What is holding ESO back from being the GOAT MMO for YOU?

AcadianPaladin

Don't know about great MMO. The fact that ESO is not SP is a drawback I live with because the game is fun, big and beautiful. Quite happy with the game overall except for bugs/crashes and reliability. Needs focus on the long list of things that are bugged or don't work right ranging from server reliability all the way down to fixing the butt on the Timbercrow Wanderer Costume.

Starlight_Knight

I need to tick PVP, Performance and Combat. i mean i keep playing it but the amount of times I've died to stupid stuff, ridiculous sets and skills not going off and op meta builds makes ESO PVP mostly non competitive.
And that's the clincher for me, Non Competitive PVP and the neglect of said content,

SilverBride

[ X ]. ESO is the GOAT!

Cerbolt

Pretty much all of the above if I'm honest. Don't get me wrong I love eso but it's far from being the goat mmo.

The monetization is over the top, simple character changes are triple the price of other mmos. Not to mention everything going into loot boxes rather than being earnable in game.

The bugs hang around far longer than they should and game breaking bugs are more common here. Also the general overall performance isn't great.

Pvp is just full on neglected and the only reason people still play it is because the combat is unique and the builds are fun to make.

XSTRONG

I have been playing eso since 2019 so im pretty sure eso been no1 mmo for me because i havent played anything else during this time.

But..

ArchMikem

This is my only MMORPG, I have nothing to compare it to.

YandereGirlfriend

Am a dedicated PvP'er and voted performance because even without any content updates PvP is still always fun.

That is... except for when people crash-out in the middle of huge fights or the server chugs and de-syncs. Lots of amazing situations have been ruined that way and the PvP experience would be so much more amazing if that were sorted out once and for all.

spartaxoxo

AzuraFan wrote: »

TaSheen wrote: »

Greatest [Game] Of All Time....

Egads, I need to clarify my earlier post then. ESO is the best MMO I'm playing (because it's the only one I'm playing). It's not my GOAT and never will be because of the nature of MMOs. I think it could be improved, though, like all games. And it's fun when they get things right.

So GOAT MMO would be the best MMO. So, the OP isn't asking to compare to other games not in the same genre. So do you feel it's worse than WOW, FFXIV, Etc.

spartaxoxo

Wildberryjack wrote: »

I voted other because of FFXIVs job system. You don't need to have a character for every job/class. All you need is ONE character and you can do every job/class on them. I find that a much more convenient system.

ESO's armory and the fact that every class has skills for all three roles is pretty much the same way. They really should have made it unlock 3 as free slots for all three roles (and let it store gear) and it would be perfect at it. Really the only thing holding it back from being as good as it.

So that's definitely one of the things I would change if I were able to do so.

Nightowl_74

I enjoy ESO a lot but for me the monetization and lack of earnable in-game rewards, combined with no way of quickly locating items I'd like to buy (be it an auction house or some other system) and the fact that there are a multitude of other small quality of life issues, put it behind other MMO's.

Dr_Con

ESO at beta/release gave us an epic PVP experience, where everyone was weak and siege made a difference. Since then, the power of siege seems to have fallen off as players have gotten "stronger." The scaling in the game right now is not appropriate for open world PVP. These days you have to dig up the most powerful siege weapons as a rare reward... while siege used to be that powerful normally. It used to take skill to kill people, now you have sets that pen all armor and group everyone together that can be spammed by multiple people for explosive procs.

It used to be the GOAT, now not so much. On the PVE side of things, they toned down the "Epicness" of the game. I remember when the main quest and mage's/fighter's guild quests HAD to be done, now they are called tedious/trash content by newer players. Faction choices matter little, and character choices only unlock a little bit of extra dialogue/content. In BG3, your race choice can prevent certain entities from attacking you, your class choice can open up many new dialogue trees and alternative solutions. They could have done better with these dialogue choices, especially considering the budget they have access to.

Replayability value of this game is now only worth the skill points/skills you get access to.

Danikat

Your poll seems to be missing PvE options, is that because you assume PvE is already perfect, or because you don't think it matters?

For me that's what holds ESO back. Don't get me wrong, what's there is good, but it's limited. Particularly exploration, large areas of each zone are blocked off and almost everything there to find is either marked on the compass as soon as you get into the general area or just a treasure chest or crafting materials, meaning you can skim through most areas (likely galloping on a mount) and only need to stop when the game tells you there is something there to find, at which point you're directed straight to it. It removes most of the incentive to actually explore.

