I Hope ESO will be able to keep up with other MMO's

Einar_Hrafnarsson

Both FFXIV and WoW get massive new features. FFXIV even gets an entire Graphics overhaul. Everything looks like it did before but better with enhanced Graphics, more depth, better shadows and lighting. Oh and THREE new classes/Jobs, one limited. WoW Gets Soloqueue Rated Battlegrounds, a new Flying System for old AND new mounts, Warbands, Class Hero Talents or Paths like Lightweaver Paladin or Mountain Thane Warrior. (ESO does not have a flying System at all). Just a few things from what the other big players in the industry will offer beside the usual stuff in their next expansions.

A new Zone, 2 Dungeons, 1 Raid, new Story and 2 new companions won't cut it anymore.
I really, really hope we get something Amazing to see on the next Chapter reveal.

Fata1moose

I don’t think it will unless they improve combat. I see the general public complain about how bad the combat feels, floaty, lack of impact, etc and that the overland is too easy and they’re not engaged with it.

RupzSkooma

it is TES.

merpins

One of the suggestions I've seen to spice up combat was to remove classes from the game, but leave the skill lines. Just make each class a theme for skill lines instead. Rather than picking a class, you'd pick 3 skill lines from any theme, which you can change by buying a coupon in the cash shop. Though this comes with a plethora of cons, I could see it being more of a boon to the longevity to the game's combat system. Not only would Zos not have to create entire classes when they want to release new skill lines (likely resulting in skill lines coming out more often), they'd be able to expand on the classes that already exist by making additional skill lines for their themes. New weapon skill lines? Just make them themes instead. Why's there no plant-based damage dealing skill line? Well, Warden is the plant guy so they can't add it. But if they did this, they could! Sorc not having a dedicated healer line? New healer skill line for sorc. This would create way more diversity in game; you might suggest that it might boil down to one or two optimal builds like with sets, but I really don't see that happening. Every class has one or two good skill line for DPS, and almost every skill line has some amazing benefit for Tank or Healer. I could see some super optimal builds popping up from time to time, but it's easier to balance one skill line at a time than entire classes.

kargen27

My point of view is the other MMOs are trying to catch up with ESO.

Necrotech_Master

kargen27 wrote: »

My point of view is the other MMOs are trying to catch up with ESO.

this here

in my opinion ESO blows those other mmos out of the water

the only MMO that even compares and to eso me and is slightly better would be city of heroes/villains

LunaFlora

people will continue to play Elder Scrolls Online because they like Elder Scrolls.

i don't believe eso needs to keep up with other games

Melivar

I'd don't particularly care or even pay attention to what other games are doing, they are all fighting the same fight as ESO. How do I keep my player base as well as expand upon it.

I was a WOW player from the start of Burning Crusade up until Battle for Azeroth left there for many reasons, not really anything they could do to get me to go back.

From WOW to my eventual stop at ESO I tried our Final Fantasy as I was a follower of the Game from FF1 upto FF8 on SNES and PlayStation before I switched over to PC. While I loved the lore and stories in the Final Fantasy Games, I just couldn't get into the combat mode there so only lasted about a month.

Tried GW, NW and a host of other MMO's before finally settling with ESO for the story and combat system as well as the less cartoony setting and characters.

I had a minor spell where I was not happy with ESO that also coincided with New Worlds release but only kept my primary focus there for a month before I could see it was pretty but not what I wanted and ended up back here full time.

At some point I may venture away again and possibly permanently but it won't be for the lack of content available on their release schedule and the fact that the entire game is always relevant to my main and vast array of alter egos.

GooGa592

The PvP community is praying for a decent alternative to ESO. We don't care about anything but combat and mechanics. One or two games come out with decent PvP and ESO will see a significant loss of players.

Anifaas

ESO's engine is stuck in the past. I'd like to see it evolve too but I don't think it is realistic to expect such. I do appreciate WoW and FF because they're always working to improve things. Especially WoW whose engine is always evolving. And as such feels a lot more modern than ESO which is still very much a 2014 game.

