There are a number of things that caused me to quit the game temporarily before coming back. However, each time I stopped playing I have taken longer and longer breaks.

1. I was a keen PvPer until High Isle and Brokensoul pay to win. I quit PvP and moved over to PvE.
2. I became a keen stamwarden PvE main for a few months until Patch 35 hit. This was the first time I quit the game.
3. I took a break and tried out the free version of Guild Wars 2 until Oakensoul had been nerfed and High Isle was half price.
4. I adapted my PvE build to become more proc set heavy so that I could get back into PvE. I ran in prog groups until Arctic Blast got nerfed when I quit the game again.
5. This time I took nearly a year off I came back for subclassing: I wanted my stamwarden to be competitive again and subclassing offered a possible chance.
6. I played ESO for about two weeks when the boredom of playing near identical playstyles for my dps prog run got to me, so I stopped playing again.
7. Patch 46 nerfed the subclasses but wrecked the pure classes even more. Before the days of hybridisation I had a stamwarden dps, a magsorc dps, a stamsorc dps and a stamplar that I would alternate through Trials and could enjoy the different playstyles. The absolute homogenisation coming from Subclassing was the final nail in the coffin for me.

So, these days I keep an eye on the forums in the hope that one day I can get the ESO I once enjoyed back. The class balancing announcement would be promising when coming from a company where the devs deliver but here I place very little chance to succeed.

I think the new class balance will become the next 'Year of Performance' that will be trotted out each year to excite the playerbase but there will be very little change.

I barely play anymore and I honestly don't know what would bring me back to eso at this time.

As they've cut back and made change after change that made the game less fun, I've only stayed because of the friends I've made here. But most have left and even the most die-hard friends are wavering.

To put it in the most general way possible, the general feeling behind this is that everything is stale and there's nothing to do. The content and systems are increasingly shallow and rehashed and rushed and repetitive and simply aren't keeping people engaged for more than a passing moment.

Just a final thought to add to this as I considered it - as more and more people scale back or leave the game entirely, this causes others to leave and the problem starts to build on itself and becomes more complex. Because ultimately the answer to what would bring me back goes beyond my personal issues with the game and becomes "whatever brings back my friends and guildies and the people I've played with". And that's not just any one issue, but a long trend of different issues that have driven away a variety of players with different interests and playstyles. A couple years ago someone on this forum described the changes and updates being made to the game as "death by a thousand cuts" and I still totally feel that.

Veinblood1965 wrote: »

The WW wall event and Sub-classing were the last straws for me. Overall the last two years or so it just felt like two things were lacking. For any changes that were made the first question should have been "Is this change going to be fun for more players" and the second question should have been "will this change cause more people to leave than it draws into the game on a long term basis". Actually the first question asked should be the second question I listed above. Subclassing for example, how many people just quit due to that? Do we think more people that quit before we release or have never played the game would be subscribing? At best from research my guess would have been 50/50, and that's at best. If 20000 people leave and 15000 people subscribe it's a loss. Combine that with other changes where the losses outweigh the gains we get where we are now. It's harder to draw new long term players into anything, it's easier to cause existing players to just reach that last straw IMO.

The fun was sucked out of the game. It really just was. My main was a night blade. Cloak was changed, a core ability. I also used to like to vendor, the time for listing was decreased from a month to 14 days and the fees stayed the same(the fees were just a huge slap in the face that made us feel like ZoS just didn't give a hoot how we would feel, seriously it's just fake gold what harm to halve the listing costs?), then scribing, a huge grind for nothing, nothing hardly worth using at all for the grind, then subclassing, I didn't mind the concept, it was the cost of two skill points each time, I just felt it was an unnecessary extra grind that had no purpose other than to add a grind, the last straw was the writhing wall event, I logged in, saw the stupid daily quests where you literally just killed a few wolves or even worse just turned around and turned in a crafting quest within a second, over and over. I logged off right then, un-subscribed and am just lurking the forums for a some reason. It was such a let down i had even paid for the season and still quit without seeing the other half of the release. All that being said a HUGE portion of my friends I've played with for years have quit slowly after each change mentioned above was released, a large portion after the vendoring change and another large chunk after subclassing. Of course in any game if a change is made people leave that's just a given. But when the amount that leaves is more than the amount of new incoming players that stay long term eventually it leads to where we are now. I'm on PS5 NA server and it's a ghost town compared to how it used to be. Zone chats and guild chats empty, long term larger trading guilds have shut down.

