Why ESO is Failing

KillingUGirl

I’ve been playing ESO since a month after its release. I fell in love with it and spent thousands of hours adventuring through all of Tamriel. I have been very ill the last 5 years and have mostly been confined to a bed or chair so I unfortunately have a lot of time on my hands and playing ESO really helped pass a lot of that time. Over the years though I have watched as the game really started to go down hill. I think ESO suffers from many pitfalls just like other gaming developers seem susceptible to. There is whining and there is constructive feedback, I am just trying to present feedback that might actually help improve the game. Sorry if this sounds like a rant that is not my intention just sad to see this game being driven into the ground by dumb decisions.

Useless Nerfs/Gear/Builds - First, the game has way too many changes and useless additions. Again catering to those that have been here forever they constantly need to come out with new stuff and make constant changes to keep people interested. This is fine to a certain extent but enough is enough. Eventually you just give up and go play something else.
Just when you finally get your build and gear right it becomes irrelevant and you have to start all over, delete or rework characters, buy more slots, change races, sacrifice your first born to Stendar etc. The game quickly becomes about chasing gear and not about actually playing and enjoying the game anymore. But yet new sets are always popping up, and nerfs and balances are constantly happening. At a normal job if you can’t get it right after a few months your fired, you would think eventually they would at least come close to getting the balance right but they don’t. Maybe we should fire them. But in reality I believe all of that is intended, in some sick, perverse way I think they think it actually keeps people interested in the game, or maybe it just drives them to spend. Or maybe the devs are just sick sadistic SOB’s that enjoy tormenting their player base.
Then a new class will emerge and everyone will love it because it actually starts to have the game playability that everyone is looking for and then they will nerf it into the ground for the next 6 months until it is dead. People will eventually become disheartened and overwhelmed with trying to keep up. The game should be actually enjoyable. You should be able to play the content, experience it and have fun and not constantly have to change your build, your gear and your character, etc. It’s just not fun. ESO isn’t about enjoying the content, it’s about chasing gear and adjusting builds, sad. A lot of people I know put a lot of time and effort into perfecting their builds only to have them torn apart the moment they are finished. I can’t tell you how many players I know that have been faithful ESO Plus members eventually just get so disheartened after dealing with this for years that they leave because they can’t even enjoy the ESO they fell in love with. This zaps the life right out of the game.

Toxicity - Second of all I’ve seen this happen a dozen times at least with games. Eventually all the main players become maxed, they become bored, then they start roving around like thuggish gangs harassing and trolling everyone. ESO has been no exception here. And unfortunately most devs start dictating their decision to appease this player group, when in reality for the health of their game they should just let them go. They are like a cancer, cut it off so the the rest can survive. But all too often they do not and eventually these thugs start driving everyone away, especially new players. And of course not every high level player fits this bill and there are plenty of low level trolls as well but overall, there is a distinct group of 810’s that are just bored, hostile and mean and if you don’t fit into their clique they will harass, bully and drive you away.

Greed - So many Devs go wrong here. Their games have been out for years and they start to feel the pressure to have new content etc or they will start to lose people. Unfortunately most games then self destruct with solutions that always involve people having to spend more money. Until eventually, people just leave. In reality most devs actually drive players away and destroy their own games with stupid decisions meant to save their games and make more money. Along those lines, the items in the crown store are just plain stupid as far as pricing goes. If you are an ESO plus member they are already getting a considerable amount of money for you every year, plus the amount you paid for the game itself. A lot of the items in crown store should be a fraction of the cost. So many devs want more money but go about it all wrong. Look at Fortnite, one of the most successful and prosperous games to date, period. You never get the feeling playing it that they have you over a barrel, or you have to spend a ridiculous amount of money to make the game easier, or to advance. In fact you don’t mind spending in Fortnite at all. And if you don’t want to spend, then don’t. It’s a great business model that is wildly successful but others go the route like ESO where you feel this constant pull on you, squeezing you and shaking you down for every last cent. This may work for a short while but eventually people move away.