But you can't beat the casual aspect of ESO. It is a great MMO to chill. That's why I play it, for the easy laid back atmosphere. I stick to WoW as my main MMO though because I feel they're the most committed to excellence. Their dungeons, raids and pvp, subscriber count and revenue speak for themselves. I'd love to see Blizzard's take on TES. One can only dream.

Panderbander

WoW is the best it's been in years. I full stop quit a while back and swore it off for good, but after giving it a try about a year ago it's brought back so much of what was fun before.

ESO on the other hand... it really feels stagnant to me. The new class was fun for a minute (until they gave crux a timer), IA held my attention for about a week and a half, but in the end I'm finding that there isn't really a compelling reason to stay for me. I was just logging in and standing around for a while.

I love TES and want ESO to do well but they really could learn a thing or two from their competition when it comes to upgrading or refreshing their game.

Gray_howling_parrot

The problem with replies here is that ESO is going to large cater to both single player RPG TES fans AND MMO fans. A lot of people are going to say that ESO is the best (which I believe too) because theyre big elder scrolls fans and also just happen to enjoy the MMO elements.

If you look at ESO as an MMO first, it absolutely is missing a lot of solid features that the biggest MMOs in the game, namely FF14 and WoW currently have. If ESO objectively was the best MMO, we would have the most people playing it. We do not and thats a fact. AND THATS OK! BUT, also keep in mind OP that the content cadence in which ESO releases new stuff is more frequent than those other games too. Now I agree, years where we just got something like companions or the card game were dry as h**l and that sucked. But, if anything, I think Necrom and beyond has shown what ZOS is capable of and thats simply greatness. Update 40 was absolutely incredible and added so much to the game. Don't count them out yet!

Big faith in ZOS & definitely restored after this past year (PvE main though fyi - if i was a PvP main I'd be having a temper tantrum 100%)

Braffin

Fata1moose wrote: »

I don’t think it will unless they improve combat. I see the general public complain about how bad the combat feels, floaty, lack of impact, etc and that the overland is too easy and they’re not engaged with it.

Absolutely!

Combat was increasingly watered down over the years and just doesn't feel meaningful anymore. And the new stories, although narratively interesting, are counteracted by enforced non-existent difficulty to an extent, which isn't bearable anymore.

I won't stop playing (yet), but decided not to buy the next chapter. The story zone is exclusively made for new players and give veterans nothing to do, so why pay for it? The gear will be useless again anyways.

Also in 2023 the most interesting content was f2p.

thedocbwarren

Cooperharley wrote: »

The problem with replies here is that ESO is going to large cater to both single player RPG TES fans AND MMO fans. A lot of people are going to say that ESO is the best (which I believe too) because theyre big elder scrolls fans and also just happen to enjoy the MMO elements.

If you look at ESO as an MMO first, it absolutely is missing a lot of solid features that the biggest MMOs in the game, namely FF14 and WoW currently have. If ESO objectively was the best MMO, we would have the most people playing it. We do not and thats a fact. AND THATS OK! BUT, also keep in mind OP that the content cadence in which ESO releases new stuff is more frequent than those other games too. Now I agree, years where we just got something like companions or the card game were dry as h**l and that sucked. But, if anything, I think Necrom and beyond has shown what ZOS is capable of and thats simply greatness. Update 40 was absolutely incredible and added so much to the game. Don't count them out yet!

Big faith in ZOS & definitely restored after this past year (PvE main though fyi - if i was a PvP main I'd be having a temper tantrum 100%)

This is the reason. Two games smashed into one. PvP seems to get the most complaints. I'm a PvE-er and love the game. I think we can see more repeatable content in the story line. I'd even slow down the content that is combat only, mechanical, and arenas. See what I mean? The picture is super different based on context. Guarantee the PvP player-base wants a cool MMO (maybe in TES world or not) with more of the opposite. That's the issue IMHO, two games smashed together.

