My problem playing ESO: always preparing for something, not playing

Valencer

The gear grind in this game isnt that tedious anymore with trait changing being a thing.

Unless you cant clear the content that drops the desired loot in the first place, but you don't need top notch gear for that

Kikke

ESO is one of the few MMO's out there I know off where crafter gear can get you trough all content without any problems.

Anything else is just min/maxing, and is only needed if you're running for High scores.

Lord_Eomer

Mettaricana wrote: »

Do what i did play something else im on a dofferent mmo atm andnwhen i got back to eso i gave a lot less craps

I tried many other MMO but still found myself more playing only ESO.

Korah_Eaglecry

I feel you OP. If Im being completely honest. I havent really "played" ESO in probably about a year and a half or more. I think the last time I put any meaningful effort in to playing the quests and enjoying the story was before they announced the removal of VR and the changes to CP ranks. After that I stopped taking my time with content and focused on different achievements or collectables for the account. And even with the numerous DLC releases like Morrowind and Clockwork City Im still in the "grind when Im online" mentality. Took me 4 months to finish the Morrowind story because I just wasnt motivated to care about the story. Getting this motif, or that pet or that polymorph or this amount of CP has consumed me. And even when the story normally would have kept me engaged, I struggle to pay much attention to it. Because even with that, my approach is to get it over with as fast as possible so Im on to the next thing.

Sure, ultimately its my fault for falling into this mindset and continuing it after realizing that its affecting my ability to enjoy the game. But I do feel like its also the fault of the Developers. Theres always this urge to inflate the attraction of your game through metrics. And the easiest way to do that, the easiest way to make it seem like your game is really engaging for players or that they really like it. Is to push players to continue logging in for longer and longer times by drawing out the time needed to acquire things in game. And with that comes mental issues that people are afflicted by. The urge to collect everything and the habit of seeking the path of least resistance. Before you know it, both things become behaviors that negatively impact you on a personal level (how much time youre spending in game) as well as how you enjoy yourself (used to play quests in a laid back manner vs barreling through it to get to the end without taking it all in). Eventually you get burnt out and need to go elsewhere to break away from these habits. Sometimes those habits just follow you to the next thing.

Jaimeh

I understand what you mean OP, because sometimes I feel like that myself, especially when there is a new update coming out, and I feel I need to prepare for it. It can get a bit stressful and then the game seems like a job and not a hobby!

To avoid feeling like this, I resolved to fulfill goals only if they are in way of my regular gaming activities, or if I have nothing else to do; for e.g.: I haven't gotten the achievements for lighting fires for NPCs, etc., but instead of keep porting to the areas where they are supposed to spawn, I decided that I'd interact with them only if I find them during my regular travels. Or for example, I thieve (to eventually get Black Market Mogul) when I have nothing else to do and I'm a bit bored. Having said that, there are some things that I grind for, such as collecting lore books on an alt toon, to quickly advance the mage's guild, etc. but especially for a first character, I'd recommend just playing the game and letting things come to you rather than chasing them.

Regarding sets, there are crafted sets that are BiS for many builds (like Julianos for magicka DPS and Hunding's for stamina DPS), and though it's true that the second set equipped is usually a dropped set, you can make-do with something else until you get them, or even with blue jewelery in the interim. The game is designed to bring players back, and has activities that take time, but things like build requirements are only for end-game, and even then there are not rigid. As for housing, a good idea is to get all the free apartments, if you have alt toons, and place your furnitures there, so your desired house is empty. Then slowly start to decorate it. If you see you are spending too much gold, take a break and continue when you have enough gold again. Housing is a huge gold sink, I spend most of my gold decorating my Hunding's Palace, but in retrospect, I should have paced it out more.

Sometimes when we set game goals we forget to keep in mind that above all gaming is for fun, and that there are many things one can enjoy until they put together their sets and advance their skills, etc.

DieAlteHexe

ekmcb wrote: »

This is all by design, OP my friend. All by design.

My advice would be to lean back, close your eyes from the computer, take a deep breath, and resolve to only invest in time/effort what makes the game most enjoyable for you. Question what things you really *want* vs. what things you may have *been made to feel* you need.

Then, work toward the wants.

Take pleasure in the small things.


Change it up a bit (your routine) now and then.


Examples:

• Sometimes, for days on end, I do fishing. Yes, I want that stupid fishing achievement. lol
  
• Once I am sick of fishing, sometimes I might just go and randomly explore (that "pick a direction and run" thing). I take my time and notice the nice little details that the developers have lovingly and cleverly added to little nooks and crannies here and there, and I laugh, or think. Or might be prompted to go look up some lore for a TES historical reference I think I've found. (Those are the best, to me. Feels like finding special treasures.)
  
