Is It Coming To A Crashing End?

FixedBlade123

I've been playing ESO since day one. I guess that's about 5 years or so. It's always been buggy/glitchy but never as bad as it has been since the Elsweyr DLC.
(By the way and not to get off track, I've been a "Gold" member for 5 years but still have to pay for the DLCs which are supposed to be a part of the Gold package. Correct me if I'm wrong). Anyway, it's been my habit to spend Saturdays playing ESO for most of the day. Saturday is my big day. Today is Saturday but the game is so buggy that it's nearly impossible to play. So, I'm watching TV and posting on this forum instead.

ZOS is a wealthy company. It's had 5 years to fix the mechanics of ESO but things are worse now than ever before. Twice within recent days, the system was taken down for "maintenance" (whatever THAT is) and yet nothing has been fixed or "maintained." What this tells me is that ESO is out of control. ZOS is at a loss for solutions. It's too big to fix. There's nobody genius enough to come up with a remedy. Am I wrong to assume that ESO is on its last legs? Is it dying before our eyes?

The latest basket of bugs and glitches are different than the ones I've endured for the past 5 years. We all expect a bunch of bugs but we try to ignore them and get whatever enjoyment from the game that we can. But I literally could not play the game today. I struggled through for about an hour this morning and tried again this afternoon. No go. After 5 years of complaining and reading the complaints of thousands of other players, I can't help but conclude that ZOS simply doesn't give a d**n.

Is it worth it to maintain my Gold membership? Is it worth it to invest any more time or money in ESO?

Gilvoth

we dont have a choice, we iether pay sub or we loose crafting bag.
they could care less if we dont pay sub,
we pay sub we get bag and they laugh at us
we drop sub they laugh cause we paid for long time.
either way we loose.

FixedBlade123

Gilvoth wrote: »

we dont have a choice, we iether pay sub or we loose crafting bag.
they could care less if we dont pay sub,
we pay sub we get bag and they laugh at us
we drop sub they laugh cause we paid for long time.
either way we loose.

True. But if the game is no longer playable, then paying Sub is a pure, waste of money (just liking buying crates is).

Speaking of crates ... we were told that we were going to get an awesome "gift" when we opened that free crate the other day. I got a dumb looking pet. It was so boring I can't even remember what it was. Oh well ... it was free.

Danikat

If you have an ESO+ subscription (which is what I assume you mean by 'gold membership', since there is no such thing in ESO) then you do not need to buy the DLC.

They will show up as being purchasable in the store because you have the option to buy them if you wish - so you'll still have access to those areas if you cancel ESO+, but as long as your subscription remains active you will be able to access them without purchasing.

disintegr8

FixedBlade123 wrote: »

Gilvoth wrote: »

we dont have a choice, we iether pay sub or we loose crafting bag.
they could care less if we dont pay sub,
we pay sub we get bag and they laugh at us
we drop sub they laugh cause we paid for long time.
either way we loose.

True. But if the game is no longer playable, then paying Sub is a pure, waste of money (just liking buying crates is).

Speaking of crates ... we were told that we were going to get an awesome "gift" when we opened that free crate the other day. I got a dumb looking pet. It was so boring I can't even remember what it was. Oh well ... it was free.

I got the crates on 3 accounts for 3 dumb looking pets.....fool me.

Azyle1

I try not to be a "Doomsday" person but I do think the game is in a bit of a mess and the community is in a bit of an uproar.

Do I think it is coming to a burning end? I'd like to think not, but they really need to start getting open with the community and fixing things or it won't go well for anyone. I'm at the point where I only log in for raid days now.

idk

FixedBlade123 wrote: »

I've been a "Gold" member for 5 years but still have to pay for the DLCs which are supposed to be a part of the Gold package. Correct me if I'm wrong

I have been here from the beginning and do not recall any means to be a gold member for 5 years.

There is a Gold Edition that was announced well over 2 years after launch. 6/6/2016 was the date of the announcement. SO you are wrong.

