What do 99% of players actually do?

Parasaurolophus · May 4

I often see people on forums say that veteran PvE content and PvP only interest a tiny portion of the player base. But that raises a real question for me—how are people playing this game then?

Every new chapter or DLC, I usually finish in about 5–6 evenings at a relaxed pace. After that, I might go for some overland achievements, if I feel like it. Then the game turns back into a crafting writ simulator, with occasional raid progression and very rare dungeon runs. I honestly have no idea what else there is to do in this game.

Housing kept me entertained for a while, but after decorating a couple of homes, that was enough. So what’s next? I know thousands of people play this game daily, and only a small minority are clearing hard mode DLC dungeons.

The Account-Wide Achievements system gave me some insight—apparently, a lot of players just recolor all the POIs on the map to white for each of their characters. Some even do fishing and Black Market Mogul on multiple accounts.

Is that really true? Like… is repainting the map white actually endgame for many players?

What I’m getting at is this: the game badly needs new types of activities. The current Golden Pursuits event shows very clearly that it's nearly impossible to create interesting objectives, because most existing activities are either outdated or overly complex. In the end, it all turns into annoying grind.

ESO_player123 · May 5

I do not do PvP or any harder PvE than some older normal trials. I do housing when I think of a new project, play A LOT of ToT. Not long ago I decided to collect the books that I was missing from the Eidetic Library (there were a lot of those). That brought me to doing DLC dungeons with a companion(it turned out easier and more fun than I thought). Sadly, I collected all that I could and now only missing the books that are bugged or in some trials that I've never been to.

So, now I'm basically waiting for the new chapter to drop and see where I will go from there.

Orbital78 · May 5

How ever they please? The population doing content isn't as low as some think, is my guess. Currently I have a core group that I do vet HM twice a week. Other than that I tend to focus on farming things for my trade guilds, which usually also includes some trials, dungeons, and overland.

I only focus on achievements and full story playthroughs on my "main" character. I do stuff on alts as needed to get more skill points and unlocks. Oddly enough I have run into a few guild mates that totally will not do trials and pvp. I think they are missing out since normals at least are very easy. They could be carried if need be, since mechanics aren't really mandatory in normal. It is their choice to do with their game time as they wish.

JinKC98 · May 5

Don't know what the "99% of people" do, but I'm into Vet DLC Dungeon HM for my version of endgame (with Trials mixed in). PVP a bit too (BG and Cyro) if my friends are up to it.

I do actually pick one random character and clear out one random area in one zone per day (e.g. Glenumbra Moors today, Feral Gallery in Apocrypha the next day, and so on).

AlterBlika · May 5

Farming for some stuff, doing their dailies, maybe questing...

Soarora · May 5

I’m going to guess based on what I’ve seen and how I used to play:
- questing
- housing
- collecting items for use or for selling
- overland dailies
- ToT
- roleplay

Note though that I’ve always done PuG dungeons, but that may be a me thing not a usual experience.

Desiato · May 5

I think the target player only plays ESO very casually and like a single player game. Like a few hours a week, here and there. They focus mainly on story quests. They seem to hate encountering meta players who obliterate everything. They can have epic battles in delves somehow. I think ESO has literally millions of players like this.

Then there are the MMO players who come in a wide variety of flavours, but also mainly casual. I have some friends like this and they seem to spend a lot of time decorating homes and doing things to get furnishing plans and cosmetics. They seem to like developing characters aesthetically. They might eventually dip their toes in pvp or pve end game content and like it, but this only happens very rarely.

Then there are the [hard]core gaming players like me who are part of the more traditional online game audience. ZOS cares about us the least and only tosses us a bone here and there. As a result this community is very transient because either they get frustrated by all of the balance issues or, in the case of trials, they run out of new things to do and can't bear grinding the same trial yet again.

More than anything, I feel many players in the same communities as me stay for the friends they've made. Playing with my guildmates is what motivates me to continue.

whitecrow · May 5

I quest and explore.

