Twohothardware wrote: »Stafford197 wrote: »Twohothardware wrote: »You guys grossly overestimate the amount of botting that takes place on this game. It's literally the same couple of people running a handful of bots on the regular or spamming zone chat to sell gold. It's not some vast network because the profitability for making real money on this game is incredibly low at this stage of the games life and with the player counts.
The only way the amount of bots/trade scammers/gold sellers would explode on this game is if the popularity of ESO also exploded. And I for one would welcome a large influx of new players even if it meant the need to police a few more bots and gold sellers because there is numerous other ways Zenimax could deal with them.
Also, the game is free to play on all platforms for the next two weeks. The game should be inundated with bots, hackers, and scammers based on some of these comments but it won't be because of the lack of popularity and profitability. Those are the two things keeping botting low, not the $5 price for a game key.
A “large influx of new players” is not happening for a decade old game like this.
Final Fantasy XIV Online is the most popular MMO, it's just as old as ESO, it's free to play, and on Steam in June 2024 it hit near it's all time peak high player count.
https://steamcharts.com/app/39210
It's also a game that I've returned to from time to time and each time I've logged in I've been instantly swamped with approaches from gold sellers, and I've logged straight out again. I don't want that in ESO.
Well I hope they don't make it free.
I already paid for my account
For performance reasons, I'd prefer less players.
Stafford197 wrote: »Exactly, the game is just not ready to be F2P yet. If it continues on this downward trend all throughout 2024, and it even persists throughout 2025, then this conversation will be a serious consideration.
But there’s still time to turn things around. The 2025 chapter needs to be a massive improvement though.
It's also a game that I've returned to from time to time and each time I've logged in I've been instantly swamped with approaches from gold sellers, and I've logged straight out again. I don't want that in ESO.
Interesting. It's never been my sort of game, so I've never even looked at it though several friends, and my daughter and younger granddaughter love it. It's too anime-slanted for me. Friends and family haven't mentioned gold sellers, but it's likely they do whatever is needed to limit chat etc in the game (we're all rather insular when it comes to game chat stuff, no matter the game).
spartaxoxo wrote: »
It's also a game that I've returned to from time to time and each time I've logged in I've been instantly swamped with approaches from gold sellers, and I've logged straight out again. I don't want that in ESO.
Interesting. It's never been my sort of game, so I've never even looked at it though several friends, and my daughter and younger granddaughter love it. It's too anime-slanted for me. Friends and family haven't mentioned gold sellers, but it's likely they do whatever is needed to limit chat etc in the game (we're all rather insular when it comes to game chat stuff, no matter the game).
Same here. I prefer my fantasy world more grounded. It is why I latched onto games like Elder Scrolls and Gothic all those years ago. I came from a fantasy mindset built from Dungeons & Dragons, Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser, and Elric.
valenwood_vegan wrote: »For whatever it's worth, my memory of the free Epic giveaway is mainly that I went through all my characters and blocked zone chat because of the huge increase in RMT spam. And crown gifting had to be completely disabled like a couple months later (I of course cannot definitively say whether this was related, however).
It also definitely increased the player population, but this effect seemed to be rather short lived... at least, the new players I met or who appeared in my guilds all fizzled out very quickly. To me, this suggests that it could be more beneficial to improve the new player experience and create bold new content to keep those players interested, rather than make the game free.
Ultimately, no one here has the kind of actual data needed to determine whether the Epic thing was a success, but the fact that ZoS has not repeated it or expanded it to other platforms might suggest that it was not.
TheMajority wrote: »nah to keep the quality of players the best, the game should not be f2p, you will get players who think cheating in scamming is ok if they can just make a bunch of new accounts to do that with. and there would be a lot of other troubles besides.
Twohothardware wrote: »valenwood_vegan wrote: »For whatever it's worth, my memory of the free Epic giveaway is mainly that I went through all my characters and blocked zone chat because of the huge increase in RMT spam. And crown gifting had to be completely disabled like a couple months later (I of course cannot definitively say whether this was related, however).
It also definitely increased the player population, but this effect seemed to be rather short lived... at least, the new players I met or who appeared in my guilds all fizzled out very quickly. To me, this suggests that it could be more beneficial to improve the new player experience and create bold new content to keep those players interested, rather than make the game free.
Ultimately, no one here has the kind of actual data needed to determine whether the Epic thing was a success, but the fact that ZoS has not repeated it or expanded it to other platforms might suggest that it was not.
The Epic giveaway was limited to only one week on one platform in July which is usually a slower month and they didn't accompany it with any worthwhile DLC release. And most of those zone chat spammers you seen were likely already there prior to the event and simply amped up their zone posts to try and catch the new players coming in. Most veterans on the game don't buy in-game gold.
Free to play is the future of multiplayer games which is why so many big titles are moving to offer some version of it. But you have to provide a presentation of your game to those new players that put your content in the best light possible and as you stated the new player experience on ESO is not great right now.