If they ever start asking IS THIS FUN FOR THE PLAYERS I might give them another chance, for now I'm looking elsewhere. It's really just not fun any more. The question is what changes would be considered fun enough to bring me back. I honestly don't know which is sad also as I'd like to but I don't trust the rug to be pulled out from under me over and over again once I find something new to latch onto in the game.

I'm sorry if this feels like a rant, it is not. I've played this game since Summerset and hated to leave, this isn't an I'm quitting post either. I'm hoping others can answer the question as to what would bring them back to help ZoS alter the course of their ship.

For me the reason isn't subclassing. Its the complete breakdown of balance changes. Until the announcement of the class refresh we barely got anything

The declining volume and quality of the content releases. WW is the last straw, so bug ridden and a very thin amount of content.

I haven't quit yet, but I'm considering exiting when I finish up Eastern Solstice. The main reason is all the uncertainty. First subclassing blew away balance. Now they're planning to change classes, and it's going to take a while. I'm not sure I want to keep investing my time and money when I don't know whether I'll enjoy the changes or not. I guess I'm just fed up with all the teasers and "we're working on cool stuff" without any details or a roadmap or anything.

Anyway, I extended my ESO+ to February, hoping we'll get some details in January of what's coming in 2026 at least. If it's a fluff reveal, or it's all about aspects of the game I don't care about as much, I'll be taking a break for sure.

robwolf666 wrote: »

(For me, ZoS leaning into PvE and more solo play would be gold.)

Me too, but I have the impression they're moving in the opposite direction. More focus on combat (dungeons, trials, PvP, IA, constant class and balance changes), and less on story and exploration. I could be wrong, though. That's why I need to know what's coming in 2026. If they announce a new overarching solo system, I'll stay for sure.

valenwood_vegan wrote: »

To put it in the most general way possible, the general feeling behind this is that everything is stale and there's nothing to do. The content and systems are increasingly shallow and rehashed and rushed and repetitive and simply aren't keeping people engaged for more than a passing moment.

I feel this too. Golden pursuits and endeavors are essentially the same. They only differ in rewards, and they have us doing the same tasks that we've done thousands of times before. Every zone has 6 delves, 6 WBs, 3 crafting locations, etc. Events are same old, same old, with the same old rewards. I need something new and fresh, but I don't see it happening.

I enjoyed the game until all the uncertainty and repetitive tasks, so I'd love to stay. But I need a reason to keep this game around in 2026.

Cut back dramatically including axing my ESO+, but still log in for dailies/seals for now.

The game just doesn’t feel good. The population is going down, the player economy has been spiraling and they keep putting out buggy content players don’t like.

I foresee the equivalent of Golden Pursuits for cash (aka, the final iteration of our new seasons) with no meaningful new content around the corner.

There is nothing to look forward to and I see nothing indicating there will be.

Gray Host and trading were my main activities, and my main character has always been a no-pet sorc. Cyrodiil pop caps getting lower and lower while still giving mediocre performance is the reason I'd been an unhappy customer for a long time. Destroying the trading system turned me into a non-paying customer, no more ESO+ and no intention to buy any new chapters. The announcement of subclassing and the first iteration of vengeance made me switch to a different mmo entirely (GW2).

If zos can offer the fun cyrodiil used to be with their new, smaller scale version of it, and give me my no-pet sorc back, I might return for that. It's the one thing I miss in GW2, they have something similar called world vs world, but it pales in comparison. But that game does just about everything else a lot better than ESO, so while I could maybe return for some casual pvp, I don't know that it would be enough to become a paying customer again...

Where I am currently:
I'm maintenance mode and will be taking a break after NLF.

Mainly, the game's just not fun anymore. The combat, despite its management, is the main "fun". And it's kept me in-game for a long time. I'll pop back in just to taste it again. But after a while, I'm only doing randoms and chasing skyshards for...what again? I dunno.

The whole gameplay loop is too focused on FOMO, namely the crown store and events. And even with events, there's been so many issues that they're not very enjoyable. So many bugs or poor rewards.