Destai · May 5

Run dungeons, usually on normal. Collect skyshards, quest, and the occasional IA run. And horse training.

Elvenheart · May 5

Right now, I’m leveling a new character, my 12th, for Subclassing because while I may tweak a few of my existing characters with Subclassing most of them will be staying the same so I’m doing a new one. I didn’t think I would create a new character until a new class came out, so this is an unexpected delight. Normally I would be doing crafting dailies on one character, then endeavors on the characters best suited to them, and on days I have more time to play do things to work on my characters, like collecting skyshards, doing quests, reading books, just whatever I feel moved to do that day.

SilverBride · May 5

Daily crafting writs on 7 characters
Master writs and Surveys gathered from that day's crafting writs
Daily endeavors
Questing
Trading
Housing
Guild contests
Golden Pursuits
Events
Occasional Infinite Archive
Occasional Battlegrounds
Occasional normal and veteran dungeons
Less frequently normal trials
Chat with friends while playing

AzuraFan · May 5

Achievements (I have a list I want to get).

Collect lorebooks.

Antiquities.

That's it. I broke the endeavor habit, so I don't go after those anymore (some complete naturally).

kaushad · May 5

I spend a lot of time expanding collections. For example, that gallery in the Jerrall Mountains is available with the current Gold Pursuits. I used some of those pursuits as a means to add to other collections, specifically dungeon set items and the one of the leads for the Harpooner's Wading Kilt.

As intended, I log on throughout most of the year to participate in events. I put off questing to prioritise endeavors etc. So right now, I've done nearly all the Necrom/Apocrypha side quests and I'm on the second or third of that chapter's main quests. I might still be doing Gold Road quests by the time Solstice becomes available for crowns (assuming it does). On PTS, I found West Weald's main quests more interesting than Necrom's so I might finish them faster. On the hand, there are those scribing quests.

rothan117 · May 5

These days, I do story content when it comes out, I farm mats, sell stuff on the trader, do events that interest me, do writs. I do not touch pvp and do not do group content unless I can solo it (I like solo base game world bosses and base game group dungeons where it can be done.) I have gotten too old and slow to do vet content.

Warhawke_80 · May 5

Currently I'm Pugging with my Fake Tank..

Thoriorz · May 5

Starting with daily writs (20 characters), endeavors, filling soul gems, surveys.
After that, I'm hunting Leads and filling codex entries to 3/3.
In between some random dungeon through the finder for a daily reward and also on alt characters, zone completion, some xp grind and that's it.
I'm absolutely no pvp lover and I'm not into hard content either. Occasionally I'll go to a normal trial with a guild, just for fun..

SpiritKitten · May 5

Endeavors, PvP, Questing, Housing, Exploration, Achievements, Golden Pursuits

I used to do trials and group dungeons with groups, but haven't in a long time. I solo most content and skip trials completely.

I also rarely sell anything on guild traders. I have so much gold it doesn't really matter and they destroyed the market anyway so it's a waste of my time, basically. I rarely even shop unless I need a specific furniture pattern or motif.

I also rarely do daily writs.

I get so many transmutes crystals from Rewards of the Worthy I don't need to do pledges even.

Mainly I PvP and am leveling up a new companion.

Hapexamendios · May 5

Vet Dungeons and trials with friends
Normal dungeons through group finder or solo
Infinite Archive
Experiment with different builds

MaleAmazon · May 5

Well, let me get a little personal then. I´ve been playing basically since the game came out, with some long breaks (sometimes a year or so). My own private life has also been an absolute roller coaster during this decade. Let me first say that ESO is my first MMO, I just started playing it because I am a TES fan.

So, 2014. My personal life is an absolute mess with having an alcohol addiction and having been illegally used and abused by two employers as well as by people close to me. I started playing TES as an escape from my own mind, and I played it just as I had a single-player Elder Scrolls game; in first-person, doing the story. Other players were, quite frankly, just an immersion-breaking annoyance. "Zone: BritneySpears1092: Gold for cash PM credit card number". You could not finish some quests such as Skyshroud Barrow, because the final boss always had 10 people standing around him burning him down in 0.4 seconds, so you couldn´t do enough damage to get credit for the kill.

