ESO - is it on life support?

Maintenance for the week of February 24:
• PC/Mac: No maintenance – February 24
  • EdjeSwift
    EdjeSwift
    ✭✭✭✭✭
    ESO is doing alright. The recent drop in population can be attributed to logical factors.

    ESO is an MMO we all have enjoyed/continue to enjoy, but the first two letters Elder Scrolls are a key to understanding the recent dip. TES is a long running series of games with good narrative and compelling gameplay, so when big offerings of the summer were supposedly two epic games with supposedly good narratives and compelling gameplay, of course we were going to lose players to them for a while.

    Also, it's Holiday season for much of the populace, so people are taking less time to game and more time with their families and friends, so of course you might see less people around, but life support, we're far from, people still spam zone chat with LFG, guild invites, and people are still out there doing dungeons. Insta queues are still around for tanks/healers, so if it's on life support, I'm sure plenty of other game devs would love to be on this level of life support too.
    Antiquities Addict
  • Ph1p
    Ph1p
    ✭✭✭✭✭
    A game on life support wouldn’t have server upgrades, full-scale new chapters, or active job listings like ESO does.
  • Freilauftomate
    Freilauftomate
    ✭✭✭✭
    dk_dunkirk wrote: »
    [Snip]

    Just have to read the first comment of this discussion to answer your question:

    "Playing the last few months I've had to come to terms with longer Queue times and less and less of the player base to interact with. It's finally starting to impact my experience having less people to interact and enjoy aspects of the game with."

    Of course you are right, we don't have enough hard information to really know anything about this game. Because they keep it from us.

    What we do have are plenty of long term customers worrying about the health and future of the game. Now as a company you can choose to ignore your customers and tell everyone how stupid they are, or you could try to find out why people are worried, and then maybe you could try to do better before it's too late.

    Me personally, i don't really care about the rest of the game anymore. Been there, done that a million times in plenty of other games. But Cyrodiil was special. Problem is, ESO PvP doesn't feel like it's on life support anymore. It feels a little like the part in Game of Thrones, where they sacrificed their babies to the White Walkers in the woods of Craster's Keep. Same with PvE endgame. What will be sacrificed next? Will it come back to haunt us? Are we allowed to talk about this?

    [Edited quote]
    Edited by ZOS_Volpe on November 30, 2023 6:26PM
  • ZOS_Volpe
    ZOS_Volpe
    admin
    Hello,

    After removing some back and forth from this thread, we would like everyone to keep posts on the subject at hand, civil, and constructive. If there may be any questions in regards to the rules, please feel free to review them here.

    Thanks for your understanding.
    The Elder Scrolls Online: Tamriel Unlimited - ZeniMax Online Studios
    Forum Rules | Code of Conduct | Terms of Service | Home Page | Help Site
    Staff Post
  • dk_dunkirk
    dk_dunkirk
    ✭✭✭✭✭
    I don't post here much. The edits are informative. Thanks for your understanding.
  • Brakkish
    Brakkish
    ✭✭✭✭
    To lighten the mood; figured I'd share a memory from happier time.

    https://youtu.be/qqvWvw5aJFE
    CP2332 +3100 hrs spent in BGs. US PS5 - Nine PVP Tanks - toons named variations of "Combat Medic" I like long walks on the beach. What's PVE? https://www.youtube.com/brakkish
  • Amottica
    Amottica
    ✭✭✭✭✭
    ✭✭✭✭✭
    Want to see a game on life support download SWTOR. It has been on life support for years and releases less than 3 hours of questing every two years, a raid, and a couple of dungeons. The game has a very small fraction of the player base it started with while ESO has been able to maintain their playerbase.

  • Elsonso
    Elsonso
    ✭✭✭✭✭
    ✭✭✭✭✭
    Amottica wrote: »
    Want to see a game on life support download SWTOR. It has been on life support for years and releases less than 3 hours of questing every two years, a raid, and a couple of dungeons. The game has a very small fraction of the player base it started with while ESO has been able to maintain their playerbase.

    I've never played that game. Is SWTOR worth trying?
    ESO Plus: No
    PC NA/EU: @Elsonso
    XBox EU/NA: @ElsonsoJannus
    X/Twitter: ElsonsoJannus
  • TaSheen
    TaSheen
    ✭✭✭✭✭
    ✭✭✭✭✭
    Elsonso wrote: »

    I've never played that game. Is SWTOR worth trying?

