I think I'm losing general interest. :( Halp

ArchMikem

Sad day.

I've found myself to be playing the game for shorter and shorter stints this past year so far, and content is becoming less attention grabbing. I've spent much less time enjoying Greymoor than I did Elsweyr and Summerset, breezed through most Questing on my Main (even though I intentionally try to play slowly and waste time meandering), and now even though I could just hop on my secondary character and Quest through again, I, don't want to. I still have the Orc Stronghold questline to do in Greymoor and I logged in yesterday to do so, but I first spent a little time doing something else first, finished, ported to the Stronghold Wayshrine, walked up to the entrance and, then I logged out instead of continuing. I then went and spent more time modding and playing TES:V. Even entertained the thought the other day at work about why I'm still paying for ESO Plus when I'm barely playing the last couple months. Oof, I don't like being in this state of mind. Still have to wait a couple more months to see if The Reach draws my attention again.

I also read these kinds of threads all the time from others, how do you cope, or do you just not play for a long time and then come back months later. That's basically what I'm already doing.

jazsper77

3 Platform/ Beta player here and after 6 yrs i hit the same wall in May/June.

For me Greymoor was just uninspired and the lack of fixes finally caught up to me.

I log in to do my Guild stuff and reward and off . Less then 5 minutes.

I’m just enjoying much better games ATM. TLOU2,Ghosts of Tsushima and Next month the Remastered Kingdoms of Amular ( which a large amount of my ESO friends are leaving to play it)
Plus WARFRAME just keeps getting better and better.

I found myself for 6 months forcing myself to play ESO .

Now I’m just having fun and keeping an eye on ZOS to see if they actually improve the game

Donny_Vito

Take a break, stay active on the forums, and then start playing again in a couple weeks or a month if you have the interest.

Nemesis7884

Besides new activities to do I also think they just need better writing, stories and characters - while the scenery in greymoor looked very immersive the overall plot and writing just felt so uninspired which just doesnt cut it for an mmo that mainly sells itself through its story content

Aptonoth

It was almost the exact same plot as last year.

Vevvev

I found myself in a similar position back in 2017, why I missed the 2017 anniversary cake for ESO. I just couldn't stay invested in ESO at the time due to its state back then. Sometimes its best just to take a break and move onto something else. When you come back there might be something new that catches your eye!

Shantu

Why question it? It's a game...not a marriage. Go find something interesting to do.

SpacemanSpiff1

take a break. play something else. try a new hobby. take more naps.

madrab73

Have you been crowned emperor in the mai campaign yet?

wild_kmacdb16_ESO

Dont try to force it. Take a break for a couple months

rpa

Take a break. Few weeks or years, as long as you need. It is not your duty to play.

Hurbster

Just take a break. I agree with Greymoor feeling....lacking compared to previous efforts. And the latest upcoming wave of nerfs just make me feel depressed so I'll be putting the game on the back burner myself until the next story dlc arrives.

ArchMikem

madrab73 wrote: »

Have you been crowned emperor in the mai campaign yet?

Hah, Emperor is an impossible achievement for me, even if I had the backing of a Guild, I don't spend nearly enough time in Campaign to gain the AP necessary to stay ahead of the Boosters, and there's always at least one.

Nemesis7884 wrote: »

Besides new activities to do I also think they just need better writing, stories and characters - while the scenery in greymoor looked very immersive the overall plot and writing just felt so uninspired which just doesnt cut it for an mmo that mainly sells itself through its story content

I'm gonna have to agree with that. The excitement for Greymoor pre-release was mostly due to nostalgia over the visuals, but when I experienced the story line there was so much of it that I had issue with, and it seemed, just, pretty short. To me I think the best Chapter story questline ZOS has done is a tie between Morrowind and Summerset. I'm beginning to think splitting the Chapter up into two locales, surface Skyrim and Blackreach kinda hampered their story telling quality. I hope 2021's Chapter is more extravagant.

Was also believing Greymoor would be a LOT darker in tone than it was since ZOS kept claiming they were going for a more Gothic theme, especially after that first teaser with the deserted Village in the woods. Even though ESO would get a bit of Horror this time.

Tandor

There's a simple question in my view - how many hours/days do you play when committed to the game? If it's more than one or two hours per day and it's every day of the week then you're destined at some point for burn-out. That will be heightened if you only play one or at most two characters, on a single server/account where after several years you have hit the level cap or close to it (even more so if you hit that cap in weeks or months). It's further heightened if you are only playing because you enjoy a single aspect be it PvP, fishing, crafting or whatever, but especially if at the heart of your playing you really don't enjoy questing, exploration, and lore - which in this case in particular is what ESO is primarily about.