Listen to your community - most devs miss this one or just listen to a certain group of players. In fact, sometimes you get the impression that a lot of devs are purposely driving away the majority of their players, which tells me there is a serious disconnect between the two parties. If you are constantly doing the opposite of what the majority of your community is saying, that tells me either your not listening, don’t care or are wanting to drive them away. Zenimax is famous for this as well as Bethesda in their other games. Or they cater the majority of their decisions to the veteran squeaky wheel who whines the most. Huge mistake.

Depth - this is the number one game killer. Without depth, developers are forced to do basically what ESO does, sell expensive crown store content. Depth sustains a game giving it long life, ESO in a lot of ways however is very shallow. Hence we must have a new area or a harder area, or a new mount or a new this or a new that, this is ok, but unfortunately the new content is a dull, boring, lifeless re-skinned version of all the other content we’ve already seen. I’ve said for years that ESO is like a dumbed down arcade version of Final Fantasy online. I love ESO but for the most part this is true. FF has extreme depth whereas ESO only scratches the surface. This however may be an unsolvable issue at this point since it’s the foundation the game is built upon. If you have no depth, people get bored, if people get bored you have to offer them new items to buy in crown store...maybe this is by design.

RNG - most players I know like to have hard work rewarded. That’s why gamers are such good grinders, they are going towards a goal, working towards something they want to attain. In ESO however, RNG rules. While there are things you can just grind out which are fantastic. For the most part however RNG has way to big of a role. For instance I played for 8 straight months doing nothing but looting (dedicated looting didn’t do any other content) everything possible spot in the game at least 10 hours a day. Then I spent another 3 months doing nothing but pickpocketing every known hotspot, routes etc., this coupled with the fact that I played for over three years looting every single container I ever came across in a dungeon delve, bank, house etc. and doing writs on my maxed crafters daily. At the end of all this time I had a
a handful of purple recipes, and 2 psijic parts, and three throne praxis, and one master writ worth doing. That’s it. Nothing else valuable to speak of. Then my friend who had been playing 2 months loots 2 full book gold motifs, after a few attempts. This is a perfect example of things needing to be addressed. I get RNG has a role but people should also be rewarded for hard work. There should be a way that your RNG becomes higher as you level and progress. After you have put a ton of effort your chances must increase. Otherwise it just becomes disheartening again. I mean who wants to play the game for that long without reward to show for it. The things that you can grind out are great. Like the Indrik mounts people whine about, at least you can put a ton of effort into and get it. Even the welkynar motifs as ridiculous as that whole setup is at least if you put a lot of extra effort and time, eventually there will be a reward. After three years plus of looting, I’m like “What’s the point?” Games are more successful when people can grind out a goal period. Even if it’s a ridiculous grind. The RNG in this game need a rework or at least a progression increase of your chances the longer you play.

Housing - we all waited a long time for housing and ever since it’s release it has been quite lackluster. Again this is an area where ESO could learn a ton from games like Final Fantasy online. Their housing setup is outstanding and highly customizable for everyone In the guild since everyone has an option to buy their own instanced room which they can decorate however. Furnishings aren’t ridiculous like ESO to acquire or craft either. It’s an enjoyable experience, but again FF has extreme depth whereas ESO does not hence the current housing situation. Housing is a chore and way to tedious and convoluted. They keep coming out with new houses but they just miss the mark and the furnishings and building system really needs an overhaul and some depth added to it to make things much more customizable in an easier but more expansive

There are of course plenty of other reasons but this post is long enough for now.

Lisutaris

inb4 they are KillingUGirl ! (=locking the thread)

Jhalin

ESO is failing because ZOS has nothing but contempt and disrespect for their players.

When’s the last time the community was overwhelmingly excited for a patch? I sure don’t remember.

