New Life Event is extremely dull

Aliniel · December 19

I am a veteran player and I have played this event so many times already.

I did the new quests, read the dialogs and so on. They are... ok-ish. Some are trying to be funny, but failing at it. Didn't learn anything new about Tamriel or its people. Just that some people are nuts - and we already knew that. (Why was this chosen as a theme for New Life? We already have Jester Festival.)

Anyway, the rewards from the boxes are abyssmal. I've opened app. 20 boxes and got nothing to motivate me to play more.

- Random mats - ok. Useless mostly because we have loads of them, but ok.
- Useless "fun" tools. There's absolutely no use for these other than roleplaying. And they drop in such huge quantities they just clog our bags.
- Style pages - looks like you get one per day (maybe more with excruciatingly low chance). Their price will drop so hard you can just wait a few weeks and buy them all for a few ks.
- 100% Bonus Experience - the game has a hard cap of 3600 CP and as I'm nearing it I feel dread. Once I hit that, what's the point of doing anything that rewards XP? Yes, CPs are useless after a certain point, but still... dopamine.
- Event tickets - I am reaching a point where I don't have anything to spend them on. I have all the indriks. Just a few fragments for the new stuff and then they will become pointless until new rewards are released (next year only).

So, yes... absolutely no motivation to play the event. No exiting rewards. No exciting activities.

This is a recurring situation with these events. We need something new. We need something exciting. We need a new reward system. E.g., link the rewards with loot boxes so there's always something fresh to get. Just do something to liven these up. Give me a reason to play.

Enemoriana · December 19

Looks like you are just tired of game and need a break. Is there anything you really will find useful and will want to get? Mats no, styles no, other things no... and what activities would be "exicing"? Any repeatable things will be, you know, repeating.

Aliniel wrote: »

Event tickets - I am reaching a point where I don't have anything to spend them on. I have all the indriks. Just a few fragments for the new stuff and then they will become pointless until new rewards are released (next year only).

Any veteran player regularly doing events will have more tickets than needed. Because if there will be just enough tickets to get new items - new players will never collect all things without crowns, which is much worse than some extra tickets and possibility to skip events you don't like.

SolidBeast · December 19

The duality of man.

That said, I kinda agree with you on the weird jester's festival tone of some of the quests (only did three so far and two were some kind of prank quest). I know it's a holiday event that's kind of meta in itself, but I wish the game would tone down the jokey vibes, it's been getting too much in recent years (if I see f*****g Rigurt one more time in new content, I will LOSE it).

I still think this is a fun event for newer players, which we should hope keep coming in. But as someone who's near 3600 CP, you're definitely always going to be one of those people that's running out of content quickly. This is just a fact of life for people who've been playing the game intensely since release, and I've seen these complaints in all MMOs I've played. But I hear your frustration. Does it HAVE to be this way? Here's hoping the devs have some fresh ideas for next year and beyond.

Xarc · December 19

OK November/December is still the low point in terms of attendance on ESO, every year.

The majority of the player population at this time are veteran players, the solid player base of ESO.

From this information, we are entitled to yet another event which resembles all the others, which does not bring anything exceptional for a veteran player.
ZOS: Is this how you reward your most faithful servants? (We)

HedgeHugger · December 19

There should always be an alternative to spend your tickets on. Themed Furnishings would be good. Even if it's all the available type of lights, or here's a radical thought... New ones that are new life related.
Snow covered trees etc.
There should always be grab bags from previous events.

Apollosipod · December 19

All I'm doing in this event is getting the bare minimum tickets I need to get the house. That's it. I can't stand doing this thing over and over again anymore. I don't care about another motif that looks bland and too similar to every other spray paint motif. Just log in, do one quest I've had to do for a decade, get to tickets, lot off. Rinse and repeat.

Aliniel · December 19

WoW Remix - an example of how things should be done

I've said it before - if you want to see how to attract crowds, look no further than at WoW and its Legion Remix. Yes, it's a different kind of event, but that thing attracts millions of people back into the game. Millions. With mandatory subscription fee!

