2022: ESO's Worst Year, A Retrospective

Foxtrot39

I wouldn't say bad on paper, but poorly executed? Damn right

CP5

SilverBride wrote: »

CP5 wrote: »

SilverBride wrote: »

Things changing in a way that some players don't like doesn't mean that the game is bad or is getting worse.

If the content you and your friends love was changed so heavily that many of them leave the game, that'd be a change that "some players don't like," would that constitute the game getting worse?

Changes that I do not like don't mean that the game itself got worse. It only means that my impression of the game got worse.

Alright, then if we made every single overland mob into a dragon, and made every quest boss a 1v1 fight against Dagon himself you wouldn't like it, but it wouldn't make the game any worse. Gotcha. /s

A game isn't 'good' or 'bad,' and I've played plenty of games with many valid negative reviews and still enjoyed them, but the state of a game is defined by those who engage with it, and turning a blind eye to issues others have doesn't get rid of those issues. ESO gives off an increasingly negative impression to people outside the game as more and more content creators leave or make videos outlining issues they have, and word of mouth from people leaving undermines people's confidence in the game and its developer. Do you know how games die? How long term issues hemorrhaging players and trust ends them? Will that matter to you now, or only when it is your turn to be at the mercy of ZOS's slow and callous response, when all those who tried to speak up before have left?

SilverBride

CP5 wrote: »

SilverBride wrote: »

CP5 wrote: »

SilverBride wrote: »

Things changing in a way that some players don't like doesn't mean that the game is bad or is getting worse.

If the content you and your friends love was changed so heavily that many of them leave the game, that'd be a change that "some players don't like," would that constitute the game getting worse?

Changes that I do not like don't mean that the game itself got worse. It only means that my impression of the game got worse.

Alright, then if we made every single overland mob into a dragon, and made every quest boss a 1v1 fight against Dagon himself you wouldn't like it, but it wouldn't make the game any worse. Gotcha. /s

A game isn't 'good' or 'bad,' and I've played plenty of games with many valid negative reviews and still enjoyed them, but the state of a game is defined by those who engage with it, and turning a blind eye to issues others have doesn't get rid of those issues. ESO gives off an increasingly negative impression to people outside the game as more and more content creators leave or make videos outlining issues they have, and word of mouth from people leaving undermines people's confidence in the game and its developer. Do you know how games die? How long term issues hemorrhaging players and trust ends them? Will that matter to you now, or only when it is your turn to be at the mercy of ZOS's slow and callous response, when all those who tried to speak up before have left?

There is no way they would do something so drastic.

As far as content creators, I do not watch other people play and I base my opinion on my own experiences, and my own likes and dislikes.

ESO is not having its worst year and is not dying.

AzuraFan

Tandor wrote: »

I would have thought the opposite was true. If players are leaving after contributing to a game for some years then that's to be expected, nobody sticks to the same game for ever, but if players are leaving having had a quick look at the game and decided it's not worth their time and money then that's more concerning.

There will always be players who leave because they've gotten their fill and are moving on. I was thinking of those that were still here up until this year, having a blast, looking forward to another great year and planning to stick around, and...they're gone. Players who have thrown lots of money at the game and planned to spend more.

But yeah, it's also not great when people try out a game and quickly leave.

Both are concerning. You need player retention and new blood.

ForumBully

SilverBride wrote: »

CP5 wrote: »

SilverBride wrote: »

CP5 wrote: »

SilverBride wrote: »

Things changing in a way that some players don't like doesn't mean that the game is bad or is getting worse.

If the content you and your friends love was changed so heavily that many of them leave the game, that'd be a change that "some players don't like," would that constitute the game getting worse?

Changes that I do not like don't mean that the game itself got worse. It only means that my impression of the game got worse.

Alright, then if we made every single overland mob into a dragon, and made every quest boss a 1v1 fight against Dagon himself you wouldn't like it, but it wouldn't make the game any worse. Gotcha. /s

A game isn't 'good' or 'bad,' and I've played plenty of games with many valid negative reviews and still enjoyed them, but the state of a game is defined by those who engage with it, and turning a blind eye to issues others have doesn't get rid of those issues. ESO gives off an increasingly negative impression to people outside the game as more and more content creators leave or make videos outlining issues they have, and word of mouth from people leaving undermines people's confidence in the game and its developer. Do you know how games die? How long term issues hemorrhaging players and trust ends them? Will that matter to you now, or only when it is your turn to be at the mercy of ZOS's slow and callous response, when all those who tried to speak up before have left?

