Why ESO rating collapsing?

Kneighbors

The overall rating is 79% positive while the latest 1k reviews are only 66% positive. Honestly, I feel cheated. When I purchased the game it was written OVERWHELMINGLY POSITIVE out there and the rating was above 85% positive. This was the primary reason I purchased the game.

When I was 16 y/o I had enough time to check any mediocre game out there. Nowadays when I'm slightly older I'm looking only at the best of the best, picking the strawberries outta pie. No chance I would buy a game with MIXED reviews on steam. Open the reviews, make a fast scroll and it will become apparent this is not the game you want to spend your only 2 hours free a day, making good times roll. Of course if you are not a truly devoted fanboy.

So why is it happening? Do you think it's just the game aging and it's a natural process? Do you believe the rating will go up in the future?

JasonSilverSpring

You feel cheated because the ratings for a game changed after you purchased it? I don't get that.

Regardless Steam is only a subset of reviews. And, reviewers can be fickle. I suspect the rating may have dropped due to some not liking the balancing changes, but I have not bothered to read the reviews.

Number of people playing and opinions of the game will vary over time. I will say from my personal experience since One Tamriel came out the population has been very healthy. I believe 1T did wonders for the game overall. The balance changes have turned some off, but Morrowind and soon Clockwork City will draw others.

If you like the game, play it. If you don't, don't. But, whether you play should not be based on reviews.

Stania

You'll notice this happened to Bethesda games too. People are lately leaving negative reviews as a boycott due to the implementation of the Creation Club.

Stopnaggin

Just play the game and enjoy. Ratings are from people mad at developments they dont like.

Alexandrious

Multiple factors. Alot of ppl dont like animatiin canceling specially since latest nerfs to it made it harder to use according to all I read, still seems fine to me. Difficulty in purchasing items since new gen majority is used to auction houses, also the fact that the whole trade system became cut throat, you can read on that in some posts.

Nightblades being nerfed constantly, to the point that they are screaming for class change tokens. Which zenimax will provide.... for up to 5k crowns each, then wait a few months, then buff nightblades bk up so all the ones that used the token will buy another to change back, standard mmo business practice, seen it before, it will happen.

Then their is the fact Bethesda stated their will not be anoter elder scrolls or even a fallout game for a long while, so you get all these kids who want online skyrim clamoring to eso, finds out its very much different, has a vad time in any number of ways, quits, puts up a bad review.

Damn typing on a phine is a ***. I need a note 8. Anyway, lots of reasons, oh and bad optimization too. You could have a beast of a rig with a g sync monitor, your frames will be sporadic and even go below 60 unless you manually tweak the settings.

Will give props though, eso plus giving a craft bag and double bank space is a winner for me. Im always big on inventory space since im a pack rat and hate having to organize every 30 mins. But yea, take what I say what you will. But if ya search reddit and the forums you will find the truth to all I said.

Malic

Its a great PVE game, probably one of the best PVE mmo's on the market right now. If PVE is your thing, you got a bargain.

eso_nya

U bought the game, cause other ppl liked it.
Now less other ppl like it.
I fail to understand how that is supposed to have any importance for your own opinion on the game?
Or did not have time to play it yet?

Ardaghion

Kneighbors wrote: »

The overall rating is 79% positive while the latest 1k reviews are only 66% positive. Honestly, I feel cheated. When I purchased the game it was written OVERWHELMINGLY POSITIVE out there and the rating was above 85% positive. This was the primary reason I purchased the game.

When I was 16 y/o I had enough time to check any mediocre game out there. Nowadays when I'm slightly older I'm looking only at the best of the best, picking the strawberries outta pie. No chance I would buy a game with MIXED reviews on steam. Open the reviews, make a fast scroll and it will become apparent this is not the game you want to spend your only 2 hours free a day, making good times roll. Of course if you are not a truly devoted fanboy.

So why is it happening? Do you think it's just the game aging and it's a natural process? Do you believe the rating will go up in the future?

What, you don’t believe the scores, do you?

Motherball

Players get mad when something in the game changes, every patch. And some have just been playing too long and only focus on the negative. Thats the only thing I can think of because I think this game is awesome.

As far as ratings go, many good games get bad reports because of third party drm or a slew of reasons other than how good the game actually is. Double this with MMORPG reviews. Look at the reviews and decide whether the complaints have any substance or if its just tears.

