Should I buy ESO on Steam?

gamerguy757

I want to thank everyone who commented on my thread about starting completely fresh from Xbox to pc. I have decided that once I’m done with my Skyrim playthough. I will buy eso again
I got a few comments about not buying it from Steam. I was researching this and didn’t really see any confirmation of issues. I got a 59.99 gift card to Steam for my birthday s d would rather use that to buy the game.
Is there really a problem playing g it through Steam?

dennissomb16_ESO

For me the personally I have never understood why people would buy the game to run through steam vs direct from ESO. If you buy through steam you are adding another layer that potentially can go wrong (there have been numerous instances over the years where steam players could not access game because of some steam only issue).

Overall I am guessing it is not a huge issue and you do have the gift card but I still would not use the steam version myself.

Taunky

If you're one of those people, like me, who like having all of their games on Steam then go for it. I haven't really had any problems with it.

Langdon64

Steam is unpredictable. It usually works fine, then suddenly you won't be able to log in at all, or it will start downloading duplicate copies of the game. Research the forum posts before you commit.

redspecter23

In the past, Steam has had issues that the non Steam version hasn't had. Problems logging in. If you're cool with unannounced log in issues when many of your friends are in the game playing fine because they didn't choose Steam, then you may want to go with it. I would personally never use the Steam version of this game.

Hippie4927

I have one account through Steam. I have only once had an issue. A couple of years ago, Steam users couldn't log in. ZOS and Steam fairly quickly fixed the issue and I have not had any problems since. I've been using Steam for that account for just over 6 years so one issue is not a bad track record.

If I had a gift card to purchase the game on Steam, I certainly would use it.

Maxx7410

The problems for this game are not from steam, they come from ESO

rpa

I'd never buy anything requiring a non-Steam account from Steam, because it is extra layer of potential failure. When I got ESO at 2015 I did not get it from Steam for that reason and I think I still preferred Steam for other stuff. (Not any more.)

Troubles with Steam version of ESO have happened, no matter who is to blame.

Ydrisselle

Short answer: no. There were numerous problems starting ESO through Steam, while everyone outside of it could play without any problem.

CMDR_Un1k0rn

OP, the game runs fine through Steam.

I got it on Steam for exactly the same reason as you. I was given a gift card on Christmas 2018 and decided to try ESO shortly after the Elsweyr announcement in early 2019.

Steam is not as bad as people make out. They are just paranoid, in my book.

If Steam was so terrible it would not be the biggest games platform on PC, period.

gamerguy757

CMDR_Un1k0rn wrote: »

OP, the game runs fine through Steam.

I got it on Steam for exactly the same reason as you. I was given a gift card on Christmas 2018 and decided to try ESO shortly after the Elsweyr announcement in early 2019.

Steam is not as bad as people make out. They are just paranoid, in my book.

If Steam was so terrible it would not be the biggest games platform on PC, period.

That’s what I’m thinking.
Hey, if you’re still playing, I’m a new ESO PC player, but a veteran ESO player. Did you ever have trouble “catching up?”
I’m leaving behind 3.5 years of console eso

Ydrisselle

CMDR_Un1k0rn wrote: »

OP, the game runs fine through Steam.

I got it on Steam for exactly the same reason as you. I was given a gift card on Christmas 2018 and decided to try ESO shortly after the Elsweyr announcement in early 2019.

Steam is not as bad as people make out. They are just paranoid, in my book.

If Steam was so terrible it would not be the biggest games platform on PC, period.

Steam is not - at least usually - terrible, it's simply not the best solution for ESO.

ZaroktheImmortal

I read stuff of issues with it through steam so I just got it directly from the website. Though a friend of mine said she heard that if you got it through steam it just auto logs you in instead of having to put your password in every time though I can't confirm this.

SgtPepperUK

ZaroktheImmortal wrote: »

I read stuff of issues with it through steam so I just got it directly from the website. Though a friend of mine said she heard that if you got it through steam it just auto logs you in instead of having to put your password in every time though I can't confirm this.

This is correct. Steam auto logs you in.

I had the Imp Edition in 2013, played a few months then stopped.

I got back into ESO 15 months ago and picked it up off Steam.

As someone else said, any technical issues I've had, had nothing to do with Steam, they've all been on ZOS's end.

The_Camper

Steam is fine. You'll get the rare login bug once a year or so. other than that, no difference in direct client and steam login. Since you already have a gift card for the full price+ some upgrades, it's a no brainer to go for steam.