• Some days, I just want to take the time to have my character sit while I read some of those lore books in Eidetic Memory that my busy character's been too busy to pause and read while she's saving Tamriel.
  
• Other days, I'm keen on earning some more skill points so I can try out that new skill that looks cool, so I go skyshard hunting or leveling, a bit.
  
• Some days, when I have a chunk of gold built up, all I do is run around buying furnishings & patterns and working on one of my houses all day. Arranging, rearranging, trying out themes & wild ideas and constructions.

The point is, by design, the game developers' job and goal is to a) keep us endlessly entertained and busy with possibilities for as long as conceivably possible in order for US to have fun and b) for THEM to make money & to keep being able to do the jobs that we hope they love. Win/win.

If at any point you find yourself getting stressed about "getting/doing it all" - you've lost the point and the plot. Do that stepping back & taking a breath thing, & reset your priorities and approach to all the richness of "stuff" available for you to do & experience here. Much like real life, it might be near impossible to do everything, so do what matters to you most - as you can, with the time that you can.

^

^^^^ This.

It's not a race. It's a journey and there are so many things to do along the way.

Runefang

Hold onto the feeling. When you're done preparing you'll wonder what you even prepared for.

Maryanne

ekmcb wrote: »

Seeing replies in this thread, it strikes me that different gamer goals/motivations - gamer personalities - come into play when it comes to what frustrates or excites/motivates different players.

I'm not sure I can post this here since I don't own the content/concept, but since it's a Wikipedia link I figure it's public reference information, which I think should put it into a separate category as far as the rules about that go:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bartle_taxonomy_of_player_types

This is a really cool "gamer personality" profile system that explains a lot of what I just said. You can Google for tests on the web that will profile you, if you like.

I come out as 93% "Explorer" - which might explain my response to this "problem" as well as others' differing responses. It seems to me that the people expressing frustration in this thread (perhaps including the OP) are probably "Achievers" - as they feel there's too much to try to "get done," and too large of a mountain to climb before they can "achieve" it.

What does everyone else think?

I come out as 100% "Explorer. I was unsurprised. Thanks for the link, it was interesting.
And I absolutely agree with your previous comment.

slickygm

Mettaricana wrote: »

Do what i did play something else im on a dofferent mmo atm andnwhen i got back to eso i gave a lot less craps

I have to admit, it's a very good advice. I had an unplanned, relatively short 6 week break. It was enough to make me not give a damn anymore. I'm questing, doing all kind of weird stuff, experimenting with new characters and generally having fun. Using whatever I find, throwing away and changing when it breaks.

PS. I'm 400cp, vet dungeons, vMA and most vTrials done.

moonio

I did the Bartle test and realised I have a weird relationship with the developers of this game, it was quite insightful actually.
I didn't realise that I'm not actually playing the game, I'm mostly interacting with the developers on a certain level, and that's where my enjoyment comes from.. lol

Lord_Ninka

I think this is a fairly common problem. I can definitely relate to it. My advice is to try your best to have fun and leave all the grinding be. And if you aren't having fun without having your perfect gear after 1000 hours of grind that bores you then maybe this just isn't a game for you? That doesn't invalidate your criticism, of course, but for your own sake I think you should try to have fun with the game, and failing that, have fun with something else.

That said, yes, I also think I would have even more fun with the game if I had more than 4 characters ready for hardcore stuff, but it's far too tedious to get my other 11 characters ready (not least those that need meteor), but it's rare that I feel like grinding on them, so they're mostly just gathering dust.

Asardes

Running is preparing and vice versa. If you run lots of veteran dungeons, trials, vMA, they will make you into a better player, and give you the gear that will in turn improve your performance. And you can start running those with bought & crafted gear and be within 3% of the "BiS". So you don't really need to grind that much, especially with the trait change feature. As for motifs, housing, and other cosmetic things, they are not needed to become effective end game. Making money simply playing the game is quite easy, and those are mostly intended as a gold sink for that. Grinding purely for gold is probably one of the least pleasant things you can do in this game.

SugaComa

myskyrim26 wrote: »

I'm not whining, I love ESO, but... I have a problem

I’m playing ESO since November, 2016. All this time I was preparing for… something.
First, leveling to 160 to start using sets. Done, but it is not enough for playing: now the crafted sets are not enough, I need to grind some dropped sets and Monster sets and some vMA/whatever weapons. It is hard. Not interesting at all.