Rohamad_Ali

The Devs need some skooma . Every time I see them on ESO live they look like they are ready for a nap while Gina and Jessica are bright eyed and ready .

Mihael

Alexandrious wrote: »

Multiple factors. Alot of ppl dont like animatiin canceling specially since latest nerfs to it made it harder to use according to all I read, still seems fine to me. Difficulty in purchasing items since new gen majority is used to auction houses, also the fact that the whole trade system became cut throat, you can read on that in some posts.

Nightblades being nerfed constantly, to the point that they are screaming for class change tokens. Which zenimax will provide.... for up to 5k crowns each, then wait a few months, then buff nightblades bk up so all the ones that used the token will buy another to change back, standard mmo business practice, seen it before, it will happen.

Then their is the fact Bethesda stated their will not be anoter elder scrolls or even a fallout game for a long while, so you get all these kids who want online skyrim clamoring to eso, finds out its very much different, has a vad time in any number of ways, quits, puts up a bad review.

Damn typing on a phine is a ***. I need a note 8. Anyway, lots of reasons, oh and bad optimization too. You could have a beast of a rig with a g sync monitor, your frames will be sporadic and even go below 60 unless you manually tweak the settings.

Will give props though, eso plus giving a craft bag and double bank space is a winner for me. Im always big on inventory space since im a pack rat and hate having to organize every 30 mins. But yea, take what I say what you will. But if ya search reddit and the forums you will find the truth to all I said.

Night blades are still very good they are just no ez mode anymore because procs were nerfed

altemriel

Kneighbors wrote: »

The overall rating is 79% positive while the latest 1k reviews are only 66% positive. Honestly, I feel cheated. When I purchased the game it was written OVERWHELMINGLY POSITIVE out there and the rating was above 85% positive. This was the primary reason I purchased the game.

When I was 16 y/o I had enough time to check any mediocre game out there. Nowadays when I'm slightly older I'm looking only at the best of the best, picking the strawberries outta pie. No chance I would buy a game with MIXED reviews on steam. Open the reviews, make a fast scroll and it will become apparent this is not the game you want to spend your only 2 hours free a day, making good times roll. Of course if you are not a truly devoted fanboy.

So why is it happening? Do you think it's just the game aging and it's a natural process? Do you believe the rating will go up in the future?

ah *** the rating, I just love the game

Waseem

poorly maintained, fixes are too slow
latest PTS test was a slap to about anyone who gives a *** about it
random crashes for random people for no reason ( disconnects RNG)
customer support doesn't give a *** about anything except crowns related stuff - i felt like i was being trolled when the customer support replied to my ticket after 5 weeks
pay to win warden (PVP)
pvp in general is unplayable since over 2 years (removing 2 insects and 1 deer every patch,, "we did a slight improvement to pvp") , loading screens still occuring since when? Imperial City DLC !
and there is that invisible guy in the trial group all the time because of this "instancing" overlapping in there

those were some of the game breaking bugs, there are a few more im sure, and ofcourse.. i dont have the energy to name the "minor" bugs

Nestor

Kneighbors wrote: »

Wait, both Screen shots show 1062 recent reviews out of a total of 20,728. So, where is is dropping? Or did they just change the criteria or scoring system. Because, I see no evidence of new reviews.

Kneighbors

Nestor wrote: »

Kneighbors wrote: »

Wait, both Screen shots show 1062 recent reviews out of a total of 20,728. So, where is is dropping? Or did they just change the criteria or scoring system. Because, I see no evidence of new reviews.

In last 30 days it got only 66% positive reviews. Overall rating is 79% positive since launch. Although I didn't finish my math degree I still quite sure it means the rating is dropping (fast)

Nyghthowler

@Kneighbors , here's an idea; try playing the game and decide for yourself if it's good or not.
If you don't like it, then try whining and crying to Steam for a refund. You never know...
But make your own decision; don't get led around by your nose.

Nestor

OK, I see how this is done.

Still begs the question, who's opinions do you operate under, yours or someone else's?

Linaleah

1. what should matter whether you are enjoying the game yourself.
2. looking at the recent negative reviews (I only skimmed a little, full admission), seems like people having installation issues.. which steam copy specifically is notorious for, from what I hear. people who actualy got to play the game, are still rating it positively
3. speaking of games having overwhelmingly positive reviews but getting mixed to negative recently without any actual changes to the game. pewdewpie -->firewatch developers who don't want him to keep making money of their game - issuing takedown --> fans of pew negative bombing firewatch reviews.

whenever opinion on a game suddenly changes - look into actual reasons why. chances are, its due to some outside factors.