Further, if you had purchased that edition from a third party it might have taken some finagling to get it to work with your account as it included the base game as well. Not to mention that package only included the first 4 DLCs

Sylvermynx

Eh, perhaps s/he means an ESO+ account for all the years?

idk

Sylvermynx wrote: »

Eh, perhaps s/he means an ESO+ account for all the years?

That still does not make sense as why would they pay for a sub, not get access to the DLCs and buy them instead of working with Zos to fix the issue.

OP specifically says they have been a gold member but still have to buy the DLCs. I would say there is something they do not understand or that they are not explaining it well.

Sylvermynx

idk wrote: »

Sylvermynx wrote: »

Eh, perhaps s/he means an ESO+ account for all the years?

That still does not make sense as why would they pay for a sub, not get access to the DLCs and buy them instead of working with Zos to fix the issue.

OP specifically says they have been a gold member but still have to buy the DLCs. I would say there is something they do not understand or that they are not explaining it well.

Well, perhaps so. I have ESO +, and all the DLCs available, but I do occasionally buy one when it's on sale if it's one I would still want IF I quit subbing....

idk

Sylvermynx wrote: »

idk wrote: »

Sylvermynx wrote: »

Eh, perhaps s/he means an ESO+ account for all the years?

That still does not make sense as why would they pay for a sub, not get access to the DLCs and buy them instead of working with Zos to fix the issue.

OP specifically says they have been a gold member but still have to buy the DLCs. I would say there is something they do not understand or that they are not explaining it well.

Well, perhaps so. I have ESO +, and all the DLCs available, but I do occasionally buy one when it's on sale if it's one I would still want IF I quit subbing....

I own a couple also, but that is not what OP is saying. OP is saying they still have to pay for DLCs that are supposed to be part of the Gold package.

Ei8htba11

No

There're bugs. There seem to be more bugs now, to be sure. However, the game is more playable than not (for me, at least). Most of the bugs are momentarily annoying, but don't stop gameplay (for too long, in most cases).

They have the rest of the year planned for Elsweyr, with what... 2 more releases before next year? Doesn't sound like a crashing end. Personally, I hope it doesn't. I still enjoy the game, bugs and all.


One thing that's intrigued me, people saying vote with your wallet. ZOS is here to make money, and if ESO stops making money, they'll close the doors and make money somewhere else, no skin off their nose. I'm not trying to say that everyone should sub, perish the thought (who am I to tell you what to do with your hard earned dosh). It was just a thought.

Edit: too many 'ends' in one paragraph bugged me :P

BomblePants

I don’t think it’s ‘the end’ either...

It is a shame about how issues and possible fixes are communicated - but that goes both ways...

Red_Feather

I don't think the studio is getting a lot of money. The publisher might be taking most of the revenue.

Sylvermynx

Ei8htba11 wrote: »

No

There's bugs. There seem to be more bugs now, to be sure. However, the game is more playable than not (for me, at least). Most of the bugs are momentarily annoying, but don't stop gameplay (for too long, in most cases).

They have the rest of the year planned for Elsweyr, with what... 2 more releases before the end? Doesn't sound like a crashing end. Personally, I hope it doesn't. I still enjoy the game, bugs and all.


One thing that's intrigued me, people saying vote with your wallet. ZOS is here to make money, and if ESO stops making money, they'll close the doors and make money somewhere else, no skin off their nose. I'm not trying to say that everyone should sub, perish the thought (who am I to tell you what to do with your hard earned dosh). It was just a thought.

I quite agree. "Voting with one's wallet" here would more than likely mean no game at all. There's no reason for ZOS to keep the game running if no one pays for anything.

gepe87

Ei8htba11 wrote: »

No

There's bugs. There seem to be more bugs now, to be sure. However, the game is more playable than not (for me, at least). Most of the bugs are momentarily annoying, but don't stop gameplay (for too long, in most cases).

They have the rest of the year planned for Elsweyr, with what... 2 more releases before next year? Doesn't sound like a crashing end. Personally, I hope it doesn't. I still enjoy the game, bugs and all.


