Try ESO Classic

darvaria · May 22

Yes that's right. Exactly as the beginning with players starting with 0 CP. Push this and see how many new players you will pick up from other MMO's. And returning players.

WOW is making out well rerolling old games.

Dracane · May 22

Classic ESO does not hold the same level of nostalgia. It was not a cultural phenomenon like WoW was when it released.
A classic ESO would likely even be harmful to the game, in particular pvp. You really don't want to split these player numbers.

Objectively speaking, ESO is a much better game now. Classic ESO had no trials, no skillines like thieves guild, brotherhood, psijic, no housing, battelgrounds and 100 other things. People have much to say about the state of combat/class balance, as do I. I miss block canceling and some of the wilder mechanics that were either removed or streamlined, but I am not blind enough to believe ESO was better on release or in the years following its release.

Nostalgic though I may be for that time.

tincanman · May 22

Vet ranks? Character specific achievements? No level scaling? Inability to group with friends due to alliance/other restrictions? ...

Only one on that very short list of features from yesteryear interest me and I suspect it's the one that zos will never return to.

SkaraMinoc · May 22

Classic ESO will never happen.

Vanilla WoW was objectively better than Retail WoW and hundreds of thousands of players were playing private servers. So they made Classic. This was only because they had a Senior Engineer who worked on Vanilla and every expansion with intimate knowledge of the game architecture and systems. They were able to import all the old game code and data files into the modern WoW client and server. Otherwise Classic would have never happened.

Vanilla ESO was objectively worse than Retail ESO and hundreds of thousands of players are not playing private servers. It's also likely impossible to import the old ESO game files into the modern ESO client and server. It's best for the game and for the players if ZOS focuses their resources on the future and not trying to modernize the past.

Which one is WoW and which one is ESO? It should be obvious why one of them should not have Classic.

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Orbital78 · May 22

I'd rather they work on improving performance than lowering it. Also your crown store purchases don't carry over between servers, which is one of the reasons I don't use EU servers.

ArchangelIsraphel · May 22

Classic Servers are usually a money-grab that plays on nostalgia, featuring terrible monetization.

I don't know about WoW classic, I've never really played WoW in spite of remembering when it launched and all of the hype around it. But other games I've played where classic servers were launched, took the opportunity to monetize many features of the game that were formerly standard parts of the classic game. They weren't "true" classic servers in any sense- they were "Pay to unlock the features you used to love" servers.

One game I used to adore even monetized earning gold, so that after an hour of play, if you hadn't bought a premium pass, you could no longer earn gold or exp because you "ran out of energy"....a feature that was never part of the original MMORPG.

While I don't think ZOS would do anything close to that bad, I'm sure they'd monetize a classic server in some way that would make them much different from the original. And honestly, given how much Retail ESO has improved over time, I highly doubt a classic server would draw much attention at all, if any.

I don't think there's anything particularly striking or nostalgic about "classic" ESO. I'm not even sure what you think is classic, what time period in the games history are we discussing?

Danikat · May 22

I've never played WoW but as I understand it a big part of the appeal of WoW Classic is that the changes in that game were much more extensive than just adding or re-working mechanics and balance, or even adding new levels and gear. Entire areas of the world were redesigned in some expansions so quest hubs were changed or removed and all their quests were gone. Classic is a way for players to experience whole areas of the game they hadn't been able to see for years.

ESO hasn't done that. They changed where you start, but even then the original tutorial and main story are still available. (Yes I know the Coldharbour tutorial has been redesigned a few times, but that's little things like changing how the tutorial sections explain mechanics and how you choose weapons, the story and theme are still the same.) All the original base game quests and areas are still in the game and fully playable so there wouldn't be anything for players to rediscover (or discover for the first time) in a Classic version.

Also as mentioned ESO at launch was not great and it's gotten a lot better over time. Yes it might be a fun novelty to play without CP, but I suspect it would be outweighed by the annoyance of grinding vet levels and being locked into specific maps while you do, only having 1 active mount and having to go to a stable to swap them (and having to train each mount on each character instead of just the character), not being able to play with people from other Alliances at all, not being able to dye armour and weapons or costumes (and having very few costumes available) and all the other stuff I've forgotten or not listed. Not to mention all the bugs and balance issues that would come back too.

darvaria · May 22

Yeah I've left ESO for extended periods of time. I really enjoyed WOW classic and WOTLK classic. SOD was okay but they keep changing game mechanics.

