What do you think makes WOW so "community-ish" while ESO lacks the feeling?

Asardes

Maybe sometimes people don't feel the need to socialize that much. For example I was way more talkative and open when I joined the game, although I hadn't played other MMOs before. Somehow, that need evaporated over the years, and I don't know what to make of it. I was in a guild a few month that required Discord for trials, and I sometimes stayed connected for a few minutes after the trial ended to ask people specific questions about builds and such - and I felt I was sometimes pestering them with too many questions, since I was a bit of a chatterbox. At some point people stopped coming for progression/casual trials, meaning Craglorn HM and vMoL non-HM for the most part and was becoming more difficult even to find people for pledges, so I left. It was high summer so most people weren't playing that much. Since then I've been basically on my own, rarely talking to anybody else except very specific, and short conversations on guild chats, most of them about pricing trends - the remaining ones are all trading guilds. I do sometimes give explanations to new players on zone chat, and occasionally have talked with players who asked me for help or other specific things. Other than that, I go trough my daily routine without much player interaction even if I sometimes group, for example when doing a random battleground or the rare dungeon or trial - I went to normal ones each day during the event for the dremora skulls. In the near future I will find another PvE guild since I need to pass a few more characters trough the new dungeons for undaunted, skill points and achievements, so I guess the loneliness is just a temporary thing.

Rain_Greyraven

WoW's community is a cesspool, always has been always will be, I have seen this community improve by leaps and bounds over the years.

If folks prefer the wow community they should be with those people.

Cadbury

The MMO "community" in general is becoming a passing fad.

LOTRO was imo the last "community driven" MMO I played. There were still small but outgoing bands of players who talked to each other, organized raids and events, and were generally helpful to newer players.

Today, our games have become more streamlined and more focused on the individual. It's now simply more productive to run a dungeon with minimal engagement and with likeminded peers so we can complete it quickly and move on. Who cares about the lore of a particular dungeon? We just want to know the gear is worth our time.

-shrug- It is what it is

EQBallzz

There are probably a lot of complex subtleties that contribute to this feeling but I do have some simplistic ideas that probably contribute to this:

-solo play. While there is plenty of solo quest content in WoW the game structure is more designed around progressing through quests solo but then moving on to dungeons and raid content and hard modes etc..even if people don't all participate the solo content funnels into the "end game" content which revolves around group content which means finding a guild that is appropriate for doing that. IMO it's far easier in ESO to just focus on solo content as the leveling and end game content and never need anyone else.

-multi-guilds. This was a complaint I had early on with ESO. The fact that you can join 5 guilds at a time really diminishes the feeling of community to any one guild. If you are a guild leader and trying to create events..be it raids or fun events or pvp you are always having to compete with all the other guild events that might be happening in all your members guilds. IMO this really is a killer to guild cohesion and loyalty. That means you not only have a weaker guild community but it's much easier for people to just come and go in guilds since the don't generally feel as loyal or committed to any one guild. I'm sure there are exceptions but think of how hard it is to establish a guild at this late date when everyone has multiple guilds.

-guild traders. I really hate this guild trader system. I think on paper it's a neat idea but in practice it's really bad IMO. It really pushes players into joining multiple guilds (feeding into my 2nd point) and with how the bidding system works it's impossible for a new or up and coming guild to be able to get a trader which is like a death spiral for growth. When you have so many limited slots to sell with in any one guild why would anyone join your guild that doesn't have a guild trader established?

To combat this guilds are forced to get aggressive with adding players, taxing players, forcing dues etc..none of this really contributes to a cohesive community but instead makes the guild revolve around paying for a guild trader which is not exactly fun.

The fact that websites and addons have popped up to circumvent this system should be a big clue to ESO that this system needs to be reworked such that any guild has *some* opportunity to set up shop.

-factions. They seem kind of meaningless so I don't really see any community surrounding which faction you belong to. Add in the fact that with a crown store purchase (or early access benefit) any race and start in any faction so even the faction bound races become sort of meaningless.

