Likely the combat system isnt to their liking
"There's something in this game that's unappealing to a wider audience, something players notice very early on as data from all other video games suggest that majority of players obtain very early game achievements like "reach level 10" and less than half of those obtain achievements like "reached level 25".
What do you think it is?"
Players with multiple accounts. Some have more than one account so they can take advantage of the events that give rewards for crafting. You get to about level ten getting a character ready to craft. Others have 2nd accounts to hold inventory and I know some players that bought ten accounts so they can have their own guild bank.
There's something in this game that's unappealing to a wider audience, something players notice very early on as data from all other video games suggest that majority of players obtain very early game achievements like "reach level 10" and less than half of those obtain achievements like "reached level 25".
What do you think it is?
.
chessalavakia_ESO wrote: »High Isle and Firesong Spoilers:In the case of the Knight in the trailer part of the issue is that the experience the trailer suggests does not at all match the reality and if people ask about it that's what other people tell them. In High Isle we didn't face an awesome Knight, we dealt with his mage that was a bit of a failure. When Firesong came around, we were fighting another mage. When we finally get the face the Knight it turns out he's just a Mage.
Also, while I have seen him around a bit I would note the actual views on the video aren't that high which might suggest the actual pull to try ESO might not be that high if they aren't even looking up the full video that he's in.
The game is almost impossibly difficult to understand for a new player.
You are bombarded with content, that you can play in random order even though some of it is serialised. You'll then find you've broken the stories. The very existence of the main quest isn't advertised, even though it's *designed* to take players by the hand and get them to level 50. Zones like Craglorn are instadeath for a new player but nothing tells them that. Some of the stories plain don't make sense, referring to not being able to get to a zone that the player can literally pop in a wayshrine and go to in minutes, because of the game's history. Nothing is clearly explained (I remember trying to walk into a trial at level 10 or something).
It's an utter, utter mess. I started with Morrowind after Summerset released and I gave up twice within a couple of days each time because playing it was just unpleasant and alienating. I literally sat there thinking "how can people play this it's empty, random and incomprehensible". There is no structure to it, so you pop from meaningless story to meaningless story because you've never had the grounding that players early in the game's life had, feeling more and more confused and uninvolved.
I only came back -- almost a year later -- when I found out online the main quest existed, and then under protest because when I'd asked online people who'd been playing the game 100 years said "duh Google it" as if you're an (i) diot for expecting a game to explain itself properly without having to trawl the internet.
So if you want to know why so many players drop out, that would be my guess. It is a horrible experience for new players. And every effort they make to improve it just tinkers round the edges and refuses to establish a true, linear introduction to the game that would enable players to get to grips with it.
Even basic features like not having every single quest, whether primary or completely pointless, use exactly the same quest arrow took years to get implemented. And the one truly beneficial change they made was not the portal cavern but the zone guide, which tells players that zone stories have a start, middle and end. That should have been common sense. But it wasn't even there when I started.
Very little thought -- or no thought -- seems to have been given to two important elements:
1) What would happen if a new players does the "go anywhere, anytime, do anything" philosophy *when they first step into the game*. The answer is: incoherent story chaos that the player isn't in a position to understand and will make them hate the game. (This is how I had seen the Silvenar married before I'd even met the Silvenar, and they were talking to me like I was their best mate -- seriously, if you want to give new players a headache and make them wonder if your game has bugged out, that is how you do it. Or by letting them meet Darien for the first time not at the beginning but when he's in full himbo mode, again, chatting to you like he's your best mate, when his introduction to your story has been not far off "like this person he is not that far from being a (r) apist".)
There is a fix to this that, even with ESO's engine, should be achievable: if a player tries to start a story out of order, give the player the option and the quest marker to go to the beginning of it. In main quest stories, giving the player the option to start the main quest.
2) What happens to new players when they run up against DLC content as *a new player*. The game doesn't explain that Wrothgar is a DLC zone, that Craglorn has no connection to the basic world, that if you follow the nice lady in Daggerfall she will take you, not to the fighters guild quest, but to a DLC zone. Quests are named with semi-poetic, meaningless titles rather than saying "This is the starter quest for the Greymoor DLC chapter". For a new player, it, again, creates an incoherent nightmare. I started in Craglorn because it was pretty and for a fair time I thought the entire game was nothing but group content.
The way the game plays almost feels institutionalised -- in the sense that the developers are so familiar with their own creation, that they know every nook and cranny, that they forget that new players are not in that position. It plays fine for players who have been playing for years. Existing players don't walk into an alliance capital and face a fractal pattern of quest arrows. Existing players don't need to worry about quest orders because when they get a new chapter it's the only new content they have. Existing players don't need to be told the difference between base and DLC zones and its significance because they already know (how is a new player supposed to know that Auridon existed at the beginning but High Isle came last year, for example??). But put a new player in that experience and the game just collapses.
spartaxoxo wrote: »They don't understand the quest order. (...)
"No. It's just everything in this stupid game has to be so complicated."
Elsweyr's had three different videos with 10 million+ views. Greymoor had 9.8 million and 8.1 million. Gates of Oblivion had 7.2 million. Morrowind had three with three million views. The time it's been since and COVID likely helped those others some but, I wouldn't assume the Knight is that much of a standout.chessalavakia_ESO wrote: »High Isle and Firesong Spoilers:In the case of the Knight in the trailer part of the issue is that the experience the trailer suggests does not at all match the reality and if people ask about it that's what other people tell them. In High Isle we didn't face an awesome Knight, we dealt with his mage that was a bit of a failure. When Firesong came around, we were fighting another mage. When we finally get the face the Knight it turns out he's just a Mage.