Then we have the additional question of whether you are playing the competitive parts of the game that are most affected by performance issues, as well as the question of whether you are using add-ons that trivialise the gameplay and take away a lot of the sense of both immersion and progression.

Also, we need to address the issue that is very likely to be affecting a lot of gamers - Covid. Not only is it allowing a lot of gamers to spend much more time burning themselves out on gaming, but it is also having a detrimental effect on people's general wellbeing as their life is turned upside down through the impact of the crisis on their work, their daily activities, and their family, not to mention their general enjoyment of life generally. It's hitting us all, not least in those countries that have not shown any signs yet of getting it remotely under control.

Many may doubtless disagree with much or all of what I've said, but if anyone is willing to blame it all on the servers or on sub-standard writing in Greymoor, or even just on ZOS although they don't know why, then they are definitely missing the point of it all. It's about far more than just those things, whether or not they relate to valid concerns.

I think the OP has only two options with regard to ESO. Either take an extended break from both the game and the forum (the latter is really important), or switch servers and start over for a fresh start. His is one of the few forum names I'm very familiar with, and I wish him well.

amm7sb14_ESO

rpa wrote: »

Take a break. Few weeks or years, as long as you need. It is not your duty to play.

This.

I've played this game as far back as the beta, and have been following it for even longer, and that has come with numerous breaks, and even platform shifts.

This is the heaviest I've ever been into the game, and I don't see myself slowing down anytime soon, but I'm sure that time will eventually come as well where I need another breather.

BigBragg

I take breaks and get lost in other games. Play different genres, single player, multiplayer, anything else that grabs your attention. When the game feels like a chore to play, and doesn't function, for me it becomes a log in simulator. At that point there is no virtual reward worth wasting my time and money on. I game because it's a fun experience, when that stops it's time for me to move on. Maybe I get drawn back maybe I don't, when it stops being fun I've gotten all that I can out of the game. No point in hanging on for potentials sake.

idk

I think we all need to take a pause from time to time. Also, the people we play with have a great impact on our enjoyment of the game plus we cannot forget that RL can have a great bearing on our enjoyment of the game.

bearbelly

I hit a wall in September of last year, where I felt very much like you do now; I couldn't muster the interest to do any more than log in, I was pondering letting my ESO+ go, and I did, for awhile. I felt pretty much the same about Elsweyr as you seem to about Greymoor...
(that was just the burn-out talking; I have nothing against the cats.)

I turned my attention to TES:V. I had never played it before, despite owning a copy of the game for several years.
That soaked-up my attention, to full-on addiction level, for a couple of months; during which time I didn't do anything more than log-in to ESO for the daily rewards.

My interest for this game slowly returned, until I was back to actually playing again, daily.

Nords have always been my favorite race in the TES realm, so that helps with this year's content. I'm liking Greymoor.

I started to learn how to Tank with my main (Nord Warden) when I came back, and I've reached the point where
I can solo WBs and dolmens. And I can hold-out, alone, a good way into some of the normal dungeons so far (until I get overwhelmed by mechanics-- the fire spiders that the BeastMaster sets loose in Blessed Crucible, for one, temporary, example. So many fire; so much spider.).
(I'm still only about CP270-ish [273 at this moment, I think], and I only have about 150 of that allocated on my main.)

I know none of that is actually anywhere close to being impressive. I'm still very much a work in progress; glacially-slow progress. By choice.
Which is why I still play alone. Also by choice.

But my point is that, after taking a break, I pushed myself into new areas of interest, which renewed my desire to play.
Obviously, the "new areas of interest" part gets more difficult the more progress into the game one has, so maybe the "taking a break" part is the most salient aspect.

MasterSpatula

I hit the same wall. I started playing more because of all the time spent at home this year and because of a new Chapter, but that's dying back down pretty quickly.

Honestly, for all the things wonderful and awful about this game (ZOS being, and always having been, a company of extremes), it's their utter devotion to low-drop-rate RNG grinds that finally killed my enthusiasm. I've bought every Chapter the day it was available up until Greymoor. I waited pretty late to buy Greymoor because of my waning enthusiasm, and I ultimately probably spent the money more because of the pandemic than because of enthusiasm for Greymoor.

Greymoor is the weakest Chapter they've released, story wise, and might be their weakest story, period. I'm teetering right now, and I'd rather be enthusiastic. But they're either going to have to redouble their dedication to great storytelling or rethink their devotion to the grind before I'm likely to find enthusiasm return.

Banana

If performance doesn't improve before Cyberpunk comes out they may not be getting any more money out of me either.