Likewise a lot of the quests are well written and there's many interesting storylines but they're very limited and it's frustrating when it ignores things like your race, whether you're a vampire or werewolf, membership of guilds and other organisations and other things that should change how other characters treat you. Of course that won't all be relevant all the time, but when it is and it's ignored the error really stands out. Like a quest where a vampire says you need to do something for them because you're not a vampire...even if you are.

p_tsakirisb16_ESO

Cooperharley wrote: »

DISCLAIMER: ESO is probably my favorite game I've played, truthfully. Definitely my favorite MMO. Is it perfect? Of course not! No game is. What I'm curious about here is what YOU guys believe to be holding ESO back from being the greatest. This is for constructive criticism for ZOS and I personally GREATLY appreciate all the work that they constantly put into the game!

If you think ESO is perfect, you wouldn't change a thing, etc. then this poll is not for you Feel free to chime in obviously! Free speech of course, but mainly just curious what the playerbase thinks! Cheers and Happy Saturday!

NONE of the above should have been an option, as it is the best fantasy MMORPG.

KiltMaster

Several of the above. I voted for PVP as it is the most glaring to me. It's clear they don't want to spend resources improving PVP.

The bugs are also an issue. But all games have bugs.

Also lack of difficult content. I know there are arenas, trials, even dungeons to an extent. But it would be icing on the cake to be able to make quests difficult. Some people blow thru a new chapter in a day, let alone a week!

AzuraFan

spartaxoxo wrote: »

So GOAT MMO would be the best MMO. So, the OP isn't asking to compare to other games not in the same genre. So do you feel it's worse than WOW, FFXIV, Etc.

I've only played a few MMOs, and only three for any length of time (not WOW - tried it and hated it). If I have to choose between ESO and the MMOs I played and enjoyed in the past, then ESO is not my GOAT MMO.

ETA: This made me think about why ESO isn't my GOAT MMO. The other two MMOs I played did a much better job of designing/balancing/offering options so I was not shut out of any story content, and I could play most content offered (but not all). ESO fails on that score for me. For example, in one of the MMOs (LotRO), they rebalanced all the story quests so you could do them with a group or solo. Originally you needed a group, but based on player feedback, they rejigged it. That contrasts with ESO where there are story quests inside dungeons, but they've refused to offer a story mode for dungeons.

Vaqual

The existence of ability animations which hide weapons.

YetAnotherLinuxUser

would have to be the lack of a playable goat class. THough to be honest i am much more impressed by ibex than goats esp given my fear of heights.

katanagirl1

I don’t play other MMOs so I can’t compare at all. I’ll just state the things that frustrate me and make me enjoy the game less.

I picked monetization but it is really more than that for me.

The monetization part as far as cosmetics does not bother me as much as the way it is used for housing furnishings. A lot of the good items are only available for crowns, either in packs or the housing editor, and purchasing them only gives you one single item. Since I don’t want to break the bank I have to settle for fewer and lesser items when I decorate.

Motifs can be farmed or bought via the guild traders.

Mounts can be purchased with Seals of Endeavor now.

The other thing that makes it miss the mark is the level of grind for housing. The sticker book has helped with gear, but the drop rate for furnishing plans in new chapters/zones is so low that the chances of farming it yourself are slim and the guild prices are sky high.

Freelancer_ESO

Combat is the primary issue for me that is holding the game back compared to other titles.

In no particular order:

1st person view is too flashy to use.

Many of the animations for combat abilities don't look that great.

The style of many of the combat visuals clashes with how I'd like to see my character. (No, my character fantasy is not to have everything else fade and have my heart grow brightly)

Incoming damage leans too heavily on mechanics rather than regular hits which can lead to a widely varied difficulty experience. If you do enough damage, you may not even need to deal with the mechanics. If your damage isn't that great, the mechanics will trigger frequently. If you are good with the mechanics, you aren't going to necessarily take much damage even if you aren't built for mitigation. If you aren't good with the mechanics even if you are built for mitigation/health recovery it's going to hurt.

Healing sets run off of your max stamina/magicka but, your healing will actually be higher generally with weapon/spell power after buffs. Needless to say, this combined with heals that scale off of hp leave the healer in the position where many non-healer builds can actually heal as well as they can. This also makes it so it can be quite hard to actually kill players in PvP because pretty much any build can heal themselves fast.

Stealth combat in PvE is rather weak/awkward if you don't build into it heavily and in PvP it's rather annoying.