    I have a very good friend who plays it intermittently around being unhappy with ESO. He's very fond of it, has played for years, and something about the latest stuff they released made him really happy (I don't exactly know what it was, I've never played the game myself).
    ______________________________________________________

    "But even in books, the heroes make mistakes, and there isn't always a happy ending." Mercedes Lackey, Into the West

    PC NA, PC EU (non steam)- four accounts, many alts....
  • Araneae6537
    Araneae6537
    ✭✭✭✭✭
    ✭✭✭✭✭
    Elsonso wrote: »

    I've never played that game. Is SWTOR worth trying?

    It’s 100% worth playing for the introductory story quests, which are on the level of single-player games. The Sith and Agent questlines are my favorite, I love the choices you have to make and the voice acting.

    Other aspects vary, and the endgame gear/leveling treadmill was eventually a turnoff for me.
  • EdjeSwift
    EdjeSwift
    ✭✭✭✭✭
    Elsonso wrote: »

    I've never played that game. Is SWTOR worth trying?

    SWTOR I can say is a great single player experience early, the base game felt very Bioware pre-EA pick up, but once you get into the MMO aspects, it's super grindy and the general chat was quite bad.
    Antiquities Addict
  • Braffin
    Braffin
    ✭✭✭✭✭
    ✭✭✭
    Elsonso wrote: »

    I've never played that game. Is SWTOR worth trying?

    Depends. If you are interested in Star Wars you get some well-created stories out of it. Each class has their own story arc, as well as each planet. They all are parts of a bigger overarching plot. The game is also almost completely soloable (raids and worldbosses are excluded from this, as well as a very few early dungeons).

    Besides that: Graphics are very dated. Same goes for combat.
    Never get between a cat and it's candy!
    ---
    Overland difficulty scaling is desperately needed. 9 years. 6 paid expansions. 24 DLCs. 40 game changing updates including One Tamriel, an overhaul of the game including a permanent CP160 gear cap and ridiculous power creep thereafter. I'm sick and tired of hearing about Cadwell Silver & Gold as a "you think you do but you don't" - tier deflection to any criticism regarding the lack of overland difficulty in the game. I'm bored of dungeons, I'm bored of trials; make a personal difficulty slider for overland. It's not that hard.
  • dcam86b14_ESO
    dcam86b14_ESO
    ✭✭✭✭✭
    Been playing ESO since BETA so about 10 years now.
    My advice is to be in several active guilds, not just trader guilds either. So when the game has those dips in population you actually never feel them. IMO.

    As far as other games, I've played other MMOS but ESO is my main one bc of the consistency in updates and events.
    Also it's ok to take a break from ESO and refresh yourself.
  • h9dlb
    h9dlb
    ✭✭✭✭
    As a trader stuff certainly doesn't sell like it used to especially on pc eu
  • Araneae6537
    Araneae6537
    ✭✭✭✭✭
    ✭✭✭✭✭
    h9dlb wrote: »
    As a trader stuff certainly doesn't sell like it used to especially on pc eu

    That could reflect changing population, but potentially also changing markets and buying patterns. On PC NA, materials are still in high demand. Furnishings seem to be the most hit or miss, in my limited experience, but whether than has always been the case or is a recent phenomenon, I could not say.
  • SilverBride
    SilverBride
    ✭✭✭✭✭
    ✭✭✭✭✭
    On PC NA, materials are still in high demand. Furnishings seem to be the most hit or miss, in my limited experience, but whether than has always been the case or is a recent phenomenon, I could not say.

    Furnishings have always been that way for me. Rarely do they sell fast but most of them do sell eventually. This is why I don't rely on selling furnishings as my main source of income.
    PCNA
  • Wolfshade
    Wolfshade
    ✭✭✭✭✭
    Even Lotro is still on life-time support, actually with the very small team from ssg. Zos (MS) will never give Eso and the elder scrolls brant out of their hands. Mmo`s with no lifetime support or who canceled their lifetime support are mostly asia-grinder, who simply gave nothing on the western playernbase.
    This comment is awesome! It`s just a test comment!