One thing that's intrigued me, people saying vote with your wallet. ZOS is here to make money, and if ESO stops making money, they'll close the doors and make money somewhere else, no skin off their nose. I'm not trying to say that everyone should sub, perish the thought (who am I to tell you what to do with your hard earned dosh). It was just a thought.

Edit: too many 'ends' in one paragraph bugged me :P

They can close the game but ESO community wouldnt trust ZOS anymore.

twev

Ei8htba11 wrote: »

No

There're bugs. There seem to be more bugs now, to be sure. However, the game is more playable than not (for me, at least). Most of the bugs are momentarily annoying, but don't stop gameplay (for too long, in most cases).

They have the rest of the year planned for Elsweyr, with what... 2 more releases before next year? Doesn't sound like a crashing end. Personally, I hope it doesn't. I still enjoy the game, bugs and all.


One thing that's intrigued me, people saying vote with your wallet. ZOS is here to make money, and if ESO stops making money, they'll close the doors and make money somewhere else, no skin off their nose. I'm not trying to say that everyone should sub, perish the thought (who am I to tell you what to do with your hard earned dosh). It was just a thought.

Edit: too many 'ends' in one paragraph bugged me :P

otoh, if they want to KEEP making money - ALL they have to do is add 'Fix The Bugs' into their game plan, and actually DO it on a clear and recognizably sizable portion of the bugs that affect many people on a regular and consistent basis.

Ei8htba11

gepe87 wrote: »

They can close the game but ESO community wouldnt trust ZOS anymore.

But somebody would, or at least wouldn't care (perhaps they've never played ESO and couldn't give 2 hoots). Advertising and PR can work wonders.

Point being, as long as enough people bought another game and it was profitable, they'd be ok. Plenty of companies have made games, and gotten flak for poor service, and are still in business.

But, that said, I'll say it again, I don't thing any kind of 'end' is in sight.

Minno

We are in maintenance mode till they announce ESO2 lol

Deathlord92

I’m a day 1 player to. Since Elsweyr I haven’t been playing eso much because I can’t. I started of spending every day being salty with it then that turned to bored been playing since 2015 when eso came to console this is the first time I’m actually getting bored. There’s even days when I don’t even try now.

Rev Rielle

I don't think so. I believe, the game was in a far worse state when it was launched. ZoS have worked hard and made a number of significant improvements and additions to the game over the years. A couple of examples:

• Do you remember all the zoning/instance problems we had with players that were on slightly different parts of the same quest/quest-chain? We'd be invisible to each other. It made questing together practically impossible unless our character were at the exact same progression. That's fixed.
• Do you remember before One Tamriel? The experience curve did not match the content delivery, so if you took your time in any way shape or form whilst playing your character they spent half their time fighting greyed/trivial enemies, that rewarded no experience or equipment.
• We were split into three alliances and couldn't interact at all with characters of the other alliances.
• There was a HUGE imbalance in the stamina/magicka breakdown of skills and their effectiveness, as well as light/medium/heavy armour. (Light armourers shield bearing mages were all the rage in Cyrodiil, tanks were in light armour etc etc). Things have never been better in that regard.
• Remember, when weapon damage applied to all weapon skills, and spell damage to all class skills? It was a convoluted system that often did not make a lot of sense. Whilst not perfect now, things are a lot better.
• Yes, Animation Cancelling is still widely considered the single worst mechanic in the game, but it was born out of necessity due to the relative twitch-nature of combat compared to other old mmos. (e.g. If you couldn't interrupt an attack/skill to block/dodge/or the like significant content would become unplayable). At this point in time development has largely embraced animation cancelling (there is even a in-game loading screen tip telling you how to do it).
• There have been massive improvements to the dye system. The costume system was practically non-existent, and the outfit system was.

