What does a casual player do?

Captain_Devildog

Zos is saying things like we focus more on new and casual players. But what are those kind of people?

When i started the game i was new but after 2 months i was doing vet content.
Am i still a new player if i do that?
(When i do veteran content the patches effect me alot, offcourse like everybody else and it is clearly to see the gap becames bigger.)

I can understand that someone who plays casual does alot of zone content and questing because they like the lore.
BUT HOLD YOUR HORSES!!!
Litterally every person i met in this game, doesn't matter if they are new or doing questing all day. Or they are casual or whatever.. Litterally all of them did veteran and pvp maybe hm sometimes even when they did questing all day they still played all the other aspects of the game.

My conclusion what i get from this is. Zos is telling us they focus more on new players and casual players.
So they only focus on the smallest amount of players in the whole community, the people who played like less then a month probably and most of them leave before or after that.
Because it's not their cup of thea.
These last updates are meant for new players and casual players, and i heard something about accesability a few hundred times.
What about the community ?
Do we get attention,, does the team of Zenimax see their actual community?

Change my mind.

It makes me feel that they are not seeing us at all the players who play this game.
What is a casual player?
What is a new player?

Bouldercleave

I've been in game for the entire time it has been live and I have yet to set foot in a trial, or do any significant vet content - it just doesn't interest me. I also ONLY go into Cyrodil to get the training quest done and get the mount boost from the passive.

I harvest all my own materials to be self sufficient and run with gear that I can make on my own or acquire on my own through questing or soloing content.

I have run through Cadwell's gold on all 15 of my characters and STILL read the books, listen to most of the quests, and really try to FEEL the game while I play (if you know what I mean}.

I am hardly alone in playing this way.


I would be what ZoS considers a casual player.

TaSheen

I despise "vet" content. I raided for years in WoW and RIFT, and I'm tired to death of that sort of "gameplay". So. I'm a casual, even though I spend 6-8 hours a day in game.

I do writs, I explore, I do housing. I have NO interest in "community". I solo, and I'm not at all interested in grouping (for various reasons -- been there done that not going there again, and my ping is so high I wouldn't ever ask others to put up with it).

I haven't been a new player for 5+ years. But I'm a casual player forever. I have numerous friends RL(20+ at last count) who play ESO, and they don't have any use for "vet" content either.... for many of the same reasons that exist for me. We're all older - youngest of us is 54, I'm the oldest at 76 almost.

I have ZERO interest in "changing your mind".

ixthUA

5 years into ESO, havent set foot into pvp or trials.
Finished cadwels gold, maxed crafts and traits, collecting motifs, leveling companions, collecting mythics.

bmnoble

Casual to me is someone that has no interest in trials or Vet PVE endgame but continues to do everything else at their own pace.

PVP depends on the player not everyone chases the meta, nothing stopping someone who does a little PVP a week from still being counted as casual.

If your at the point where you are regularly doing trials and vet dungeons/arena's, especially in organized groups I don't think you can still claim to be in the casual bracket of players anymore.


That is my opinion on it at least.

SilverBride

Captain_Devildog wrote: »

Zos is saying things like we focus more on new and casual players...
...Zos is telling us they focus more on new players and casual players...

Where did they say this?

Captain_Devildog wrote: »

So they only focus on the smallest amount of players in the whole community, the people who played like less then a month probably and most of them leave before or after that.
Because it's not their cup of thea.

The smallest amount of players are those who do end game veteran trials, etc..

And who is playing less than a month then leaving because it's not their cup of tea?

Captain_Devildog wrote: »

What is a casual player?
What is a new player?

A casual player is one that doesn't constantly chase the latest meta gear and builds, and have multiple builds and gear sets for every possible situation, and spend hours each week running end game veteran trials etc..

A new player is new to the game.

Carcamongus

What do casual players do? Why, they save the galaxy Tamriel every single year!



On a more serious note, perhaps ZoS thinks of casuals as those who stay away from vet stuff? Presuming that's the case, there are two flaws with the reasoning of nerfing everything for the casuals' sake: just because they don't do endgame content doesn't mean they shouldn't care about people who do and if they ever decide to try their hand at it, the road will be even bumpier than before.

