ESO feels just overall empty

fizzybeef · September 16

First of all, im not treating ESO as a solo player game, i play all types of multiplayer content only. For solo games i have other games.
While i was excited for subclassing first and it was fun first, it just bores me now. Everyone has the same build in pvp and in pve it´s kinda the same aswell.
There is no variation, just the same meta sets and skill lines. Boring.

Im on PS EU there is no high population anymore. While spots like belkarth, mournhold or eldenroot were always well populated, nowadays these hotspots are just low populated, not much going on.
I try to queue for dungeons as a tank, its taking ages. I try to find hosted trials, its not happening. Battlegrounds taking ages, cyrodiil has as most 2 bars in the evening, the prime time is from 7-9pm after and before that its dead.

Im aware there are multiple instances in open world, but nobody can sell me im always in the empty instance.
It just feels less and more and more becoming a ghosttown, except maybe on weekends or certain events.

There is 5 big guilds im in, multiple trader guilds, social guilds and a pvp guild, of 500 members there are at most 60-70 online on the weekend at the evening, not much chatting and not much going on.
First i thought it was guild related, but i joined other popular guilds and its the same.
Also a lot of friends i used to play with have stopped and not been online for months.

Really i cant enjoy the game like this anymore, i dont want to run alone and spend my free time waiting in queues because nobody is playing anymore. So i wonder if its time to move on, thought i dont really want too, i play since release and love the game and spend a fortune of money in it.

I just wonder what happened, where are all the players gone and what has lead to this ?

Parasaurolophus · September 16

fizzybeef wrote: »

First of all, im not treating ESO as a solo player game, i play all types of multiplayer content only. For solo games i have other games.
While i was excited for subclassing first and it was fun first, it just bores me now. Everyone has the same build in pvp and in pve it´s kinda the same aswell.
There is no variation, just the same meta sets and skill lines. Boring.

Im on PS EU there is no high population anymore. While spots like belkarth, mournhold or eldenroot were always well populated, nowadays these hotspots are just low populated, not much going on.
I try to queue for dungeons as a tank, its taking ages. I try to find hosted trials, its not happening. Battlegrounds taking ages, cyrodiil has as most 2 bars in the evening, the prime time is from 7-9pm after and before that its dead.

Im aware there are multiple instances in open world, but nobody can sell me im always in the empty instance.
It just feels less and more and more becoming a ghosttown, except maybe on weekends or certain events.

There is 5 big guilds im in, multiple trader guilds, social guilds and a pvp guild, of 500 members there are at most 60-70 online on the weekend at the evening, not much chatting and not much going on.
First i thought it was guild related, but i joined other popular guilds and its the same.
Also a lot of friends i used to play with have stopped and not been online for months.

Really i cant enjoy the game like this anymore, i dont want to run alone and spend my free time waiting in queues because nobody is playing anymore. So i wonder if its time to move on, thought i dont really want too, i play since release and love the game and spend a fortune of money in it.

I just wonder what happened, where are all the players gone and what has lead to this ?

I don’t want to be “that toxic guy”, but still, originally MMOs are more of a PC genre. I can see how PC is getting emptier, and it’s really scary to imagine what’s going on with consoles right now. Just wait for crossplay, just wait. Or, if you’ve got the strength and time, start fresh on PC.

colossalvoids · September 16

Despite not liking a perspective of a crossplay it's probably the only thing that can get ESO afloat for a time. When economy declines and there's not enough people to populate pickup queues it's virtually done already, so the only thing left is merging players as much as possible.

moderatelyfatman · 7:56AM

colossalvoids wrote: »

Despite not liking a perspective of a crossplay it's probably the only thing that can get ESO afloat for a time. When economy declines and there's not enough people to populate pickup queues it's virtually done already, so the only thing left is merging players as much as possible.

At the current rate of population decline, cross play might add an extra year or two of life before we're even worse off.
The question is this: will we get cross play next year or the year after?

colossalvoids · 8:13AM

moderatelyfatman wrote: »

colossalvoids wrote: »

Despite not liking a perspective of a crossplay it's probably the only thing that can get ESO afloat for a time. When economy declines and there's not enough people to populate pickup queues it's virtually done already, so the only thing left is merging players as much as possible.

At the current rate of population decline, cross play might add an extra year or two of life before we're even worse off.
The question is this: will we get cross play next year or the year after?

