably seems like a really subtle difference, but it's the key difference to me.

(*Malog Bal aside)

Syntse · May 2014

I do listen dialogues and read notes, however I've never been into book reading not even in RL. Might read lore books later on once I've collected them, from the journal lore book section.

I'm interested of the quest stories and how they bind together. Those are the reasons I play, not that I could reach level cap as fast as I can and get into PvP for the rest of my mmo life.

Also like to wander around the world just exploring, collecting nodes, killing aggro things that cross my path instead of just running from quest to quest all the time.

gunsofdeschain · May 2014

I stopped reading all that lore and dialogue because of other players. If this was a single player game with just me in a dungeon, mobs that I have killed stay dead etc., I'd thoroughly immerse myself. But when I'm trying to read notes, I see others running in the backgound, battle noise from other players engagements etc., respawned mobs etc., it just pulls me out of my immersion and I just want to chase the xp bar again.

isengrimb16_ESO · May 2014

Yes, I know the regular books sort of reset, so that you might find them in a safer place than some dungeon or quest area where things might respawn around you ... I know the Lorebooks get stored in our journal page for later perusal ... but I would like the regular books to be available on-demand in the journal, too, so I don't have to go to Imperial Library for them (or find them on my own bookshelf in Skyrim).

I still have to get around reading the ruins of kemel-ze and the last year of the first era all in order. It's bad enough I discovered that not all the volumes exist (Skyrim has one in 56 parts!). I want more than three of the 16 Accords of Madness, devs!

Maybe when the introduce housing, we'll be able to have copies of regular books for our shelves?

Falmer · May 2014

I actually play both ways. As for the books, most of them are repeats of books I have read several times in the single player games. Also, I prefer reading them somewhere safe, maybe a tavern where a bard is playing, so I wait to find the 'lorebook' version of each book too, so that I can pull it up and read it at my leisure.

Honestly, though the MMO environment really destroys much of the immersiveness of the single player games. I can't just stop and snoop around most areas, because 30 seconds from now the room is going to respawn and I will have to fight everything again.

Personally, I think they should have instanced everything. This way caves and dungeons don't respawn. If you kill the leader of the dungeon, he stays dead and I can check out and loot the area at a nice slow pace. As it is.... you have about a minute to look around before you are forced to fight everything again.

Reevster · May 2014

Its the 5 guild system that make people not talk much or care what others are saying in guild, plus the crappy chat box that always seems to be on the wrong chat line or fads when you want to type something but cant be bothered to try and type what you were going to say cause your group is moving /fighting etc etc, the chat system is a chore to try and use 90 percent of the time,

Get back to one main guild system only, 5 guilds just does not promote guild cooperation what so ever, only seems to promote soloish style play.

alenae1b14_ESO · May 2014

Lots of us read the notes and listen to the dialogue. I waited years for Elder Scrolls Online to be released and I intend to relish every moment. I am a flower picker and a wanderer, easily distracted by what is over the next hill or thru the valley.

Guilds with 500 members and your going to get some rotten apples... Guild chat gets flipped off when it strays to topics that start to annoy me or ruin my immersion. Reluctantly, I will slip into vent for PVP, as I prefer to have my images of how people sound vs how they really talk.

People have different play styles. It's just the way it goes, aren't we lucky this game caters to both?

Reevster · May 2014

Guilds with 500 member are not true guild now anyway, 300 or more of those members dont play anymore, 150 of those members are only there to try and sell their stuff , maybe buy a few things so you might have 50 true members of a guild if your really lucky and out of those 50 maybe 5 chat sometimes in guild chat....the guild system is very broken in this game, heck I could have a guild mate in a pickup group and not even know it lol...broken broken broken.

Loxy37 · May 2014

I listen to all the dialogue, read the text on the small notes but books, I read some but not all to be honest. Yeah its sure an annoyance when people just whizz through the text, never read journal entries then complain that quests are broke. A great example of is a quest, can't remember which faction but if you don't read the book that's on one of the shelves, you ain't doing the quest. I watch 10s of people just randomly selecting sequences of button when all they had to do is RTDB! Another was a 3 button puzzle that had to be pressed in sequence, people run around like chickens with no heads when the answer was directly behind them on the wall!

You can't so much blame most gamers as they have had content spoon fed them for years and now they expect to just whizz through without even a thought to what's going on.

People are missing out also as there's some real gems regards quests that really involve us, moral choices that really can leave you with real dilemmas. Just glad theres others that appreciate the sheer amount of work Zenimax have put into the story.

Dekkameron · May 2014

I listen to all of the quests (the first time through), but i rarely read the books.