Then, collecting motifs. Done! I collected all motifs except the Militant Ordinator! Am I happy? No. I can’t play with them as the cost of making an outfit is very high. I need gold. A lot of gold! So I’m farming mats. The most hateful thing to do for me.

Oh, I desperately need gold – I’m preparing to buy a house and furnish it. I’m buying Zanil’s furniture, crafted furniture and furniture patterns in guild stores. My Ample Domicile is an awkward warehouse: I’ preparing. Not enjoying housing.

So, what I have now: preparing to do dungeons in a proper way, preparing to enjoy housing and preparing to enjoy oufits. Is it fun to prepare for such a long time? No… What I have left, is only doing quests and enjoying the environment. All other things would love to experience are somewhere... ahead. Infinite time and a lot of hard effort grinding gold ahead. Is it fun? No.

No offence you're playing it wrong ...

You find what you enjoy and you do it ... Simples

I enjoy PvP ... Yes I need to hit a few dungeons n delves to get gear which I hate ... *** DPS

But I make it work for me not the other way round so I can have maximum fun

zaria

For me its more an Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!

MacCait

OP, you hit the nail on the head. Yes, this is one of the reasons (apart from Morrowind nerf-mania) that I left the game for so long... always farming and preparing rather than playing. Since being back for a couple of months I decided I want to have more play time and less preparing time... so I'm preparinh for that lol... haven't quite got there yet

Elsterchen

Take a laugh:



... and now go and do something else.

Sylosi

SugaComa wrote: »

myskyrim26 wrote: »

I'm not whining, I love ESO, but... I have a problem

I’m playing ESO since November, 2016. All this time I was preparing for… something.
First, leveling to 160 to start using sets. Done, but it is not enough for playing: now the crafted sets are not enough, I need to grind some dropped sets and Monster sets and some vMA/whatever weapons. It is hard. Not interesting at all.

Then, collecting motifs. Done! I collected all motifs except the Militant Ordinator! Am I happy? No. I can’t play with them as the cost of making an outfit is very high. I need gold. A lot of gold! So I’m farming mats. The most hateful thing to do for me.

Oh, I desperately need gold – I’m preparing to buy a house and furnish it. I’m buying Zanil’s furniture, crafted furniture and furniture patterns in guild stores. My Ample Domicile is an awkward warehouse: I’ preparing. Not enjoying housing.

So, what I have now: preparing to do dungeons in a proper way, preparing to enjoy housing and preparing to enjoy oufits. Is it fun to prepare for such a long time? No… What I have left, is only doing quests and enjoying the environment. All other things would love to experience are somewhere... ahead. Infinite time and a lot of hard effort grinding gold ahead. Is it fun? No.

No offence you're playing it wrong ...

You find what you enjoy and you do it ... Simples

I enjoy PvP ... Yes I need to hit a few dungeons n delves to get gear which I hate ... *** DPS

But I make it work for me not the other way round so I can have maximum fun

No offence, but you are wrong...

For example say I was a brand new player to this game and I wanted to play PvP with some people I knew from a different game, and say like most people they play on the most popular campaign which means CP enabled.

So in order to get on a level playing field (or even vaguely near) then as the OP says, i'd end up in a state of "preparation" for a long time, so once I'd levelled, I would still have to finish up things like fighters guild/mages guild (at least to where key skills/passives are), undaunted, get provisioning/alchemy for the passives, get to 160 CP to even be worth building a first proper set, then realise I need vampire/werewolf, get that, grind that up, decide I need a PvE set also because I need to go do vet dungeons to go get monster sets, then realise I need more skill points, so go grind those out, all whilst having very little gold, so then need to go grind gold in some way, all the while having to grind out CP to get to at least some sort of vaguely decent level, and so on...

Where as a new player to most PvP games (shooters, mobas, etc), the limitations for the most part are simply horizontal (greater choice of weapon, hero/champ, etc) and the "grind" comes largely as a side product of simply playing the game in the same way you would if you had everything.

The problem with MMOs is the gameplay is sub-par (especially PvE) so 'grind' is used as a substitute for actual meaningful gameplay (I mean you basically have to be lobotomised to want to do the same dungeon for the 50th time, but give these simpletons something to grind for and...)

I know people who tried this game, like some stuff about it, but quit simply because grinding all this crap (especially the CP) just to be able to play "properly" was beyond tedious and for people with a life would take an inordinate amount of time.