RedRook

Maybe it's as simple as why people choose to play the game. WoW is and always has been foremost an MMO. People signed in for an MMO experience.

ESO is foremost an Elder Scrolls game. People came from the single-player games because they like Tamriel at least as much as they came for a new MMO on the market.

So there's that. The game itself facilitates the playerbase breaking up into little enclaves of the like-minded, many of which think other enclaves are stuffed with idiots who ruin everything, but that's really not so different from IRL. If WOW has somehow overcome this, I'm surprised to hear it.

NoTimeToWait

Peekachu99 wrote: »

Okay, again, you continue to speak as if your anecdotal experience is both empirical and universal—it’s neither. We all have different experiences in different games, in the end the only thing we can look at is data, such as subscription numbers (only rising in FFXIV) and completion rates (also higher than ever and you can check this out via the FFXIV lodestone and census). So contrary to whatever you’re feeling or have experienced, people ARE clearing top tier content on a regular basis using the game’s robust social tools. Any other argument falls flat because its not based upon facts or data that we have to examine. That’s all I’m saying. FFXIV (and WOW) have fantastic social tools and completion rates through using those tools. The end.

The OP asked why those games did better, socially, and I gave my reasons, which are backed up with actual data, and which you contested (without facts). And here we are. Not gonna argue with you all day about facts or logic. Believe whatever you want, but its just not supported by reality.

I would really like not to interfere here, but... your every post seems completely unnecessary and empty, while the other guy is providing lots of information. Looks like a case of protectionism where you just ignore every argument and discard opinions that differ from yours. While FF14 might be a good game, your posts certainly make it look worse

Really, maybe I have an outdated attitude, but I would prefer to do everything via in-game chat. Grouping included. "Robust social tools" sounds like something horrible to me that I would prefer to avoid

Asardes wrote: »

Maybe sometimes people don't feel the need to socialize that much. For example I was way more talkative and open when I joined the game, although I hadn't played other MMOs before. Somehow, that need evaporated over the years, and I don't know what to make of it. I was in a guild a few month that required Discord for trials, and I sometimes stayed connected for a few minutes after the trial ended to ask people specific questions about builds and such - and I felt I was sometimes pestering them with too many questions, since I was a bit of a chatterbox. At some point people stopped coming for progression/casual trials, meaning Craglorn HM and vMoL non-HM for the most part and was becoming more difficult even to find people for pledges, so I left. It was high summer so most people weren't playing that much. Since then I've been basically on my own, rarely talking to anybody else except very specific, and short conversations on guild chats, most of them about pricing trends - the remaining ones are all trading guilds. I do sometimes give explanations to new players on zone chat, and occasionally have talked with players who asked me for help or other specific things. Other than that, I go trough my daily routine without much player interaction even if I sometimes group, for example when doing a random battleground or the rare dungeon or trial - I went to normal ones each day during the event for the dremora skulls. In the near future I will find another PvE guild since I need to pass a few more characters trough the new dungeons for undaunted, skill points and achievements, so I guess the loneliness is just a temporary thing.

That is just sad. ESO is superior in every aspect as a MMO, than many other MMOs except for one thing: it doesn't generate memories. And this is really important. I spent a year here and can barely recollect a couple in-game events during that time that left me impressed or excited. I have more memories from a couple of weeks of ESO beta test (which I spent mostly in Cyrodiil) than from my last year in ESO.

Don't get me wrong, I enjoy playing ESO, and it is much better game than it was during beta. But it somehow doesn't generate memorable things, memorable experiences...

And, if I try to analyze what I find memorable in other games... I find that complexity or novelty, feeling of personal achievement or being a part of some big community effort (the Summerfall event seems appropriate, but it was a bit too easy to be memorable) is mostly memorable to me...

Yeah, I guess that's why the early stage of any MMO is a better part of its lifecycle even while often buggy and unfinished. Because it is all about discovery. And after a couple of years it is all about effectiveness.