Rohamad_Ali

Nyghthowler wrote: »

@Kneighbors , here's an idea; try playing the game and decide for yourself if it's good or not.
If you don't like it, then try whining and crying to Steam for a refund. You never know...
But make your own decision; don't get led around by your nose.

Don't get led around by your nose ? Is that a real expression ? Because your nose can warn you before you step in *** .


Also ignoring a problem does not address a problem . The OP posted to identify possible issues . Knowledge that could help ZoS if they decided to use it possibly . Telling people to whine and ask for refunds adds nothing to the conversation .

JasonSilverSpring

br0steen wrote: »

The game gets worse and worse and worse because it is overseen by ZOS, which is objectovely a poorly run, unprofessional, short-sighted company.

Fortunately many would disagree with you.

Thunderknuckles

OP, like others have said, this is run of the mill standard up and down for ANY MMO out there. I totally understand not wanting to waste your time on a bad game when you have only a couple of hours a day to play, but the unfortunate truth about games...is that they are merely other people's opinions. And many of those are not fair at all. So...all you can do is try a game for yourself and see if you like it.

Edited for typo.

Luigi_Vampa

Why do you feel cheated? I'll assume you have played the game. You either like it or not. Why check reviews for a game you already own and play?

Unless this is just a disguised "ESO is failing" thread, in which case you should find something better to do with your life than to post troll threads on a forum for a game you don't like. Maybe if you spent less time doing that you would be able to waste time on mediocre games like you did when you were 16!

Nyghthowler

Rohamad_Ali wrote: »

Nyghthowler wrote: »

@Kneighbors , here's an idea; try playing the game and decide for yourself if it's good or not.
If you don't like it, then try whining and crying to Steam for a refund. You never know...
But make your own decision; don't get led around by your nose.

Don't get led around by your nose ? Is that a real expression ? Because your nose can warn you before you step in *** .


Also ignoring a problem does not address a problem . The OP posted to identify possible issues . Knowledge that could help ZoS if they decided to use it possibly . Telling people to whine and ask for refunds adds nothing to the conversation .

Yes, that's a real expression.

Ignoring what problem? Steam metrics is one of the worst places for an informed opinion.

I wasn't really trying to add to the conversation because the OP started out with a whiney tone, stating they feel cheated. The game has been out long enough for him, her, or they to do research on it and determine if they wanted to play it. I have no sympathy for these types of posters.

MilwaukeeScott

Because of people like you.

Rudyard

I'm a little confused here. So you are you saying that you are upset, not because of any particular experience you have had with the game, but because other people (34% of reviewers, a minority of players that use Steam which in turn is a minority of gamers) have not enjoyed the game or part of the game?

Are you concerned about spending time in an MMO that empties out of players? Perhaps it's anecdotal, but I've played two games where that happened and my experience in ESO is that there is still a significantly/healthy sized population. I've been here since beta, and I've seen the population go up and down, and even change over time, but I don't think the time for worrying about the size of the player base of ESO is anywhere in the near future. I say that because in addition to the population size, there seems to be enough diverse activities in game that players enjoy or that draw niche groups of players.

For me, whether I stay with a game centers more around whether I am enjoying the game. I have enjoyed and spent my time on different things at various times since beta. Granted the in-game experiences have changed (just ask anyone who leveled in the vet zones in that first year, lol or played PVP in that first year). There have been times where I spent most of my game time for months on end in PVP. There have been other times where I spent the majority of my game time on merchanting, and yet other times where I spent the majority of my time in a guild leading groups of new players through the various zones.

For me, there's been enough to do and keep me logging in for several years (I have not taken a break from ESO). At the same time, I have large portions of my friend's lists of players who have moved on. I also have friends on that list that I've added in the past year. I accept that MMOs are generally cyclical and I will see folks come and go.