There is no way they would do something so drastic.

As far as content creators, I do not watch other people play and I base my opinion on my own experiences, and my own likes and dislikes.

ESO is not having its worst year and is not dying.

I'm curious, which year was the worst in your estimation?

Molydeus

BlakMarket wrote: »

Treselegant wrote: »

BlakMarket wrote: »

tonyblack wrote: »

BlakMarket wrote: »

Eric_Prince wrote: »

You know, I remember all the similar posts in the previous years.

Greymoor. 'WOO! [snip]! Antiquities is a lazy boring mobile game! We need a new class/skill line/combat feature/PvP thing'.

Blackwood. 'WOO! [snip]! Companions are so lame! Stupid worthless NPCs that can't hold aggro like a real player! We need a new class/skill line/combat feature/PvP thing'.

And now...

High Isle. 'WOO! [snip]! Card game is so lame! Stupid worthless mobile game! We need a new class/skill line/combat feature/PvP thing'.

[snip]
[edited for baiting & profanity bypass]

How is Greymoor a comparison?

Yes, aspects of the antiquities systems is tedious but mythics overall have been amazing content for ESO, 95% of most builds use mythic items, they encourage theory crafting, I'm excited for new mythics to be released, excited for the discovery of leads - the mythic grind can be frustrating in the moment but so rewarding when complete. Some mythics have been way over tuned, but overall awesome continuing content for an ESO, props to the devs.

Now lets talk about companions and the card game. What is there even to say? Enough said.

When was the last time a new class/skill line/combat feature/pvp things (sets aside) was released? Years? Are you really surprised people are asking for this content?

Mystics are basically have same role monster sets used to have, which now obsolete and outdated in comparison. The only differences, they are hidden behind cheap mobile game, with (arguably) worse rng and take 1 slot instead of 2. I would choose greymoor to be the worst in term of content if not for solo arena in later dlc since other chapters had antiquities + other stuff not just antiquities. Especially, considering most interesting mystics have been nerfed to the ground or become very niche a patch later they were introduced (looking at Thrassian Stranglers, Oakensoul, malacath and ring of pale order).

Highly disagree, mythics are still content patch by patch for 90% of the community. Companions and the card game are dead weight for 90% of the community, people tried them for a day/two, maybe a week then forgot all about them.

Ah, yes, all those many many pve players using their companions out in the overland world must be people only using them once and never again. What other possible explaination....other than different types of players having different priorities as to what interests them in game...could there be!

I'd believe you if overland content was harder, but its really not even for brand new players - the only overland content that a companion might be useful for are WB's and companions usually die in the first 20-30 seconds, also showing off 2 mounts at once might be the other use.

My Mirri tanks world bosses just fine 🙂. You must not be building yours right.

baltic1284

AzuraFan wrote: »

Tandor wrote: »

I would have thought the opposite was true. If players are leaving after contributing to a game for some years then that's to be expected, nobody sticks to the same game for ever, but if players are leaving having had a quick look at the game and decided it's not worth their time and money then that's more concerning.

There will always be players who leave because they've gotten their fill and are moving on. I was thinking of those that were still here up until this year, having a blast, looking forward to another great year and planning to stick around, and...they're gone. Players who have thrown lots of money at the game and planned to spend more.

But yeah, it's also not great when people try out a game and quickly leave.

Both are concerning. You need player retention and new blood.

Most likely going to ruffle some feathers and probably get hated on for this but this is how I feel and how I see things. NO CONSPIRACY THINGS INTENDED OR GIVEN.