Just because this bad patch might not affect casuals so much doesn't mean a future bad patch won't.

Bobby_V_Rockit

I do dlc dungeons once on normal mode for the skill point and then only as needed. Haven’t done a trial since cloudrest released, never done vMA (been stuck on round six for 4 years) and only vet trial I done was Hel Ra Citadel. Casual means constantly changing gear for cool effects (overwhelming, thunder caller and Stormfist ) aaaaaand FASHION! WEEEE!

Carcamongus

Bobby_V_Rockit wrote: »

I do dlc dungeons once on normal mode for the skill point and then only as needed. Haven’t done a trial since cloudrest released, never done vMA (been stuck on round six for 4 years) and only vet trial I done was Hel Ra Citadel. Casual means constantly changing gear for cool effects (overwhelming, thunder caller and Stormfist ) aaaaaand FASHION! WEEEE!

Fashion isn't casual. Fashion is the endgame.

AzuraFan

I've never done a trial or vet content. I've done some dungeons. Questing and exploring are my main activities in ESO. I occasionally do a battleground if it's an endeavor and I can't complete the day otherwise. I only go into Cyrodiil to fish, quest, and explore.

FluffyReachWitch

My definition of casual is just "non-competitive". I do plenty of everything in this game. Questing, housing, dungeons and trials, PvP, you name it. I just don't focus on meta builds, vet trial trifectas, or scoreboards.

phaneub17_ESO

Stress Test Beta and Pre-3 day early release player here! Casual, Solo, and never been in a guild. I've only done Veteran dungeons in the early days before One Tamriel. Probably even when Version 2 of a dungeon was the Vet mode, I haven't actually set foot in a Vet dungeon since. I've never done trials, and I only do the easy Arenas like Normal Maelstrom and Dragonstar. I have 18 characters, all max level, never done any power-leveling, all from questing. All are fully golded out in every slot with mostly crafted, overland, and some Maelstrom Arena sets, I get all my Monster helms from the Golden Kitty.

I have Target Dummies in my home for decoration only, I have never parsed my DPS on any character. I mostly do daily quests, delves, public dungeons, and group dungeons solo with a companion. When I feel like it I'll take about a week to do a zone of quests which actually is doable in a day, but I like to take my time at it. All 4 companions level 20 the HARD way, actually taking them with me while doing my daily quests, grinding a few dolmens, or just wherever I go.

If I'm looking to do any serious content with other players, I go play WoW with my Feral Druid and do mythic+ dungeons or normal/heroic raiding. Come back to ESO when I'm on ME time, focus on ME, play with only ME, and that crazy cat lady following me around.

Amottica

A casual player likely defines the majority of the player base. However, most of us likely define casual as those who are less serious than we are.

CP5

There was a good video I saw a little while back that worked on defining the difference between casual and hard core players. If you're here on the forums, engaging with the game outside the game, you're not a casual, if you spend hours every day playing the game, you aren't either.

Casuals are the kind of people who engage with the game on a very surface level, they could spend thousands of hours with the game given enough years perhaps, but they're also likely to leave and come back to the game on a whim, not committing to any in game community, not learning the intricacies of the games combat, not keeping up to speed on balance changes, basically investing little into the game attention wise. Basically, if the game were a pool, they'd stick their feet in or sit by the side, maybe come back another day, maybe not, a level of engagement or commitment beyond that, and they wouldn't really be much of a casual anymore.

stevenyaub16_ESO

I'm an Endgame player and even I know casuals are the majority. They quest, craft, thievery, fashion, achievements, housing and create thematic builds.

There's also alot of "casuals" doing vet content too but these people don't care about meta not try to pursue Endgame trial-like builds, because you don't need them to succeed in vet dungeons.

Kiralyn2000

Captain_Devildog wrote: »

BUT HOLD YOUR HORSES!!!
Litterally every person i met in this game, doesn't matter if they are new or doing questing all day. Or they are casual or whatever.. Litterally all of them did veteran and pvp maybe hm sometimes even when they did questing all day they still played all the other aspects of the game.