Just wish for something that would be fun like the beginning. I suppose some people get to a point where nothing in any of these games is fun any more.

TaSheen · May 22

My daughter and SIL play WoW Classic - a bit, not very much by now. When they told me they were starting it, I was like "Good lord! If it's at all like vanilla WoW, it's just going to be as painful as vanilla was!" I played vanilla to begin with. And it was PAINFUL. Once I finally got to 60 and then to flying mounts, I would NEVER have gone back to all the pain points in classic....

Actually, I've done what OP is talking about without needing "ESO classic". I again started a new account (this is my 4th one) so one character on each PC megaserver, no cp, low levels as yet, no help from my other three accounts, gear only as found.

It works fine - because I know how it works. I don't actually know if people (other than those similar to me) would want to pay to start at square one again.... and for me it's not an issue because I have 12 cp 160+ characters on my other accounts, so if I'm feeling constrained by a lowbie, I just go run around on my max level girls for a while.

Juju_beans · May 22

ESO isn't that kind of game....

There's so much more investment outside of just "leveling up" like other games.

fizzylu · May 22

Blizzard might be benefiting from Classic WoW, but the game really isn't. All it's done is solidify a divide in the player base and create even more feelings of detachment towards retail/current WoW.
And like many have kind of said here, ESO was trash when it first launched. And Zenimax can barely keep the current console and PC versions of ESO afloat.... I can't imagine how bad things would get if they had to worry about a whole nother option of each one as well.

FelisCatus · May 22

No, thanks. The game is better now that in was in the past (content and mechanically speaking).

Artim_X · May 22

Everything good about ESO is from the devs seeing what players like and adding it into the game with quality-of-life features. IMHO ESO classic would be rubbish.

Elsonso · May 22

darvaria wrote: »

Yes that's right. Exactly as the beginning with players starting with 0 CP. Push this and see how many new players you will pick up from other MMO's. And returning players.

Honestly, this might be a good idea if you want to have an online single player game.

There are too many improvements to the game for them to do a classic version. I can't see that it would be that popular.

Hapexamendios · May 22

I have no interest going back to the old system.

moderatelyfatman · May 23

If you ask all the long term players in ESO when was the best era to play the game, you won't get a unified response beyond "Before Patch 35'.

Tenthirty2 · May 23

Only if it's creation and support wouldn't take resources away from fixing and improving the current-state game.

Personally I'd prolly try it once just to get a renewed appreciation for what we DO have now in-game.
I've not been with ESO since launch, only a few years, but every person I've ever read describing what it was like in the beginning, just... NOPE.

I have done what a few others mentioned, creating a fresh account and on another server with no ties to my main.
It is fun, brings back the memories somewhat and adds challenge being low level but without access to a massive pile of resources.

But personally I think it's just a "new-toon\vet player" thing with me, the climb is what is fun now. And I can do that even under my main account, just discipline myself to keep my hand out of the account cookie jar

It's a lot more fun now having the knowledge of how things work and running into dragon or WB fights at level 4. Really forces you to use basic abilities and resources well.

Sakiri · May 23

moderatelyfatman wrote: »

If you ask all the long term players in ESO when was the best era to play the game, you won't get a unified response beyond "Before Patch 35'.

My account predates launch and I don't agree here.

Take it as you will.

WhiteCoatSyndrome · May 23

I don’t miss the Plump Rodent Toes, having Vet recipes drop at low level or lack of outfit customization (even ignoring the fact that we only had a little over a dozen options as far as Motifs way back when)!

ClowdyAllDay · May 23

so that would be morrowind, oblivion and skyrim?

CrazyKitty · May 23

moderatelyfatman wrote: »

If you ask all the long term players in ESO when was the best era to play the game, you won't get a unified response beyond "Before Patch 35'.

Just about everything regarding ESO was better pre U35. *cough* jabs animation....

ssewallb14_ESO · May 23

While I agree with the general sentiment of this thread,

I think Cyrodiil classic with ESO 1.5 would be a cool novelty, just because the game's PvP played very different back then, and it might be a cool contrast to what we have now.

Like just give everyone a PTS template with the handful of sets in the game back then, and make it Cyrodiil only.

