Best and Richest Economy. PC or Console?

thepurestone

I'm a former console eso gamer shifting over to PC, the reason for me making this thread is to ask everyone's opinion on which server is best and which is dying. I used to be on the EU PS4 server, it was very lively and great fun. There were many pros and cons to being on console. I'll just list a few main ones for both.
Pros:
1: voice chat was great fun and it really made it feel as if I'm in tamriel and I'm interacting with other fellow tamriel dwellers.
2: the game was new and thriving. So every place in tamriel was packed with players and it made everything better.
Cons:
1: no mods so shopping on guildstores was basically a nightmare. Having to go through each and every item to find your obscure one on the store and then having to do it multiple times over if the first store you checked didn't have it. Basically an item search option should be available.
2: playing on the controller was very limiting
3: the players were not as serious about the game as I supposed PC players would be. For example many players were laid back and would not participate in anything in the guild for example donations, fun guild events that guild masters and officers would spend large amounts of effort to organise. I know from the general stereotype that PC players are very serious about their mmo's so I believe PC will be much better in that aspect.
4: the economy was good but very weak as compared to PC. The best guild on the server would make no more than 800k in sales tax in a good week while I see Tamriel traders on EU PC server making 3 million on an average basis. And the top NA guild making 2m

So what I'm trying to say is, from what knowledge I have of PC is that its economy is much richer as more items are being sold. Which means there are more buyers and sellers on PC. Which also leads me to the conclusion that the population on the eu pc server is the greatest of all servers. Now I want to have a discussion about a few points with you guys

1: which server do you think is dying? Most people are saying PC population is dying because of console launch and the fact that PC's are becoming lesser and lesser common with the introduction of new technology such as iPads and such.
2: do you think PC will die out soon or will we see eso's population rise?
3: which server do you think has the best economy? ( meaning which server do you think has the greatest flow of money in and out of people's pockets.)
4: why is console underperforming in sales compared to PC even though it is said that console has more players than PC? (I'm not saying it does, in fact I think the opposite. And don't say it's because the economy is new and players are low level with lesser gold because even half a year ago most players were already at end game and had several million to spare.)
5: what server do you suggest I play on when I start eso again on PC in the summers?

Egonieser

These questions are very difficult to answer as ZoS never disclosed any statistics or numbers. From personal experience I can tell you - EU PC is very active, at all times of the day. Begginer zones are jam packed with new players so the game is healthy and bringing in tons of players. So population is not a issue, at least on EU, can't say about US, never played there.

thepurestone

I know zos never released any stats, I've done loads of searching. That's the reason I made this thread XD. To get the opinion of players and to get to know everything through people's experiences. Yeah that's a good way to judge if the game is dying or not, to see he newbie zones. And yeah I don't expect many players to have played on more than one server so everyone can say a thing or two about their own

Hazethemadman

Xbox NA server here.

Population seemed to be dropping, but TG brought an influx of new people. People usually aren't sociable either. The ones in area chats are usually oddballs, too young/loud, or are GUI (Gaming Under the Influence) - which leaves the respectable population of the area chat in complete shy silence.
*God we need text chat

Economy seems to be doing fairly well though. I make a few decent sales everyday, and some trading guilds toss around 1-2 mil on traders. Most of that gold comes from guild programs, like raffles, and weekly dues though.

Overall, though, I would say PC EU would be your best bet. PC gamers are better inclined towards an MMO, whereas MMO is still a relatively new concept for console gamers -> Lots of them buy it, try it, dump it. Lots of people also choose console to save money, so you won't see many console gamers dropping any more cash than they absolutely have to.

Hope that helped.

Callous2208

Pc Na pop is pretty healthy at all hours imo. Primetime is jam packed. I have seen quite a lot of growth over the past few months as well. New players everywhere, and veterans galore.

thepurestone

Very well said Mr. @Hazethemadman . I agree with everything you said and thanks for your feedback. Yes I believe the stereotype for PC players is true, the one about PC players taking mmo's as serious as real life. Which makes them very good fun as they take part in social activities and contribute to the guild more through sales and donations. And the 1-2 million range was an average on the ps4 eu server as well for the top 6-8 guilds I myself am a former Guildmaster so I know the economy very well. Yeah the voice chat is very useless mostly but sometimes its great especially for role play elements. I believe both PC and console should have both, text and voice chat

failkiwib16_ESO

1: which server do you think is dying? Most people are saying PC population is dying because of console launch and the fact that PC's are becoming lesser and lesser common with the introduction of new technology such as iPads and such.
PC players didn't really have much content for a year, because Zenimax was preparing for console launch, so of course many players were leaving the game and many others transferred over to console, to play with their friends there. As soon as Imperial City DLC arrived, we PC'ers saw a flow of new players alongside a bunch of old friends returning.
People who used to buy a pc, that changed to only use a mobile device such as a tablet wouldn't have played this type of games on their pc anyways. The reason why they changed to tablet, was because the device is sufficiant for their needs. Gamers who have interest in this type of gamíng will buy a pc regardless of wether they own a tablet or not.

2: do you think PC will die out soon or will we see eso's population rise?
Each new DLC will bring new players to the game alongside a bunch of returning old players. If they stop making new content for the game, the game will die.