2015-ish. I try PvP. It did not go well. I remember sneaking up on a player (who was TBH probably AFK) in my mostly green and blue gear, and unleashing a mighty combo taking out 3% of his HP in under a minute before he turned around and swatted me. My life otherwise - still a struggling mess.

I took long breaks and some years later I started doing more raids, I joined guilds including a Swedish (I´m Swedish) one, went on discord, chatted. It was my social life, and to be frank, I was always aware that it was a really poor substitute for an actual social life, like the one I had in medical school and for some time after. But it was kind of fun for a while. My life, less of a mess, but still one. Got a new apartment, got new life chances that I blew. Having done raids for a while, I just kind of quit for the most part.

I was also into trading and sold stuff for a while, grinding public dungeons for fragments, farming IC for Tel Var. Really grindy of course, but helpful for golding out gear (I shudder when I think about the amount of golden gear I´ve deleted over the years when I would delete characters and quit the game, only to come back many months later).

I started doing PvP for real at one point, and since I was only working part-time and choosing my own availability at work, I could really devote myself to it as a kind of project. By this time I had learned the game, come up with my own successful burst combos etc, I had switched to third-person perspective, used alts to grind out gear for every 4 sub-50 levels and finally got emperor (don´t know when and AFAIK it´s not an account-wide achievement so I can´t check since the character is retired) as a solo under-50 Cyrodiil player after a few weeks of trying and playing literally 90% of my waking hours. It was quite an experience. I remember taking the final keep late at night, me and some others nightcapping it and some PUG jogging up to defend, me going "you... do.. not... take... this... away... from... me!" and spamming bombard on the *** until they were flat on the ground. I remember my character sitting on a chair on top of a keep tower a day or so later, watching the sunset and listening to the sound of distant but yet so close trebuchets ending my reign, just enjoying the moment and the achievement.

Oh and that assault failed. But nothing lasts forever.

These days... ESO is an on and off activity. The game is much better than at launch, and so am I. I still play mostly solo. I didn´t get all DLC, but I have several and most of the time I am an ESO+ member. I´ll do the occasional dungeon, play some story while listening to a podcast, farm the occasional set, jump into Battlegrounds for half an hour. Make up little stories about my characters since I am a bit of an aspiring writer, so some of my ESO charaters have short backstories etc. I'll test out a new build. Maybe some PvP the occasional evening. When I PvP I want to win, but it´s not the end of the world if I get Rush of Agonyed 10 times in a row. I constantly think about quitting completely, but until I get a more fulfilling life (and I am on my way), it´s... a hobby. ESO is great in that you can quickly switch from single-player story content to cooperative group activity to PUG PVP at ease. I don´t care about achievements anymore, I found hunting those mostly unhealthy in the end. I solo World Bosses and hope for more difficult overland content. Combat in ESO is great and weaving is fun.

It´s also nice to be able to switch between roles. I usually play werewolf with Ring of the Pale Order when farming mobs or DDing, switch to Torc of the Last Ayleid King for random BGs, slap on some tanking gear (or just slot inner fire) or a healing set to go PUG daily dungeon perhaps (don´t do that much these days though). Group finder is much improved nowadays and for solo players like me it is much appreciated to be able to quickly get in and out of a quick group activity.

I play ESO in a mostly healthy way now, which I can´t say was always the case in the past.

I´ve learned that when people jump your lvl 17 alt who´s in IC just trying to get some skyshards, you just sigh a little, let them kill you and move on. And that kind of goes in life too. l´ll get my vengeance on the people and system that destroyed me almost completely over a decade ago. But I´ll do it by getting a fulfilling life again, and by exposing them and writing about things - not by letting it eat me up and causing more atrophy of the soul and self destruction. I´ve learned that some corrosive armor works on the skin of the wearer, too, if you know what I mean.