Also, while I have seen him around a bit I would note the actual views on the video aren't that high which might suggest the actual pull to try ESO might not be that high if they aren't even looking up the full video that he's in.
On the Bethesda main channel, the video has 3 million views, the video where the guy appears for a few seconds has 1.4 million views, and a later video where the fight starts early on has 4.7 million views. No other video around the same time frame, including about ESO, has anywhere near those views except for the Skyrim Anniversary Edition concert video and Starfield Gameplay Reveal (5 Million).
It sounds to me like they need to capitalize on this "trailer knight" guy.
I was thinking he could still come back since tyrants always have a double and escape death a thousand times. I heard he was depicted as a mage ingame so he could also go through all 3 major classes, ending his reign as a combination of all 3 (4 expansions about him effectively).
It just needs to be done correctly so people don't dread having to put up with whatever they didn't like about High Isle, since I hear not many people liked it.
valenwood_vegan wrote: »
Likely the combat system isnt to their liking
I can see that. I personally enjoy the skills part of the game but not the light attacking or heavy attacking part. Blocking is also fine.
I remember seeing a lot of threads about how combat needs to feel more impactful and my threads shortly after purchasing the game were about it too. It needs that exaggerated anime slashing feel for light and heavy attacks, at least.
They need to feel like Reverse Slash at all times.
spartaxoxo wrote: »They don't understand the quest order. (...)
"No. It's just everything in this stupid game has to be so complicated."
This is exactly the way I felt when I started playing this game.
I only stayed because there was a group of people playing this game with whom I liked to play in my early days.
Not a single one of them is still in this game, everybody left and I'm basically left doing writs for no reason whatsoever.
chessalavakia_ESO wrote: »Elsweyr's had three different videos with 10 million+ views. Greymoor had 9.8 million and 8.1 million. Gates of Oblivion had 7.2 million. Morrowind had three with three million views. The time it's been since and COVID likely helped those others some but, I wouldn't assume the Knight is that much of a standout.chessalavakia_ESO wrote: »High Isle and Firesong Spoilers:In the case of the Knight in the trailer part of the issue is that the experience the trailer suggests does not at all match the reality and if people ask about it that's what other people tell them. In High Isle we didn't face an awesome Knight, we dealt with his mage that was a bit of a failure. When Firesong came around, we were fighting another mage. When we finally get the face the Knight it turns out he's just a Mage.
Also, while I have seen him around a bit I would note the actual views on the video aren't that high which might suggest the actual pull to try ESO might not be that high if they aren't even looking up the full video that he's in.
On the Bethesda main channel, the video has 3 million views, the video where the guy appears for a few seconds has 1.4 million views, and a later video where the fight starts early on has 4.7 million views. No other video around the same time frame, including about ESO, has anywhere near those views except for the Skyrim Anniversary Edition concert video and Starfield Gameplay Reveal (5 Million).
It sounds to me like they need to capitalize on this "trailer knight" guy.
I was thinking he could still come back since tyrants always have a double and escape death a thousand times. I heard he was depicted as a mage ingame so he could also go through all 3 major classes, ending his reign as a combination of all 3 (4 expansions about him effectively).
It just needs to be done correctly so people don't dread having to put up with whatever they didn't like about High Isle, since I hear not many people liked it.
phaneub17_ESO wrote: »This game can be both underwhelming and overwhelming all at once. The a new player experience there's a lot to take in and you're heavily disadvantaged when you come across older players with new characters who are doing insanely higher outputs than you without any visible reasons as to why. CP doesn't show up on a character display until post-50 even then trying to explain it is futile. There are people who have played for a while and may have only learned about Boatswain NPCs months after or already reaching level 50 with their first character while playing on their second or third. Until then their only actions to getting around is hitching a ride from another player thinking that's the only way.
Light or Heavy attack weaving doesn't get explained at all, for some they believe that is also the only way combat exists and sure if you want the numbers then you better learn it. However its not the only way to do combat, I know how to do it but I don't ever utilize it because it's not a necessity, but to some they believe it is. The description on abilities aren't always clear on their intent and they do a poor job on how things are explained. An example watching someone spam Wall of Elements repeatedly is a failure of explanation as it never ticks any damage because they keep over-writing the ground effect with a new one before it could do anything; don't tell me you haven't seen someone do that.
New player experience is forcibly holding them back on purpose, I wouldn't want to jump into this game if I had to start from scratch, its a horrible starting experience without all the crap I already obtained beforehand. A inventory guidebook that breaks the fourth wall on explaining the game would be nice, that Help menu is way too complicated, that I don't even know where nearly half of it is at. Things like suggested quest orders for those who want that experience of following the story in order while seeing where other content starts off. There's too many NPCs in town that take a different path without any warning they go to another place entirely, namely using NPCs who are notable in other existing quest chains. Explanations on different modes of travel from Wayshrine network, Boatswains, the many carts filling up the outskirts of towns like taxi cabs at an airport. Where to obtain skill points is a big one, if you're not an explorer type person you'll feel limited in your growth if all you get is skill points from leveling, and for some that may be where the bulk majority of their points come from because they just don't know.