Been playing since 2016. I've never done a trial, I've never had a character step a single foot in Cyro or IC, I've run less than 10 dungeons in normal mode, and never done anything vet. Never joined a guild or sold anything to another player or used a target dummy. I quest, zone, craft, house, thief, gather, explore, do holidays that aren't PvP or dungeon. I've got 8 characters.

Artim_X

Very subjective, but IMO a new player is still going through their first 50 levels and has no sense of what their final build will look like. A casual player on the other hand, might be someone who dabbles in some content or a variety of content without overly focusing on min/maxing, PvE score runs, or PvP leaderboards.

Iselin

ZOZ is not saying what you say they're saying. It's just players saying that this is what ZOS is saying.

Also... don't confuse casual with new. Those are two totally different things.

spartaxoxo

CP5 wrote: »

There was a good video I saw a little while back that worked on defining the difference between casual and hard core players. If you're here on the forums, engaging with the game outside the game, you're not a casual, if you spend hours every day playing the game, you aren't either.

Casuals are the kind of people who engage with the game on a very surface level, they could spend thousands of hours with the game given enough years perhaps, but they're also likely to leave and come back to the game on a whim, not committing to any in game community, not learning the intricacies of the games combat, not keeping up to speed on balance changes, basically investing little into the game attention wise. Basically, if the game were a pool, they'd stick their feet in or sit by the side, maybe come back another day, maybe not, a level of engagement or commitment beyond that, and they wouldn't really be much of a casual anymore.

This right here sums it up well.



Anyway, personally I believe a casual player mostly just quests and explores, and engages puddle deep with the rest of the game. They aren't generally found on websites, aren't in trials and arenas, try to only engage in normal mode of the base game dungeons if they even interact with that content at all. Heck, a lot of them just quit after playing around the zone for a little bit until the next story/chapter dlc comes out or some event they have a passing interest in. I don't go by hours played. A new player can quickly progress into mid or vet tier.

These people constitute the majority of the playerbase, that's why zos is catering to them.

Tandor

Bouldercleave wrote: »

I've been in game for the entire time it has been live and I have yet to set foot in a trial, or do any significant vet content - it just doesn't interest me. I also ONLY go into Cyrodil to get the training quest done and get the mount boost from the passive.

I harvest all my own materials to be self sufficient and run with gear that I can make on my own or acquire on my own through questing or soloing content.

I have run through Cadwell's gold on all 15 of my characters and STILL read the books, listen to most of the quests, and really try to FEEL the game while I play (if you know what I mean}.

I am hardly alone in playing this way.


I would be what ZoS considers a casual player.

Same here, including playing from launch and with no interest in "veteran content", but excluding in my case Cyrodiil which I have never visited. Vigor is the only PvP skill I'm interested in and I get that on those characters that need it through the daily login rewards. I was only partway through Cadwell's silver on one character when I abandoned my original accounts due to AwA and haven't reached that stage yet on my replacement account.

Agenericname

When, or where, did ZOS say that? If your definition of a casual is "only does questing" then update 35 had little to do with them. Update 35 clearly wasn't aimed at questers.

Nearly every person I meet in the game also does vet content. That's because its the content that I do and that's where I meet them. That's anecdotal and biased.

What ZOS said was it would be easier to create content that appealed to a wider audience if the gap were closer. The operative word there being content and they were referring to instanced veteran content.

Captain_Devildog wrote: »

What about the community ?
Do we get attention,, does the team of Zenimax see their actual community?

What would you have them do? Aside from perhaps fixing some of the bugs, what would you actually want ZOS to do for you? At this point it may be better if ZOS did focus on casuals and left the rest of the game alone.

dmnqwk

Here's a good definition to use:

Casual players complete content in a way that is neither regularly scheduled nor rigorously enforced.

That means if a casual player chooses to pvp every friday night, but decides to go out dancing instead one time, nobody is going to be annoyed that the pvp is cancelled nor feel they are letting other people down.

Casual players keep a casual schedule, as opposed to a 'Raider' who spends every chance they get completing the toughest content they can do as practice for being the first to complete the most difficult new content.

As a former Raider, I've raided 5 times a week, 4 hours a time, spent the majority of my gametime devoted to advancement... but now in ESO I don't really feel like doing that. I still do the odd hm and trifecta if someone asks, but ultimately the only hm trial i've done is Mageslayer, because a friend needed people to make up the numbers (I did 65k on my magblade final boss so I did my part ).