ScardyFox

NoTimeToWait wrote: »

Peekachu99 wrote: »

Okay, again, you continue to speak as if your anecdotal experience is both empirical and universal—it’s neither. We all have different experiences in different games, in the end the only thing we can look at is data, such as subscription numbers (only rising in FFXIV) and completion rates (also higher than ever and you can check this out via the FFXIV lodestone and census). So contrary to whatever you’re feeling or have experienced, people ARE clearing top tier content on a regular basis using the game’s robust social tools. Any other argument falls flat because its not based upon facts or data that we have to examine. That’s all I’m saying. FFXIV (and WOW) have fantastic social tools and completion rates through using those tools. The end.

The OP asked why those games did better, socially, and I gave my reasons, which are backed up with actual data, and which you contested (without facts). And here we are. Not gonna argue with you all day about facts or logic. Believe whatever you want, but its just not supported by reality.

I would really like not to interfere here, but... your every post seems completely unnecessary and empty, while the other guy is providing lots of information. Looks like a case of protectionism where you just ignore every argument and discard opinions that differ from yours. While FF14 might be a good game, your posts certainly make it look worse

Really, maybe I have an outdated attitude, but I would prefer to do everything via in-game chat. Grouping included. "Robust social tools" sounds like something horrible to me that I would prefer to avoid

Weird... because everything he (Pikachu) said -- to me -- is correct.

Wildberryjack

With cross realm and sharding I find nothing about WoW to have a community feel. I never see most of the people again that I do team up with from time to time. I couldn't tell you the name of one person on "my" realm.

NoTimeToWait

ScardyFox wrote: »

Weird... because everything he (Pikachu) said -- to me -- is correct.

It's not about being correct or incorrect. It's about the attitude. I don't know a thing about FF14, but from the way the arguments and ideas were presented I would not pick a side of this guy, even if he was correct. In my opinion, this is a failure, because he failed to defend his correct (according to you, which is also arguable and not supported by anything) opinion properly (at least from my point of view)

NoTimeToWait

So, I feel like sharing memories is a very important part of socialization. Both sharing memories with those who shared original experience and with those who didn't participate is actually a good way to keep a conversation. And when the game fails to deliver memorable experiences that can be shared with others, I thinks community also starts to feel lacking.

And the lack of youtube memes and videos may be a result of this lack of memorable things. ESO does a decent job with quests and landscapes, but while these might be memorable, this is not the kind of experience you share often (unless these are the profession quests from Ragnarok Online which can be considered a full adventure onto itself). Part of the problem might be that we don't even have that many opportunities to "share" some experience with somebody. There are very few things that enable players to support each other. Truly, group experience in ESO is mostly about competitiveness and individual excellence, and less about support.

kathandira

Lyserus wrote: »

snip

Something else to add to the considerations. Being able to join multiple Guilds. This makes guilds much less important, and results in lower guild loyalty and prestige.

In WoW, those huge end game/world first guilds were very exclusive and sought after. If you got into one, you knew you could be proud of yourself, and proud of your guilds accomplishments.

However in ESO, it isn't exactly like that. People join and leave guilds without a care in the world. I believe this also has an effect on how the community doesn't seem to bond together.

CaptainBones

Just gonna say this, how many times do you come across people in old zones in wow? I can probably count the amount of people i found outside of a bfa zone last time i subbed on one finger. 90% of the zones are dead outside of capitals.

Meanwhile i have been playing in alik'r desert recently, a vanilla zone, and the amount of people i have been doing dolmens with is so high that my game drops to 20 fps. Must be well over 50 people at any given time. Even in sentinel i see people all the time and i always see people in various old zones outside of capitals. New zones, old zones, doesn't matter. In wow you are lucky to find anyone walking around a zone that isn't from the current xpac because it's on rails and everyone is doing the same rep grinds in the same zones.

ESO isn't like that. Eso let's you go anywhere at anytime without restricting you to one area. Wanna go and level in the latest dlc zone at level 5? Go right ahead. Meanwhile in wow, wanna play in pandaria at level 25 because the lore and zones interest you? Well too bad buddy, get back to the fetch quests and come talk to me in 50 levels.