GraphicArtistYT

Ye. There shouldn't be nerfs in video games

Casterial

In their eyes its not, for us old players it is. Why? The game 13 million players! We're like the last 1%, ZOS doesn't really care about us as much, its more about newer players, and new experiences. Gotta market around 99% not 1%

KillingUGirl

Casterial wrote: »

In their eyes its not, for us old players it is. Why? The game 13 million players! We're like the last 1%, ZOS doesn't really care about us as much, its more about newer players, and new experiences. Gotta market around 99% not 1%

But that’s just it there really isn’t a place for new players in this game. They should be marketing them Bringing in fresh blood absolutely. But they are failing miserably at that and have created an environment that actually drives new players away. I try to grab as many new players as I can in my guild and help them out best I can but it’s tough for them. The game isn’t being catered to new players it’s being catered to the old crabby worn out players who need to move on.

KillingUGirl

But you are partly correct, from a pure business standpoint they need to completely revamp the game and lure a whole new set of gamers in. It’s just business, nothing personal lol.

Iccotak

Someone really likes Final Fantasy XIV

jircris11

Casterial wrote: »

In their eyes its not, for us old players it is. Why? The game 13 million players! We're like the last 1%, ZOS doesn't really care about us as much, its more about newer players, and new experiences. Gotta market around 99% not 1%

Idk been here since beta, I have seen many come and go. But lately I have seen more new players arriving

SoLooney

I was excited for a full trial coming with elsweyr, and boy was I severely disappointed, that trial is tedious with all the dragons having so much health and add pulls being annoying and laggy

Now they're just making the game worse, gg, I'll enjoy the last weeks before this game keeps spiraling into nothing

Kaunas

As a somewhat new player i dont see what the fuss is about.. honestly. Yeah the devs do some questionable choises and sometimes ignore the communities concerns from what ive noticed, but the "base game" stands strong for what it is. Dunno am having fun yano

perolord

Somehow i find it funny, how you all after all those years of playing MMORPGS still whining every patch... yet same story in all mmos... there are nerfs in every patch on every mmo that is beeing played...

Not to say, i find this really retarted... that whining like a 2 year old kid who does not get the cookie...ADOPT!!!!

Hotel6

Arent they actually have more players than ever?

perolord

Hotel6 wrote: »

Arent they actually have more players than ever?

This... yes, game is growing, but anyhow. Whiners are most of all the same guys.. nothing is good enough for them.. trust me..

Deathlord92

It’s as I said in another thread I haven’t enjoyed eso since they butchered stamblade.

tahol10069

Oh look, it's that time of month.

Garethjolnir

How exactly is the game failing? The game population is bustling from what I can see. Just because things happen that you don't like doesn't mean that the game is failing/dying/shutting down/exploding/etc.

Deathlord92

Garethjolnir wrote: »

How exactly is the game failing? The game population is bustling from what I can see. Just because things happen that you don't like doesn't mean that the game is failing/dying/shutting down/exploding/etc.

I know a lot of players unhappy me included who by the way never use to have a bad word to say about eso.

Runkorko

Casterial wrote: »

In their eyes its not, for us old players it is. Why? The game 13 million players! We're like the last 1%, ZOS doesn't really care about us as much, its more about newer players, and new experiences. Gotta market around 99% not 1%

Dot be silly. 13mil player game with under 170k total forum accounts ... Right
If this changes go live, they should change that pegy 18 to 8

Brettelectric

I started playing about 3 months ago with three of my friends. Before we knew it, there were about 8 of us altogether!

Some of us play more than others, but we all love it. There's so much to do, you can't possibly do it all. At first I focussed on doing 4-man dungeons as a healer, and levelling all of the crafting professions to 50. But lately I've been doing the zone quests, which are actually really good. Way better than WoW quests. And I've been trading a lot on the guild traders, so that I have about 1 million gold now.

But my brother, who spends almost as much time online as I do, does none of that. He just does delves and dolmens, and then furnishes his house. The fact that we can both spend so much time on the game while doing none of the same content is testament to how rich this game is.

Anyway, we love it. I haven't been this excited about a game since vanilla WoW, and I think I can say the same for my friends. It's not all bad!