Capability versus Desire is often overlooked by a number of people, as well as the confirmation bias of 'well those I hang around with and talk to do the same as me, so everyone must'.

I'm in several guilds with vastly different goals. One focused on trifects and trials, doing as tough a content as they can at the time, while the other hangs about making jokes in chat, doing dolmens once a week and the odd normal trial for a bit of excitement. If you look hard enough, you'll actually see how easy it is to separate both the drive/determination of some players from the rest when it comes to difficult content.

And let's not forget there are unmeasured means for playing the game - those who simply own every house, fully decorated, in the game plus achievement hunters who only do trials by paying gold or 'suffering' to get the achievement points. Not to mention those who play the game to stream themselves jumping up and down a lot with a resto staff wishing they were AD and not one of those awful factions.

So, in conclusion, let's suggest that 'Casual' means someone not looking to prove themselves better than others through content-based scoreboards regardless of their ability to complete said content. And by using that definition, you'll open up a more wholesome outlook as to why the person who used to hold multiple world number 1 ranking spots in various games considers themselves... 'Casual'.

M_Volsung

Hardly "everyone"...

I've been playing since 2017 and I have never once done any pvp, I loathe it to a depth you wouldn't believe.

ghastley

dmnqwk wrote: »

Here's a good definition to use:

Casual players complete content in a way that is neither regularly scheduled nor rigorously enforced'.

Oh dear, does that disqualify me as a casual, because of our monthly guild meetings? Or are we saved, because a lot of the members don’t turn up? I suspect a lot of players wanted “Skyrim with friends” when they signed up, and that is still something the game does well. You can play solo, or with just a companion’s help, or you can run a dungeon with a friend and two companions, or …

There is content for every play style, and I don’t blame ZOS for making the mixture of content match the mixture of players. Now if they could just keep the people who annoy me out of PUGs …

starlizard70ub17_ESO

When you log in 3 or more, (usually more) times a week to feed pets, check mail and do shopping, it stops being a game and becomes a causal hobby. The only real difference in players is those who don't like PvP or Competitive group activities like trials, are termed "causal players". There are a lot of things to do solo, with groups or a guild that doesn't involve PvP.

boi_anachronism_

I was told by someone on here that if you ever do pvp or any vet dungeon you aren't casual. Meanwhile I run into casuals constantly in vet dungeons for event drops and tons of casuals to pvp for whitestrike as well to the point that it is basically a meme. I know casuals that exclusively rp but did the grind on one vet dungeon for a personality and then never again. It's such a spectrum. I was also told if you have EVER tested your dps on a dummy or run any difficulty of a solo arena you aren't casual as well which is wierd because plenty of folks actually tested on the dummy for the first time post update because they noticed a dps loss after having trouble soloing overland bosses and wanted to figure it out. Solo arenas are also basically marketed as the dungeon experience for exclusively solo players. I tend to qualify casuals as player who mostly do overland and solo content that spend a few hrs on the game a week. People will also say if you hit 50k or more you arent casual but the thing to remember is that you have players who have played casually for years 3hrs a week and hit about 50k. 3hrs for a week for 4yrs for example is still over 600hrs of play time so to play that much you are going to pick up a few things without dummy humping.

Point is trying to put it in a neat little box and say "this is a casual player" is damn near impossible.

ellmarie

I'm thinking the same. I don't like VET content either and the only times I do it, or have my husband do it for me, is when I need gear, monster sets, etc. Same with Trials. This all is not fun for me. Some are definitely easier than others, but some I just find the mechanics way too hard. I like questing and creating new characters. I'm trying to finish every quest on one of my characters.

But as far as the game is geared for the casual player? I don't know about that. I find it difficult to quest and keep up and do certain dailies (like high isle bosses that are tough) if the only way I can get good gear is vet content and trials.