Of course things are not perfect, but no one would ever reasonably expect things to be. For example; One Tamriel basically completely trivialised a lot of over-land content and there is a real and growing problem with class identity in ESO. But overall is it in a better position than it has been in the past? I think so.

xeNNNNN

FixedBlade123 wrote: »

I've been playing ESO since day one. I guess that's about 5 years or so. It's always been buggy/glitchy but never as bad as it has been since the Elsweyr DLC.
(By the way and not to get off track, I've been a "Gold" member for 5 years but still have to pay for the DLCs which are supposed to be a part of the Gold package. Correct me if I'm wrong). Anyway, it's been my habit to spend Saturdays playing ESO for most of the day. Saturday is my big day. Today is Saturday but the game is so buggy that it's nearly impossible to play. So, I'm watching TV and posting on this forum instead.

ZOS is a wealthy company. It's had 5 years to fix the mechanics of ESO but things are worse now than ever before. Twice within recent days, the system was taken down for "maintenance" (whatever THAT is) and yet nothing has been fixed or "maintained." What this tells me is that ESO is out of control. ZOS is at a loss for solutions. It's too big to fix. There's nobody genius enough to come up with a remedy. Am I wrong to assume that ESO is on its last legs? Is it dying before our eyes?

The latest basket of bugs and glitches are different than the ones I've endured for the past 5 years. We all expect a bunch of bugs but we try to ignore them and get whatever enjoyment from the game that we can. But I literally could not play the game today. I struggled through for about an hour this morning and tried again this afternoon. No go. After 5 years of complaining and reading the complaints of thousands of other players, I can't help but conclude that ZOS simply doesn't give a d**n.

Is it worth it to maintain my Gold membership? Is it worth it to invest any more time or money in ESO?

I think you need a break from the game honestly.

Look, lately people have been full blown raging about performance its infectious and it spreads like wildfire - the thing about communities its easy to get swept up in either hype or misery its a knock on effect. I agree that performance has been bad but I remember times when it was far far worse and the game is much more fun than it was years ago. Despite what people currently say because honestly people romanticise the past more than they should because its easier to decieve ones self to believing that what came before was better because perhaps for whatever reason at the time they were happier, could be the game could be RL whatever.

Lets be real here, no video game has ever been bug free - the reason why games are so buggy these days is because development cycles tend to cater to net gains each quarter rather than pure quality. Its just the way business works and as a result products like video games end up being a consistently changing environment and which unfortunately has the side effect of creating bugs while adding new content as well because games are massively complex these days -this is just a simple fact, making video games is not some black and white easy thing to do either. Its hard work. Very hard work.

Games bring down servers all the time to deal with backend issues that will not ever be visible to players this by no way shape or form means anything is "out of control" it just means things are being maintained which you cannot see or interpret. There is more to running a server than simply loading a game onto it and letting people log in. Way more.

elsweyr is not a DLC its an expansion no matter what ZoS want to call it i.e "Chapter". This has always been the way of things in MMOs for almost 20 years now and its the same with single player games too. Dungeon packs, smaller PvE areas these are DLC. Morrowind, elswyer, summer-set and technically wrothgar are all Expansions. Hell even craglorn is technically an expansion but nobody ever had to pay for it same with wrothgar. You pay for DLC ONLY with your subscription, you can opt to buy it all or keep subbing and not have to spend money individually. Eventually summer-set will likely become a DLC over time in the same way morrowind did and the reason for that is that it is less likely people will be wanting to buy much older large content if it isn't what interests them normally so ZoS will want to make it available to all eventually so that they can still experience it just later on. Its actually sensible marketing tbh.

Seriously take a break from the game, I think ZoS can do a much better job but you're spreading panic and panicking yourself over absolutely nothing.

You know what I used to hear about ESO? "Daed Gaem" and everytime it couldnt of been further from the truth.

xeNNNNN

twev wrote: »

Ei8htba11 wrote: »

No

There're bugs. There seem to be more bugs now, to be sure. However, the game is more playable than not (for me, at least). Most of the bugs are momentarily annoying, but don't stop gameplay (for too long, in most cases).

They have the rest of the year planned for Elsweyr, with what... 2 more releases before next year? Doesn't sound like a crashing end. Personally, I hope it doesn't. I still enjoy the game, bugs and all.