I don't know what the exact answer is as it's a business decision. I'm guessing they are keeping the PvP where it is as to keep the player base as happy as they can and using what resources they have to make content. They can only do what they can based on economics, cost, and available resources. That, guessing, seems to be small mixes of PvP and PvE to expand a bit as they have time, money, and resources to handle.

I don't know what the situation would look like if they split these two off and launched as separate games. Maybe better focus (assuming they did so?) No idea.

Soarora

kargen27 wrote: »

My point of view is the other MMOs are trying to catch up with ESO.

For better or for worse, this seems accurate. I know people and have seen people actively try to find other MMOs to play because they don't like ESO but they keep coming back because there's nothing better right now.

barney2525

I don't care what they add
I've attempted FF XIV on 4 different occasions. Everytime I went to do research on things, I goy the same answers.
"everything speeds up after level 50"
I slogged through 20 and was bored to tears so I quit. Here's combat: aim fire coooooool dooooowwwwnnnnnn aim fire coooooooool dowwwwwwwwwwn
you have to finish 50 levels just to be able to get to a point where its more like Normal combat?
Blah

Not to mention their housing is impossible for a new player to obtain

DrNukenstein

-FF14 just has a bunch of classes. There are no builds. It is linear in it's progression

-Dragonflight talent rework was so good. The open world PVP, so good. They are pathologically incapable of locking their level cap, and are doing the same exact things they said they wanted to avoid when they first divided damage by 10, then dropped the level cap from like 200 down to 60. On PVP, this game has a ton to learn from how Blizzard does business there. In terms of designing good long term systems, bad.

-Then there's one out there right now with great deliberate combat with a balancing team so bad that you just want to steal their jobs. The combat devs here couldn't conceive of a meta as bad as that game has right now, nor could they possibly swing the pendulum back and forth as wide as those guys do. Then the PvE is just dark souls but eezy-peezy.

The truth is no multiplayer game has theory crafting as deep as, respects their playerbase enough to not make their gear expire every expansion, and/or even has a more cohesive vision of how they want their game to work than ZOS. Not even shilling right now. I keep coming back and staying because this game doesn't have those problems (or handles them significantly better)



@ZOS Keep doing what you're doing, you're great. But please give the PvP community something nice this year,

Foxtrot39

Well there is only ONE TES based MMO atm so finding something that has the same TES feel (universe) is rather hard

But to be frank, if it wasn't a TES game, would it be still be as popular?

Panderbander

Foxtrot39 wrote: »

Well there is only ONE TES based MMO atm so finding something that has the same TES feel (universe) is rather hard

But to be frank, if it wasn't a TES game, would it be still be as popular?

I think it would not. I personally know a few people--myself included--that only gave it a try because it was TES-themed. Heck, I was even in the beta and super excited because I loved the TES games so much and really no other reason.

DirtyDeeds765

LAST gen consoles, DECADE old consoles need to have support shut off for them so the game can be remade. That should be a big part of the 10 year global reveal event.

@DirtyDeeds765

TaSheen

DirtyDeeds765 wrote: »

LAST gen consoles, DECADE old consoles need to have support shut off for them so the game can be remade. That should be a big part of the 10 year global reveal event.

@DirtyDeeds765

Well.... also antique PCs (in my case 9 years old - which yes, I am replacing). New gaming rig downstairs in the basement, waiting for me to get through husband's RAFT of doctors' appointments this month so I have time to actually think about how I'm going to set the new one up etc. I KNOW I'm low level formatting the SSD to get rid of win11 and the attendant bloatware, then installing win10 (bought the latest version available last month). After that.... well, installing the number of programs I use all the time will take a while....

Game should be a treat once I'm up and running though! NVIDIA GeForce 4060 TI, on my 2 4k screens, yum....

Nihilr

DirtyDeeds765 wrote: »

LAST gen consoles, DECADE old consoles need to have support shut off for them so the game can be remade. That should be a big part of the 10 year global reveal event.

@DirtyDeeds765

People keep saying the game needs graphical updates, and the devs said in multiple interviews that we can't get new weapons/skills due to console limitations.