AcadianPaladin

Been playing ESO since 2016 and have 2055CP. Solo PvE. My 'end game' is soloing most alliance zone WBs and soloing about a dozen of the easiest non-DLC dungeons on normal. My dps on an actual easy WB was about 25k but down to about 15k after U35. I weave quite well, read the forums here regularly to understand how things work. I wear very appropriate fully golded out gear but not from DLC dungeons or trials. Thanks to the golden vendor, I can choose from among most monster sets. No interest at all in vet, DLC dungeons, trials, arenas, battlegrounds. Cyrodiil only to get any alliance skills I want. I've had ESO+ since my first week in the game.

I play every day but by the generally accepted definition, am a casual player. I consider U35 to be a dumpster fire. If I ever had any interest in vet or DLC dungeons and such, I certainly would not now.

Kingsindarkness

Remember you asked...and I'm going to try and say this as respectfully as possible.

The devs still aren't sure what type of game this is, they insist it is not a MMO, yet it has a hyper competitive (and very unhappy) raiding and PVP culture

If ESO focused on the same things that all the other Elder Scrolls games focus on( albeit with multiplayer) we wouldn't have 80% of our problems, the vast majority of people use ESO as Skyrim with friends.

Now that might make some folks angry but it's true, and that is what is profitable, it attracts the vast majority of customers. Raids, diametrically are the single most expensive content in the game to design and it has the least return in profit because so few people do it.

I think the only reason it is still in ESO is because the developers (not the player base aside from a small percentage) adores raiding.

PVP was just a experiment that didn't work...they keep throwing budget at it and it still just dosen't work. They could easily end the war and focus PVP to arena's and the vast majority of their issues would be solved.

Raiders and PVP players have the most issues because the devs are trying to hammer square pegs into round holes.

When a game knows what it is and isn't that game succeeds.

Look at the original Guild Wars; that game dose one thing and one thing only and it dose it great...and years after so called maintenance mode it is still packed. Of course few people want to hear this... every game that is vaguely MMO has to focus on End Game raiding and PVP.

Even if it will never be successful, even though there are literally thousands of vertical progression raid or die mmo's as competitors.

JKorr

Captain_Devildog wrote: »

Zos is saying things like we focus more on new and casual players. But what are those kind of people?

When i started the game i was new but after 2 months i was doing vet content.
Am i still a new player if i do that?
(When i do veteran content the patches effect me alot, offcourse like everybody else and it is clearly to see the gap becames bigger.)

I can understand that someone who plays casual does alot of zone content and questing because they like the lore.
BUT HOLD YOUR HORSES!!!
Litterally every person i met in this game, doesn't matter if they are new or doing questing all day. Or they are casual or whatever.. Litterally all of them did veteran and pvp maybe hm sometimes even when they did questing all day they still played all the other aspects of the game.

My conclusion what i get from this is. Zos is telling us they focus more on new players and casual players.
So they only focus on the smallest amount of players in the whole community, the people who played like less then a month probably and most of them leave before or after that.
Because it's not their cup of thea.
These last updates are meant for new players and casual players, and i heard something about accesability a few hundred times.
What about the community ?
Do we get attention,, does the team of Zenimax see their actual community?

Change my mind.

It makes me feel that they are not seeing us at all the players who play this game.
What is a casual player?
What is a new player?

I've been playing since beta/early release.

I have never done a vet dungeon. I have no interest in doing trials. I am not competitive at all, so avoid pvp like it is weaponized plague. I will help guildmates with pledges if absolutely needed, but it isn't my favorite thing to do.

I do questing, solo pve, crafting, and storyline stuff. I want to think I'm part of the community.

If the new content isn't worth playing for old/experienced/veteran players, leaving feedback with ZOS and finding new games might be the best course of action. When the game stops being fun/enjoyable is the time to stop playing.

AvalonRanger

I think, I'm casual player from 2014. And, this is my daily activity.

>Take many of screenshot of landscape.
>Do solo WB mission sometimes.
>Gathering cooking menu at the guild shop.
>Gathering outfit motif at the guild shop.
>Picking up much of crafting material on the road.
>Running public dungeon by solo.
>Running normal DLC dungeon with random group.(Not Vet)
>Buy housing art asset model at the guild shop.
>Go to Imperial City to buy "hakejyo".
>Enjoy solo story quest (This is most important)
>Reading book which I pick up on the road.
>Sometime, do mythic lead hunting work.