You do have a point, but the big issue right now is to attract new blood and get a larger player base and so forth you first need a working product that isn't broken almost every update or has a lot of bugs and errors and in general issues, my game still won't update correctly and I haven't seen that get looked at only the block bug, people crashing out of the game, and the latest stuff.
Thing is on a lot of YouTube channels and content creators are pointing out the flaws which doesn't help the game rep amongst new players looking for a new game to join. But a lot of them do bring up good points and general ideas for fixing the game. For example, i had 75 dollars to spend on the game didn't mainly cause the issue i am having isn't being addressed the state the game currently is in with the latest bugs errors and in general how the game is and the general toxicity amongst both the community and the other areas of which I won't mention as it will just cause more issues.
So there list is longer as to why players are not then the list is for players to do so, FFXIV went through a similar thing the game was received so bad they had to redo the whole game, ESO may have to face that and not really start from scratch but generally look at what they have done and make some changes that may not be popular, or address the bug issue and why certain bugs are and are not addressed and why and make changes there too.
that isn't going to be an easy road by any fault but the current state of things as I see it is both the community itself and the staff's fault also, you have to look and what you did as a member of the community for those that fall in that group and so does the staff have to look at what they did wrong and treated the community just as much as the community has to look at itself and see what they did to the staff and each other and both sides need make changes for good effective change to happen.
You can't just snap your fingers and all things are good, it takes time and effort to do real good effective changes and sometimes you just need do what you don't want to do and do it anyway, performance has been a major issue for the game, and they did everything they could to fix it aside from what they now say they will do, when they could have saved time effort and money if they just went straight to what they are doing now with the architecture of the game and redo that knowing it was old and probably having issues itself instead of what they did do. But sight is only 20/20 but people bashed theme for a very long time about it the community attacked one another over PVE and PVP that it generally made players leave.
In general, it both the community and those of ZOS fault for the state things are in both are to blame and both need to change as I see it.

Elsonso

Amottica wrote: »

FeedbackOnly wrote: »

https://steamcharts.com/app/306130#All
October 2018 18,229 players
October 2019 21,527 players
October 2020 33,807 players
October 2021 29,949 players
October 2022 22,010 players

Those numbers are not bad. We know 2020 saw a massive uptick in players due to COVID lockdowns and that effect was still in play during 2021 as people started slowly going back to work and back to school.

However, you are looking at the peak players which is a short moment in time. Average players are probably the better number to look at since it is a more durable number across the day.

October 2018 12,914.5
October 2019 11,161.0
October 2020 19,102.7
October 2021 17,133.0
October 2022 13,587.7

In both cases, peak and average we see an increase in players from 2019 to 2022 which a business analyst would see as healthy.

I do want to point out that the top numbers for October are not accurate to the link. They are the numbers for November of each year, except for 2022, which is October.

You talk about an increase in 2022 compared to 2019. The most interesting thing about 2019 in the Steam numbers is actually how poorly it performed against 2018. Summerset was apparently a hit on Steam. Elseweyr, struggled to hold the numbers up and this is where ESO numbers started to show a trend downward. The pandemic came along and you can see in the numbers that the pandemic bump hit in April 2020. I am not sure that Greymoor was enough to save ESO in 2020, but Greymoor plus the pandemic was quite the hit.

If we use the Steam numbers, we can see that ESO was under the influence of the pandemic for about 18 months, from April 2020 to some point in the second half of 2021.

We can also see that Steam peaked in January of this year and that there has been a trending decline since 2H2021 that has continued into 3Q2022. Currently, we are sitting at a plateau about 10% above pre-pandemic levels. I think that this is "OK" but not "Good" or "Great". It is too soon to know whether the post-pandemic fall has hit bottom. We really won't get an indication about that until February/March 2023 when we can look back at Steam numbers to get an idea of how good the Holidays were for ZOS. That is also when we can see what players think of the next Chapter.

We don't want to see another situation where the year peaks in January.

Lady_Sleepless

I love ESO, I've been playing it since release. It's had ups and downs.
This year has definitely had a lot less content than previous years. I tried the card game and I played for about a month off and on and now I just forget it exists unless some one reminds me. Not for me. The dungeons were well designed and fun. The world design for the chapter was beautiful but the story was lacking.
I hope next year is better.

xclassgaming

2019: Exists.

baltic1284

Lady_Sleepless wrote: »

I love ESO, I've been playing it since release. It's had ups and downs.
This year has definitely had a lot less content than previous years. I tried the card game and I played for about a month off and on and now I just forget it exists unless some one reminds me. Not for me. The dungeons were well designed and fun. The world design for the chapter was beautiful but the story was lacking.
I hope next year is better.