Also where community is concerned i find the eso community to be much friendlier and helpful. I've never had a really bad experience in my time playing wow but as soon as i started playing eso a guy made me a set and crafted me over 300 daggers so i could get my blacksmithing to 50. I also have made friends through public activities and been invited to guilds many times. Not once in my time playing wow did i find a guild and every time i asked a genuine question in chat i never got a reply. Then i see way nicer comments on the eso forums compared to wow and I've spent A LOT of time on both forums just browsing topics. Sure there are *** on both games but from my experience there tends to be less in eso.

Just my thoughts on the matter where community is concerned.

Jeremy

Tetrafy wrote: »

Jeremy wrote: »

Peekachu99 wrote: »

Azuramoonstar wrote: »

My first question is, WoW has a community? I played the game on and off for 2 years and my highest character was a 46 warlock. I never saw a sense of community People basically solo'ed in a group. very little group play till max level, and was not group friendly at all.

Anytime i asked for help and tips in WoW i was told to f-off.

When i play ESO i saw people helping others, like giving tips in chat, giving tips on forums. ESO is not a linear game, you can play at your own pace and still do content when you get higher up.

Peekachu99 wrote: »

It’s clealy the social tools they offer. Same with FFXIV. A broken group finder, a terrible trading interface and shouting in zone chat to form groups is pathetic by any objective standards.

I don't agree with any More so the zone shouting. Also ff14 has zone shouting as well and stuff like that promotes a community. Too much automation in group finder kills community as people just don't talk.

Imo eso has more of a community then ff14 and WoW does. at least ppl talk in eso, and help each other out.

FFXIV has actual guild housing where people hang out, shoot the crap, use auctions and other services, play dress up, gamble, or group for retro dungeon crawls. They have an entire ZONE dedicated to fashion wars, emotes and completely optional player games. They have a fully featured and customizable interface for forming groups (automated or otherwise) across every level of content. You don’t shout across zone because you have a SERVER wide advertisement for your particular group in LFG.

Sorry, but you clearly aren’t familiar enough with their social tools to be offering critique.

I wish ESO had even a sliver of that social integration, but after four years it literally has next to nothing. Some serious Stolkholm syndrome to be claiming otherwise.

Final Fantasy 14 has one of the worse "communities" I've ever encountered on an MMORPG and ESO basically has guild housing. Just go to the guild leader's house. You can hang out there to "shoot the crap" or "play dress up". I really don't know what has you so impressed about Final Fantasy 14's "community". It's just a final fantasy themed WoW with shallow combat and even less build diversity.

To be honest no modern MMORPG has much of a community anymore because group-play is no longer necessary in them. They are largely solo-oriented with generic group-finding mechanisms so players don't have to form groups themselves. This makes the game more convenient and easier to access - but it comes at the cost of having to build a unified group of individuals to progress. What ever "community" there is in the modern MMORPG - it's mostly just "endgame" when guilds run raids together. And Final Fantasy 14 isn't an exception to that.

What

Tetrafy wrote: »

Jeremy wrote: »

Peekachu99 wrote: »

Azuramoonstar wrote: »

My first question is, WoW has a community? I played the game on and off for 2 years and my highest character was a 46 warlock. I never saw a sense of community People basically solo'ed in a group. very little group play till max level, and was not group friendly at all.

Anytime i asked for help and tips in WoW i was told to f-off.

When i play ESO i saw people helping others, like giving tips in chat, giving tips on forums. ESO is not a linear game, you can play at your own pace and still do content when you get higher up.

Peekachu99 wrote: »

It’s clealy the social tools they offer. Same with FFXIV. A broken group finder, a terrible trading interface and shouting in zone chat to form groups is pathetic by any objective standards.

I don't agree with any More so the zone shouting. Also ff14 has zone shouting as well and stuff like that promotes a community. Too much automation in group finder kills community as people just don't talk.

Imo eso has more of a community then ff14 and WoW does. at least ppl talk in eso, and help each other out.