Little bit of advice, if you are planning to buy all the chapter+ DLC upgrades, get them on steam sales OR third party websites which are much cheaper. then activate the code through ESO website and it will activate for your steam version without an issue. I got greymoor for $20 at the launch itself.

Xologamer

gamerguy757 wrote: »

I want to thank everyone who commented on my thread about starting completely fresh from Xbox to pc. I have decided that once I’m done with my Skyrim playthough. I will buy eso again
I got a few comments about not buying it from Steam. I was researching this and didn’t really see any confirmation of issues. I got a 59.99 gift card to Steam for my birthday s d would rather use that to buy the game.
Is there really a problem playing g it through Steam?

no thers pretty often a bug where steam players just cant log in and why should u just waste this time if u can buy eso on the side to

SeaGtGruff

@gamerguy757, I bought ESO and all expansions on Steam, because I bought and play most of the other Elder Scrolls games on Steam.

During the 3 years that I've been playing ESO, there have been only a few isolated instances of not being able to sign into ESO. Well, there have been many instances due to the servers being down or other issues that were affecting everybody, but there were only about 3 times that the sign-in issues were supposedly affecting only Steam users, and they were fixed in a matter of hours. There may have been other instances I wasn't aware of because I wasn't trying to play the game, but I remember just 3 ir so times, and I don't think it's happened again in well over a year.

There was 1 instance where Steam lost track of the game files and no longer recognized that I had the game installed, which meant I had to redownload the game from scratch. However, I think I messed it up myself, because my hard drive was almost completely filled and I found out later that it was starting to fail-- and it finally did fail, completely and abruptly, leading me to buy a newer and better computer. But before the hard drive failed my computer would become extremely sluggish or freeze up entirely, probably because the system was trying to do automatic maintenance and upkeep on the hard drive without me being aware of what was going on. I was assuming that it was a problem with the game, or the internet, or my computer deciding to update Windows or scan for viruses at the worst possible times. If I got overly frustrated I would shut down ESO through the Task Manager (if it stopped responding). Occasionally I would also shut down Steam through the Task Manager. Then I would reboot my system. Once I did this while Steam said the game was still running (because Steam stopped responding, too), and after I shut down Steam and rebooted, Steam no longer recognized that ESO was installed. Never shut down Steam until after it has finished updating and closing all game-related files (that is, wait until "The Elder Scrolls Online - Running" is replaced by the normal listing of "The Elder Scrolls Online").

There is one possible benefit from purchasing the game or other game-related items through Steam-- discounts. At the end of 2019 while Crowns were on sale, I purchased a large pack of Crowns through Steam and received some sort of points. About a week later I purchased a 1-year subscription to ESO Plus through Steam and was able to get a discount on that purchase due to the points I'd earned from my Crowns purchase. However, I don't know if that was a special occasion, or if that points program is still in effect. (I think there might be a different points program in place now, and I'm not sure whether points can still be used for discounts on Steam Store purchases.)

laksikus

There is one reason to get the game from steam: auto login

There are multiple reasons to not get it from steam: login bug for stea(non steam users could log in normally), another layer of drm(if steam ever shuts down or bans you, rip eso account), the game without steam is most of the time cheaper

SeaGtGruff

laksikus wrote: »

another layer of drm(if steam ever shuts down or bans you, rip eso account)

That's a good point, although I strongly suspect that most gamers would not need to worry about that. Don't do anything bad that would lead to Steam shutting down your account or banning you, and you shouldn't need to worry about this.

laksikus wrote: »

the game without steam is most of the time cheaper

I haven't found that to be true at all, at least not in the USA, but I've seen people from other countries mentioning something about it. I'm not sure whether the OP lives in a country where this would be a factor.

InAMinute

I brought ESO on Steam in April 2019, mainly because I wasn't intending to get it, I was just looking for something to play (it was cheap ). Since then I have brought both expansions to come out as well as subscribing and all of these I brought directly from ZOS.

These has been no problems playing through Steam, as far as I am aware, all the times I couldn't log in was due to a general problem with the server and not something related to Steam and I have played nearly every day since I started. The game has been perfectly playable the whole time.

As pointed out by others, I don't have to log in each time I play, I am automatically logged in. registering my copy on the ESO web site was simple and allows me to buy anything new directly, which I assumes means that Steam don't get a cut.

gamerguy757

InAMinute wrote: »

I brought ESO on Steam in April 2019, mainly because I wasn't intending to get it, I was just looking for something to play (it was cheap ). Since then I have brought both expansions to come out as well as subscribing and all of these I brought directly from ZOS.