100% because we aren't dropping the deadweight that we are limiting the potential of this game.

Sakiri

I quit playing wow because they keep adding petty junk to keep you playing instead of letting you do what you feel like doing. Constant huge numbers of rep grinds, some of them pretty awful, etc. It didn't help that the pug community is a huge toxic pile of ick that I just couldn't be bothered to deal with. I didn't even like doing dungeon finder to finish quests and I'm not a fan of mythic plus so my endgame was incredibly limited.

Here I have housing and skill point farming and just randomly doing stuff with my friend. The community is nicer(not perfect but much better) among other things, and I'm not forced to grind out reputations.

Sakiri

barney2525 wrote: »

I don't care what they add
I've attempted FF XIV on 4 different occasions. Everytime I went to do research on things, I goy the same answers.
"everything speeds up after level 50"
I slogged through 20 and was bored to tears so I quit. Here's combat: aim fire coooooool dooooowwwwnnnnnn aim fire coooooooool dowwwwwwwwwwn
you have to finish 50 levels just to be able to get to a point where its more like Normal combat?
Blah

Not to mention their housing is impossible for a new player to obtain

I actually let my sub expire after a few years.

I lost a house. I don't care. lol A house I put tens of millions of gil into.

ArchangelIsraphel

GooGa592 wrote: »

The PvP community is praying for a decent alternative to ESO. We don't care about anything but combat and mechanics. One or two games come out with decent PvP and ESO will see a significant loss of players.

I mean, maybe some people in the PVP community are, if PVP is all they care about. But there are members of the PVP community who care quite deeply about the rest of the game, and the stories/other aspects of the game are what fuel their drive to PVP and add to their enjoyment. So no, I wouldn't say all of us feel that way. I didn't invest my time in my AvA ranks and learning how to fight because I don't care about the rest of the game- I care about all of it. Broken as it is, ESO PVP is more fun than half of the PVP games I've played.

Do I want Cyrodiil to get the attention it deserves? Yes. Yes I do. But there are plenty of other parts of the game I and those I run with care about other than combat and mechanics. I do, however, agree that the PVP side of this game is in trouble, and has been for a long time. It's unfortunate because Cyrodiil's goal oriented PVP is actually incredibly fun compared to the PVP offered in other games. It deserves polish. If the Devs would only give it the time it deserves, we would have a far healthier PVP population.

I'm not leaving over it, however, because the game offers quite a bit in other respects that other PVP centric games do not.

I'd don't particularly care or even pay attention to what other games are doing, they are all fighting the same fight as ESO. How do I keep my player base as well as expand upon it.

This. I could care less what other games expansions are. I'm playing ESO because I want to play ESO. I don't need ESO to be WoW or FF. (Which is funny, because I'm a huge FF fan, but I don't particularly care for the tab target combat in the FF mmo)

LAST gen consoles, DECADE old consoles need to have support shut off for them so the game can be remade. That should be a big part of the 10 year global reveal event.

Ouch. Ok, so, this is a rough one since I partially agree with this sentiment. It has been said before that the reason certain limitations for housing are in place is because of consoles, and I hate to say it, but yeah...these older consoles are holding ESO back in more ways than one, and I'd love to see those limitations lifted. (I mean...continue to support old consoles but lift the limitations for PC? PC is capable of so much, and its being gimped when we aren't even cross platform.)

I do feel for those who play on those older consoles though, and don't really want to see them suddenly loose access to their accounts/a game they love simply because of aesthetics

However, sometimes graphical upgrades really go south and actually cause the loss of players. Especially when the characters or character creator is affected and characters people have had for years no longer look like themselves due to drastic changes in shading and lighting. I've played several MMO's where a graphical...eh..."upgrade" was put out, which caused the characters to look godawful, and people couldn't even make the characters look the way they used to again because the changes were so different from everything the game was before.

Since this is an MMO that heavily promotes roleplay, and we have a huge roleplay community, the characters and their appearance is VERY important. I wouldn't doubt that we'd see a lot of angry people if the characters they've been playing for a decade get destroyed.

