ESO+ Free week, a reflection

Narvuntien

Hello I am not an ESO+ subscriber so I took part in the free week.

Firstly, yes it was a very good marketing exercise. Good job on that. There were plenty of people expressing the wish to subscribe or at the very least buy the DLC in Zone chat just before the servers went down. Once you go craft bag.... it is very difficult to go back.

I happen to be the kind of person that doesn't mind a little bit of innconvience to save money and I don't like the subcribing model for games. If I pay for a game I'd rather pay for the game not to pay to keep the game. I feel we are moving away from this model anyway.

However, I really did enjoy the DLCs even though I didn't have much time with them. I was supprised about how different from the base game they actually were. They definately felt more than just a new zone.

Thieves guild: Ahabs landing has this wonderful feel to it where I could run along the roof tops and the other than the gaurds spawning infront of me (which was a little frustrating) I really enjoyed the sneaking around in large houses. I feel the game really needs more cities like this one where you have multiple paths vertically and allies and large tresspassing zones. Feels most real than a lot of cities in this game. I didn't have time to explore outside the city, but from what i did see it was distinctly different from other parts of hammerfell.

Dark brotherhood: I didn't have much time with this one but the return of the kill cam from skyrim was enjoyable in a viseral way.. I love sneak kills. The landscape actually kind of reminded me a lot of home (Should I be worried about that?). White beaches and limestone outcrops. It is actually a little strange to have such a bright sunny zone be the setting for this. It was actually a little disappointing not to have the multiple paths and verticality of Ahabs landing but perhaps this is due to trying to match Obvilion.

Wrothgar: Majestic is the best way to decribe New Orisinium and Wrothgar. Again their wasn't much time to get deep into the zone but first impressions mean a lot. I feel like the reason this zone is so popular that is capturing feelings from both Skyrim and Morrowind. Snowy landscapes and jaw dropping visuals mountains and towering cities is very skyrim but added to that is the Orcishness of the place, The rustic, "this is built to be functional not pretty" designs and the different way of doing things including being a king that puts you a bit out of place to get that outlander feels from morrowind. I liked enjoyed getting lost in New Orisinium just as much as Ahabs landing.

IC: I didn't have time to try this unfortunately . But I am not against pvp. I am very interested in the story here as well.

All in all the DLCs really quite good, in someways it makes me feel rather disappointed in the base game for not having the features they offer but in other ways makes me feel okay with spending more to get them because they aren't just extra zones.

I have played Morrowind on the PTS, The story is probably on a similar level but the zone really adheres too closely to the original morrowind and doesn't take what was learnt with these DLCs. I have heard people say the sidequests are better and having been to Suran that is probably the case (that quest is so good). The Delves are very beautiful as well.

I want future zones to keep what these zones have and add to it. I want to have cities with multiple roof top paths and small alleys ways to get lost and not only in the theives guild zone I want to be able to climb through valleys and ravines and up to the top of mountains. Deep into caves and forgotten ruins. I want there to be thieves guild and dark brotherhood and mages and fighter guild quests within new zones. I do like recuring characters and them reconising you but recuring ...guilds would be nice as well so that we get an intergration of the game within itself.. and perhaps make you want to buy the others zones DLC.. *hint hint*

Anyway I had this open on my browser for hours without hitting enter so I should just get the conversation started....

Rex-Umbra

Agree I was disappointed there was no DB in Morrowind as it's referenced in their story line.

Turelus

That was great to read, thanks for writing it up.

I have heard a lot of really good things about the trial so it seems ZOS marketing nailed it with this one. It was a chance to get some more revenue (which seems to have happened) and at the same time didn't feel like they were punching us in the stomach.

White wabbit

For someone that has been a Eso plus member for some time I think Zos did a great job on this,showing people what the perks are like , need things like this and the events to keep the players involved in the game otherwise it gets abit dull

casparian

Ahab's landing

ಠ_ಠ

All visible objects, man, are but as pasteboard masks . . . If man will strike, strike through the mask! How can the prisoner reach outside except by thrusting through the wall? To me, the white whale is that wall, shoved near to me. Sometimes I think there’s naught beyond. But ‘tis enough. He tasks me; he heaps me; I see in him outrageous strength, with an inscrutable malice sinewing it. That inscrutable thing is chiefly what I hate; and be the white whale agent, or be the white whale principal, I will wreak that hate upon him. Talk to me not of blasphemy, man; I’d smite the sun if it insulted me.

DeadlyRecluse

Narvuntien wrote: »

Once you go craft bag.... it is very difficult to go back.

I happen to be the kind of person that doesn't mind a little bit of innconvience to save money and I don't like the subcribing model for games. If I pay for a game I'd rather pay for the game not to pay to keep the game. I feel we are moving away from this model anyway.