I am extremely skeptical at this point on anything that comes next year unless it turns into the year of pure fixes and even then, I am still skeptical

tonyblack

BlakMarket wrote: »

tonyblack wrote: »

BlakMarket wrote: »

Eric_Prince wrote: »

You know, I remember all the similar posts in the previous years.

Greymoor. 'WOO! [snip]! Antiquities is a lazy boring mobile game! We need a new class/skill line/combat feature/PvP thing'.

Blackwood. 'WOO! [snip]! Companions are so lame! Stupid worthless NPCs that can't hold aggro like a real player! We need a new class/skill line/combat feature/PvP thing'.

And now...

High Isle. 'WOO! [snip]! Card game is so lame! Stupid worthless mobile game! We need a new class/skill line/combat feature/PvP thing'.

[snip]
[edited for baiting & profanity bypass]

How is Greymoor a comparison?

Yes, aspects of the antiquities systems is tedious but mythics overall have been amazing content for ESO, 95% of most builds use mythic items, they encourage theory crafting, I'm excited for new mythics to be released, excited for the discovery of leads - the mythic grind can be frustrating in the moment but so rewarding when complete. Some mythics have been way over tuned, but overall awesome continuing content for an ESO, props to the devs.

Now lets talk about companions and the card game. What is there even to say? Enough said.

When was the last time a new class/skill line/combat feature/pvp things (sets aside) was released? Years? Are you really surprised people are asking for this content?

Mystics are basically have same role monster sets used to have, which now obsolete and outdated in comparison. The only differences, they are hidden behind cheap mobile game, with (arguably) worse rng and take 1 slot instead of 2. I would choose greymoor to be the worst in term of content if not for solo arena in later dlc since other chapters had antiquities + other stuff not just antiquities. Especially, considering most interesting mystics have been nerfed to the ground or become very niche a patch later they were introduced (looking at Thrassian Stranglers, Oakensoul, malacath and ring of pale order).

Highly disagree, mythics are still content patch by patch for 90% of the community. Companions and the card game are dead weight for 90% of the community, people tried them for a day/two, maybe a week then forgot all about them.

You kind of missed my point. Mystics as “content” by themselves means a grind 5 leads from different locations and use 2 simplistic, rather boring mini games to uncover those leads. Their functionality mostly mirrors what monster sets used to do whereas monster sets themselves stopped being selling point of dungeons and made very niche or completely useless for quite some time. It’s easy to imagine, for example, lady thorn set to have exact same utility as pale order ring, but it was made underwhelming tank set proc instead. And even though I might prefer something different myself, companions and card game definitely enjoyed by some and the chapters they were in had mystics on top of that if that was you selling point.

TaSheen

"Myrhics" not "mystics".

FeedbackOnly

sPark101 wrote: »

I'm thankful for the extra events (chaos ball, crazy king, etc.) that they put in.

This was fun

Kingsindarkness wrote: »

FeedbackOnly wrote: »

SilverBride wrote: »

Things changing in a way that some players don't like doesn't mean that the game is bad or is getting worse.

Over 7000 players leaving is bad

Is there really concrete indisputable evidence for that though?

Even so, only 7k?

Really?

I just don't see getting worked up over that.

You see the number in 2019 . We barely gained any players. 5 year average is bad

FeedbackOnly

Kingsindarkness wrote: »

tmbrinks wrote: »

Kingsindarkness wrote: »

FeedbackOnly wrote: »

SilverBride wrote: »

Things changing in a way that some players don't like doesn't mean that the game is bad or is getting worse.

Over 7000 players leaving is bad

Is there really concrete indisputable evidence for that though?

Even so, only 7k?

Really?

I just don't see getting worked up over that.

If the 7k is ONLY players who play ESO on steam on PC... you have to multiply by at least 2 or 3 to account for the PC players that don't use steam (2 if it's a 50/50 split, 3 if it's a 33/67 split, etc... ) and based on past polls on the forums of PC players... it's probably closer to a 25/75% split... so maybe even 4. (But I'll choose the middle, 3x)

Then multiply by 3 to account for the players on XBox and PS servers (as they don't have a steam option), and ZoS has stated the population is mostly evenly split between the 3 megaservers.