Maybe I´ll get an ESO house to decorate some day, but I am not gonna pay money for it, and it´s not going to top my house in Morrowind (Solstheim) that I made in the Creation Kit, complete with Vivec in a Santa hat and a hot springs pool. I am restarting my life, and I hope someday to be able to get my medical license (I will never stop trying at that). I got over my addiction, I am mostly over my depression. Scars remain, that is life. I am a different person. I am not going to say that playing ESO was a waste, but... I wish the last decade had been very different. I am grateful to ESO and the ESO players that helped me through it, and that I have gotten to do a lot of things that otherwise were not in my wheelhouse.

Well, another wall of text. But I felt I needed to write it.

Cheers and best wishes to you all.

Tandor · May 5

whitecrow wrote: »

I quest and explore.

Same here, on multiple characters across 2 accounts and servers. I'm increasingly casual in terms of the number of hours I play so that with other games on the go and a full life in retirement with other things like family stuff I often get the login reward and do those endeavours that appeal to me and not much else, but other times I will do a couple of hours a day questing and exploring.

Once or twice a week my grandson and I will do dungeon, Infinite Archive or world boss etc content alongside each other for half an hour or so, we're currently running Dragonstar Arena. I don't often run such content otherwise, I do antiquities but I don't do PvP, trading, or ToT. I enjoy the housing content in an extremely casual way.

Renato90085 · May 5

i 80% time main play trial hm/ trifecta ,but i play overland story/trade/RP/fish/teach new player/do event/pvp/farm mats/chat with guild member too
i never feel i am a other 1% special group

Danikat · May 5

I can only answer for myself but I suspect the most important part is I don't expect ESO to fill up all my free time. It's one of many games I play, and gaming is one of several hobbies, so it can take me a while to get through things and I'm never in a situation where I feel like I have to do things which don't interest me because there's nothing else left to do.

I play PvP occasionally, but don't do vet dungeons because anything I want from dungeons (which is mainly playing through the stories) I can get in normal mode. I would do trials if I had time, but as well as being limited the time I can give to ESO is unpredictable so I can't commit to being in a trial group.

I'm mainly interested in the world - the lore and stories, so I spend most of my time doing quests and exploring the zones. I have 8 characters (and an 9th I want to make) and they're each at different points in the game so I spread it out instead of repeating the same things over and over. I'll do achievements which interest me as I'm going along, but only the ones which interest me, I'm not aiming to clear all of them.

I also do endeavours and events if they interest me.

Parasaurolophus wrote: »

The Account-Wide Achievements system gave me some insight—apparently, a lot of players just recolor all the POIs on the map to white for each of their characters. Some even do fishing and Black Market Mogul on multiple accounts.

Is that really true? Like… is repainting the map white actually endgame for many players?

This is such a dull way of interpreting it. It's like saying going on holiday is just queuing at the airport for a stamp in your passport.

I'm one of the many people who like questing and exploration on multiple characters, but it's not about the colour of the map icons, that's a trivial detail - just one of many ways to track where you've been. The point of doing it is to do it. As well as different classes and skills each of my characters has their own personality and approaches things differently, which makes it different for me. But I also space it out - I don't do the same things back to back on all my characters, they're all at different points in the game and different parts of the world so their first time through something might be the first time I've done it in a year or so.

RedTalon · May 5

My main char is called The Trollborn will let you fill in the blank on what they do, butchery do love a certain type of fishing

Shara_Wynn · May 5

It sounds like you are bored with the game. Instead of complaining about it on the game's message forum, maybe you should go take a break for a while and play something else. Oblivion Remastered is very good.