Now, even WoW has boring events like this one. And at this point I don't even bother doing those either. My point is, we should take good stuff from other games as inspiration. Of course we don't need to copy/paste things. ESO should be its own thing. But take those parts that work and use them.

In Legion Remix, everything you do rewards two things:
- Infinite Knowledge
- Bronze

One is used for infinite power. Kinda lame imo, but whatever. Some people like to one shot raid bosses.

Bronze, on the other hand, is a currency you can use to buy cosmetics. And there's loads of cosmetics from older content, and then some new for the event itself. There's so much of it you would have to grind for a month to get it all. But that's the beuty of it - you can grind only as much as you want to and get only the things you want.

ESO Event Design

Instead, ZOS is forcing housing stuff on people who don't want to have anything to do with housing.
They are forcing us to play PvP when it's something people don't want to touch with a hundred meter stick.
Same goes for dungeons, public dungeons, delves, world bosses...

They pick one thing and force everyone into it. Then you have overcrowded bosses who die in a fraction of a second and yield no loot because you didn't do enough dmg to it. Or you wait around for that public dungeon boss to spawn, because it died in 0.1s while you were browsing something while waiting (and now you have to wait again).

The design of these events is simply horrible.

New Life 2025

What did we actually get this event?
To know what we got, we need to exclude things that were there in previous years, because that's something we got (a) year(s) ago.

- Style pages.
- 8 new repeatable quests.

That's it. We got new style pages.

ZOS is hoping we will spend time during holiday season in ESO for new style pages. These style pages will be available for a few hundred gold each very fast. Why should we do same meaningless quests over and over? Where's the fun part?

Even if the new quests were fantastic top-notch Kojima-level storytelling, you wouldn't do them fully more than a few times (reading dialogs). And they are not. They are just more of the same quite embarrassing generic quests.

Honestly, if you'd given us a look into how some of our favorite characters spend their holidays, it would be much better. Instead we got a random dude who thinks his bear is his brother. Or a nutty lady who asks you to dance in mud to praise some made up deity.

Poor design. Amyssmal rewards. Boring.

Syldras · December 19

They might not be the most exciting gameplay-wise, and not too complex, but for a cozy wintertime holiday event, I find them fine. Would they get dull after repeating them 10 times? Of course, but I don't think this can be avoided when it comes to content that's mostly focused on narration.

It's true some are humourous, but I don't find it unfitting for what's supposed to be a cheerful celebration where many of Tamriel's cultures just have fun for once and don't worry about their usual troubles.

Some of them have a bit of an emotional aspect (and some turn out sadder than expected) which was rather refreshing after most other quests we got on Solstice this year, where I got the feeling that everything just seems to be supposed to be a joke now.

And at least the German translation (unfortunately partially bugged - texts are mostly displayed in English, but the voice is German, at least, so it's possible to listen to it) feels a bit more on par with the base game again, while the style had generally become a bit too colloquial/simplish over the past few years; this was a positive surprise and I hope the tone can remain on this level again from now on.

When it comes to lore: Yes, I would have loved to get more in that regard. The quest in Alikr was fine, and some of the quests are just fun games, or personal traditions of the people we encounter, and that's okay, too, of course (or at least that's my opinion considering the nature of this festivity). But I agree they could have also added a few stories that are more heavy in terms of lore.

And yes, rewards could be a little better, or could focus a bit more on items that are useful regardless of player level. Same issue as with the Witches Fest: There are many drops which just aren't useful anymore for people who have been playing for several years, and who have flooded the market so much, you can't even reasonably sell them anymore.

But generally, I appreciate that there are new quests after so many years without any changes to this event, that the dialogues are well-written and fit what they are supposed to be, and that they had a few good ideas there, narratively. For the context of this event, I find them totally fine.

Syldras · December 19

Aliniel wrote: »

Honestly, if you'd given us a look into how some of our favorite characters spend their holidays, it would be much better.