These has been no problems playing through Steam, as far as I am aware, all the times I couldn't log in was due to a general problem with the server and not something related to Steam and I have played nearly every day since I started. The game has been perfectly playable the whole time.

As pointed out by others, I don't have to log in each time I play, I am automatically logged in. registering my copy on the ESO web site was simple and allows me to buy anything new directly, which I assumes means that Steam don't get a cut.

It seems like people who just started don’t have problems as those who had the Steam/ZOS login merger occurring during.

What do you mean register it on the website?
Also how does ESO+ work with steam?

CMDR_Un1k0rn

gamerguy757 wrote: »

CMDR_Un1k0rn wrote: »

OP, the game runs fine through Steam.

I got it on Steam for exactly the same reason as you. I was given a gift card on Christmas 2018 and decided to try ESO shortly after the Elsweyr announcement in early 2019.

Steam is not as bad as people make out. They are just paranoid, in my book.

If Steam was so terrible it would not be the biggest games platform on PC, period.

That’s what I’m thinking.
Hey, if you’re still playing, I’m a new ESO PC player, but a veteran ESO player. Did you ever have trouble “catching up?”
I’m leaving behind 3.5 years of console eso

Again, quite a similar story to me.

No, you'll have no problems catching up. Great thing about this game is that crafted gear is such a good starting point that you can easily get yourself quality gear just buy asking someone. Usually all they'll need is for you to provide the materials, which is easily done.

gamerguy757

CMDR_Un1k0rn wrote: »

gamerguy757 wrote: »

CMDR_Un1k0rn wrote: »

OP, the game runs fine through Steam.

I got it on Steam for exactly the same reason as you. I was given a gift card on Christmas 2018 and decided to try ESO shortly after the Elsweyr announcement in early 2019.

Steam is not as bad as people make out. They are just paranoid, in my book.

If Steam was so terrible it would not be the biggest games platform on PC, period.

That’s what I’m thinking.
Hey, if you’re still playing, I’m a new ESO PC player, but a veteran ESO player. Did you ever have trouble “catching up?”
I’m leaving behind 3.5 years of console eso

Again, quite a similar story to me.

No, you'll have no problems catching up. Great thing about this game is that crafted gear is such a good starting point that you can easily get yourself quality gear just buy asking someone. Usually all they'll need is for you to provide the materials, which is easily done.

Hahahahaha I just want a set of training gear so I can level up.

Do people still run the OG trials like HRA and Cloudrest?

gamerguy757

Also I’m trying to upgrade my PC but bc of the virus PC parts have gone up in price.
If I buy ESO and download it to my SSD, then buy a new SSD, and I transfer it to a new SSD, will I lose all my progress?

Tandor

gamerguy757 wrote: »

Also I’m trying to upgrade my PC but bc of the virus PC parts have gone up in price.
If I buy ESO and download it to my SSD, then buy a new SSD, and I transfer it to a new SSD, will I lose all my progress?

No, because the game is saved on the server.

CMDR_Un1k0rn

gamerguy757 wrote: »

CMDR_Un1k0rn wrote: »

gamerguy757 wrote: »

CMDR_Un1k0rn wrote: »

OP, the game runs fine through Steam.

I got it on Steam for exactly the same reason as you. I was given a gift card on Christmas 2018 and decided to try ESO shortly after the Elsweyr announcement in early 2019.

Steam is not as bad as people make out. They are just paranoid, in my book.

If Steam was so terrible it would not be the biggest games platform on PC, period.

That’s what I’m thinking.
Hey, if you’re still playing, I’m a new ESO PC player, but a veteran ESO player. Did you ever have trouble “catching up?”
I’m leaving behind 3.5 years of console eso

Again, quite a similar story to me.

No, you'll have no problems catching up. Great thing about this game is that crafted gear is such a good starting point that you can easily get yourself quality gear just buy asking someone. Usually all they'll need is for you to provide the materials, which is easily done.

Hahahahaha I just want a set of training gear so I can level up.

Do people still run the OG trials like HRA and Cloudrest?

Yes they do. I would recommend finding a decent social guild to get started in. These are the best guilds to begin your journey with, new or anew.

gamerguy757

CMDR_Un1k0rn wrote: »

gamerguy757 wrote: »

CMDR_Un1k0rn wrote: »

gamerguy757 wrote: »

CMDR_Un1k0rn wrote: »

OP, the game runs fine through Steam.

I got it on Steam for exactly the same reason as you. I was given a gift card on Christmas 2018 and decided to try ESO shortly after the Elsweyr announcement in early 2019.