MJallday · May 5

Currently… grinding 64million AP for grand champion

(At 3-5 million a month you can do the maths)

In between that, skill points for my main so I can do subclassing (up to 68 spare which should be enough)

And lastly levelling my zenkosh DK skills

Thorncrypt · May 5

1. Questing (2000+ voiced quests is amazing)
2. RP (Houses decorated by Aetherius Art and other Housing Guilds are a nice setting. Just get permission from the owner by sending them a cordial mail)
3. Duels (solo pvp)
4. small group pvp (battle grounds)
5. large group pvp (cyrodil and ICP)
6. small group pve (dungeons)
7. large group pve (trials)
8. solo pve (maelstrom and vatesheran)
9. small group pve (Dragonstar and Blackrose Prison)
10. the card game they added in high isle
11. crafting
12. housing

SeaGtGruff · May 5

My daily "must do" activities are the daily crafting writs, the Tales of Tribute daily (3 NPC matches), and the daily endeavors. Those are just on my PCNA and PCEU mains. I also collect crafting assistant mailings on all of my characters, although once in a blue moon I forget to grab the mail on my alts before the daily reset.

Other than that, I work on weekly endeavors and any events or Golden Pursuits that happen to be going on.

Then I do whatever else I feel like doing-- world bosses, normal group dungeons, any Antiquity leads I've found that are going to expire soon, master writs, treasure maps, one or more Imperial City district dailies, dragon hunts, PvP in Cyrodiil, running around in zones fighting overland mobs and doing delves and public dungeons, etc. I've still got a good bit of questing left to do, especially on PCEU, so I might work on zone quests.

Daoin · May 5

pray for a larger more open minded and polite ingame community and one where its ok for our toons to do different amounts of damage without needing to play clay pigeons between updates. but after update 46 announcement..not much worth noting

Veinblood1965 · May 5

Ganking people in PVP, especially questers muhahahahhaha!

LunaFlora · May 5

- Fashion, whenever.
if i get a new outfit style or dye that fits one of my main character's ten outfits. Sometimes i also just change them because of having a new idea or if i want to return to an old outfit (more outfit slots would be nice).

- Housing, whenever.
i have the majority of homes so there's always something i can decorate. And i love being in my homes even without decorating.
I'm in a Housing Guild and sometimes there's a competition so it's also fun to decorate for that.

- Story quests, whenever.
i completed all zone stories so far, but there's still plenty of side quests and the last 2 quests of Zerith-Var and Tanlorin's stories.

- daily crafting writs, nearly every day.
preferably all 20 characters, most often 10 characters, or just my main.

- other daily quests, sometimes.
Guaranteed to do them during zone events, but with the low drop rate on Structural Furnishing Plans there's not much motivation to do them often (even though doing them more would increase my chances).

- Tales of Tribute, sometimes for daily quests and i still have a few achievements to complete.

- Infinite Archive, sometimes. kinda want to do it daily but not without some kind of Skip and/or Save option.

- Trials, sometimes as a Healer if there's a trial in the Group Finder i want to do.

- Battlegrounds, sometimes. they're usually quite fun especially as a Healer, but not Deathmatch (if only we could choose which mode we wanna play).

- random dungeons, hardly ever because of fake tanks and healers. and i use Healer and Tank builds when doing them.
i tend to solo new Group Dungeons.

- Cyrodiil and imperial city, hardly ever.
Mostly during Mayhem events, because it's the only way to get tickets.

- Arenas, hardly ever.
I've completed all at least once, but besides Vateshran Hollows they're not fun to repeat.

i think that's all the different activities?

edited to add:
- Thieving, sometimes.
for gold, furnishings, or the decorative wax from Necrom urns.

- Collectibles/Achievements hunting, i don't do it often.
Most of the ones I'm missing are from Group Dungeons and Veteran Trials, but there's a few Public Dungeon items too.
and PvP which is tedious to me.

Daily quests for DLC Public Dungeons would be welcome so there's an extra reason to go to them.

Oberon45 · May 5

I have a full roster of 20 characters, so I like to pick one that I haven't played in awhile tweak its' build and then either do a bunch of either random dungeons or dungeons with guild members to test out the current set up. I enjoy finding where the pinch points are with the build and then figuring out how to correct until they are in a good place. I play them mostly exclusively for a week or so, then pick up another character and repeat.