The Writhing Wall was a breaking point for me. Seeing that whole thing unfold, along with the U48 combat animation changes, I just can't with ZOS anymore. I can live with the performance issues and combat changes. But for them to bungle events, which is the main activity nowadays, I just don't feel like logging in. It was bad enough with the anniversary events, but this year just seemed so much more pronounced.

What would bring me back?

They'd have to fundamentally improve the gameplay loop; it's too stale. If I see new content release with as much earnable content as a crown crate rotation, then I'd be more willing to dive into the game again. As it stands right now, there's just too much micromanagement of my time in the game. Horse training, transmute caps, event ticket caps, all of it. None of that's fun. It's burnt me out. And there's too many other games out there to put up with this drip feed nonsense.

Make your game fun. Take one whole crown crate season and make those earnable rewards in-game. Try it. Or make crown crates earnable in-game. Imagine how much people would do content if they knew there was a chance at getting the newest crown crate. Instead, we have this over-engineered Endeavors which always seems to fall short of providing enough to earn content.

And also, seeing PR really truly improve. The CMs can only do much. They're wonderful, but it's all for naught if the rest of the machine isn't. The rest of the company has to be onboard with ensuring that ZOS looks as good as possible. Previous leadership really gave me the impression that they had a "it'll blow over" attitude.

Let's take a step back here - streaming of this game is at an all time low. PTS feedback gets ignored. Aside from a few combat changes, most often, our feedback doesn't change anything before release, let alone cause a release to get paused until it's ready. On top of all that, you have the issue of moderation, both here and in-game. You have crown crate gifting which is still painful to get activated. between all that, and most sales being time-limited, it feels like ZOS is determined to deny themselves revenue.

Looking forward:
That being said, I'm not too hopeful for the game's future. I feel like it's just going to be Golden Pursuits, some new quests here or there, one or two new outfit styles, some events, all complimented by some new stuff in the crown store. That's it. That's what I expect. And probably more changes no one asked for.

If this year is the best they could do with the resources they have, then I believe this game will significantly decline.

It's understandable they were impacted by layoffs, but I think for many people, there's just an accumulation of ill will and old problems, that the desire to spend isn't there anymore. There's only so long you can shovel money into the crown store and not see it circle back into solid gameplay. If this game's as successful as they tout in interviews, then where's that money going?

Even with new leadership, they gotta prove themselves. Just to be real, that's going to an uphill battle. I hope they can appreciate just how jaded the old leadership made many of us and really go out of their way to change course. And if they're at a place where they do understand there's problems, then I hope they can secure funding for development to fix them. Because I feel like a lot less people are spending on this game. It's a shame, but it it is what it is.

I began to play ESO in 2014, the game was amazing back then. I played a couple of years, after this some break, play, break etc. The reason I left playing was mostly "Trading System". I never had enough money to buy things as trading system in ESO is a big monpoly driven by big guilds, call it my fault not to join them but it is what it is, I just simply don't like big guilds.

The last time I came back I convinced myself to ignore making money but just to enjoy game's rpg elements, it is a lovely game I thought ESO will be my home for a long long time, but then all of a sudden out of the blue came subclassing...

I know no one is forcing us to use it, but honestly it was not fun to face these meta builds in pvp, I am not a meta type or min/max guy. And then I met with these ball groups in Cyrodil. I saw one ball group takes a fortress by themsleves against 10s of players, unstoppable.

So as a summary; "trading", "ball groups" and "subclassing" are the reasons for me to leave for good. I don't have any fate in developers, I watched the stream and did not like the attitude of them. They will not get any feedback and they will do as they want to do. The class identity just feels like another waste of time or carrot on a stick to keep people subscribe will lead to nothing but more chaos to my eyes.

I still hope one day, there will be a small addition to game for individual trading which can make people earn a little money except joining these monopoly guilds or Cyrodil will be cleansed from hardcore ballgroups and definetely subclassing will be reversed as I don't believe these developers are capable of making a balanced game or at least my lifetime will not be enough to see it.

These is my story and subjective opinions on ESO, and I am glad someone asked why we leave such a great game. Sadly and obviously no one cares in ESO team and is interested in why people left but a random guy in forums have more insight than them.
Have a nice weekend everyone!

My #1 pain point by far is customer relations.