FFXIV has actual guild housing where people hang out, shoot the crap, use auctions and other services, play dress up, gamble, or group for retro dungeon crawls. They have an entire ZONE dedicated to fashion wars, emotes and completely optional player games. They have a fully featured and customizable interface for forming groups (automated or otherwise) across every level of content. You don’t shout across zone because you have a SERVER wide advertisement for your particular group in LFG.

Sorry, but you clearly aren’t familiar enough with their social tools to be offering critique.

I wish ESO had even a sliver of that social integration, but after four years it literally has next to nothing. Some serious Stolkholm syndrome to be claiming otherwise.

Final Fantasy 14 has one of the worse "communities" I've ever encountered on an MMORPG and ESO basically has guild housing. Just go to the guild leader's house. You can hang out there to "shoot the crap" or "play dress up". I really don't know what has you so impressed about Final Fantasy 14's "community". It's just a final fantasy themed WoW with shallow combat and even less build diversity.

To be honest no modern MMORPG has much of a community anymore because group-play is no longer necessary in them. They are largely solo-oriented with generic group-finding mechanisms so players don't have to form groups themselves. This makes the game more convenient and easier to access - but it comes at the cost of having to build a unified group of individuals to progress. What ever "community" there is in the modern MMORPG - it's mostly just "endgame" when guilds run raids together. And Final Fantasy 14 isn't an exception to that.

What

Azuramoonstar wrote: »

Mystrius_Archaion wrote: »

Linaleah wrote: »

one of the major reasons wow blew up the way it did despite horrible, buggy barely playable launch? was becasue it was the first MMo at the time to offer full fledged casual/solo mmo experience. it was solo friendly from the start. and nowadays? its even more so. you can completely and utterly avoid being guilded and/or making friends in that game while playing for YEARS. even group content doesn't require actual community. world content can easily be overleveled/overgeared and raids/dungeons are auto puggable.

I agree and wish every game was this way. I love the huge worlds and play options, but I want it to be optional to actually socialize.
Forcing people to get together is always a disaster. We don't like it unless we are willing, and no that doesn't mean we are willing automatically by downloading and playing the game. The developers of many games just forget this fact of human nature.

ff11 was a game that forced people to group up, had one of the best community in mmo, and still going. Yes it more solo friendly now but it wasn't always.

a lot of people didn't like how WoW changed the genre into a solo direction. communities happen when a need arises. If you don't need a community there is no point. Which is a problem in MMO the multiplayer aspect is becoming non existent. And that is a bit sad, as ff11 was my fav mmo. I liked that it forced you to meet people.

I have autism, and ff11 helped in my social skills because it forced me communicate.

Final Fantasy 11 did foster the strongest online communities I've ever seen on any MMO. Unfortunately gil sellers and some very poor development decisions (like HNM hunting) held that game back from greatness. Though it needs to be said that the game is still going like you said (and is still subscription based at that) and has been Square Enix's most profitable game.

Facefister

ImmortalCX wrote: »

In wow, progress is linear, and everyone is clustered in the same area, working on the same content, at the same time. The rest of the world is a ghost town.

Its the nature of the way they roll out expansions. EVERYONE is upgrading / hunting for the same gear. Everyone MUST upgrade gear with new expansion.

Iow, everyone is funneled through the same content, while eso is more open and doesnt demand a linear progression.

This also applies to ESO. "All content matters all the time" is an illusion. Ofcourse you can use some gimmick or utility sets from older content but you'll ultimately farm the latest content for maximum performance.

Inaya

Wow's community is indeed a cesspool.

Ask a question in zone chat and you will be mocked, called names and told to "GIT GUD".

There are constant complaints about "low levels" having access to world bosses because they can' "earn" the loot and only get loot because of the good players work.

People will come in and kill a rare spawn a hunter is trying to tame simply because they can.

The only zones with people are the expansion zones, the rest are rotting away.

The best community I ever saw was FFXI. Coming from Wow some time ago I'm impressed with the ESO community. With the influx of Wow refugees it has gotten a little more childish and crude but by and large ESO players are helpful and friendly.

BigBragg

Solid necro, ESOfam.