Suddenly your 7k is closer to 63k players lost.... and that is a sizable number.

Other option is to look at percentage change, 25% of players, stopped playing.

Most business would go under if 25% of their workforce quit. The same logic holds here.

No matter how you look at it... ESO is bleeding players.

While I haven't quit... my playtime is significantly lessened, and ESO is no longer my "Main Game"... it's at least sharing that title with another at this time.

But all of that is just conjecture to fit a narrative.

I'll wait for actual numbers before I get worried.

Nobody can deny we lost people. Why are we trying to hid this?

What do people gain hiding the fact we got a problem. 2021 was still better then 2020. Most people were back to work in 2021

FeedbackOnly

Tandor wrote: »

FeedbackOnly wrote: »

Molydeus wrote: »

FeedbackOnly wrote: »

SilverBride wrote: »

Things changing in a way that some players don't like doesn't mean that the game is bad or is getting worse.

Over 7000 players leaving is bad

Drop in the bucket.

Sometimes you have to repeat yourself when people want to ingore the facts or use a fallacies to distract from point.

Some people liked things but a lot of people went through with promises and left. So let's do better next year

Left, cancelled subscriptions, or playing less? We simply don't know.

Still doesn't change rentition issue.

FeedbackOnly

Foxtrot39 wrote: »

I wouldn't say bad on paper, but poorly executed? Damn right

Yes timing was wrong for card game and should help people adjust better to the next time update 35 happens

Awa means lost replay value

Not bad additions but poor implementation and communication

Jaraal

Lady_Sleepless wrote: »

I hope next year is better.

The general consensus is that things have gotten worse over the years, not better. As long as the same folks are running the show, it would be extremely optimistic to expect anything different than the status quo.

What would cause the current team to do better?

CE_Nex

Hi, I hope you're having a lovely day.

In ragards to this thread, this is my own observation as a PvE endgame player on PC-NA: ESO is not dying, demographics are just shifting. PvE endgame is just not ZOS's focus, and honestly I can see why. Endgame is such a small population. On PC-NA, we have less than 100 unique clears of vDSR HM, and it's been 3 patches since the trial dropped. And, while I do not know for certain, I can assume similar numbers stand true for the other megaservers.

The changes made and the direction of the game in 2022 hasn't been looked upon favorably by the PvE endgame community so there's been an exodos of sorts. From everyone else who's not deep into endgame, the changes are probably welcome and enjoyable. And that's okay. Not everyone will agree to with every change ESO will have. That's normal, happens with every MMO. Some time in the future ESO may have an update which encourages a new generation of endgame raiders but isn't welcome by other subsets of the community. Tis the nature of things.

Happiness and health my friends.

FeedbackOnly

Jaraal wrote: »

Lady_Sleepless wrote: »

I hope next year is better.

The general consensus is that things have gotten worse over the years, not better. As long as the same folks are running the show, it would be extremely optimistic to expect anything different than the status quo.

What would cause the current team to do better?

Communication, more qa... shouldn't take a month to fix block

baltic1284

FeedbackOnly wrote: »

Jaraal wrote: »

Lady_Sleepless wrote: »

I hope next year is better.

The general consensus is that things have gotten worse over the years, not better. As long as the same folks are running the show, it would be extremely optimistic to expect anything different than the status quo.

What would cause the current team to do better?

Communication, more qa... shouldn't take a month to fix block

Some fixes i can see taking over a month but not as long as some reported bugs have taken to fix, some have taken well over that i can see a month or two then a fix not much over that.

Kingsindarkness

ForumBully wrote: »

SilverBride wrote: »

CP5 wrote: »

SilverBride wrote: »

CP5 wrote: »

SilverBride wrote: »

Things changing in a way that some players don't like doesn't mean that the game is bad or is getting worse.

If the content you and your friends love was changed so heavily that many of them leave the game, that'd be a change that "some players don't like," would that constitute the game getting worse?

Changes that I do not like don't mean that the game itself got worse. It only means that my impression of the game got worse.