    **End of the Internet**
  • gronoxvx
    gronoxvx
    ✭✭✭✭✭
    Cant really say its in maintenance mode. But you can tell its on bare-minimum skeleton crew while they do enough to rake in the $$ to fund their other MMO they are developing. Especially since ESO's primary function now is aggressive monetization of the crown store compared to anything else.

    Once FFXIV drops on xbox then it will be adios for eso for a lot of us on a regular basis. Only thing that has kept the xbox population going has been the lack of decent competition in the MMO space.
  • fluffybunny
    fluffybunny
    ✭✭✭
    A
  • Elsonso
    Elsonso
    ✭✭✭✭✭
    ✭✭✭✭✭
    gronoxvx wrote: »
    Once FFXIV drops on xbox then it will be adios for eso for a lot of us on a regular basis. Only thing that has kept the xbox population going has been the lack of decent competition in the MMO space.

    Honestly, if that were the case, ESO would be dead on PC...
    ESO Plus: No
    PC NA/EU: @Elsonso
    XBox EU/NA: @ElsonsoJannus
    X/Twitter: ElsonsoJannus
  • kargen27
    kargen27
    ✭✭✭✭✭
    ✭✭✭✭✭
    I skipped all but the opening message so maybe this has been said but if you go back and look we have almost a decade of posts declaring the game dead or near dead. I personally don't feel like the game is wheezing and coughing up blood. I would like to see a few changes though.
    I would like maybe a weekend long event in an Imperial City district once a month where the flag is disabled and all three factions can just fight. When you die you spawn back on your balcony in that district without having to travel to the basement first. Fights there used to be fun.
    Also would like special events to be a shorter duration but I understand why they are the length the are. Not everybody can get in every day. And they need to keep plugging away at making performance in Cyrodiil better.
    and then the parrot said, "must be the water mines green too."
  • gronoxvx
    gronoxvx
    ✭✭✭✭✭
    Elsonso wrote: »

    Honestly, if that were the case, ESO would be dead on PC...

    I disagree somewhat. IMO cant really compare the MMO market on PC to xbox since the amount of MMO's available on xbox is 100:1 in favour of PC. Whereas xbox theres very few decent ones out there so people tend to stick to the ones theyve invested the most into and have friends etc.

    I guess i should probably mention that i dont think ESO will be "dead" so to speak. But the amount of regular players (such as myself and a lot of people i know in various kinds of guilds) will drop by a lot if there was decent competition in the xbox MMO space. This means less people subbing to eso plus, chapters, crownstore purchases etc.
  • Elsonso
    Elsonso
    ✭✭✭✭✭
    ✭✭✭✭✭
    gronoxvx wrote: »

    I disagree somewhat. IMO cant really compare the MMO market on PC to xbox since the amount of MMO's available on xbox is 100:1 in favour of PC. Whereas xbox theres very few decent ones out there so people tend to stick to the ones theyve invested the most into and have friends etc.

    I guess i should probably mention that i dont think ESO will be "dead" so to speak. But the amount of regular players (such as myself and a lot of people i know in various kinds of guilds) will drop by a lot if there was decent competition in the xbox MMO space. This means less people subbing to eso plus, chapters, crownstore purchases etc.

    Well... my point is that if ESO can survive against a whole line up of PC games, including FF, then it should do fine in the limited selection on XBox.
    ESO Plus: No
    PC NA/EU: @Elsonso
    XBox EU/NA: @ElsonsoJannus
    X/Twitter: ElsonsoJannus
  • Amottica
    Amottica
    ✭✭✭✭✭
    ✭✭✭✭✭
    Elsonso wrote: »

    I've never played that game. Is SWTOR worth trying?

    @Elsonso

    For free you can play the original stories for each class. 4 stores each per alliance. The are very well done.

    What they have released for the last 6-8 years has been poorly done starting with a few years of instance questing, hence no world-building. When they returned to building quest zones they reduced the story to only a few hours of quests.

    They lost their original development team and have had several lead developers since. Each has made a radical change. They use a small server design and one had dozens of servers per zone. Now they have only 5 servers and part of the reason for that is support several languages in Europe.

    So yes, for the original stories it is worth trying. That much is free to play as I understand it so it is certainly priced right. lol.