Wolfpaw

Performance.

DaveMoeDee

Adernath wrote: »

For me it's the option to join 5 guilds. At first this may sound awesome, but in reality I never had this true identification and commitment to a single guild than I had in WoW.

Then we really really need faction pride in ESO. I also wish we had exclusive faction themed items and gimmicks obtainable in the game only for a specific faction.

Same goes for classes. I would like to see more class diversity, even if it would be just cosmetic stuff.

I like to have a story for every region in ESO, but we also need a continuation of the main story quest some day. In WoW the entire game world is evolving every large expansion, making everything new and exciting.

I love that old ESO content is not intended to get obsolete with a new expansion, but on the other hand the new content in ESO is just too simple for my taste. In WoW new content is not designed for newbies and this makes it much more exciting. ESO is also a little too simple nowadays with the cp creep every expansion: Currently a Harvester in vICP has around the same strength as a Harvester at the beginning of the game in open world.

Guild is closing? Whatever. I'll find another. I already have 4 others.

I also hate all the auction spam in guild chat. I love hearing from my guildmates, but I don't want that obfuscated by auction nonsense. I just shake my head when guilds advertise the raffles and auctions like they are positive thing. They are necessary evils due to selling through guilds.

DaveMoeDee

Inaya wrote: »

...

There are constant complaints about "low levels" having access to world bosses because they can' "earn" the loot and only get loot because of the good players work.

...

There are also people with a similar lack of social development here.

MartiniDaniels

Inaya wrote: »

Wow's community is indeed a cesspool.

Ask a question in zone chat and you will be mocked, called names and told to "GIT GUD".

There are constant complaints about "low levels" having access to world bosses because they can' "earn" the loot and only get loot because of the good players work.

People will come in and kill a rare spawn a hunter is trying to tame simply because they can.

The only zones with people are the expansion zones, the rest are rotting away.

The best community I ever saw was FFXI. Coming from Wow some time ago I'm impressed with the ESO community. With the influx of Wow refugees it has gotten a little more childish and crude but by and large ESO players are helpful and friendly.

What a BS. I just leveled from 0 to 60 a month ago and there was ton of people running around as well as I was invited in a friendly guild after we killed one hard quest boss together and that guild has non-stop flow of fun events in which players actually participate, and not like in ESO where there are 500 guild members and they will hardly go anywhere without own profit, with only exception of personal friendship ties and discord talk. Remove discord, i.e. external communication software and even those ties will be cut. ESO has awful in-game communication system, at least on PC.

Ilithyania

15 yrs, good endgame, big personalities, many content creators on twitch and youtube.

AND it was a game EVERYONE played at some point.

Well... at least for the old generation

DaveMoeDee

I have never played WoW, but I feel like there is no shortage of great guilds here. One problem with guilds though is that some great guilds are also trade guilds. Even if you get along with everyone and you all have fun together, they will kick you if you aren't doing a minimum contribution. The sales guild model isn't good for maintaining relationships.

Malprave

Main problem with ESO is all the WoW shills here on the forum. Not content with their relentless non-constructive criticisms of ESO now we have threads blatantly hawking another game. Unbelievable. Let it go folks, WoW is dead.

andreasv

Malprave wrote: »

Main problem with ESO is all the WoW shills here on the forum. Not content with their relentless non-constructive criticisms of ESO now we have threads blatantly hawking another game. Unbelievable. Let it go folks, WoW is dead.

TBH it's ESO fans that are desperately looking to bring up WoW on this forum. I mean prime example is this thread here that was brought back from November 2018.

Hexquisite

One of my ESO guilds just moved to WoW Classic. I don't know what WoW was like before...but let me just say the general chat is beyond horrendous, not just trolly but out and out insulting people with language we could not use in ESO, or language that doesn't get used. I mainly pvp in ESO and yes the zone chat can get toxic, but, it is nothing like this WoW chat--which not only insults player skill, but also gender and race and with the worst language possible.