Twohothardware wrote: »While it's great that there is a free to play event Quakecon through August 19th, the base game should be free to play on all platforms at this point. We need increased player counts on especially console since there's no crossplay and the player base is split up 6 ways between 3 platforms and 2 regions each.
You make money off the DLC purchases, the Crown Store purchases, and the monthly ESO+ sub, so make the base game free and grow the population on the game.
https://www.elderscrollsonline.com/en-us/freeplay
^^^ make this permanent
The last time that I played, there were significantly more players, in the areas that I play in.spartaxoxo wrote: »
That affected my game play performance. Specifically, a drop in frame rate from 24 fps to an unplayable 6 fps.
That is my experience. Be thankful that it's not yours.
It's also a game that I've returned to from time to time and each time I've logged in I've been instantly swamped with approaches from gold sellers, and I've logged straight out again. I don't want that in ESO.
Interesting. It's never been my sort of game, so I've never even looked at it though several friends, and my daughter and younger granddaughter love it. It's too anime-slanted for me. Friends and family haven't mentioned gold sellers, but it's likely they do whatever is needed to limit chat etc in the game (we're all rather insular when it comes to game chat stuff, no matter the game).
Same here. I prefer my fantasy world more grounded. It is why I latched onto games like Elder Scrolls and Gothic all those years ago. I came from a fantasy mindset built from Dungeons & Dragons, Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser, and Elric.
Oh, me as well! Though my first introduction to high fantasy was Tolkien, back when I was in high school (mid-60s).
Twohothardware wrote: »You guys grossly overestimate the amount of botting that takes place on this game. It's literally the same couple of people running a handful of bots on the regular or spamming zone chat to sell gold. It's not some vast network because the profitability for making real money on this game is incredibly low at this stage of the games life and with the player counts.
The only way the amount of bots/trade scammers/gold sellers would explode on this game is if the popularity of ESO also exploded. And I for one would welcome a large influx of new players even if it meant the need to police a few more bots and gold sellers because there is numerous other ways Zenimax could deal with them.
Also, the game is free to play on all platforms for the next two weeks. The game should be inundated with bots, hackers, and scammers based on some of these comments but it won't be because of the lack of popularity and profitability. Those are the two things keeping botting low, not the $5 price for a game key.
Twohothardware wrote: »While it's great that there is a free to play event Quakecon through August 19th, the base game should be free to play on all platforms at this point. We need increased player counts on especially console since there's no crossplay and the player base is split up 6 ways between 3 platforms and 2 regions each.
You make money off the DLC purchases, the Crown Store purchases, and the monthly ESO+ sub, so make the base game free and grow the population on the game.
https://www.elderscrollsonline.com/en-us/freeplay
^^^ make this permanent
Twohothardware wrote: »While it's great that there is a free to play event Quakecon through August 19th, the base game should be free to play on all platforms at this point. We need increased player counts on especially console since there's no crossplay and the player base is split up 6 ways between 3 platforms and 2 regions each.
You make money off the DLC purchases, the Crown Store purchases, and the monthly ESO+ sub, so make the base game free and grow the population on the game.
https://www.elderscrollsonline.com/en-us/freeplay
^^^ make this permanent
I don't think it would matter.
For any new player, ESO is less engaging than Tetris. Everything is trivial. The game griefs you if you don't have an ESO+ Subscription.
I bought an IRL friend the base game, most expansions and some DLC and he still quit within a month because of this stuff.
I don't blame him. Part of the reason why I tried so hard to get him to play was because of how GD Bored I was of it. It just isn't engaging.
So we went to GW2, and that has been working wonderfully (and it's a lot cheaper than ESO).
Twohothardware wrote: »While it's great that there is a free to play event Quakecon through August 19th, the base game should be free to play on all platforms at this point. We need increased player counts on especially console since there's no crossplay and the player base is split up 6 ways between 3 platforms and 2 regions each.
You make money off the DLC purchases, the Crown Store purchases, and the monthly ESO+ sub, so make the base game free and grow the population on the game.
https://www.elderscrollsonline.com/en-us/freeplay
^^^ make this permanent
I don't think it would matter.
For any new player, ESO is less engaging than Tetris. Everything is trivial. The game griefs you if you don't have an ESO+ Subscription.
I bought an IRL friend the base game, most expansions and some DLC and he still quit within a month because of this stuff.
I don't blame him. Part of the reason why I tried so hard to get him to play was because of how GD Bored I was of it. It just isn't engaging.
So we went to GW2, and that has been working wonderfully (and it's a lot cheaper than ESO).
Different games appeal to different audiences, and there's no problem with that. Personally, I've never stuck GW2 for more than a month at a time because as a MMORPG-lite its content is too trivial for me.
Each to his/her own. The important thing is that developers don't try and change their game to appeal to a different game's audience, that way they never attract a new audience but simply drive away their existing one.
This its on the top 50 list for sold on steam who is wild for an 10 year old game.spartaxoxo wrote: »It really doesn't. This game is one of the highest performing MMOs even now.
