Lackluster ingame rewards. Beating a dead horse.

PapaTankers

As the title of the thread says I find lack of earnable rewards ingame very dissapointing.

While crown store has about 30-40 new mounts every year, you can earn a total of 3 mounts ingame excluding the horses. We dont even have basic zone mounts. Even those are locked in a crown store.

Last 4 dungeons dont even have a skin or personality attached to conqurer or god forbid challenger achivement.

Players have been asking for better earnable rewards for years, but instead we are getting a card game noone has ever asked for.

It feels like its more imporntant for zenimax to cater to executives rather than creating a good experiance for their playerbase.

Mushroomancer

The problem with ESO is that it doesn't require a subscription to play the game, only for a "premium" (even though it seems to be less and less so as the years go by) service. Because of this model, it means that the only assured source of income ZOS has from the game are one-time purchases of the base game and DLCs, which means they can stand to make a bit more money from optional items in the clown store.

That being said, however, I agree that the quantity of stuff in the store versus what can be achieved through regular gameplay is ludicrous. Like, I understand that ZOS needs to keep the lights on at the office, but pretty much anything that isn't a lazy asset-flip of some other model in the game is not available to the player unless they fork over their hard-earned money.
And as you say, it's not like players have been asking to have earnable radiant apex mounts, even zone-appropriate mounts that you can buy at the stables would be a step in the right direction. And no, endeavors don't count; it's one thing to grind and earn a reward that is related to the content, it's another to have to log in every day just to get through some menial and unrelated tasks for a year or so just to get a shiny eyesore mount. That's a job, not content that you earned.

Also yes, I have been noticing how it seems we are getting less impressive rewards for dungeon achievements. Before it was skins or even personalities, now at most we get generic body and face paint no.12 and a memento which uses recycled animations. And before some smartass comes in saying "They can't add new animations because there's no more room for them, [insert ZOS employee] said so, and they wouldn't lie to us just to save face", can you explain to me why that doesn't seem to be a problem when that animation can be bought in the CS, like the new "Blade Dance" emote?

And don't even get me started on how ridiculous the pricing for some items is. And yes, I'm talking about outfit slots of course. You are telling me I am supposed to pay 2500 crowns, 500 crowns more than most zone DLCs, for a single outfit slot on a single character? How do those even compare? Don't get me wrong, I know that whales will buy whatever you throw at them no matter the price, but that just seems exploitative, not to mention the fact that the caption mentioning it's for one character only was added like a year or so ago. And we still have WW/Vamp bites and cures selling for 1500 and 800 crowns respectively, which, just in case someone doesn't know, can both be acquired in game for 5 minutes of your time and a pittance of in-game gold respectively.

The thing is, I understand that the CS might be a necessity given the business model ESO is based on, but at the same time, I still think it needs a major rework both in its offerings and in the pricing assigned to some items. Of course that's never gonna happen because as long as we keep supplying them money through the CS, there's gonna be nothing broke to fix.

Stamicka

Yea the longer I play, the more I realize that the game isn’t made for players like me. I like challenge, I like earning achievements, and I like to look cool for doing so. The reason I got into PVE was because I wanted to look cool in PvP. The silver, gold, purple, and maw skins were better than almost anything I could buy at the time. They gave me something to strive for. Now if I want to look cool I have to pay real money. If we are being honest part of the appeal to achievement locked cosmetics is the exclusivity. There’s nothing exclusive about buying cosmetics from the crown store.

Wolfpaw

I definitely don't get the same reward/loot satisfaction that let's say a legendary earned in WoW & GW2.

Agenericname

Stamicka wrote: »

Yea the longer I play, the more I realize that the game isn’t made for players like me. I like challenge, I like earning achievements, and I like to look cool for doing so. The reason I got into PVE was because I wanted to look cool in PvP. The silver, gold, purple, and maw skins were better than almost anything I could buy at the time. They gave me something to strive for. Now if I want to look cool I have to pay real money. If we are being honest part of the appeal to achievement locked cosmetics is the exclusivity. There’s nothing exclusive about buying cosmetics from the crown store.

I find the idea of getting mounts and skins from the crown store rather boring, so I dont bother. I dont personally feel like the exclusiveness is the appeal though. Some, yes, for sure, but not all. I think having mounts earned by clearing zones, like perhaps a guar from Morrowind, or a senche from Grahtwood would be pretty cool. There were so many ways to make this appealing.

And yes, they completely priced me out outfit slots as well as armory slots. Really great concept that could have added a lot to the game, but I dont feel theyre worth the price, at all.

whitecrow

I too would like more earned items. I remember how exciting it was when I was a newb and got Razak's Opus.
I do like the markings we get for dungeons, though.

redlink1979

ZOS doesn't want to devaluate the crown store, therefore there's only a handful of "meh" cosmetics you can earn in-game.
And even to earn those available, usually you have to beat the harder content.
If they're achievable thru easier content, it usually means they're locked behind a somewhat long tedious grind (like a 2nd job).

redlink1979

Mushroomancer wrote: »

(...) And don't even get me started on how ridiculous the pricing for some items is. (...)

Some?! I think they all are. Just an eg: a big house costs +- $100...

Mushroomancer

redlink1979 wrote: »

Mushroomancer wrote: »

(...) And don't even get me started on how ridiculous the pricing for some items is. (...)

Some?! I think they all are. Just an eg: a big house costs +- $100...

Oh absolutely. I didn't mention houses because I personally never intend to buy one given I don't have a salary-worth of money to blow on a game that is slowly but surely turning into a playable cash shop. I mentioned outfit slots because they seem like the most predatory ones, as in there is genuinely no reason for them not being account-wide other than "Hello, I like money". With houses I feel like the average player is gonna see the price, realize it's outrageous, and not even bother.

I also want to add that, in my opinion, the lack of earnable rewards only served to exacerbate the negative reaction towards AwA. I think if we had more stuff to earn in game by way of, you know, playing the game, a lot of players that were mad at AwA because they had nothing left to play for wouldn't have had such a negative reaction.

DigiAngel

What do you mean!!! Why....my last Jubilee Yellow Super Box was.......5 decorative wax and 10 ancestor silk!

Seriously.....I agree.

redlink1979

@Mushroomancer Totally agree.