I think a lot of the sub value depends on what you do with raw mats. If you farm mats or craft, you'll save so much time (plus less inventory management via larger bank). If you are saving an hour a month, and you value your time more than 12 dollars an hour, the sub starts to look like great value, in terms of the convenience granted--and I'd say it saves me a heckuva lot more time than 1 hour per month.

Interesting to read a "first impressions" of all the DLCs! Pretty cool.

White wabbit

DeadlyRecluse wrote: »

Narvuntien wrote: »

Once you go craft bag.... it is very difficult to go back.

I happen to be the kind of person that doesn't mind a little bit of innconvience to save money and I don't like the subcribing model for games. If I pay for a game I'd rather pay for the game not to pay to keep the game. I feel we are moving away from this model anyway.

I think a lot of the sub value depends on what you do with raw mats. If you farm mats or craft, you'll save so much time (plus less inventory management via larger bank). If you are saving an hour a month, and you value your time more than 12 dollars an hour, the sub starts to look like great value, in terms of the convenience granted--and I'd say it saves me a heckuva lot more time than 1 hour per month.

Interesting to read a "first impressions" of all the DLCs! Pretty cool.

Or if your a hoarder like me I can just pick up everything without a care in the world

vyndral13preub18_ESO

DeadlyRecluse wrote: »

Narvuntien wrote: »

Once you go craft bag.... it is very difficult to go back.

I happen to be the kind of person that doesn't mind a little bit of innconvience to save money and I don't like the subcribing model for games. If I pay for a game I'd rather pay for the game not to pay to keep the game. I feel we are moving away from this model anyway.

I think a lot of the sub value depends on what you do with raw mats. If you farm mats or craft, you'll save so much time (plus less inventory management via larger bank). If you are saving an hour a month, and you value your time more than 12 dollars an hour, the sub starts to look like great value, in terms of the convenience granted--and I'd say it saves me a heckuva lot more time than 1 hour per month.

Interesting to read a "first impressions" of all the DLCs! Pretty cool.

It also depends on what platform you play on. On pc there are addons that once set up make inventory management and mule characters a snap. On console you have to deal with clicking on everything.

http://www.esoui.com/downloads/info753-BankManagerRevived.html

redshirt_49

Pretty much spot on on the DLCs I'd say. Abah's Landing remains my favorite city to this day.
Plus the DB questline is actually very good though that zone does lack sidequesting potential unfortunately, but oh well.
Blade of Woe ftw.
As for IC, well.. you didn't miss much I'd say. The visuals of the place aren't that staggering and the quests aren't all that captivating either. Dungeons are nice though. White-Gold-Tower remains my favorite dungeon to this day x)

drakhan2002_ESO

Narvuntien wrote: »

Hello I am not an ESO+ subscriber so I took part in the free week.

I happen to be the kind of person that doesn't mind a little bit of innconvience to save money and I don't like the subcribing model for games. If I pay for a game I'd rather pay for the game not to pay to keep the game. I feel we are moving away from this model anyway.

Yes, there's still a pay model and likely will be for the foreseeable future -- just everything is going "ala carte". I like ESO's model - ESO+ is so worth it for me and the many others who have the disposable income to afford it. I do realize that there are few people who cannot (economically) or will not (principles) subscribe.

In order for MMOs to survive and grow, they need a steady income stream to support their continued efforts - that comes from a few places - the player base or advertisers. Unless some billionaire decides to bequeath their fortune to support a game...its not going to be free...

DaveMoeDee

drakhan2002_ESO wrote: »

Narvuntien wrote: »

Hello I am not an ESO+ subscriber so I took part in the free week.

I happen to be the kind of person that doesn't mind a little bit of innconvience to save money and I don't like the subcribing model for games. If I pay for a game I'd rather pay for the game not to pay to keep the game. I feel we are moving away from this model anyway.

Yes, there's still a pay model and likely will be for the foreseeable future -- just everything is going "ala carte". I like ESO's model - ESO+ is so worth it for me and the many others who have the disposable income to afford it. I do realize that there are few people who cannot (economically) or will not (principles) subscribe.

In order for MMOs to survive and grow, they need a steady income stream to support their continued efforts - that comes from a few places - the player base or advertisers. Unless some billionaire decides to bequeath their fortune to support a game...its not going to be free...

One tricky part for ESO is that many players are like me. I don't care if MMOs survive as a genre. I play this because it is an Elder Scrolls game and I enjoy this game and the content they release. Apart from this game, I play 100% single player games (except ES:L, which I play on occasion). The only other MP I've played substantially was the MP in ME3, which was very limited and included no extra charge. I played a few rounds of MP in DA:I, but got bored and moved on to a different game.

