do chapters over saturate a race / culture to the point of nausea?

Wing

I found that with the chapters focusing so much on a culture or race that the anecdotal reaction from people I played with or my own feelings is "whelp im sick of them now". this was especially evident in the morrowind expansion, but less so for summerset and elsweyr, though it does exist a little bit (maybe more around 30%) and im a fan of khajiit, their my favorite TES race just above redguard.

however the smaller DLC focusing on argonains with murkmire was (once again anecdotally) very well received, to the point that it made some of the people I know who disliked argonians start playing them.

is it oversaturation?

as much as I love wandering northern elsweyr I would much prefer a chapter that introduced many smaller zones (Stros Mkai, Behtnik, Kenarthi's roost, Bleakrock, Bal foyen) that had a much different story, climate, quests, and focus from one another.

MartiniDaniels

yes

Yes! Though I love bi-pedal khajiits, J'zargo, Ajira, you know, I'm not a cat person. And Elsweyr is not purely khajiit chapter, this is more of the cats&dragons chapter with aggressive advertisement and fan service for cat lovers and with devs mysteriously gasping every time they gonna say something about dragons.
This is cheap approach, good product doesn't need such exaggerations to be successful.

Legate_Lanius

no

I mean, having entire zones dedicated to the home province of specific races... it just makes sense you’ll see them more often.

People weren’t fed up of seeing Nords non stop in Skyrim in general, I think it’s mainly a personnal issue and you prefer seeing variety idk

Seraphayel

no

No. I love to dive deep into specific cultures and that’s why Chapters are great. They show the variety of races in Tamriel with all of their odds and favors.

Tommy_The_Gun

I did not experienced this with Morrowind or Summerset. It was just more of the same Dumer / Altmer racial stereotypes.

Argonians on the other hand, do not have a lore pattern or stereotypes. That is why I think Murkmire was received so well. It did something simmilar to what original TES III Morrowind did - introduced a alien looking, unique land, never seen before.

When it comes to Elsweyr and the whole "season of dragons" maybe it is simply "quantity over quality" ? This whole year is actally more focused on cats rather than dragons. Add to this the "Razumdar effect" and right now you will get a dengerous mixture with a high concentration of "cats" in it. What I am trying to say is "enough is enough" or "too much of anything becomes unhealthy, unuseful."
I have completed Elsweyr main story and maybe 40% of the side quest and alreay I am starting to be like sick of cats. And we have 2 more DLC ahead ! One dungeon & one story, all revolving around cats. Now, dont get me wrong, I like khajiits, it is my 2nd favourite race, but I dont want them to be my least favourite race, and so far, if things go as thay are, it is a possible scenario.

bluebird

50/50

Sometimes, yes. I think Elsweyr for example is pretty decent since we haven't had any Khajiit content since the base game zones, and Elsweyr is sufficiently different in style and character from those to feel fresh. There's also some quest variety in Elsweyr, with the Imperial incursion, the Dragons, some Necromancer shenanigans, that don't focus on the race as much. And the parts that do focus on the Khajiit are quite unique since we never saw the other breeds before.

That said, while I found Elsweyr to be just the right amount of cultural exposure, I'll be sick and tired of cats and dragons after Scalebreaker and Dragonhold come out. Creating this 'year-long story' was probably the worst decision they could have made because having three DLCs back to back with the same theme fighting the same enemies will be incredibly boring. At least Wrathstone's vibe was different enough, even though it tied into the year-long story too. But come on, Cats and dragons chapter, then dragon dungeons, then cats and dragons dlc... it only makes players feel like 'can-we-get-this-over-already' instead of actually having fun.

Murkmire is a good example of doing it right; it was culturally engaging and immersive, but it wasn't too much of a good thing which means I'm still happy to go back and I look back on it fondly. The Elsweyr-Scalebreaker-Dragonhold overload on the other hand will mean that I'll avoid Khenarthi's Roost and Reaper's March like the plague because I won't be able to look at Khajiit without feeling like throwing up. Last year we had Summerset, Wolfhunter, and Murkmire which certainly made for a much more exciting and varied content than recycling cats and dragons ad nauseam this year.

Morrowind had the same Elsweyr-overload issue; it was a bit too much especially since the base game already had two-and-a-half Dunmer zones which aren't all that different from Vvardenfell's vibe and looks. At least Clockwork City, while still beating the dead Dunmer horse, was quite unique looking. But this year we won't even have that, with Northern Elsweyr and Southern Elsweyr likely being far more similar. So yeah, I agree with you; while ESO can occasionally cover cultures in correct portions without oversaturating it (e.g Hew's Bane, Murkmire), they often overdo it to the point of nausea.

wnights

no

I love focusing on one culture, although I can imagine gettig sick from a Nord-centric zone since they're the only race I hate: their voice actors made them all sound so stupid

Numerikuu

The Khajiit are fine. It's the Dragons I'm tired of, long before Elsweyr dropped.

zaria

no

Not so much but I was seriously bored of Bosmers after 3 Bosmer zones doing the AD quests on an second character

FrancisCrawford

Wrothgar/Orsinium wasn't, because we hadn't seen orc communities before.

Summerset was and wasn't; I got tired of the race's/culture's disagreeable qualities, but loved everything about it otherwise.

I wouldn't really know about the others.