Steam is not as bad as people make out. They are just paranoid, in my book.

If Steam was so terrible it would not be the biggest games platform on PC, period.

That’s what I’m thinking.
Hey, if you’re still playing, I’m a new ESO PC player, but a veteran ESO player. Did you ever have trouble “catching up?”
I’m leaving behind 3.5 years of console eso

Again, quite a similar story to me.

No, you'll have no problems catching up. Great thing about this game is that crafted gear is such a good starting point that you can easily get yourself quality gear just buy asking someone. Usually all they'll need is for you to provide the materials, which is easily done.

Hahahahaha I just want a set of training gear so I can level up.

Do people still run the OG trials like HRA and Cloudrest?

Yes they do. I would recommend finding a decent social guild to get started in. These are the best guilds to begin your journey with, new or anew.

How could I find them? The only guilds I rolled with was when I happened to be “adopted” by one after running dailies

InqueBlawt

Personally I prefer non-steam for when I need mods, and Stadia when I don't. I like Steam, but unless you're going to use Steam's features, which you can always just add the launcher to steam, then I don't really think it matters much.

One thing ZOS has done is make the game cross-entitlement as long as you have access to the base game on Stadia, Steam, or Non-Steam.

Example: You bought Greymoor and pay for the subscription on the Non-steam version. Stadia or Steam has a way to play the base game for free or sells it for $1 so you get it. Congratulations, you have access to Greymoor and your sub as well. As long as you own the base game you get access to your entitlements everywhere else (Except the Xbox/PS versions).

That's why I run non-steam and Stadia. I got the Stadia base game through Stadia Pro (or I could have just bought the base game) and I have the same access on both. That let's me play on my phone/TV when I'm relaxing or when I'm doing PvP/Trials I go back to the PC version for mods.

Kwik1

Been playing since Steam first started carrying ESO and I can count on 1 hand the amount of times I couldn't log in because of steam. ZOS has needed to fix it on their end a few times, but that was ZOS's fault and not steam.

Also, ESO+ is paid through Steam and you can NOT use steam gift cards for it, it must be a debit/credit card, and that is my only gripe.

And as for catching up, the only issue will be crafting if you had max crafters. The time it takes to get crafting max is insane (although I still love the system) but it is made much easier now with scrolls to reduce your time by a day.

Don't forget to look into Minion and get your addons, that is the REAL game changer for PC!!!

idk

dennissomb16_ESO wrote: »

For me the personally I have never understood why people would buy the game to run through steam vs direct from ESO. If you buy through steam you are adding another layer that potentially can go wrong (there have been numerous instances over the years where steam players could not access game because of some steam only issue).

Overall I am guessing it is not a huge issue and you do have the gift card but I still would not use the steam version myself.

I agree that it does not make sense to buy the game from Steam.

However, it is not a small issue. Steam users have had major issues with not bel able to log into ESO for hours at a time when everyone else could. Eliminate the middle man.

I think there is a way to link ESO to Steam without losing the ability to log in without using Steam. If that is true and one could use the gift card for other ESO purchases via Steam then that would work. OP would need to look into that.

CMDR_Un1k0rn

gamerguy757 wrote: »

CMDR_Un1k0rn wrote: »

gamerguy757 wrote: »

CMDR_Un1k0rn wrote: »

gamerguy757 wrote: »

CMDR_Un1k0rn wrote: »

OP, the game runs fine through Steam.

I got it on Steam for exactly the same reason as you. I was given a gift card on Christmas 2018 and decided to try ESO shortly after the Elsweyr announcement in early 2019.

Steam is not as bad as people make out. They are just paranoid, in my book.

If Steam was so terrible it would not be the biggest games platform on PC, period.

That’s what I’m thinking.
Hey, if you’re still playing, I’m a new ESO PC player, but a veteran ESO player. Did you ever have trouble “catching up?”
I’m leaving behind 3.5 years of console eso

Again, quite a similar story to me.

No, you'll have no problems catching up. Great thing about this game is that crafted gear is such a good starting point that you can easily get yourself quality gear just buy asking someone. Usually all they'll need is for you to provide the materials, which is easily done.

Hahahahaha I just want a set of training gear so I can level up.

Do people still run the OG trials like HRA and Cloudrest?

Yes they do. I would recommend finding a decent social guild to get started in. These are the best guilds to begin your journey with, new or anew.

How could I find them? The only guilds I rolled with was when I happened to be “adopted” by one after running dailies

If you go to the forum front page and scroll down, you'll find guild recruitment forums, one for each server. It's how I found my main guild.