I'm glad there are still quests not involving some predefined "fan favorites", as not everyone cares for them, and the way they often showed up completely randomly who knows where on the continent (and beyond) started to feel a bit silly.

Aliniel wrote: »

Instead we got a random dude who thinks his bear is his brother.

This story turned out to be rather sad when we learnt that this was not just some random weirdo, but this poor man was driven insane after being the only surviving member of his family while his parents and brother died in a snow storm. Believing the bear was his "reincarnated" brother (or rather his brother's spirit moving over into the bear after he died in the cold), saving him by dragging him out of the storm, loosely based on the spiritual ideas of his culture, was his way to cope with the situation. The tasks might have felt a bit silly, but the background story made up for it a bit. They could have gone deeper in terms of lore, of course.

Aliniel wrote: »

Or a nutty lady who asks you to dance in mud to praise some made up deity.

This was the one I liked least of the new quests. I think giving it background lore (Why is that mud effigy suddenly animated? Why does it look daedric? What exactly is going on there?) would have improved it.

Ardriel · December 19

Why do people always have to complain? At least they made the effort to introduce new quests for it. You have to give them credit for that. They're trying to bring some variety to the event.
Okay, the reward system needs to be revised. It's okay to suggest that. But you also have to acknowledge that they are at least making an effort to improve the event.
At this point, I feel sorry for the developers. There has been so much negative criticism. They have admitted their mistakes and are trying to do better. But as it stands, it seems like no matter what they do, it won't be appreciated.

Aliniel · December 19

Ardriel wrote: »

Why do people always have to complain? At least they made the effort to introduce new quests for it. You have to give them credit for that. They're trying to bring some variety to the event.

Yes, this part is good. But it's something you do once and then rush through the dialogs. So, the added benefit of them is in the extra "useless" boxes you get.

Ardriel wrote: »

At this point, I feel sorry for the developers. There has been so much negative criticism. They have admitted their mistakes and are trying to do better. But as it stands, it seems like no matter what they do, it won't be appreciated.

They are not my enemy. I am not trying to defeat them. That would mean this game would end. Quite the opposite.

I don't think we should be blaming players for "negative criticism". If there's a lot of it, it just means the ZOS is not doing good job. Whether that's devs, testers, or game designers, feedback is important. Yes, it's been mostly negative recently. Are the players to be blamed for this? We are paying for this game. They are not delivering satisfactory result.

fizzybeef · December 19

Aliniel wrote: »

I am a veteran player and I have played this event so many times already.

I did the new quests, read the dialogs and so on. They are... ok-ish. Some are trying to be funny, but failing at it. Didn't learn anything new about Tamriel or its people. Just that some people are nuts - and we already knew that. (Why was this chosen as a theme for New Life? We already have Jester Festival.)

Anyway, the rewards from the boxes are abyssmal. I've opened app. 20 boxes and got nothing to motivate me to play more.

- Random mats - ok. Useless mostly because we have loads of them, but ok.
- Useless "fun" tools. There's absolutely no use for these other than roleplaying. And they drop in such huge quantities they just clog our bags.
- Style pages - looks like you get one per day (maybe more with excruciatingly low chance). Their price will drop so hard you can just wait a few weeks and buy them all for a few ks.
- 100% Bonus Experience - the game has a hard cap of 3600 CP and as I'm nearing it I feel dread. Once I hit that, what's the point of doing anything that rewards XP? Yes, CPs are useless after a certain point, but still... dopamine.
- Event tickets - I am reaching a point where I don't have anything to spend them on. I have all the indriks. Just a few fragments for the new stuff and then they will become pointless until new rewards are released (next year only).

So, yes... absolutely no motivation to play the event. No exiting rewards. No exciting activities.

This is a recurring situation with these events. We need something new. We need something exciting. We need a new reward system. E.g., link the rewards with loot boxes so there's always something fresh to get. Just do something to liven these up. Give me a reason to play.

As always

Destai · December 19

For me it is, for sure. Some of its burn out, some of its just their quest design and reward system.