Rex-Umbra

Thats how MMORPGs generally work, its called "Progression".

lardvader

myskyrim26 wrote: »

I'm not whining, I love ESO, but... I have a problem

I’m playing ESO since November, 2016. All this time I was preparing for… something.
First, leveling to 160 to start using sets. Done, but it is not enough for playing: now the crafted sets are not enough, I need to grind some dropped sets and Monster sets and some vMA/whatever weapons. It is hard. Not interesting at all.

Then, collecting motifs. Done! I collected all motifs except the Militant Ordinator! Am I happy? No. I can’t play with them as the cost of making an outfit is very high. I need gold. A lot of gold! So I’m farming mats. The most hateful thing to do for me.

Oh, I desperately need gold – I’m preparing to buy a house and furnish it. I’m buying Zanil’s furniture, crafted furniture and furniture patterns in guild stores. My Ample Domicile is an awkward warehouse: I’ preparing. Not enjoying housing.

So, what I have now: preparing to do dungeons in a proper way, preparing to enjoy housing and preparing to enjoy oufits. Is it fun to prepare for such a long time? No… What I have left, is only doing quests and enjoying the environment. All other things would love to experience are somewhere... ahead. Infinite time and a lot of hard effort grinding gold ahead. Is it fun? No.

#metoo

Now that my 15th is almost maxed I can finally play the game(?).

klowdy1

I feel like this sometimes, usually before a take a break for a while. All I've done since the ESO birthday event is long on to do dailies.

Just be glad this game isn't like BDO. You have to level your character to 56 before you get the awakening (the true class gameplay), you have to get multiple copies of the same item to drop in order to use the extras to upgrade your piece of gear, then label up that gear (gear can be destroyed when upgrading, and drop in level when failing to increase it). After all that, you need to level your stamina (through walking with a pack equipped) because some abilities use stamina. You need to breed horses a lot to get anything worth while. The need for prep is so bad in BDO they allow you to do a lot of things while AFK.

Motherball

I have the opposite problem. I wont do things in the game that I dont find entertaining, so it becomes pretty limited at some points. I used to love farming and using the traders, but not worth a sub fee for the crafting bag, and I dont like paying guild fees or being coerced into logging in, so I just don’t farm or trade anymore. Lots of entertaining games out there, so no big loss.

DeadlyRecluse

I know the feeling--sometimes you get stuck in a rut gathering gear for different builds and never actually playing them...

One thing that helps, imo, is to compartmentalize your gameplay a bit. Whatever it is you enjoy in-game: dungeons, trials, PvP, BGs, etc--have one night where that's all you do. Prep the toon you are going to play on at the end of the previous play session, so you are ready to just log on and have fun, rather than getting distracted by inventory management or getting that BSW sword that would make the build thaaaat much better, etc. etc.

Typing that up is like, the ultimate exercise in first-world-problem-solving.

Beardimus

I know what you mean it can feel like an A Team tooling up sequence

Enemy-of-Coldharbour

What really sucks for a lot of players (especially new ones) is that by the time they have properly 'prepped' their character, ZOS makes major changes/new content and sets come out and they have to start all over. I'm sure many players never actually get to enjoy the game They are caught in a never ending cycle of preparation/farming gear.

Sixsixsix161

I have never, ever, done any of the things you're talking about. Because it takes too much time away from the game, and I don't get a real enjoyment from those parts of the game, so I don't do them.

I do all the quests, level up my character, pick up mats I sell to NPCs, and have over 500K in the bank. Sometimes, when I'm lucky I'll find something that gets me 5K-10K, but that is very rare.

I got two characters to max level in 2011, and am now playing my third 50/cp258 to do all the quests I missed in each area (and there are a lot of them. Got an addon program that shows me where all the quests are. Also, skyshards - must have to level skills). Also trying to solo all the dungeons and similar areas. After all that, I have to finish all the main quests just to get to the final bosses, and then do the silver and gold quest lines. Looking at over a year, closer to two maybe. I play about 2-3 hours per day. That's another reason I don't do houses, writs, etc. Time is limited.

Anyway, good luck.

Enemy-of-Coldharbour

Rex-Umbra wrote: »

Thats how MMORPGs generally work, its called "Progression".

It's more like 'stagnation'.

myskyrim26

For those who say I'm playing it wrong: I want to play with my outfits and housing, that's what I want to do now. Just as a lot of players do. How on the earth can you know "how to play right"? You enjoy PVP and fishing - well, it's your prefferncies. And I have mine. The fact that they are different from yours don't make them wrong.