Better player retention

KonradK77

Last couple of days I have realized the biggest problem with new player retention(non cp), in every game a new character grows stronger with each level they gain but in eso your character feels weaker and weaker till you upgrade your gear to your current level and than the weakening resumes as you outgrow your gear. This is very discouraging to new players and feels like banging your head on the wall, that's why a lot of new people quit the game before they reach endgame. Zos should make changes to the leveling system where players can see their characters get stronger as they level and not get discouraged to play the game.

Demra

Disagree. This would do the opposite for me and for some other folk i know.

Maybe i misunderstood you thou, would i still be able to play casual and compete?

Sylvermynx

Uh.... not really. Until around level 30 your character is "godlike" more or less. If you keep up with gear at level of course. It's only at level 50 (with 10 CP as a "gift") that you try to kill a one gem troll and find out you're toast. (Nah, my girl didn't die... but neither did the troll... *rolls eyes*)

Now, I do get why this game runs this way. And for this game, it's fine. If you don't like it, I guess there's always wow or rift?

Besides which, there really isn't "endgame" unless you live and die for pvp. Or think trials are fun.

Red_Feather

In my opinion new and interesting RPG systems retain players better than DLC dungeons. But whatever. The game does what it does and gets the response it gets.

Maxx7410

true dlc dungeons are meee i want more rpg more guilds/or more missions nice rewards, more lore i want companions etc ect.

Nemesis7884

i think the easiest way for new player retention imo is

- making it easy for people to understand what their progression path is and what they should do when where
- finding ways to include them fast and easy in communities / guilds

Androconium

We don't want new player retention.
Just new players.

LiraTaurwen

None of that matters with such poor game performance. They just want new people to buy the game + sub + crowns and then they are disposable until next expansion and dlc.

JamilaRaj

KonradK77 wrote: »

Last couple of days I have realized the biggest problem with new player retention(non cp), in every game a new character grows stronger with each level they gain but in eso your character feels weaker and weaker till you upgrade your gear to your current level and than the weakening resumes as you outgrow your gear. This is very discouraging to new players and feels like banging your head on the wall, that's why a lot of new people quit the game before they reach endgame. Zos should make changes to the leveling system where players can see their characters get stronger as they level and not get discouraged to play the game.

In most games, characters typically grow stronger but are pitched against ever stronger enemies, i.e. they grow relatively stronger only against past, not current enemies, unless there is unintended power creep (though admittedly, there often is). That approach may be more effective than ESO's in creating illusion of progression, but it is illusion nontheless.

The reason why ZOS prefers players to grind gear over and over in order to stay strong, rather than to grow stronger and throw stronger enemies at them, is, of course, money. If ZOS went with the other approach, DLCs/expansions would have to be either only for narrow level range (which would shrink pool of potential buyers to that range) or made of smaller chunks for multiple level ranges (which would shrink pool of potential buyers too, because some would dislike paying full price for all chunks only to play one).

Inaya

I totally disagree. I felt increasingly stronger as I leveled and still do as I get better gear and more CP. I think ESO does a great job of keeping ALL content relevant.

JumpmanLane

Oh geeze, grind out to 160cp like everyone else. Run an actual build for the content you want to play. Stop whinging.

Veinblood1965

Sylvermynx wrote: »

Uh.... not really. Until around level 30 your character is "godlike" more or less. If you keep up with gear at level of course. It's only at level 50 (with 10 CP as a "gift") that you try to kill a one gem troll and find out you're toast. (Nah, my girl didn't die... but neither did the troll... *rolls eyes*)

Now, I do get why this game runs this way. And for this game, it's fine. If you don't like it, I guess there's always wow or rift?

Besides which, there really isn't "endgame" unless you live and die for pvp. Or think trials are fun.

That's kind of what I ran into, stopped logging on at all until Elsweyr. No endgame except trials and such, seemed like it was run the trials to get better gear so I could trials and so on and so on. Not sure what endgame would entail really, maybe some actual instances like vet dungeons but for larger groups of people and tougher.

THEDKEXPERIENCE

When vanilla ESO came out on console I remember my buddy yelling at me on the headset to not go into the level 40 area as about a level 28. It was fun but the way it is now with one Tamriel is much better.

Everything has an upside and a downside. The upside of what you don’t like is that as a level 3, or 10, or 30, or 38 or CP160 or CP810 you can go anywhere and find suitable (well as suitable as they can be for someone with a god-like number of CP) content that you can do with anyone.

The downside of what you want is that entire massive portions of the game become unexplorable by most new players. THAT was very bad for vanilla ESO’s popularity.

ghastley

The drops keep pace with the character level, so just using what you get keeps you current on equipment. The character gains skills as they progress, so they should be "feeling stronger" from that. By the time you reach the equipment cap you're into the game enough to keep going.

However, it is possible to stubbornly keep the low-level equipment and not use any new skills, and then you will fail deservedly.