To be transparent, I'm not even bothering with the new quests. There's no reason to; I don't get anything from it. I'm just finishing up the house and calling it a year. Sub's expiring in January, taking a long break and catching up on my backlog. Hopefully the upcoming Seasons have rewarding content so I can come back.

twisttop138 · December 19

Ardriel wrote: »

Why do people always have to complain? At least they made the effort to introduce new quests for it. You have to give them credit for that. They're trying to bring some variety to the event.
Okay, the reward system needs to be revised. It's okay to suggest that. But you also have to acknowledge that they are at least making an effort to improve the event.
At this point, I feel sorry for the developers. There has been so much negative criticism. They have admitted their mistakes and are trying to do better. But as it stands, it seems like no matter what they do, it won't be appreciated.

There would be no growth if everyone just came here to be sycophantic and shower praise. The devs have rightly admitted their mistakes but as you must realize, this isn't the first or the second time. They also went for years with their fingers in their ears. Players are sceptical of this sudden turn around. I happen to feel it is genuine and have some hope for the game but when people are unhappy with a product they pay for they should let it be known. That's how growth happens.

Four_Fingers · December 19

Delivered a potato clear across Auridon and no tip!

twisttop138 · December 19

Four_Fingers wrote: »

Delivered a potato clear across Auridon and no tip!

I thought that one was fun. I was rather hoping to hear a wild fisherman tale but instead he got real lol.

whitecrow · December 19

I think that if he is able enough to go out fishing, he can make himself a baked potato. Even I can make a baked potato.

AzuraFan · December 19

Ardriel wrote: »

Why do people always have to complain? At least they made the effort to introduce new quests for it. You have to give them credit for that. They're trying to bring some variety to the event.
Okay, the reward system needs to be revised. It's okay to suggest that. But you also have to acknowledge that they are at least making an effort to improve the event.
At this point, I feel sorry for the developers. There has been so much negative criticism. They have admitted their mistakes and are trying to do better. But as it stands, it seems like no matter what they do, it won't be appreciated.

This. We got some new content, which I appreciate.

I'm only doing one of the new quests each day. Doing everything daily is a recipe for burnout, and you can only get 3 event tickets a day. So if the rewards from the boxes are so bad (as some say), there's no need to grind for them. Players do it to themselves sometimes, and then complain about it.

Having said that, I agree that the event reward structure is stale. At this point, they need to introduce something new and ditch the constant style sheets and the other lame "same old, same old" rewards. But as far as New Life goes, I appreciate the effort to add new quests.

Syldras · December 19

whitecrow wrote: »

I think that if he is able enough to go out fishing, he can make himself a baked potato. Even I can make a baked potato.

Why gift anyone anything, really? They can buy things themselves, after all?

Lugaldu · December 19

Aliniel wrote: »

ESO Event Design

Instead, ZOS is forcing housing stuff on people who don't want to have anything to do with housing.
They are forcing us to play PvP when it's something people don't want to touch with a hundred meter stick.
Same goes for dungeons, public dungeons, delves, world bosses...

They pick one thing and force everyone into it. Then you have overcrowded bosses who die in a fraction of a second and yield no loot because you didn't do enough dmg to it. Or you wait around for that public dungeon boss to spawn, because it died in 0.1s while you were browsing something while waiting (and now you have to wait again).

The design of these events is simply horrible.

I don't understand how anyone can call that "forcing"... They're trying to offer something for everyone, and nobody is forced to participate in things they don't like. In fact, it's the other way around: more people are complaining when there are specific events, for example, for PvP, where not everyone can find something they like.

valenwood_vegan · December 19

First, I really appreciate that they finally tried to add *something* to this stale old event, but it would've been nice to maybe have a new achievement or a new reward associated with the new quests.

Some were cute or felt like they were at least in the new life spirit (like the "dragon" in rawl'ka and catching the 'fish" in shadowfen) - others were kind of a swing and a miss imo (smashing the boulder in betnikh comes to mind as a boring quest design just intended to waste some player time; and the "snowball fight" in windhelm felt like a much lazier copy of the old mudball quest).