ZOS has the PTS and all these threads asking for feedback, but they won't even revert the god awful jabs animation after years of complaints. They went with 2 team BG's in spite of being told what a disaster it would be. They changed almost nothing with U35, which drove off project vitality and most of the end game PvE trial community that was creating most of the tutorials and offered training for those willing to put in the time. Then there is vengeance and subclassing, which sure look like efforts to take ESO to official maintenance mode.

All of these shoot yourself in the foot actions by ZOS could have been avoided if they listened to their customer base. Then there is the layers and layers of "customer service" AI interactions it takes to deal with an actual live person at ZOS and how heavy handed the AI moderation is in game and on this forum.

For me it all comes back to customer relations that got us where we are today. It feels like the end of the movie when we're all on shore waving goodbye as the ship we got here on sails away into the sunset.

Thalmar wrote: »

I began to play ESO in 2014, the game was amazing back then. I played a couple of years, after this some break, play, break etc. The reason I left playing was mostly "Trading System". I never had enough money to buy things as trading system in ESO is a big monpoly driven by big guilds, call it my fault not to join them but it is what it is, I just simply don't like big guilds.

The last time I came back I convinced myself to ignore making money but just to enjoy game's rpg elements, it is a lovely game I thought ESO will be my home for a long long time, but then all of a sudden out of the blue came subclassing...

I know no one is forcing us to use it, but honestly it was not fun to face these meta builds in pvp, I am not a meta type or min/max guy. And then I met with these ball groups in Cyrodil. I saw one ball group takes a fortress by themsleves against 10s of players, unstoppable.

So as a summary; "trading", "ball groups" and "subclassing" are the reasons for me to leave for good. I don't have any fate in developers, I watched the stream and did not like the attitude of them. They will not get any feedback and they will do as they want to do. The class identity just feels like another waste of time or carrot on a stick to keep people subscribe will lead to nothing but more chaos to my eyes.

I still hope one day, there will be a small addition to game for individual trading which can make people earn a little money except joining these monopoly guilds or Cyrodil will be cleansed from hardcore ballgroups and definetely subclassing will be reversed as I don't believe these developers are capable of making a balanced game or at least my lifetime will not be enough to see it.

These is my story and subjective opinions on ESO, and I am glad someone asked why we leave such a great game. Sadly and obviously no one cares in ESO team and is interested in why people left but a random guy in forums have more insight than them.
Have a nice weekend everyone!

Oh, forgot to add the restricting of guild store listing to only 14 days, which we all told ZOS would be hugely detrimental to the market, and now the thriving trading system in ESO has died an untimely death too.

spartaxoxo wrote: »

The first major scale back for me was when they announced that they were getting rid of small zone dlc.

Scaling back on story content and replacing it with repetitive hamster wheel systems (like golden pursuits) was sort of the beginning of the end for me. At the time, I had enough stuff I still wanted to do to keep me busy, but that's not true anymore. And the story content they do release has been reduced in size.

Going back to the same level of story content production, or introducing an overarching solo system, are the two things that would definitely keep me around, but I doubt either of those two things will happen. The uncertainty they've now introduced around how my favourite class will change hasn't helped.

I haven't quit the game yet but I'm getting close and once I do, I probably won't be able to be lured back because that's just generally how I am about games I completely quit.

Same. Once I'm gone, I'm gone. To be blunt, MMO systems are addictive. Once that cycle is broken, it's broken.

"What has caused you to quit the game or barely play anymore? What would bring you back?"

I haven’t quit ESO. Not yet. I still subscribe to ESO+, and I still buy every DLC, chapter, and release from ZOS. That hasn’t changed.
But do I still love the game the way I once did? No.

I keep playing ESO for one simple reason: Only because I can’t find another game I truly enjoy. After almost 40 years of PC gaming, only two franchises ever really held me, The Elder Scrolls Series and Diablo. And Diablo 4… is terrible. Blizzard made the same mistake ZOS is making now: they focused on monetization and numbers first, and love for the game became a long-term afterthought.

If I ever find another game that can take the same amount of time, dedication, and passion that ESO once demanded from me, I’ll leave immediately. And when I do, I’ll be done with The Elder Scrolls forever, just like I was done with Blizzard.


What I hate about ESO today: This is not ESO anymore. It simply isn’t.

• There is no meaningful lore for solo players.
• There is no real class identity anymore.
• There is no challenge in overland content.