I bet a lot of long lost players might give it a try, and maybe some newer players who never experienced the game before 1.6 and want a different take on ESO.

kargen27 · May 23

ssewallb14_ESO wrote: »

While I agree with the general sentiment of this thread,

I think Cyrodiil classic with ESO 1.5 would be a cool novelty, just because the game's PvP played very different back then, and it might be a cool contrast to what we have now.

Like just give everyone a PTS template with the handful of sets in the game back then, and make it Cyrodiil only.

I bet a lot of long lost players might give it a try, and maybe some newer players who never experienced the game before 1.6 and want a different take on ESO.

If you take the game back to where PvP was smooth you are also taking the game back to when players using cheat engine could fly and cast constant meteors on their enemies below.

Necrotech_Master · May 23

sure lets just go back to a time when you had to buy mounts individually for each character, no jewelry crafting, no trials, faction-locked PVE, level scaled zones, no dlc dungeons, no craglorn, no IC, etc (/sarcasm)

while i did not think the game was as terrible as people were reviewing it back then, i also would not want to go back to that time and lose all of the current quality of life features and expanded content

ssewallb14_ESO · May 23

kargen27 wrote: »

ssewallb14_ESO wrote: »

While I agree with the general sentiment of this thread,

I think Cyrodiil classic with ESO 1.5 would be a cool novelty, just because the game's PvP played very different back then, and it might be a cool contrast to what we have now.

Like just give everyone a PTS template with the handful of sets in the game back then, and make it Cyrodiil only.

I bet a lot of long lost players might give it a try, and maybe some newer players who never experienced the game before 1.6 and want a different take on ESO.

If you take the game back to where PvP was smooth you are also taking the game back to when players using cheat engine could fly and cast constant meteors on their enemies below.

Speaking more in terms of combat design than performance. The game was very resource management focused, as opposed to just burst and pressure that have defined the PvP gameplay for nearly 9 years. This would be totally foreign to a substantial amount of the player base. Something like that could be ported to the current engine, sans the various animation changes.

furiouslog · May 23

If they actually do ESO Classic, I look forward to still being stuck in Rivenspire a year after release.

ZOS_Kevin · May 23

Hi all, just wanted to chime in here. No plans for anything like an "ESO Classic" at this time. We've investing in new experiences in our existing ESO game and investing in quality of life improvements overall. That way, everyone can have the best experience possible when playing new and older content.

However, we'll always pass on feedback to know if this is a growing desire among the player base.

furiouslog · May 23

NO THIS IS NOT A GROWING DESIRE

JoeCapricorn · May 23

The nostalgia element would be the only draw. Things are so different and in many ways far better now, that going back to the early state would just be for a kicks and giggles novelty and nothing more.

In like, 50 years, when the servers are shut down for the final time, it would be bittersweet to have an offline version of ESO available, perhaps with private servers - or enthusiasts seeking the nostalgia of it all.

At least, I'd still like to revisit this game when I am 87.

Credible_Joe · May 23

JoeCapricorn wrote: »

The nostalgia element would be the only draw.

Also playing overland and story content with the threat of failure. So, two draws, if you're among those that don't like the trivial difficulty non-group content has.

That being said, it's not something worth giving up all the other gameplay and QOL updates we've had since. I don't think I'd enjoy much about ESO classic; in fact, the only negative change I can think of was scaling overland difficulty to faceroll levels for everyone in 1-Tamriel. Might be accessible, but the technical cliff new players face when transitioning from solo to group content is extremely unforgiving. If there's no feedback for what gameplay approaches are effective or ineffective when it doesn't matter, learning it when it does matter will be a bad experience.

OtarTheMad · May 23

I think sometimes we look at ESO back in 2014 with rose colored glasses. Sure, it was great but it was also new, players were itching for more TES after Skyrim. However, I don’t think the original ESO game would have lasted 10 years if it didn’t become this one.

We had forced group content that everyone hated and made soloing thru vet zones maddening, Craglorn was primarily a place to grind, quests that needed another player to beat the boss but you had to be precisely at the same moment, VR ranks, leveled zones, adventure zones were primary DLC… I remember when one of the higher devs who left said that Wrothgar was the only single player zone coming out for a while, no housing, no BGs, no Hard Modes, barely any trials, a different attribute system, no CP, no Psijic order skill line, no jewelry crafting, no outfit system and just so much more.

I know that if ESO had continued down that path like originally planned I wouldn’t have kept playing once I finished Wrothgar. In fact, back then before they shifted focus and strategy, I did plan on quitting and moving onto another game.