One thing that's intrigued me, people saying vote with your wallet. ZOS is here to make money, and if ESO stops making money, they'll close the doors and make money somewhere else, no skin off their nose. I'm not trying to say that everyone should sub, perish the thought (who am I to tell you what to do with your hard earned dosh). It was just a thought.

Edit: too many 'ends' in one paragraph bugged me :P

otoh, if they want to KEEP making money - ALL they have to do is add 'Fix The Bugs' into their game plan, and actually DO it on a clear and recognizably sizable portion of the bugs that affect many people on a regular and consistent basis.

its kinda redundant to do that though, the creation of more content and the improvement of all systems automatically ends up with bugs because games are multilayered something is always bound to break no matter what you do.

They could do it for one patch and then one or two patches later a bunch of things would break because they need to overhaul things, improve things or change things to suit the current environment players desire. Bugs are inevitable its just a matter of prioritising the correct ones.

twev

xeNNNNN wrote: »

twev wrote: »

Ei8htba11 wrote: »

No

There're bugs. There seem to be more bugs now, to be sure. However, the game is more playable than not (for me, at least). Most of the bugs are momentarily annoying, but don't stop gameplay (for too long, in most cases).

They have the rest of the year planned for Elsweyr, with what... 2 more releases before next year? Doesn't sound like a crashing end. Personally, I hope it doesn't. I still enjoy the game, bugs and all.


One thing that's intrigued me, people saying vote with your wallet. ZOS is here to make money, and if ESO stops making money, they'll close the doors and make money somewhere else, no skin off their nose. I'm not trying to say that everyone should sub, perish the thought (who am I to tell you what to do with your hard earned dosh). It was just a thought.

Edit: too many 'ends' in one paragraph bugged me :P

otoh, if they want to KEEP making money - ALL they have to do is add 'Fix The Bugs' into their game plan, and actually DO it on a clear and recognizably sizable portion of the bugs that affect many people on a regular and consistent basis.

its kinda redundant to do that though, the creation of more content and the improvement of all systems automatically ends up with bugs because games are multilayered something is always bound to break no matter what you do.

They could do it for one patch and then one or two patches later a bunch of things would break because they need to overhaul things, improve things or change things to suit the current environment players desire. Bugs are inevitable its just a matter of prioritising the correct ones.

Sure, bugs are inevitable.
But that doesn't justify ignoring bugs because the most important thing is having a hug 'new content' team if the price is 'There are bugs, get over it, and btw, the existing bugs affect the new content too'.

A lot of the 'correct ones' to fix include the ones that are constantly brought up on the forums here, too....
Lots of people bringing up the same bugs.

FixedBlade123

Danikat wrote: »

If you have an ESO+ subscription (which is what I assume you mean by 'gold membership', since there is no such thing in ESO) then you do not need to buy the DLC.

They will show up as being purchasable in the store because you have the option to buy them if you wish - so you'll still have access to those areas if you cancel ESO+, but as long as your subscription remains active you will be able to access them without purchasing.

I have ESO+ and a gold membership (which I assume is with Microsoft). I pay my $15.00 per month dutifully but had to purchase Summerset, Clockwork, Elsweyr, etc. I got the earlier DLC with the subscription but not the later DLCs.

twev

FixedBlade123 wrote: »

Danikat wrote: »

If you have an ESO+ subscription (which is what I assume you mean by 'gold membership', since there is no such thing in ESO) then you do not need to buy the DLC.

They will show up as being purchasable in the store because you have the option to buy them if you wish - so you'll still have access to those areas if you cancel ESO+, but as long as your subscription remains active you will be able to access them without purchasing.

I have ESO+ and a gold membership (which I assume is with Microsoft). I pay my $15.00 per month dutifully but had to purchase Summerset, Clockwork, Elsweyr, etc. I got the earlier DLC with the subscription but not the later DLCs.

Clockwork, Summerset, and Elsweyr are 'Chapters', not DLCs, which is why you/we had to buy those separately.

I've been paying the dues/sub since release, too, and I had to buy those chapters as well.