Vanos444

Tbh, I don't know what changes they can implement in this game. The games is and always will be a shallow of the true TES titles.
Maybe, they shouldn't have made a setting in this era for TESO, instead made an alternative dimension story that as a different time line, but that's my opinion.

While, PvP is considered. I would say, it's satisfactory for a casual audience but for veterans palyers it's consider BAD.
Now, don't get me wrong. I love the PvP elements of TESO, infact the only thing that sell TESO is wPvP. It's different and more fast-paced action oriented game compared to other mmorpg, that allows us to capture keeps and all....Likewise, they could have made better change to the PvP aspects of the game and add unique spells from the Alteration and conjuring tree. Instead of having a constant overhaul in the builds or combat system for every 3/6 months, which annoys majority of the playerbase.

MajBludd

As a friend said to me,"They are changing things too much and too fast for no clear reason."

I was currently leveling my warden's 2h, well I was til I saw the dizzy nerf. So, with in the last patch and the pts notes it's pretty much killed 3 of my builds.
Why would I keep playing a game if my builds become obsolete before I can even finish leveling them?

Hallothiel

So the OP really really likes Final Fantasy and thinks ESO should be more like that.
No thanks.

And has rubbish RNG.
Join the club!

But been here a looong time and seen many changes. Game still good fun and worth my time. 😉

TelvanniWizard

Casterial wrote: »

In their eyes its not, for us old players it is. Why? The game 13 million players! We're like the last 1%, ZOS doesn't really care about us as much, its more about newer players, and new experiences. Gotta market around 99% not 1%

13 million accounts, not active players. Those are probably less than a million.

Vhozek

"We removed/never added these gameplay features because they punish the player"
>goes on to punish the player with patches
Modern devs.
They don't care about you, they just wanna be lazy with the features and patching to save one dime per minute while we deal with the end result. Most of their dev life is devoted to their shops and gambling-like practices to make you try again.
I'd wanna kill myself if I was a modern dev. Imagine going to school to learn something you love just to live barely doing it and being hated for what you're actually doing.

rucker

Some of you can't handle changes in life.

svendf

Dps is way out of control in this game.

stewhead2ub17_ESO

Failing? lol

Alienoutlaw

ESO is only "failing" in the eyes of the smallest group of self entitled self proclaimed "elite" for the lowly average player most of these things go un-noticed, or simply dont care enough to complain.

master_vanargand

ZOS stupidity was buffed.

Vanos444

Brettelectric wrote: »

I started playing about 3 months ago with three of my friends. Before we knew it, there were about 8 of us altogether!

Some of us play more than others, but we all love it. There's so much to do, you can't possibly do it all. At first I focussed on doing 4-man dungeons as a healer, and levelling all of the crafting professions to 50. But lately I've been doing the zone quests, which are actually really good. Way better than WoW quests. And I've been trading a lot on the guild traders, so that I have about 1 million gold now.

But my brother, who spends almost as much time online as I do, does none of that. He just does delves and dolmens, and then furnishes his house. The fact that we can both spend so much time on the game while doing none of the same content is testament to how rich this game is.

Anyway, we love it. I haven't been this excited about a game since vanilla WoW, and I think I can say the same for my friends. It's not all bad!

The funny thing is that you can do it in other mmorpg as well, the same thing you and your brother coulld, for free like for example housing. FFXIV is one the games that allows you to do housing in an advance level. It's a pure PvE game, that's known for it's Quality instead of it's quantity. By which players are happy with the FFXIV devs for their motivation, dedication and inspiration to the game.

It's good that you're enjoying TESO at present but it's also bad for not trying other games for what it offers, as they might bring more to the table by which you would rejoice with happiness. Well, it's up to you to decide whether try those games instead of being stuck in a game that offers less for its worth, very soon you will realize it.

To me TESO, was my first mmorpg that I took seriously back in 2015 but slowly it's diminishing in Quality. So, I know it will diminish further because the idea itself is a flop. The devs are forced to make content the restricts their creative idea because of the TES lore. It's like TESO shouldn't have been an MMORPG in the first place like it's initial launch and with time it's proved to be just that....