Alright, then if we made every single overland mob into a dragon, and made every quest boss a 1v1 fight against Dagon himself you wouldn't like it, but it wouldn't make the game any worse. Gotcha. /s

A game isn't 'good' or 'bad,' and I've played plenty of games with many valid negative reviews and still enjoyed them, but the state of a game is defined by those who engage with it, and turning a blind eye to issues others have doesn't get rid of those issues. ESO gives off an increasingly negative impression to people outside the game as more and more content creators leave or make videos outlining issues they have, and word of mouth from people leaving undermines people's confidence in the game and its developer. Do you know how games die? How long term issues hemorrhaging players and trust ends them? Will that matter to you now, or only when it is your turn to be at the mercy of ZOS's slow and callous response, when all those who tried to speak up before have left?

There is no way they would do something so drastic.

As far as content creators, I do not watch other people play and I base my opinion on my own experiences, and my own likes and dislikes.

ESO is not having its worst year and is not dying.

I'm curious, which year was the worst in your estimation?

Why does there have to be a worst?
Why the incessant need to convince people the game is bleeding players and dying?

it's kinda silly...

FeedbackOnly

baltic1284 wrote: »

FeedbackOnly wrote: »

Jaraal wrote: »

Lady_Sleepless wrote: »

I hope next year is better.

The general consensus is that things have gotten worse over the years, not better. As long as the same folks are running the show, it would be extremely optimistic to expect anything different than the status quo.

What would cause the current team to do better?

Communication, more qa... shouldn't take a month to fix block

Some fixes i can see taking over a month but not as long as some reported bugs have taken to fix, some have taken well over that i can see a month or two then a fix not much over that.

Real question is how did it go live. How many people had to crash for letter to be sent out.

Update 33 was just as bad, taking some people 5 mins to put items for sale

This year was worst then the rest

FeedbackOnly

Kingsindarkness wrote: »

ForumBully wrote: »

SilverBride wrote: »

CP5 wrote: »

SilverBride wrote: »

CP5 wrote: »

SilverBride wrote: »

Things changing in a way that some players don't like doesn't mean that the game is bad or is getting worse.

If the content you and your friends love was changed so heavily that many of them leave the game, that'd be a change that "some players don't like," would that constitute the game getting worse?

Changes that I do not like don't mean that the game itself got worse. It only means that my impression of the game got worse.

Alright, then if we made every single overland mob into a dragon, and made every quest boss a 1v1 fight against Dagon himself you wouldn't like it, but it wouldn't make the game any worse. Gotcha. /s

A game isn't 'good' or 'bad,' and I've played plenty of games with many valid negative reviews and still enjoyed them, but the state of a game is defined by those who engage with it, and turning a blind eye to issues others have doesn't get rid of those issues. ESO gives off an increasingly negative impression to people outside the game as more and more content creators leave or make videos outlining issues they have, and word of mouth from people leaving undermines people's confidence in the game and its developer. Do you know how games die? How long term issues hemorrhaging players and trust ends them? Will that matter to you now, or only when it is your turn to be at the mercy of ZOS's slow and callous response, when all those who tried to speak up before have left?

There is no way they would do something so drastic.

As far as content creators, I do not watch other people play and I base my opinion on my own experiences, and my own likes and dislikes.

ESO is not having its worst year and is not dying.

I'm curious, which year was the worst in your estimation?

Why does there have to be a worst?
Why the incessant need to convince people the game is bleeding players and dying?

it's kinda silly...

Nobody said game was dying but could do a lot better next year

baltic1284

Kingsindarkness wrote: »

ForumBully wrote: »

SilverBride wrote: »

CP5 wrote: »

SilverBride wrote: »

CP5 wrote: »

SilverBride wrote: »

Things changing in a way that some players don't like doesn't mean that the game is bad or is getting worse.

If the content you and your friends love was changed so heavily that many of them leave the game, that'd be a change that "some players don't like," would that constitute the game getting worse?

Changes that I do not like don't mean that the game itself got worse. It only means that my impression of the game got worse.