Everything that once made ESO feel like an Elder Scrolls game has been diluted or removed. In my opinion, the game today is nothing like what it used to be, and not in a good way.

PvE multiplayer are no better. PvE multiplayer has lost its soul.

• We can fake roles.
• We can ignore mechanics.
• All that matters now is beam and raw DPS.

This is not what ESO was supposed to be. I don’t believe this was ZOS’s vision at launch.

Today, only one thing matters: DPS. Show high numbers, or go home.

1. You can’t play the class you enjoy, others won’t allow it.
2. You can’t use the sets you like or feel comfortable with, others won’t allow it.
3. You can’t even use Oakensoul to join vSS, or other trial, through the group finder to learn mechanics, because others won’t allow it. Mechanics don’t matter anymore. Learning doesn’t matter anymore. All that matters now are numbers.

Why? Because ESO has turned into nothing but DPS checks.

So where is the fun?
Where is the passion?
Where is The Elder Scrolls in all of this?

What would keep me playing? I still play, as I said before. But I would enjoy the game so much more if I could:

• Play any class I like
• Use any sets I enjoy
• Focus on gameplay, mechanics, and immersion
• Stop being judged purely by numbers, logs, and parses

To make that possible, ZOS would need to remove, the importance of DPS sharing, log culture, and number-driven gatekeeping, so players could actually enjoy the game again.

But we all know that will never happen.
It seems there are more important things than fun now.
And that, more than anything else, is why ESO no longer feels like ESO.


I still play ESO, and I still pay ZOS. Not because I love the game anymore, and certainly not because they deserve my support, but because there is nothing else on the market that truly replaces ESO. And that is the real problem: ZOS knows this and they take full advantage of it.

For me it's simply that it's been so long since I've actually felt anything Elder Scrolls-y while playing. Not since before the Necrom storyline anyway, as at best I'd say that since then the content was Elder Scrolls Adjacent. Sure there have been a few enjoyable moments, but nothing that really screamed TES at me.

Couple that with the increasingly frustrating occurances of questionable design decisions, increasing numbers of bugs delivered with each update, and botched deployments, it's a bit much for my patience. Which is why my participation is largely limited to my daily writs/endeavors to collect the rewards. Also a few weekly guild rostered trials because the social aspect is still enjoyable enough to keep me engaged. And it's likely to stay that way until something changes, or I just lose interest altogether.

twisttop138 wrote: »

It's like someone who makes decisions at Zos just doesn't understand what fun is. Or rewarding.

Nail on the head. They absolutely don't. It feels like they conflate people logging in with retention and enjoyment. People can log in, collect the daily reward, and peace out. That doesn't mean the game's fun, or the population's healthy. It just means they have habit-forming systems.

The Writhing Wall was the big "oh dear, you don't understand, do you?" moment for me. It's like they have a small list of possible things they can do, they just pull from that: "Oh crafting dailies, people loves those! Let's make that the event activity for several weeks. And we want to keep people logging in, so they'll only get one reward a day. That's it. That's fun! Come log in!"

twisttop138 wrote: »

The monetization guy claimed in an interview he brings Zos 15 million dollars a month. They started taking things a while ago and I saw people here argue in favor of it. Remember Q4 story DLC? Go back and have a look at folks here selling that new q4 focused on QOL and bug fixes. How'd that turn out? This year was just the big one. The actual rug pull. Thankfully for us enough people wouldn't take it. We'll see what 2026 holds, and despite what Kevin said to me in a previous post, I think these class reworks will definitely be a flag they wave for the low amount of content we'll get next year. Year of performance!! Year(s) of class rework!! That German release at least said we're getting a story line, a system (why?) and a trial so there's that but that's nothing compared to what we would get with a chapter.

I hope the new leadership can appreciate the cynicism and grow from it. I really do. I feel like the previous leadership was really dismissive of it, and that's got us where we are now. If they can promise something, like a year of performance, then they have to show us what the gains really were. A lot of people don't trust ZOS and that's on them and how they communicate.

twisttop138 wrote: »

They really really need to release a real roadmap and set real expectations quickly. None of the usual back patting. No more "oh we're so excited about what's coming tee hee, but oh we just can't tell you. Haha"
I think the community is past that garbage.

This cannot be said enough. And I don't know who to fault for this that it keeps happening. No one wants to hear "we're so excited but can't tell you".