"The Morrowind Chapter is NOT ENABLED on your account." (Even though I bought it.)

ZeroXFF · June 2017

So I start ESO via Steam, and get an error "can't connect to steam account". I think "fine, again some temporary problem, happened before", and just start the game directly via the eso64.exe, because that had worked before. I log in and I'm greeted by "The Morrowind Chapter is NOT ENABLED on your account", even though I bought it (on Steam) and have played it since the early access started. And also after I logged in, all the wayshrines in Vvardenfell are grey saying "This area requires a Chapter upgrade". Teleporting to my house in Vivec works, but walking out of it results in me teleporting back to Grahtwood.

Does it mean I won't be able to play Morrowind content if I'm not logged in via Steam?

If this is not intended, fix it. And if it is, please point me to the person responsible so that I can send them hate mail until it isn't.

Also, how do I get into the game without it being "crippled" if there is a problem with Steam?

Rohamad_Ali · June 2017

That's a hassle . I'm not sure if you contact steam or ZoS but I hope you get it fixed . I try to only buy solo games on steam to avoid those issues . Maybe but in a support ticket and attach the ticket number in here in case a rep spots this .

ZeroXFF · June 2017

I made a ticket now. The reference number is: 170608-003327

Cêltic421 · June 2017

So if steam ever goes out of business all those game you bought through steam becomes unavailable? Jw

Kerioko · June 2017

I am having the same issue in a way.

I bought the game from a licensed 3rd party vendor (not the steam version).

I am able to create a warden and log in, but I am unable to play the morrowind content as the shrines are grey.

The reference number is: 170607-006174

ZeroXFF · June 2017

I got a reply to my ticket. That it wasn't very helpful is an understatement...

Greetings!

Thank you for contacting The Elder Scrolls Online Team. My name is Kat, and it's my pleasure to assist you today.

Unfortunately we do not have the ability or the means to investigate the cause of this issue. I'm sincerely sorry for any frustrations or concerns you might be experiencing. Since you purchased Morrowind via Steam, I highly recommend for you to contact Steam support for further assistance on this matter.

If you have further questions or concerns please do not hesitate to contact us again!
Until then, Best wishes!

So to that I replied with:

Hello Kat,

you may not have a way to investigate the issue, but you certainly have a way of resolving it, since people who don't use Steam do not have the issue. Just mark my ESO account as having purchased Morrowind. I will provide you with any evidence you need that I actually did purchase it, if you can't verify it yourself. And in the future you can make it so that the purchases made via Steam are setting the corresponding (permanent) flags in the ESO account every time one starts the game, so that Steam isn't required every time someone wants to play.

And the answer I got to that was pretty much repeating the previous one, just with bad grammar...

Greetings!

Thank you for contacting The Elder Scrolls Online Team. My name is Bruce, and I'd be happy to continue assisting you today. We do apologize, since the you are having via steam launcher, we advise you to contact steam for trouble shooting steps, since you bought morrowind for via steam you must use their launcher to see the content. If you ever have any other questions or concerns, do not hesitate to contact us again! We'll be happy to assist you.

I seriously doubt that talking to Steam support will do anything. They'll just say "oh, sorry, we had a temporary problem, it should be resolved now". Except that it's not the first time that the connection with the steam account cannot be established. Why won't Zenimax just update the ESO accounts whenever someone buys something related on Steam? The accounts are connected, and the game client obviously has access to both...

ZeroXFF · June 2017

It just happened again. Can't log in when the game is started via Steam, and when I log in without Steam, I can't play Morrowind.

Consider this a log entry to show, how frequent the problem is.

ZeroXFF · June 2017

An update for anyone who searches for the same issue and stumbles upon this thread:

After much more back and forth, a few failed attempts at finding a solution and about a week of waiting while they "investigate the issue" I got told once again that it's a Steam issue that they can't do anything about. So now I'm going to try for a refund and possibly buy the expansion again via ESO store instead of Steam. Afterwards I'll tell you how it went.

Caligulove · June 2017

Giving them more money is going to make them hate you even more. Zenimax/Bethesda Softworks and I are mortal enemies, at this point.

ZeroXFF · June 2017

(Probably) final update:

Steam refused to refund, twice. First time I explained the technical issue, and they said that I played Morrowind for 2604 hours, so they won't grant me my request. The 2nd time I explained that 2604 is the time I played ESO in total, not Morrowind, and that 2604 is literally more than 100 days, the expansion is less than a month old and I reported the issue just 2 days after the official release date and all further delay is the fault of the *** game support taking ages, but they still refused it and cited the 2604 hours as the reason again, because reading is difficult.

ESO support refused to try to get Steam to grant me the refund request, and refused to enable Morrowind on my ESO account because apparently they don't have a single employee in all of ZeniMax Media who knows how to write a damn SQL query, so they "can't" enable Morrowind on my account.

And considering that the reading comprehension of most of the people in ESO support is below the level of a 1st grader, this whole process costed me so many nerves that I lost all interest in ESO entirely. I doubt I will ever go back to playing it, much less pay anything for it. Currently I regret every penny I ever spent on it, and sadly it was a lot of pennies...

Luckily I'm getting a PC upgrade this weekend, and I will be able to play Tera at more than 5 fps in dungeons now, so I think I'll be going back to that. It's much easier to get friends to join me there too, since it's f2p.

NewBlacksmurf · June 2017

Don't buy from steam folks.....

Ouch it's a lot of posts like this regarding different issues. Steam is fine but this specific game....not so much outside of the ZOS walls.

I have lots of issues with Xbox for this game but my pc copy is fine

ZeroXFF · September 2017

Now really last update, in case someone comes across this thread later via google:

The issue is now fixed properly. I can now start ESO with steam off, and still play all Morrowind content. I didn't do anything else to get this fixed, so I'm assuming it's now working for everyone. There was a maintenance a week ago or so during which they said that people using Steam might have issues logging in or something along those lines. I'm guessing that was when it was done. I just hope they don't make the same mistake with the next expansion.

Tandor · September 2017

Glad you got it sorted! And thanks for providing the update.

I think the moral of the tale is not to buy through Steam when you can buy it direct, it just avoids unnecessary hassle with a third party. However, it's perfectly reasonable in my view for a developer to take the line that if you do buy a game through Steam and there is then an issue with Steam it isn't for the developer to sort it out, it's for Steam to do so. That is doubtless part of the contract between them.

All that said, glad you got it sorted and are playing again

!