Alright, then if we made every single overland mob into a dragon, and made every quest boss a 1v1 fight against Dagon himself you wouldn't like it, but it wouldn't make the game any worse. Gotcha. /s

A game isn't 'good' or 'bad,' and I've played plenty of games with many valid negative reviews and still enjoyed them, but the state of a game is defined by those who engage with it, and turning a blind eye to issues others have doesn't get rid of those issues. ESO gives off an increasingly negative impression to people outside the game as more and more content creators leave or make videos outlining issues they have, and word of mouth from people leaving undermines people's confidence in the game and its developer. Do you know how games die? How long term issues hemorrhaging players and trust ends them? Will that matter to you now, or only when it is your turn to be at the mercy of ZOS's slow and callous response, when all those who tried to speak up before have left?

There is no way they would do something so drastic.

As far as content creators, I do not watch other people play and I base my opinion on my own experiences, and my own likes and dislikes.

ESO is not having its worst year and is not dying.

I'm curious, which year was the worst in your estimation?

Why does there have to be a worst?
Why the incessant need to convince people the game is bleeding players and dying?

it's kinda silly...

I haven't seen anyone in this post at least say the game is dyeing but the company over all does need to make improvements to the system and bug fixes and such and a lot better communication i do mean a lot of it

FlopsyPrince

Stamicka wrote: »

Kingsindarkness wrote: »

I disagree...ESO has been a great year for me.

But for me, it's hard to take anything I see on the forums seriously anymore...especially when you have the same handful of community members consistently posting the most over-the-top hyperbole possible.

The game has had some patch issues, yes, but it's far from unplayable I think what most"Veteran endgame players™" are failing or refusing to see is the types of endgames that Zenimax chose for ESO just aren't that popular...other MMO's does raiding and PVP much much better which means that most of those type players have moved on.

I don't think that anything in this post is hyperbolic. These are my genuine thoughts and feelings about ESO in 2022. I am completely aware of the casual audience that this game draws in, believe me. The thing is, I don't want a slow tabtarget based combat system with cooldowns, I want ESO's combat system. So it doesn't matter if other games have better raids and PvP, they don't have ESO's combat.

Kingsindarkness wrote: »

ESO has made more money than all of the Elder Scrolls games (including Skyrim) and all of the Fallout games combined it makes all of that money because of the Hordes of Elder Scrolls fans and the metric tonnes of "Filthy Casuals™" that have been forced to leave other MMO's because they don't want to Raid or PVP.

I don't really understand how you were forced to leave other games? If you don't want to raid or to PvP, just don't. You can choose to only engage with the parts of the game that you enjoy. In ESO's case, it is the hardcore crowd that is actively being forced out, do you think this is fair?

Kingsindarkness wrote: »

[snip]

Personally, I think there is room for everyone, but Hyper-competitive people need to win at all costs in everything. They can't have fun unless they are denying their competitor a win, so for the Raiders to Win the casuals must suffer, and so forth and so on.

What incentive does a company have to cater to that mindset? When you literally have millions of people begging to shove dollars in Zenimax's pockets over Story Quest and houses?

[Edited for Baiting]

Honestly... what? There is a middle ground here, it's pretty simple. You do the things you want to do in the game and I do the things I want to do. The game can appeal to both competitive and casual people.

And some of us would argue it fell short for many of us. I do not do high-end combat, just lots of casual stuff. I would be called a "care bear" by many, but that is not truly accurate. I play too many alts.

I too wanted AWA, but what I got was not what I was thinking. (Kind of like how I wanted skill points to be easier for new alts, not a Crown Store purchase.)

I want many quality of life things though I can't recall any of those since the crafting overall. (That was good, but stopped short. Still no multi-filet. Nor things to help vendor interaction, survey collecting, etc. Addons can fill in, but my PS4 stuff is useless and stranded because no addons there.)

I had no interest in the card game. I played through the lead-in once and then got whomped by a game after that. NOT a good experience. And the lead-in is horridly slow so I have lots of dislike for the barker in Alinor near the riding trainer.

She is almost worse than the idiot singing if you zone into the Alinor crafting area, which should be gone now that I went fully through that questline.

I am mostly disappointed that they don't seem to listen to their players or communicate well. U35 didn't hit me as much as some, but it is just another lack of communication area.

colossalvoids

FeedbackOnly wrote: »

Kingsindarkness wrote: »

ForumBully wrote: »

SilverBride wrote: »

CP5 wrote: »

SilverBride wrote: »

CP5 wrote: »

SilverBride wrote: »

Things changing in a way that some players don't like doesn't mean that the game is bad or is getting worse.