Katahl · May 2014

As an Avid ES fan. I try to immerse myself as deep as possible. the game Defiantly allows for either immersion or flat out fast paced leveling. well, fast paced for an ES standpoint. Not so fast from an MMO standpoint.
The ADHD style I relate to very well. It seems ES never fails to have something catching your eye, pulling your attention in another direction. Without reading, or at the VERY least listening to the dialogue, I am unsure how most of the players I have seen get any understanding at all leveling in such a manner. However, those of us who mosey our way through the leveling curve, we will find those rare gems of quests and trinkets/trophies.
such is our reward for taking time to light a campfire for someone?

Debisibllaallb14_ESO · May 2014

Yea, most of the people that don't read stuff will never find the gems like this ^ guy said. For example, there are NPCs that don't have quest markers, whom once you speak with, will then have a marker... like a secret quest. I've found a couple that add another line to a quest, and a couple that mark stuff on your map, just like a regular ES game.

Loxy37 · May 2014

Katahl wrote: »

such is our reward for taking time to light a campfire for someone?

Haha! Yeah, nice reward that is. Shocked me when I discovered it and now I always look for those folks that can't rub 2 sticks together

Yeah I always head straight to the inns and talk to everyone to discover POI and get some back story of the area. Undaunted, if you buy them a drink, usually have some juicy gossip.

iAmTheTot · May 2014

Kinda surprised this got so many replies, haha.

I'm not going to reply individually, though I did read all the replies.

I knew I wasn't /really/ the only one, I was just saying sometimes it feels that way. As many of you have agreed with me, it just always seems like while I'm reading a note in a dungeon or talking to an NPC, a dozen or more players come by and do their thing in an instant and I'm just left here thinking, "there's no way you have any clue what they just told you." Such a shame, because the game has excellent voice acting for an MMO and then other times because I see people asking questions that they wouldn't have if they didn't skip dialogue.

As for the second half of my post, and the anti-social thing, I don't think it can just be squarely blamed on being able to be in 5 different guilds. I am quite sure that's a factor, but far from the only or even leading cause. These people don't even try to interact, and I refute that the chat box is a hassle. It's not exactly revolutionary or anything, it's just a typical MMO chatbox. It'd help, I think, if the 5 guilds have different chat colours by default instead of the same exact colour, because I know that several of my guild members didn't even know you could change them. I also think 5 guilds works well because I also agree with their decision to tie guilds to account, not character. I quite like that, as a guild leader.

Syntse · May 2014

Loxy37 wrote: »

A great example of is a quest, can't remember which faction but if you don't read the book that's on one of the shelves, you ain't doing the quest. I watch 10s of people just randomly selecting sequences of button when all they had to do is RTDB! Another was a 3 button puzzle that had to be pressed in sequence, people run around like chickens with no heads when the answer was directly behind them on the wall!

Agree, instructions to puzzles are usually available somewhere. However my self sometimes like to find the instructions and act accordingly but sometimes I like solving puzzle by trial and error and get the enjoyment when I finally crack the code.

michaelpatrickjonesnub18_ESO · May 2014

iAmTheTot wrote: »

dozens of other players have run up, spammed through the choices, and are running off towards the next objective arrow without any clue what that person just said.

Completely agree. This is all I ever saw in this game. It was a horse race.

Only a handful of times I took note of someone standing next to a NPC for a long period of time, reading before advancing. It was very noticeable, because it's rarely ever done.

Join a group for a 4-man dungeon and nobody wants to look around for loot. All they care about is setting record finishing times. You have to wait until everything is cleared, then backtrack through the dungeon, by yourself, to get everything that was missed.

jerzey_gamer · May 2014

This was inevitable the moment they declared this any type of MMO. Most people are in a rush to reach level cap and don't want to be bothered. I personally sit through all dialogue otherwise, like other have stated, it feels rushed and meaningless. I'll even read some book/notes if I'm in the mood, they're not 3-4 pages long, and/or there's not another 6 bookshelfs to check lol.

lauribleu_ESO · May 2014

I am very much interested in the stories--talking to the NPCs and collecting the books. I feel a little too pressured in-game to read them, but I have a mod that collects them, and I catch up on my reading during down-times, like eating a meal. Also, I recognize many of the titles from Oblivion and Skyrim.

I do sometimes tab through the conversations, but I've been a beta tester and a permanent beta tester, plus having 6 current players. Just how many times to you need to attentively listen to the prophet explain about the 5 companions? But when I encounter new quests, I do listen attentively.

I've never been concerned about leveling quickly. I am in for the journey and like to enjoy them. With SWTOR, I found once I reached the cap, I lost interest in my characters, so I want to stick with my characters as long as I can to enjoy their journeys.