Nemesis7884

no

delving deep into one story / aspect / culture / region is what i find particular interesting

Browiseth

yes

elder scrolls has always done this to be honest, with the exception of maybe oblivion since it takes place in a melting pot of all cultures in tamriel (however well it handled that cultural situation is a conversation in itself)

but just look at how obsessed skyrim is with nords, or how obsessed morrowind is with dark elves and their culture/history

RogueShark

no

I never did Morrowind chapter yet (stopped playing soon after it launched, came back around Summerset) but I never felt put-off by Summerset or Murkmire or Elsweyr. None of the chapters/dlcs are really... long enough? to make me feel overwhelmed or oversaturated with the race/culture. I'd quest a bit, work on the content... then do some dungeons or trials or log off. I also found I enjoy stories, quests and lore more in ESO than other MMOs (I was a notorious cutscend skipper in FF Reborn), so learning more about the races and their culture is interesting to me.

If ESO operated like other MMOs and the only current/relevant high-end content was tied just to those zones, maybe I'd feel differently. But since I can go from Dragonslaying in catland to killing robots in vAS or tromping around the hunting grounds in March of Sacrifices, I don't feel like I'm "stuck" in a certain zone.

LucyferLightbringer

yes

I feel like my answer is yes, but only this time. I am so sick of khajit themed stuff, but that may be because i never liked them in the first place.

Luigi_Vampa

LucyferLightbringer wrote: »

I feel like my answer is yes, but only this time. I am so sick of khajit themed stuff, but that may be because i never liked them in the first place.

This is how I feel. I don't think it is over saturation, it is just that I already don't like the Khajiit. They are my least favorite race in TES.

crjs1

no

The thing I like most about the chapters is the ability to delve deeper into the race’s culture, aesthetics and lore. It’s actually my favourite bit.

But I do agree with some, this year is a bit overkill, I would have preferred the ‘year of the dragon’ to move out of Elsweryr for the 4th quarter story DLC.

Razzledazzle_dar

no

Every race has been in the spotlight, either with base game zones or chapters/dlc. You're always located somewhere in Tamriel (with exceptions of contents on plains of Oblivion) and it only makes sense that wherever that zone is, the local culture is what's present. If you're in Valenwood, you're going to see a lot of wood elves. If you're on Vvardenfell, Dunmer are going to be everywhere.

You don't go to a country in the real world and hear about twenty different languages (in most cases), you'll see and hear the local culture (example: Germany is populated by Germans, Japan is where you'll find the most Japanese people)..same concept applies to Tamriel and its culture/ races.

redgreensunset

no

zaria wrote: »

Not so much but I was seriously bored of Bosmers after 3 Bosmer zones doing the AD quests on an second character

Now if this is not a mood. Grahtwood was good, Greenshade was okay with the Wilderking/queen part but once we got to the Silvenar stuff I struggled to get through it and the forced resoltion of it was just beyond annoying and disappointing. The ball was also majorly dropped on the whole Veiled Heritance storyline.

Ysbriel

no

That's like visiting a foreign country and complaining there is to much about them in their country...

Elwendryll

no

There are never too many cats.

Elwendryll

no

Tommy_The_Gun wrote: »

This whole year is actually more focused on cats rather than dragons.

TheShadowScout

Maaayybe.

Yeah, it can get a bit much at times. Kinda like at the end of the AD storyline, you went like "Gah, I have seen enough of forest..."

But there is an easy fix!

Don't play it all at once, and not multiple times in a row!!!

Play a day elsweyr, then play a day elsewhere!

Play a bit of the kitty and dragons story, then level your new necro in the boring old mainstory regions, then play some alt through TG or DB, then play some other alt through CWC, only then go back to Elsweyr, rinse, repeat...

Faulgor

no

No. If anything, chapters don't focus enough on the specific culture. Summerset's mainquest was more involved with Daedra and Sload than Altmer, and Elsweyr distracts from the Khajiit with dragons and necromancers. Especially the mainquest felt like it had to cram every feature^tm of the chapter in there.

Which is why I actually prefer the smaller DLCs, where the smaller feature set actually leads to less distractions from the cultural setting.

I'll say though that I'm sick of Dominion zones by now. Please let's go north next.

Suddwrath

no

It's...an Elder Scrolls game...

KerinKor

50/50

MartiniDaniels wrote: »

This is cheap approach, good product doesn't need such exaggerations to be successful.

Maybe therein lies the explanation for this .. successful.

KerinKor

50/50

SaltySudd wrote: »

It's...an Elder Scrolls game...

In name and setting only, it has little to do with much of the core lore established over years and every 'chapter' bends or even breaks more of it.

DocFrost72

50/50

Doesn't even have to be a chapter. If consecutive zones don't vary enough they can feel more mentally draining than they need to be. If you need evidence of how this was done poorly, look at the progression through Grahtwood, Greenshade, and then Malabar Tor. If you want an example of it done exceedingly well (with no burnout), look at Glenumbra, Stormhaven, and Rivenspire.

ayu_fever

yes

yes, but only if the content focuses on argonians and khajiit because:

THEY ARE NOT PEOPLE.
THEY ARE OBJECTS.
THEY ARE HOLLOW OF SPIRIT AND MEANING.



dark elf master race

Sylvermynx

no

Only DLC I've disliked (other than TG and DB) is Murkmire - I don't like, never have, never will, Argonians. I also don't like swamps outside of Hjaalmarch.

As for racial saturation in close content/areas, other than Argonians I'm all for it.

Hallothiel

no

After Skyrim and doing EP quests rather bored with Nords.

Agree with poster above about 3 Bosmer areas but thats just because I too dislike the Bosmer immensely.

But mostly I like doing one area in detail - there is a whole map out there to discover.....

srfrogg23

no

These chapters and DLCs take place in different regions. I don't know about you, but I wouldn't go to Japan and be surprised by the amount of Japanese people and culture I see there. I surely wouldn't complain about it.

In fact, I think it would be really weird if Japan was filled with any other cultures...