I am very much not a fan of animation cancellation in games as it frequently looks bad and messes up the balance of the game. Needless to say I am not a fan of light attack weaving ect.

Item sets tend to have too much power which makes it so that content is frequently an iffy match for players. (The gaps between players are relevant as they make it hard to develop content that most players can do without being a total snooze fest, because they make the group content experience awkward, and because they can leave players in a position where they aren't at all competitive in PvP.)

The combat experience frequently rams into the issue that what's fun and what's effective for a situation clash too much. Buffs, DOTs, and Debuffs that increase damage can all carry so much power they get run over things people might enjoy more due to perceived pressure from other players.

Potion design holds too much power which needlessly creates gaps between players.

While leveling, the availability of food and gear at level can be quite poor if you don't make it yourself which combined with trying to level skills can lead to significant gaps between players.

The design of the combat also needlessly favors groups with having both sets and abilities that just apply to group members and not allies.

The PvP design has a tendency to focus a bit too much on enabling moments of awesome at the cost of regular moments.

Vulkunne

Pretty much everything on the list and the fact we can't have an open discussion about problems with the game without posts disappearing or getting moved. I also think that its hard if not impossible for certain players to be represented for what we like to see from this game, regardless how much we've already paid into the game.

I think ESO is still a great MMO and everything but its showing signs that the changes we didn't want are seemingly here to stay and the things that some of us liked aren't coming back and the door to any meaningful feedback really seems closed which is a sign of the times. Indeed some things that have happened over the last year or two has completely reshaped the way I think of ESO, sadly.

Erickson9610

ESO is one of the very few multiplayer games which allow me and my allies to turn into werewolves and hunt together, slaughtering and devouring prey in an open world setting. That was the reason I started playing ESO, coming from TES V: Skyrim, and that is a major reason why I'm still playing to this day. ESO and TES V: Skyrim both have the best werewolf roleplay out of any video game that I know of.


Naturally, I'm upset that Werewolf in this game is punished so severely compared to the rest of the game and has next to zero customization options. On these forums, you can find several threads regarding how lacking Werewolf feels to play, and several threads which ask for Werewolf customization options that aren't tied to the combat system.

I can name other games which have much more customization options and less punishing gameplay, but there's always some tradeoff. For instance, I could use mods for TES V: Skyrim to customize my werewolf's fur color, but then I can't play online in an MMO setting. I could play other games which give me much more customization and less punishing gameplay, but they lack the open world "hunt and devour" werewolf roleplay that I'm looking for.


The Werewolf experience we have in ESO is good enough, compared to the vast majority of video games currently out there, but I really hope that it'll get better soon. ESO is likely the only video game that has roughly what I'm looking for.

Uvi_AUT

I voted other, but I wanted to click monetization an combat.

The Cash-Shop in this game is completely insane. I have never seen anything like it outside of Korea.
The combat is very milquetoast. I think its the most boring one in all the MMORPGs (and I played them all). Well, better than Neverwinters I guess.

Pelanora

Other- the engine-ten year old game- millions of lines of code-server capacity etc etc we always get as the reason they *cant* do almost anything we ask for.

That's not sustainable and it's holding the game back. And will cripple it..... as the other older big games figure out their technical pbms and move forward and the new games arrive...

phaneub17_ESO

Guild Wars or Dragon's Dogma with multiple allied NPCs. I understand they are not really MMOs in the same sense, but I like to be able to use 3 companions while playing solo one way or another. Having the allied NPCs around is good for me already, having a couple extra more for a full party would push it further. I know Star Wars MMO has a better system, but I hate Star Wars (movies) and I'm not a fan of futuristic Sci-Fi.

DrOuttaSight

Other - The repetitive fetch, and carry storylines.

ESO could be so much better for the players.

I once was a ESO werewolf but I'm not noooooooww.

DarcyMardin

I just got my ten year birthday cake from ESO, so for me this MMO *is* the best.

aru

Lack of PvP content diversity is a thing surely, but ESO is my number one nonetheless.

Turtle_Bot

It's a bit of everything, but also add to the list, the lack of balance.

Not that things need to be perfectly balanced, but leaving the classes so clearly out of whack for so long has sapped a lot of the enjoyment out of the game for many and has exacerbated the "1 meta build" and lack of diversity that many are currently complaining about.

jhall03

Centralized auction house system. I’m not asking for it at this point, but the time I’ve spent running around from trader to trader has really added up over the years. I’m on console so TTC is not a thing. I go play another game with an auction house and it’s very refreshing.

caperon

The playerbase.