Twohothardware wrote: »While it's great that there is a free to play event Quakecon through August 19th, the base game should be free to play on all platforms at this point. We need increased player counts on especially console since there's no crossplay and the player base is split up 6 ways between 3 platforms and 2 regions each.
You make money off the DLC purchases, the Crown Store purchases, and the monthly ESO+ sub, so make the base game free and grow the population on the game.
https://www.elderscrollsonline.com/en-us/freeplay
^^^ make this permanent
I don't think it would matter.
For any new player, ESO is less engaging than Tetris. Everything is trivial. The game griefs you if you don't have an ESO+ Subscription.
I bought an IRL friend the base game, most expansions and some DLC and he still quit within a month because of this stuff.
I don't blame him. Part of the reason why I tried so hard to get him to play was because of how GD Bored I was of it. It just isn't engaging.
So we went to GW2, and that has been working wonderfully (and it's a lot cheaper than ESO).
Different games appeal to different audiences, and there's no problem with that. Personally, I've never stuck GW2 for more than a month at a time because as a MMORPG-lite its content is too trivial for me.
Each to his/her own. The important thing is that developers don't try and change their game to appeal to a different game's audience, that way they never attract a new audience but simply drive away their existing one.
Twohothardware wrote: »While it's great that there is a free to play event Quakecon through August 19th, the base game should be free to play on all platforms at this point. We need increased player counts on especially console since there's no crossplay and the player base is split up 6 ways between 3 platforms and 2 regions each.
You make money off the DLC purchases, the Crown Store purchases, and the monthly ESO+ sub, so make the base game free and grow the population on the game.
https://www.elderscrollsonline.com/en-us/freeplay
^^^ make this permanent
I don't think it would matter.
For any new player, ESO is less engaging than Tetris. Everything is trivial. The game griefs you if you don't have an ESO+ Subscription.
I bought an IRL friend the base game, most expansions and some DLC and he still quit within a month because of this stuff.
I don't blame him. Part of the reason why I tried so hard to get him to play was because of how GD Bored I was of it. It just isn't engaging.
So we went to GW2, and that has been working wonderfully (and it's a lot cheaper than ESO).
Different games appeal to different audiences, and there's no problem with that. Personally, I've never stuck GW2 for more than a month at a time because as a MMORPG-lite its content is too trivial for me.
Each to his/her own. The important thing is that developers don't try and change their game to appeal to a different game's audience, that way they never attract a new audience but simply drive away their existing one.
I've been playing ESO since it was a subscription game, like a month after release.
It has nothing to do with different games and different audiences. It's just a boring game to play unless you're playing organized end-game PvE (e.g. Trials) or PvP (which has its own set of issues).
[
It has nothing to do with different games and different audiences. It's just a boring game to play unless you're playing organized end-game PvE (e.g. Trials) or PvP (which has its own set of issues).
Nope.[
It has nothing to do with different games and different audiences. It's just a boring game to play unless you're playing organized end-game PvE (e.g. Trials) or PvP (which has its own set of issues).
Your first sentence rejects my point, while your second sentence substantiates it.
That's great to hear... At that point in my life, I'd probably be fine with it, as well ;-)I don't play (have no interest in) "organized end-game PVE or PVP", and I'm never bored in this game. I've also never been bored a day in my entire 76 years....
II think some of these early-game issues are fairly unique to ESO. They have made the game easier to appeal to casuals, while stripping out much of the sense of progression that RPG games were known for, and it has the opposite effect for many people because it makes the grind no better than watching paint dry. You're basically logging in simply because you have to, while getting little to nothing out of it... but you still feel forced to do so because you need the CPs or what not.
This person grinded up to almost 800 CPs (certainly over 700) so it is not for lack of trying. At the end he just ended up running around Craglorn because nothing else seemed worth bothering with, Lol.
That's the problem with making it free. It's not engaging enough anymore. People stay on because they spent the money; if they got it free, they might leave as soon as the minor annoyances and boredom combined into apathy.
A few players here boast that that don't do PvP or engage in the 'Guild Trading' system, yet they also claim to have been here for 10 years or more and have more characters than I've had hot dinners.
I literally can't imagine what these people do in their game time, apart from the same game play over and over again. At least with farming, you get differing results; doing the same quests multiple times on different characters would soon bore me.
I really don't care if they make it free or not. I already paid, so it won't have an impact on me.
Twohothardware wrote: »ESO_player123 wrote: »No. If it's not gold mats, the bots will move on to farming alchemy materials.
Also, the gold selling spam will fill the chat form top to bottom (I played a game where the FTP servers were plagued by this).
Besides, as it was pointed above, the cost of the base game is very cheap.
I've never seen a single bot in the years I've played this game farming alchemy materials on Playstation or Xbox.
Free to play games pull in a much wider audience of players than games that simply have a low cost for the game. The average person is far more likely to download a free game they see in the Store than they are to spend $5 to see if they like it or hate it.