TwitterySnake

Trust me when I say this is very common, I used to play eso in short bursts like play it for 2 months go for another 2 or 3. If your feeling burnt out or not feeling up to it I would recommend going and playing something else. Forcing yourself to play something is never good as if you are in that mindset of forcing yourself to play it, it will eventually catch up to you. Just take a break for like month-3 months, play something else then, if you need to tell your guild leaders you're gonna be back in a couple of months and to not kick for inactivity (what I usually do), then come back and see if you're having fun again

Grandchamp1989

i'm just exhausted from the performance...

It's like the game generate new bugs on its own. Maintanence tends to do harm than good (on EU atleast) and new content can utterly break the game for weeks.
My experience:
Long Loading screens
server delay that doesn't register input properly during rotations and taunts.
Utterly freeze and DC your game if your character gets KO'd one too many times
INCREASE in ping and DECREASE in FPS after they began with their "performance updates" I would expect the opposite...
Bugged skillbar where you can't input for no reason
Looting bug, can't loot corpses unless you jump around
Can't go through certain doors in dungeon's so you have to sneak around for 5 minutes and hope the door magickly opens
Area's doesn't load in properly

SidraWillowsky

Take a break! There are some really phenomenal TES V quest mods out there if you haven't played them. I present to you an unsolicited list:

• The Wheels of Lull: my all-time favorite. It can be frustrating in its bugginess with weird hit boxes on enemies, but the level design (reminds me of dungeons in Zelda: Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask), voice acting, characters, and music are fantastic. I think the guy who made it went on to work for Bethesda for a while and is now working on his own independent game. There are plenty of other great quest mods, but this is a standout because, through the bugs and frustrations, the mechanics and general framework make it clear that someone very talented (Trainwiz) made this. The Morrowind lore-heavy aspect also drew me in, and (spoilers)
  Millisecond Llavados is Vivec (well, it's never been confirmed outright by Trainwiz, but he's basically said it in roundabout ways along with heavy clues
• Project AHO: the "AHO" part feels disjointed from the story and kind of tossed in randomly, but it's a visually stunning mod with a really nice main quest, excellent music, good VA, a town with NPCs that are more dynamic (ie, they have schedules), and serious consequences based on the decision you make at the end.
• Clockwork: strange, forlorn, and melancholy story that's both intriguing and a bit disturbing. I was really engrossed in the story, which isn't often the case in TES V.
• Forgotten City: this is always at the top when people ask for mod recommendations. It's incredibly polished and won awards for its dialogue. Really clever premise and gameplay, though it's not particularly related to TES universe. Still an interesting story-type quest mod.

There are others, but the above (particularly WoL and AHO) are my favorites. Give them a go if you haven't already.

TineaCruris

ZOS fixing the majority of the bugs for the Midyear Mayhem event, then as soon as the event was over undoing their performance improvements, was the breaking point for me.

They demonstrated they CAN fix most of the issues with the flip of a switch. But they are CHOOSING not to.

For me, there is no going back from this kind of treatment. It blows a hole in everything they say about working on the performance issues over time.

amm7sb14_ESO

MasterSpatula wrote: »

I hit the same wall. I started playing more because of all the time spent at home this year and because of a new Chapter, but that's dying back down pretty quickly.

Honestly, for all the things wonderful and awful about this game (ZOS being, and always having been, a company of extremes), it's their utter devotion to low-drop-rate RNG grinds that finally killed my enthusiasm. I've bought every Chapter the day it was available up until Greymoor. I waited pretty late to buy Greymoor because of my waning enthusiasm, and I ultimately probably spent the money more because of the pandemic than because of enthusiasm for Greymoor.

Greymoor is the weakest Chapter they've released, story wise, and might be their weakest story, period. I'm teetering right now, and I'd rather be enthusiastic. But they're either going to have to redouble their dedication to great storytelling or rethink their devotion to the grind before I'm likely to find enthusiasm return.

I'm sorry to hear you feel that way. I had some massive burnout around Morrowind and really missed the releases of Summerset and Elsweyr. I came back about 6 months after Elsweyr released. I've personally enjoyed the new content, but if you've been around this whole time I can see how Greymoor triggered some apprehension.

Beardimus

ArchMikem wrote: »

Sad day.

I've found myself to be playing the game for shorter and shorter stints this past year so far, and content is becoming less attention grabbing. I've spent much less time enjoying Greymoor than I did Elsweyr and Summerset, breezed through most Questing on my Main (even though I intentionally try to play slowly and waste time meandering), and now even though I could just hop on my secondary character and Quest through again, I, don't want to. I still have the Orc Stronghold questline to do in Greymoor and I logged in yesterday to do so, but I first spent a little time doing something else first, finished, ported to the Stronghold Wayshrine, walked up to the entrance and, then I logged out instead of continuing. I then went and spent more time modding and playing TES:V. Even entertained the thought the other day at work about why I'm still paying for ESO Plus when I'm barely playing the last couple months. Oof, I don't like being in this state of mind. Still have to wait a couple more months to see if The Reach draws my attention again.