But...long story short...I don't think ESO is truly in as bad a state as people seem to think it is, and I don't think it's trying to keep up with the Joneses. I actually feel as if WoW and FF are lacking a lot of things which ESO does extremely well. (I'd be playing this game even if it wasn't TES themed, because TES wasn't what attracted me to this game- the immense potential for customization, housing, and questing was. I discovered a love for TES through ESO.)

TaSheen

Yep. WoW's last straw with me was making my characters NOT look like they should look. I've never been back, and won't ever touch it or any other blizz game again.

Actually, that last straw had various components, though the character catastrophe (for me) was a major issue. WoD and the "battle keeps" (or whatever they were actually called - no idea, can't remember now) were also parts of that straw load. There is actually a point in any game's life where someone is going to say "Nope. Not only NO, but HELL NO." WoW lasted longer for me than anything other than single player Skyrim - but ESO is gnawing a hole in that span of years. It's getting close to beating how long I spent in WoW.

And so far, ESO hasn't done anything to make me inclined to say "I'm leaving and I won't be back". I've had a few issues with some of the chapters. I had and have no use for the Western Skyrim/Markarth year. I didn't like the argonian content in Blackwood - but I wanted Water's Edge without spending crowns, so did that content twice, though it certainly wasn't "engaging" or anything I would have chosen to play - without having a selfishly cheap reason for doing so.

I'm looking forward to this year's content and the upcoming reveal.

[Edited for stupid]

NeuroticPixels

Sakiri wrote: »

I'm not forced to grind out reputations.

🥴 I liked grinding reputations. But… I like grinding in MMOs. 🤷‍♀️

Nightowl_74

I think ESO has a solid player base because it attracts a large number of people who wouldn't normally play an MMO, that are fans of the franchise or of solo play. So, it doesn't keep up and doesn't really need to in order to satisfy most players. People like myself, who enjoy multiple MMO's, are around but we're the minority. That's my take, anyway.

DreamyLu

I don't think that ESO should try to keep up with other MMORPGs. It's non sense. ESO is a different game, sort of alone in its category. It can't be compared to others. What ESO offers is different and I rather believe they should keep that specificity and work inline with it for the future.

Technically, ESO game content is small (no flying content, no jumping content, no mount content, no water content and so on...). It would be a race lost in advance trying to add all that now. I'm not even sure if it would be technically - and financially - possible. Assuming that they could do it technically, the invest would be enormous and it would probably seem "basic" compared to the advanced status of that same sort of content existing since years in the other MMOs. In the end, it would probably be detrimental.

So, as said, ESO is special, has its player base who love exactly that and I think that's why it survives well aside of the blockbusters. They should focus on keeping this "way of life" and add new stuff matching with it.

Alinhbo_Tyaka

Sakiri wrote: »

barney2525 wrote: »

I don't care what they add
I've attempted FF XIV on 4 different occasions. Everytime I went to do research on things, I goy the same answers.
"everything speeds up after level 50"
I slogged through 20 and was bored to tears so I quit. Here's combat: aim fire coooooool dooooowwwwnnnnnn aim fire coooooooool dowwwwwwwwwwn
you have to finish 50 levels just to be able to get to a point where its more like Normal combat?
Blah

Not to mention their housing is impossible for a new player to obtain

I actually let my sub expire after a few years.

I lost a house. I don't care. lol A house I put tens of millions of gil into.

Housing in FF XIV was/is my big disappointment in the game. I lost a house as well and the couple of times I've gone back to play I decided to not get back on that treadmill. I've always been fine with instanced housing and will say one of ESOs better points is I don't lose my houses if I'm not playing.

Sakiri

NeuroticPixels wrote: »

Sakiri wrote: »

I'm not forced to grind out reputations.

🥴 I liked grinding reputations. But… I like grinding in MMOs. 🤷‍♀️

I like grinding for things I want. Cosmetics, houses and housing items, xp.

I do not like grinding reputation because it's mandatory for raid gear or crafting patterns, or in the latest expansion, story content.