Paying $200 a year to play than than a typical AAA title's worth of content (Morrowind + 2 dungeons I may never play as I have also never played the Hist dungeons) feels absurd to me. So I sub in spurts to have crafting bag when I am going to play new content.

Ilsabet

I already own Thieves Guild, Orsinium, and Dark Brotherhood, so my areas of focus for this trial were going to be Imperial City, costume dying, housing, and dumping junk into the crafting bag.

Overall, while I didn't accomplish everything I wanted to do (due mostly to needing and not having people to help with certain things in IC, and also because I had real-life things to do and wasn't able to spend every waking moment in game), I got a lot out of it, and while it may take me a few days to recover from the lack of eating and sleeping, I'm quite pleased with how everything turned out.

I made lists!

Things I did:

• dyed costumes on all of my characters
• took full advantage of crafting bag to stash all the things
• filled up my main house (Autumn's Gate) to max (double) capacity, and I really like how it looks now
• filled up storage houses to their max capacity, so more things are stashed out of the way
• farmed a serviceable SPC set (thanks guildies)
• completed WGT and ICP quests and got a couple of new dyes
• got the Imperial City fishing achievement
• got all the IC skyshards and sewers pathfinder achievement on my main, and got all district skyshards on an alt
• did 5 of the 6 district quests on the alt
• came up with 15,000 tel var to buy the Imperial banner from the achievement vendor
• bought a couple of the craft bag furnishing items
• visited the Shadows of the Hist dungeons and got a new personality
• pegged a trove scamp after losing a bunch of them; discovered that Venom Arrow is great for dealing with cunning scamps
• met and partied with some nice people in IC
• confirmed that IC is not something I feel the need to spend actual money on
• discovered that a magplar with no passives that I don't really know what I'm doing on is more effective at soloing in IC than my stamblade main character that I've been focusing on for almost two years; also discovered that IC mobs kind of kick my butt without CP; also discovered that IC is a lot more fun when your faction is dominating the place and you can just run around like it ain't no thing

Things I wanted to do but didn't:

• get the transliminal violet dye
• do the IC quests on my main
• do the last district quest and the final IC quest on my alt

I'm not going to become a subber, because I can survive without a crafting bag just like I always have, but I can see myself subbing for a month down the road when I feel like I want to take another crack at finishing the IC content and there's more stuff to access that I haven't already crossed off the list.

Narvuntien

Yeah I had an annoying busy weekend as well, MTG prerelease (which I won) and my Cousins engagement party, so I just didn't get very far in the questlines.

What I was able to get was.. I recieved a 158 master writ for a set in Gold Coast with a motif I had... used that to buy an attuned crafting station.. attuned it to Julianos in Wrothgar.

Emptied my inventory and bank into the craft bag.

Oh I forgot the costume dyes ! Oh well.

neverwalk

It's TRUE, once you have CRAFT BAG, it's really hard to go back. It's ADDICTIVE

Sevalaricgirl

White wabbit wrote: »

DeadlyRecluse wrote: »

Narvuntien wrote: »

Once you go craft bag.... it is very difficult to go back.

I happen to be the kind of person that doesn't mind a little bit of innconvience to save money and I don't like the subcribing model for games. If I pay for a game I'd rather pay for the game not to pay to keep the game. I feel we are moving away from this model anyway.

I think a lot of the sub value depends on what you do with raw mats. If you farm mats or craft, you'll save so much time (plus less inventory management via larger bank). If you are saving an hour a month, and you value your time more than 12 dollars an hour, the sub starts to look like great value, in terms of the convenience granted--and I'd say it saves me a heckuva lot more time than 1 hour per month.

Interesting to read a "first impressions" of all the DLCs! Pretty cool.

Or if your a hoarder like me I can just pick up everything without a care in the world

That's me, I have 5 characters that I play all the time, 2 are max level going to Cadwells and 3 are lower level and I pick up everything I can manage to get my hands on so the crafting bag alone is worth the sub price for me.

Nyghthowler

@Narvuntien ; good read. Thanks for sharing your thoughts. I appreciate you didn't write it with an agenda in mind, just a commentary on your experience with the event.

Tasear

Glad to here you enjoyed.

I had some fun and frustration going through dlc dugeons with new players. I think I did wgt 3 times in a row for some people. MInd you that sharpened spc sword and robe divines all showed up on the wrong under leveled character.

Over all It was surprisingly not shabby at all. There was some struggles, but I think you are likely to be able to queue for random normal in these dugeons without much of a issue assuming everyone is properly feed and geared for it. The changes from morrowind seems to have fixed the issues one tamerial brought. I feel comfortable with playing dugeons with people far from my level even in dlcs.