I also read these kinds of threads all the time from others, how do you cope, or do you just not play for a long time and then come back months later. That's basically what I'm already doing.

Why not switch it up, try an area of the game you have played less PvP perhaps as the fight is pretty never ending or getting into trading or start a new guild to help others. Basically chop and change

BlueRaven

I have the same problem. Been playing since beta.

I had plans on going through Skyrim on my main, then a nord, then a vampire. But just the first time through felt like a drag with such an uninspired story. I could level a new alt but I already have Caldwells gold on three characters.

Plus I am also battling the ESO Mac client constantly which just has a ton of issues on its own.

Log on, do some writs, check my mail, log off.

ArchMikem

Tandor wrote: »

There's a simple question in my view - how many hours/days do you play when committed to the game? If it's more than one or two hours per day and it's every day of the week then you're destined at some point for burn-out. That will be heightened if you only play one or at most two characters, on a single server/account where after several years you have hit the level cap or close to it (even more so if you hit that cap in weeks or months). It's further heightened if you are only playing because you enjoy a single aspect be it PvP, fishing, crafting or whatever, but especially if at the heart of your playing you really don't enjoy questing, exploration, and lore - which in this case in particular is what ESO is primarily about.

My job is three twelves over the Weekend, so for those three days my entire life is spent at work, absolutely no free time, (if I want proper sleep). The other four days during the week I do game for several hours straight, however like I mentioned it's turned into a series lack of ESO and more of Planetside 2 or TES:V. When it comes to TES:V it's garnered much more of my attention over ESO cause in the former I have so much control over customizing the player character, and the world just feels so much bigger and beautiful with Mods. Cathedral Landscapes and Simply Bigger Trees and I'm getting lost in beauty. ESO on the other hand I log into Greymoor and it's a scaled down valley with sparse vegetation in order to save on performance.

Then we have the additional question of whether you are playing the competitive parts of the game that are most affected by performance issues, as well as the question of whether you are using add-ons that trivialise the gameplay and take away a lot of the sense of both immersion and progression.

Moreso Casual playing on Console, so no Addons. I've never had a performance issue as bad as the others who vocalize it here, though we do still suffer the same input lag which makes it nigh unbearable to do anything involving combat.

Also, we need to address the issue that is very likely to be affecting a lot of gamers - Covid. Not only is it allowing a lot of gamers to spend much more time burning themselves out on gaming, but it is also having a detrimental effect on people's general wellbeing as their life is turned upside down through the impact of the crisis on their work, their daily activities, and their family, not to mention their general enjoyment of life generally.

Nah bud, I'm "Essential". My department is basically the life blood of my Company through all this right now, they can't afford to furlough us as well. Only changes the virus has had on me is the Mask requirement and my Apartment management taking the gym from me. I haven't done my treadmill cardio in months...

I think the OP has only two options with regard to ESO. Either take an extended break from both the game and the forum (the latter is really important), or switch servers and start over for a fresh start. His is one of the few forum names I'm very familiar with, and I wish him well.

Aww I'm recognized. Yeah I'm basically taking breaks from the game, frankly just because there's no real desire to play at the moment anymore. Was pretty disappointed in the storytelling this time around and the Teaser hype didn't match the final product, so I got pretty bummed.

Right now, to be honest the one thing that would pull me back in would just be more customization variety for the player character, more immersion and quality of life additions. Much more freedom with the Outfit System, for example a suggestion I made a while back about integrating Costumes into Outfits so you can mix and match everything to really get a unique look apart from everyone else.

I'd also play my character topless, but I know that bra is never coming off...

kargen27

I tend to do thing in game in cycles. I will concentrate on PvP for a while then maybe go to trials for a while. Recently I was getting antsy to do something else but nothing in game was jumping out at me. I have a 2nd account for inventory storage so I started a new character there. I am playing that character doing content in the same order I did all the content on my very first character. I'm taking the time to explore each zone just like I did the first time. I did send the account enough gold I could max out bag space but other than that I am treating this character as I did the other. So far it has been fun.

This past week when I've been on my main account I made an effort to try and get at least one piece of furnishing available from doing antiquities. I don't do it so long that it becomes a grind so that helps.

UglyTriangle

Sometimes it's best to take a break. If I don't feel like playing, then I just don't play. I play something else, watch a movie, or some other activity. I came back earlier this month after starting my break in December of last year. Can't say the new expansion is that enthralling; however, I am enjoying going through all of the base game zones again. Haven't done that in years.

stevenyaub16_ESO

Why play games you are not interested in? Find something else you enjoy, can't expect to enjoy a game for your entire life.