I encourage you to focus less on what others think of the game and instead ask yourself if you enjoy the game. If you do not, I encourage you to try out some of the different aspects of the game. For example, here are just some of the diverse things you could try out in game:
-the justice (thieving) system
-playing the merchant/farming/flipping game
-joining a trials guild,
-fishing (go for master angler)
-actually reading and enjoying the lore through the many books in game,
-level and explore the different builds of each class
-experiment with some armor sets that are not META and try to come up with a combination of less popular sets that works for you
-join a guild that is friendly to new players and volunteer to lead some weekly events to help those new players explore part of the game
-challenge yourself to solo dungeons, and then once you've done that, solo the vet versions
-open your accomplishments tab and try to unlock as many of them as possible
-collect some of the rarest items in game (like the PVP mercenary contracts and the old provisioning ingredients)
-join a group that enjoys housing and participate in some housing competitions (one of my guilds gave away 3 million in one housing decorating contest back in the spring)
-join in or just listen to some role playing groups

And there are many more. Simply, if you're not enjoying the game, try playing it differently. If that doesn't work, then try another game, in the end ESO isn't for everyone. But there are still many, many players enjoying the game in different ways.

Ashtaris

If you are just going by the user ratings that you read online, then you are here for the wrong reason anyway. Play the game, make your own decision on whether it's worth it or not. If you are having fun in the MMO, then really that's all that matters. Sure, it's not as much fun as when I first started a few years ago, but that happens with any game. A bit of burn out is natural if you have been with the game for sometime. But many of us are still here

Elsonso

br0steen wrote: »

The game gets worse and worse and worse because it is overseen by ZOS, which is objectovely a poorly run, unprofessional, short-sighted company.

Meh. No. Evidence to the contrary, and all that. We would not be here today if this were the case.

I can't speak for the numbers from Steam, but Chapters are likely to lead to a steady decline for most of the year. I expect to see ramped up interest in the couple months ahead of the Chapter, and the month after it. Of course, depending on the Chapter and how much it costs.

I don't think that Morrowind was a runaway success, simply because the Chapter cannot live up to the game. That, coupled with a perception of high price with low content, means that they have an entire year with nothing to really grab new players and hold attention. Piddly stuff like Clockwork City will interest existing players, but new players have no idea what to think of it. That will likely be the story for the 1Q DLC, too. They have to put the good stuff into the Chapters, and that means three quarters of "yawn". Less content and more people noticing lag and bugs that never get fixed.

I fear that they will compensate with a bunch of marketing related crap. No compelling content, just marketing tricks to bring in revenue. Hardly things that boost ratings.

In my mind, everything rests next on the 2Q 2018 Chapter. What it is. How sexy it sounds. Bang for the buck.

Reverb

I understand looking at ratings to decide wether or not to buy a game, but...you already bought ESO. Now you only need to figure out if you like it.

Rohamad_Ali

Nyghthowler wrote: »

Rohamad_Ali wrote: »

Nyghthowler wrote: »

@Kneighbors , here's an idea; try playing the game and decide for yourself if it's good or not.
If you don't like it, then try whining and crying to Steam for a refund. You never know...
But make your own decision; don't get led around by your nose.

Don't get led around by your nose ? Is that a real expression ? Because your nose can warn you before you step in *** .


Also ignoring a problem does not address a problem . The OP posted to identify possible issues . Knowledge that could help ZoS if they decided to use it possibly . Telling people to whine and ask for refunds adds nothing to the conversation .

Yes, that's a real expression.

Ignoring what problem? Steam metrics is one of the worst places for an informed opinion.

I wasn't really trying to add to the conversation because the OP started out with a whiney tone, stating they feel cheated. The game has been out long enough for him, her, or they to do research on it and determine if they wanted to play it. I have no sympathy for these types of posters.

Steam metrics aside ok . I've personally seen with my own eyes player participation decline steadily over the last year . Now this could be all personal perspective and their is a instance somewhere flooded with so many people you can't find the banker inside a building , but I don't think so . I have screen shots from launch showing the banker in wayrest flooded and same with Rawl'Kha . The next year a little less , One Tamriel put everyone in the game together and then I seen it crowded every day again but then a little less and less through the year . All personal experience on ps4 and PC these years . I watched Cyrodiil do the same over time .

The op is asking if this is natural as games mature . Some is . I believe some is not and it is all not just because Destiny 2 released . I think most people would like the game to regain some population yes . It is much more fun for many to see lots of people having a good time . ESO could use a jump start before it becomes a real problem . Something exciting and I wish I knew an answer . We will have to hope CWC is it but I'm not getting any huge hype from that personally . Hopefully others will though .

Graydon

The only review that matters to me is mine.

Turelus

br0steen wrote: »

The game gets worse and worse and worse because it is overseen by ZOS, which is objectovely a poorly run, unprofessional, short-sighted company.

Yet they managed to make the game, keep it running three years and continue to be rated as one of the better MMO's on the market right now.