If the content you and your friends love was changed so heavily that many of them leave the game, that'd be a change that "some players don't like," would that constitute the game getting worse?

Changes that I do not like don't mean that the game itself got worse. It only means that my impression of the game got worse.

Alright, then if we made every single overland mob into a dragon, and made every quest boss a 1v1 fight against Dagon himself you wouldn't like it, but it wouldn't make the game any worse. Gotcha. /s

A game isn't 'good' or 'bad,' and I've played plenty of games with many valid negative reviews and still enjoyed them, but the state of a game is defined by those who engage with it, and turning a blind eye to issues others have doesn't get rid of those issues. ESO gives off an increasingly negative impression to people outside the game as more and more content creators leave or make videos outlining issues they have, and word of mouth from people leaving undermines people's confidence in the game and its developer. Do you know how games die? How long term issues hemorrhaging players and trust ends them? Will that matter to you now, or only when it is your turn to be at the mercy of ZOS's slow and callous response, when all those who tried to speak up before have left?

There is no way they would do something so drastic.

As far as content creators, I do not watch other people play and I base my opinion on my own experiences, and my own likes and dislikes.

ESO is not having its worst year and is not dying.

I'm curious, which year was the worst in your estimation?

Why does there have to be a worst?
Why the incessant need to convince people the game is bleeding players and dying?

it's kinda silly...

Nobody said game was dying but could do a lot better next year

Kinda reminds me situation when you're telling the doctor about back pains and he's going about how you didn't even said about how great the weather was when you're barely standing. Zos don't need forum bodyguards, they're doing pretty good job dismissing negativity put towards them. Feedback also.

This aside I'd guess this year is a special one even compared to Morrowind which brought enough fresh blood by just nostalgia itself (me included) or Harrowstorm making endgame unplayable literally. It was always the case that when we weren't able to enjoy our preferred activities we were just going for other things, preferably not broken and engaging but there's none nowadays. New zones are nice by design but stories themselves are whole another can of worms, housing is stagnating and widely dissatisfied, pvp is... Was rather? Same with literally every part of the game you can think of.

Quite literally a lot of us feeling forced out as this game is extremely unfun to be dealt with currently, you're only expected to grind for the events metrics while bugs like block one can wait months before being resolved into playable state (we don't even know if those fixes were playtested and won't bring new ones yet again).

SammyKhajit

This one is reluctant to call this year “the worst” or “a bad game”, more that it is not as enjoyable or exciting as previous years’ offerings. There was an effort to do something new, instead of the same old “the end is nigh” trope, but the promised political intrigues never quite delivered. The scenery and music are all very well done and excellent atmosphere built up, but scenery and music are not enough to carry the whole thing through.

We received two new companions and they are pleasant to hang out with, but again, Isobel and Ember both feel unfinished like Mirri and Bastian. We don’t get much character development, and if you want an example, the Skyrim mod, Inigo, shows the amazing potential of what ZOS could have done with the companions but squandered the opportunity.

The card game was a no for this one, but it was nice to see other players have enjoyed playing it.

2022 is not the worst year for the ESO, just one that did not deliver its promises…

Pepegrillos

What some people don't get about dwindling player numbers is that MMORPGs thrive on communities. When your game loses players, or players start logging on for only a few hours a week, other players who are not necessarily fed up with the game start wondering whether they should stick around. They log in every day and find themselves alone in their guilds, with their friend lists empty or nearly empty, etc. And so, they start reducing their playtime, since most of their friends are gone and they have no one they know to do activities with.

U35 decimated the social fabric of a bunch of communities in this very same way. How do you keep doing prog raids if suddenly half of the team you have known for years is gone? What about organizing bgs tournaments? 6/7 of the BG guild doesn't log in anymore. Same with trading guilds, roleplaying guilds, and the like.

kyatos_binarini

no more new classes please. i don't want to start new game just to get access to "year major feature". new skill line would be okay instead (imo wardens and necromancers would be better as a skill lines).