3: which server do you think has the best economy? ( meaning which server do you think has the greatest flow of money in and out of people's pockets.)
EU server and NA server both have good guilds, so I don't know. We have access to the same mods, and players have the same intentions to improve in economy and gameplay, so I assume it is equal.

4: why is console underperforming in sales compared to PC even though it is said that console has more players than PC? (I'm not saying it does, in fact I think the opposite. And don't say it's because the economy is new and players are low level with lesser gold because even half a year ago most players were already at end game and had several million to spare.)

• PC players have addons that helps putting trophies, treasure maps and other items for sale, and search through guildstores for them. This is not possible on consoles, so players must sell these through crowded areas, because the search for them through guildstores is close to insane - so there you have a chunk of lost sales profit for the trading guild.
• PC players have the oldest playerbase, who have played since launch and I would therefore think that PC have more max levelled players. The more experienced players are usually (not always) those who spend the most gold in the game and trade between eachother.

However I don't know wether this is sure or not. I mean consoles don't have Thieves Guild DLC yet, so I would assume v16 materials are more rare there, so they must have a higher flower of trades, for the newly v16 players to gain armor. Sales on PC stagnated after a month of Wrothgar DLC release, because v16 materials were already getting common and players had already geared up.
This is how economy works: crafting materials for new gear, + materials for utilities such as flowers for potions always sell, but their prices drop after a while, when players have geared up and gone through the new content. With new content arriving, the prices go up again, and in case of new material, new veteran ranks and new motifs - then these items will sell fast instead of the old ones.

5: what server do you suggest I play on when I start eso again on PC in the summers?
If you live in America or play in time with most Americans, then choose NA because when it's 5pm and you want group members for a dungeon, you get options ...if you play during the odd hours, then you have to join whatever player that is available lol
And you will benefit more from guildactivities and events, if you choose to play on a server where the majority sleeps and goes to work when you do.[/quote]

RedRoomGaming

Sometimes ps4 Eu players can be greedy son of a bees waxes. Also can be right up their own rusty sherifs badge.

thepurestone

@failkiwib16_ESO awesome reply dear sir
I agree with almost everything you said though I do believe there is a difference between the na and eu servers because it is obvious that one will have a larger population than the other due to sheer probability and difference in popularity of the game. It is seemingly more obvious that the eu server is more popular due to the stats, that show how much sales the top guilds of each server are having. For example I saw a screenshot of the top guild earnings of both eu and na. It seemed as if the eu sales were above the na by a couple million at times.

Also I do believe with the introduction of handheld technology which is cheaper and more convenient does impact PC gaming. Before almost everyone owned a computer and there was a higher probability of someone who wasn't that into gaming already, to start gaming because why not? They already have the hardware necessary so they'd give it a try. As days pass it's becoming increasingly more popular to have a console to game on rather than PC while half a decade ago PC gaming was the mainstream. Now it's more of a hassle and delving into the world of PC gaming and it's becoming more and more difficult and less popular. But hey that's just my opinion

thepurestone

@RedRoomGaming yeah very true XD I noticed loads of ps4 eu players to be very stingy and less
Willing to contribute to the guild. I've heard stories about how organised generous and motivated pc players are in this matter. I've heard stories of guilds having proper membership fees which everyone paid religiously. Now that's organised, most console players leave the guild upon hearing the mentioning of paying gold. I mean I don't agree with the membership fee that much, I feel donations should be from the heart but as a former Guildmaster I do understand how important it is for everyone to contribute gold to get a decent trader. So membership fees I don't think are all that bad (a controversial opinion at times)

failkiwib16_ESO

@thepurestone thank you ^^
Well you are probably much better informed about PC sales than me... what I wrote above is purely my own personal impression and view on the topic.

Tbh. I expected players that are geographically closer to US choose to play on NA server instead of EU server, such as Canadians, however I don't know how large that market is. Some of my asian ESO friends struggle at finding groups late nights on EU, when they are online and most of the server is sleeping. They might have been better off playing on NA server instead.

I originally wanted to play on NA server, I have a level 7 character there, but I had to update my launcher and lost the ability to quickly switch a button and choose NA over EU server, if I wanted to continue there I had to download the whole game.. I got lazy, stayed on EU. Now that I'm done with solo questing and do group play, I have begun to really appreciate that laziness.

Elder_III

I haven't touched a console in a decade or more, so I can't really help much there, but I can tell you that a "good" PC Trade Guild will be making at least 8-10 million gold each week (not 2-3) and the "Best" PC Trade Guilds make waaaayyyy more then that each week.

thepurestone

@Elder_III woah that's a shocking number. Makes me more excited about soon being part of such an awesome world. I was just saying 3 million in taxes (not counting donations). My reference was this thread
http://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/234354/tamriel-traders-guild-recruiting-power-sellers-number-one-sales-in-eu-pc/p1

phaneub17_ESO

I'll be honest, I don't think I could game without addons/mods, they are too crucial for my enjoyment. There's just not enough info in the base game, like having to guess how long a buff is up as not everything has visual aids to tell; without addons like S'rendarr the game would be so much more frustrating. Even on Skyrim, I like working on the creation kit making my own modifications to the game I made it more challenging on my part by upping Dragon damage, health, and removing the Dragonborn's innate damage bonus to them.