Season of the Worm Cult

YandereGirlfriend

Renalds wrote: »

I see so many players complaining about the season pass and honestly.
I get it, it doesn't feel great this year content wise, and it feels really lacking compared to a year where we receive a entire chapter.

I'm not trying to defend ZOS by any means, but I do think we need to give them some time to transition into whatever they're planning and show us what they can deliver with a team that got butchered.

You all do realise that them stepping off the whole ''chapter'' thing hasn't been ''beneficial'' to them either right, a new chapter create much hype and got players back into the game. I can almost be certain that this season did not have that effect on players returning or new ones joining.

Imo, It's too soon to speak.

They have clearly mentioned that this is a year of transitioning, and the year hasn't ended.
I want to see what is next before I can really form a definitive opinion. Where are they taking this ''season'' theme.

If the same thing of this year repeats into next year then I'm definetly going to be very dissapointed.

Also, imo; it's not that fair to compare WoW to ESO when it comes to the amount of content.
Ofcourse they're able to drop way more content in a year.
There are about 600+ developers working on World of Warcraft of the 13k that work at Blizzard, versus the 300 of Zenimax. (As for 300 of Zenimax, that's including all non-developers; it's the entire company)

Well, you can cite the lack of devs as something that needs to be fixed. The game is extremely profitable and it would be nice to see some of that reinvested into the game itself.

Subjectively, it certainly felt as though devs and other resources were siphoned off of ESO for Blackbird, so returning to the staffing levels prior to when that happened would be a great place to start.

tomofhyrule

I don't play other MMOs, but just comparing to what we got in previous years does make this year seem very light.

Look at what we got in 2023:
Necrom, $40:

• Two zones (one large, one small), sharing 6 WBs, 6 Delves, and 2 PubDuns
• A New Class
• Two Companions
• A new World Event (Bastion Nymics)
• One new Tales of Tribute deck
• A new Trial

Versus now:
Solstice, $50:

• One zone, presumably with 6 WBs, 6 Delves, and 2 PubDuns (so far, only 3 WBs have been released with one more in the phase 2 of the wall, 3 Delves, and 1 PubDun)
• No new feature (Subclassing is basegame so not included in the value of Solstice)
• No Companions
• A new World Event (but releasing with the wall event)
• No new Tales of Tribute deck
• A new Trial
• 4 DLC Dungeons (also playable via ESO+)

Mathematically, Solstice is offerring way less than Necrom did, and the Dungeons aren't making up for that. Solstice is only a good deal for people who: i) want to own the dungeons permanently regardless of ESO+ status, and ii) only get Chapters for the zones and do not care about Chapter features.

I do feel like the lack of a "special feature" really hurt this time, and I hope that next year for U50 we go back to something big like a Class that will inspire people to open their wallets. Putting the dungeons in as mandatory purchases despite us getting them with ESO+ also really hurts in a way that the Furnishing Vault doesn't make up for (especially for people who are not really into housing).

Then again, each person has a different thing on what is 'worth' or not. I know that for me, if Nick came out and said "yeah the 2026 Pass is $60 and includes a new Class and nothing else," I'd still buy it instantly. For others, it's a good story. Or a nice Zone. Or an amazing Trial.

Vonnegut2506

I didn't like the $10 increase for Solstice, so I just waited until I could get it for less and didn't subscribe for a couple months. They have the metrics, and hopefully, they see that the new model is craptacular. That being said: I still play the game pretty much every day, so the $39 I paid for Solstice was a bargain compared to the $40 I paid for The War Within to play for one month or the $29 I paid to play New World: Aeternum for a week.

katanagirl1

It didn’t help that they insisted on calling it a “season” when that word has such negative connotations for gamers. They shot the selves in the foot right away and doubled down on it even after so many players reacted negatively to it. Then the ESO+ losing value with dungeons turned off a bunch of other players. Scrolling through the achievements for all the “chapters” is quite laughable now. You have all these single word names like Morrowind, Summerset, Elsweyr, Greymoor, Blackwood, Necrom, then Gold Road and High Isle, and then Season of the Worm Cult instead of Solstice.

We used to pay for a chapter for Morrowind and Summerset and got the whole thing up front, then it became buy the chapter and get Northern Elsweyr and you had to have ESO+ to get Southern Elsweyr, and that trend continued. Now you pay up front and only get half of what you will eventually get. Well, that is assuming that the amount of content in the second half is equal to the first half, but I suspect we will get somewhat less than that. It’s an erosion of content and a price hike.

It would have been better for us, if they wanted to do things piecemeal, to charge for the first half and then later charge for the second half. This new format was supposed to ensure the content was ready and robust, and we are not seeing that benefit at all. They are getting all our money up front. If they do not satisfy players this season, then they won’t be coming back for the next one.

I have never been so bored in ESO right now. There is nothing to do that I have not done already dozens of times. The season model is making that worse.