They're already bit late to the party, to say the least. But with how fast we're getting basic stuff it's years away imo, can't imagine it being out earlier than 3-4 years.

fizzybeef · 10:32AM

moderatelyfatman wrote: »

colossalvoids wrote: »

Despite not liking a perspective of a crossplay it's probably the only thing that can get ESO afloat for a time. When economy declines and there's not enough people to populate pickup queues it's virtually done already, so the only thing left is merging players as much as possible.

At the current rate of population decline, cross play might add an extra year or two of life before we're even worse off.
The question is this: will we get cross play next year or the year after?

colossalvoids wrote: »

moderatelyfatman wrote: »

colossalvoids wrote: »

Despite not liking a perspective of a crossplay it's probably the only thing that can get ESO afloat for a time. When economy declines and there's not enough people to populate pickup queues it's virtually done already, so the only thing left is merging players as much as possible.

At the current rate of population decline, cross play might add an extra year or two of life before we're even worse off.
The question is this: will we get cross play next year or the year after?

They're already bit late to the party, to say the least. But with how fast we're getting basic stuff it's years away imo, can't imagine it being out earlier than 3-4 years.

I mean they said it took them 9 months for coding swimming mounts (wich is literally a walking animation in water), so i cant hype myself for that

Tandor · 10:41AM

I think people are overstating both the decline in the game's population, which is mainly involving competitive play and not the overall game, and the contribution that crossplay will make to reversing any such decline. Assuming it does happen, it won't be any time soon.

Nemesis7884 · 10:49AM

I always see people everywhere regardless when i log in - and i usually do my dailies between 5 - 6am and there are a ton of people online...(PC EU) so i have no idea where or when you are playing

fizzybeef · 10:51AM

Nemesis7884 wrote: »

I always see people everywhere regardless when i log in - and i usually do my dailies between 5 - 6am and there are a ton of people online...(PC EU) so i have no idea where or when you are playing

Good for you, im playing on PS EU, as i wrote above

colossalvoids · 10:58AM

Tandor wrote: »

I think people are overstating both the decline in the game's population, which is mainly involving competitive play and not the overall game ...

That's the point, isn't it? The disjointed mass of players who inhabited the world and not connecting to each other versus people who do participate in community aspects like trading, guilds, group content etc. There are objectively thousands at any given time, probably couple ten of thousands players logged in at the very least. But that's not what people are really talking about when discussing the population decline as it involves social aspects and how those feel versus previous years. It's more about those 1-10 percent who make the game feel truly alive, imo.

Tandor wrote: »

... and the contribution that crossplay will make to reversing any such decline.

My guess it's more about sustaining adequate amount of people just a little longer if no substantial changes or reversals are made ultimately. I don't expect them to revert AwA, for example, but something should be done addressing all the issues it created for players and player retention. If not, there's no crossplay that would salvage lack of attachment.

Xarc · 11:07AM

as I just said on another hot thread

Xarc wrote: »

fizzybeef wrote: »

It actually feels like the game is dying

September has always been a period of low pop on ESO (more or less high intensity)

BTW
Knowing this, and when I see the September daily rewards month, and the what are actual Golden Pursuits rewards, I think that ZOS could reward the most loyal players even more. But hey... that's just my opinion

https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/comment/8369496/#Comment_8369496

Nemesis7884 · 11:40AM

fizzybeef wrote: »

Nemesis7884 wrote: »

I always see people everywhere regardless when i log in - and i usually do my dailies between 5 - 6am and there are a ton of people online...(PC EU) so i have no idea where or when you are playing

Good for you, im playing on PS EU, as i wrote above

Crossplay is being worked on....so soon that will improve

AngryPenguin · 4:16PM

Xarc wrote: »

as I just said on another hot thread

Xarc wrote: »

fizzybeef wrote: »

It actually feels like the game is dying

September has always been a period of low pop on ESO (more or less high intensity)

BTW
Knowing this, and when I see the September daily rewards month, and the what are actual Golden Pursuits rewards, I think that ZOS could reward the most loyal players even more. But hey... that's just my opinion

https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/comment/8369496/#Comment_8369496

I was an eso+ subscriber for 10 years without missing a single month. What did I get for my loyalty? Ten years of eso+. So when some changes I didn't approve of came along I finally cancelled the sub and am liking the game much more now that I'm no longer increasing my financial investment into the game. At least I'm not paying for the vengeance nonsense and tiny zones with a fraction of what we used to get for the same money.