I have always had a good community in ESO, even when I just solo'd for the first year, as my trade guilds had awesome events. My pvp guilds over the last few years have been great, we keep up with each other in discord even when we aren'tplaying. Maybe because I came from other MMOs, I had a better time of it.

I just wish ESO would fix the lag, so many of my friends have left, and when I log on my F List is empty.

Grandma

ImmortalCX wrote: »

In wow, progress is linear, and everyone is clustered in the same area, working on the same content, at the same time. The rest of the world is a ghost town.

Its the nature of the way they roll out expansions. EVERYONE is upgrading / hunting for the same gear. Everyone MUST upgrade gear with new expansion.

Iow, everyone is funneled through the same content, while eso is more open and doesnt demand a linear progression.

this.

ESO Is open, and you don't need 4 or 5 people to survive a tough 10th version of the same collect x item quests in the same area. Everyones in the same area at the same time, and once enough people outlevel it it becomes abandoned.

you feel the need to join guilds or groups in WoW because you have to to survive, and if you play solo you can't have a good time as much. in ESO you join guilds and groups because you WANT to be social, because it's an option, not a need, and so the bonds are stronger but technically fewer.

Facefister

andreasv wrote: »

Malprave wrote: »

Main problem with ESO is all the WoW shills here on the forum. Not content with their relentless non-constructive criticisms of ESO now we have threads blatantly hawking another game. Unbelievable. Let it go folks, WoW is dead.

TBH it's ESO fans that are desperately looking to bring up WoW on this forum. I mean prime example is this thread here that was brought back from November 2018.

Inferiority complex.

NotaDaedraWorshipper

Wifeaggro13

EQBallzz wrote: »

There are probably a lot of complex subtleties that contribute to this feeling but I do have some simplistic ideas that probably contribute to this:

-solo play. While there is plenty of solo quest content in WoW the game structure is more designed around progressing through quests solo but then moving on to dungeons and raid content and hard modes etc..even if people don't all participate the solo content funnels into the "end game" content which revolves around group content which means finding a guild that is appropriate for doing that. IMO it's far easier in ESO to just focus on solo content as the leveling and end game content and never need anyone else.

-multi-guilds. This was a complaint I had early on with ESO. The fact that you can join 5 guilds at a time really diminishes the feeling of community to any one guild. If you are a guild leader and trying to create events..be it raids or fun events or pvp you are always having to compete with all the other guild events that might be happening in all your members guilds. IMO this really is a killer to guild cohesion and loyalty. That means you not only have a weaker guild community but it's much easier for people to just come and go in guilds since the don't generally feel as loyal or committed to any one guild. I'm sure there are exceptions but think of how hard it is to establish a guild at this late date when everyone has multiple guilds.

-guild traders. I really hate this guild trader system. I think on paper it's a neat idea but in practice it's really bad IMO. It really pushes players into joining multiple guilds (feeding into my 2nd point) and with how the bidding system works it's impossible for a new or up and coming guild to be able to get a trader which is like a death spiral for growth. When you have so many limited slots to sell with in any one guild why would anyone join your guild that doesn't have a guild trader established?

To combat this guilds are forced to get aggressive with adding players, taxing players, forcing dues etc..none of this really contributes to a cohesive community but instead makes the guild revolve around paying for a guild trader which is not exactly fun.

The fact that websites and addons have popped up to circumvent this system should be a big clue to ESO that this system needs to be reworked such that any guild has *some* opportunity to set up shop.

-factions. They seem kind of meaningless so I don't really see any community surrounding which faction you belong to. Add in the fact that with a crown store purchase (or early access benefit) any race and start in any faction so even the faction bound races become sort of meaningless.

Some of the core design elements of ESO completely discourage community in this game . Everything post 2016 has been directed at selling copies.

Urvoth

The ESO communities are pretty limited to high end raiding, high MMR BGs, and certain cyro grinders discords/GvG groups. Dueling is sorta in there but that community is pretty much made up of cyro/bg players anyway.

Besides those mini communities, the overall ESO community is hardly noticeable because it’s filled with super casuals who barely play the game and don’t even understand basic mechanics.