  • maboleth
    maboleth
    ✭✭✭✭✭
    No. It's on extended maintenance.
    gronoxvx wrote: »
    Cant really say its in maintenance mode. But you can tell its on bare-minimum skeleton crew while they do enough to rake in the $$ to fund their other MMO they are developing. Especially since ESO's primary function now is aggressive monetization of the crown store compared to anything else.

    Once FFXIV drops on xbox then it will be adios for eso for a lot of us on a regular basis. Only thing that has kept the xbox population going has been the lack of decent competition in the MMO space.

    In your world maybe.
    I'm not sure many of you realize how big ESO has become. The team behind it is huge, from guys doing housings and furnishing stuff to ToT cards, new zones, quests, trials, arenas, items. It takes sooo much work on so many areas.
    Not to mention that all new Endless Archive has just been released.

    Nothing to see here, yet another mindless 'world is collapsing' thread, move along.
  • Mathius_Mordred
    Mathius_Mordred
    ✭✭✭✭✭
    h9dlb wrote: »
    As a trader stuff certainly doesn't sell like it used to especially on pc eu

    This is down to the changes in Gifting. Much of what was bought was then flipped and resold to gold farmers who also utilised new accounts for bot farming and gifting scams. As they can no longer get into the gifting game with new accounts the entire sector of the economy has collapsed. My bet is they have been busy making lots of new accounts which will in months be eligible for gifting again, then you'll see a pickup in the PC trading market by about May 24. It probably takes about a month for a bot farmer to be flagged and banned so if they start one new account per month they can continue indefinitely, this is probably a short term lull. By the way, this is just my speculation based on observation and a little logic and I could be totally wrong.
    Skyrim Red Shirts. Join us at https://skyrimredshirts.co.ukJoin Skyrim Red Shirts. Free trader. We welcome all, from new players to Vets. A mature drama-free social group enjoying PVE questing, PvP, Dungeons, trials and arenas. Web, FB Group & Discord. Guild Hall, trial dummy, crafting, transmutation, banker & merchant. You may invite your friends. No requirements
  • Vulkunne
    Vulkunne
    ✭✭✭✭✭
    Brakkish wrote: »
    I LOVE ESO to death. I play it daily, it's how I wind up before work, and how I wind down after. Been doing this for years.

    Playing the last few months I've had to come to terms with longer Queue times and less and less of the player base to interact with. It's finally starting to impact my experience having less people to interact and enjoy aspects of the game with.

    I'm looking for some positive thought for the outlook of the game. Should I be expecting a turnaround for the near future... or should I consider ESO to be in the digital version of hospice right now.

    It does appear that something has changed.

    They will neither admit or entertain the possibility of it on here.

    Time will tell the tale.
    Today Victory is mine. Long Live the Empire.
  • Elsonso
    Elsonso
    ✭✭✭✭✭
    ✭✭✭✭✭
    Vulkunne wrote: »

    It does appear that something has changed.

    They will neither admit or entertain the possibility of it on here.

    Time will tell the tale.

    I attribute this to changes ZOS made in Update 35 that caused some of the higher end players to leave the game. This would hit in the Tank and Healer areas particularly hard, I think. In turn, it makes group building longer and the presence of "fake role" players probably more common.

    I'm not certain that the game has fully recovered from that debacle.
    ESO Plus: No
    PC NA/EU: @Elsonso
    XBox EU/NA: @ElsonsoJannus
    X/Twitter: ElsonsoJannus
  • spartaxoxo
    spartaxoxo
    ✭✭✭✭✭
    ✭✭✭✭✭
    Elsonso wrote: »

    I attribute this to changes ZOS made in Update 35 that caused some of the higher end players to leave the game. This would hit in the Tank and Healer areas particularly hard, I think. In turn, it makes group building longer and the presence of "fake role" players probably more common.

    I'm not certain that the game has fully recovered from that debacle.

    If the rest of the game is similar to the Steam Charts, we have more or less recovered from Update 35. And the game is currently gaining players.
  • Tandor
    Tandor
    ✭✭✭✭✭
    ✭✭✭✭✭

    That could reflect changing population, but potentially also changing markets and buying patterns. On PC NA, materials are still in high demand. Furnishings seem to be the most hit or miss, in my limited experience, but whether than has always been the case or is a recent phenomenon, I could not say.

    I wonder if account-wide achievements have resulted in a big reduction in demand for items (and perhaps supply too) that would have been needed for more than one character previously?
Sign In or Register to comment.