If it makes you feel any better, I believe that chapters become DLCs a year after they're released, but it doesn't come into play with paying a sub, so I don't KNOW if that's written in binary stone.

::shrugg::
Their rules....

FixedBlade123

idk wrote: »

FixedBlade123 wrote: »

I've been a "Gold" member for 5 years but still have to pay for the DLCs which are supposed to be a part of the Gold package. Correct me if I'm wrong

I have been here from the beginning and do not recall any means to be a gold member for 5 years.

There is a Gold Edition that was announced well over 2 years after launch. 6/6/2016 was the date of the announcement. SO you are wrong.

I meant to say ESO+. I am also a Microsoft Xbox Gold member.

Sylvermynx

Oh.... well that explains some things. You can't expect ESO to care whether you're an xbox "gold" member. That would be on MS, you should discuss with them.

And I wish you good luck. Sincerely.

Jayman1000

Well, ever since Elsweyr I have had a crash every second play session on average, something like a crash every 6 hours or playing or something like that. Though sometimes it happens within 20 minutes, other times it may not happen at all, but then the next day it will. This didnt happen before Elsweyr. I tried everything up to and completely deleting everything related to ESO, all folders, everywhere. Also tried completely cleaning graphics drivers and reinstalling. Nothing helps, it keeps happening. It is the game there is something wrong with, they changed something that broke.

FixedBlade123

Rev Rielle wrote: »

I don't think so. I believe, the game was in a far worse state when it was launched. ZoS have worked hard and made a number of significant improvements and additions to the game over the years. A couple of examples:

• Do you remember all the zoning/instance problems we had with players that were on slightly different parts of the same quest/quest-chain? We'd be invisible to each other. It made questing together practically impossible unless our character were at the exact same progression. That's fixed.
• Do you remember before One Tamriel? The experience curve did not match the content delivery, so if you took your time in any way shape or form whilst playing your character they spent half their time fighting greyed/trivial enemies, that rewarded no experience or equipment.
• We were split into three alliances and couldn't interact at all with characters of the other alliances.
• There was a HUGE imbalance in the stamina/magicka breakdown of skills and their effectiveness, as well as light/medium/heavy armour. (Light armourers shield bearing mages were all the rage in Cyrodiil, tanks were in light armour etc etc). Things have never been better in that regard.
• Remember, when weapon damage applied to all weapon skills, and spell damage to all class skills? It was a convoluted system that often did not make a lot of sense. Whilst not perfect now, things are a lot better.
• Yes, Animation Cancelling is still widely considered the single worst mechanic in the game, but it was born out of necessity due to the relative twitch-nature of combat compared to other old mmos. (e.g. If you couldn't interrupt an attack/skill to block/dodge/or the like significant content would become unplayable). At this point in time development has largely embraced animation cancelling (there is even a in-game loading screen tip telling you how to do it).
• There have been massive improvements to the dye system. The costume system was practically non-existent, and the outfit system was.

Of course things are not perfect, but no one would ever reasonably expect things to be. For example; One Tamriel basically completely trivialised a lot of over-land content and there is a real and growing problem with class identity in ESO. But overall is it in a better position than it has been in the past? I think so.

All good points but there's never been a time when I literally couldn't function in the game. Today, the mechanics were so messed up I could hardly know which direction I was going. When I picked a lock, the pick moved in super slow motion so that the timer would run out before I could complete the pick. I would kill at NPC 25' (game feet) away from me but the NPC would "fast forward" to where my character was standing. Then when I tried to loot him, I got a message that he was "out of reach" (paraphrased). This happened numerous times. I missed out on lots of loot. I got killed several times fighting a boss that I never have trouble with because the screen was so glitching I couldn't keep up. The list goes on. Unplayable.

I will take a previous poster's advice and quit playing this game for awhile. Perhaps there will be a big announcement soon that ZOS is back to giving a crap about the product that we've paid a lot of money for. When I buy a steak at a restaurant, I don't expect to receive it half eaten and stomped on.

Morgul667

I dont feel like login in anymore

Too many performance issues