Overall there is no real reason to do them. Even something very basic like a new achievement with a dye or a silly title; new themed furnishings... anything really, would have been better than just adding more repetitive quests. It doesn't seem like a good use of resources because it's no more engaging long-term than the previous quests.

And you know, it's fine for people to come on here and express dissatisfaction, particularly if it's done in a constructive way. The alternative is that people just leave the game silently (and a lot do) and then there's no actionable feedback whatsoever about what's turning people away. And that's worse than some negativity, the game needs people who are actually excited to be here playing it.

Lord_Graas · December 19

I'm currently playing the first Witcher, which I missed out on. And I'm enjoying it. Maybe you should play another game and take a break from TESO?

SeaGtGruff · December 19

whitecrow wrote: »

I think that if he is able enough to go out fishing, he can make himself a baked potato. Even I can make a baked potato.

Baking a potato is easy for me. But apparently some people have trouble doing even simple cooking tasks-- such as boiling water-- without creating a kitchen disaster. I can believe there are people who can't bake a potato. Actually, I've known a few people like that; the potato ends up either overdone or underdone.

whitecrow · December 19

Syldras wrote: »

whitecrow wrote: »

I think that if he is able enough to go out fishing, he can make himself a baked potato. Even I can make a baked potato.

Why gift anyone anything, really? They can buy things themselves, after all?

When I first received the quest I thought it would be someone elderly and housebound.

LootAllTheStuff · December 19

SeaGtGruff wrote: »

whitecrow wrote: »

I think that if he is able enough to go out fishing, he can make himself a baked potato. Even I can make a baked potato.

Baking a potato is easy for me. But apparently some people have trouble doing even simple cooking tasks-- such as boiling water-- without creating a kitchen disaster. I can believe there are people who can't bake a potato. Actually, I've known a few people like that; the potato ends up either overdone or underdone.

Or exploded all over the microwave.

(I know, I know, you don't do baked potato in a microwave. But not everyone knows that, apparently...)

whitecrow · December 19

LootAllTheStuff wrote: »

SeaGtGruff wrote: »

whitecrow wrote: »

I think that if he is able enough to go out fishing, he can make himself a baked potato. Even I can make a baked potato.

Baking a potato is easy for me. But apparently some people have trouble doing even simple cooking tasks-- such as boiling water-- without creating a kitchen disaster. I can believe there are people who can't bake a potato. Actually, I've known a few people like that; the potato ends up either overdone or underdone.

Or exploded all over the microwave.

(I know, I know, you don't do baked potato in a microwave. But not everyone knows that, apparently...)

It's not ideal, but sometimes I do. I didn't mention it because they do not have them in Tamriel.

DoofusMax · December 19

Also a veteran player and I'll disagree somewhat with the OP. I agree that there isn't much of anything new in the "new" New Life quests. They're cute, they're a little quirky, and they're generally well-done, but at their core they really are just more of the same old same-same. I'm also in the same boat with event tickets: get the two final fragments of the house and then wonder what to do with event tickets (also have the Indriks, but missing one for Q1 and a fragment of one for Q2 and those aren't on the table during New Life). I've still got a way to go for CP3600, but yes, there's little point to XP after clearing the CP-teens.

In spite of all of that, I'm still left with "so what?" Events are not required to revolve around me and my likes/dislikes. If others are having a good time with it, then "Happy New Life!" and good on them. There seems to be some sort of mindset which says "there is an event and I must participate because <something bad> will happen if I don't." Nothing bad i going to happen. Grab your 20-ish tickets to finish off the house (I'm using the Old Life quest for that, btw) and then do whatever it is that you normally do outside of events. I'm certainly not losing sleep over missing out on even more Wolfsbane Incense, old outfit style pages that I've already collected, charity writs that I don't need to do (got the achievements, don't need the vouchers, and have other plans for those mats), even more mudballs/juggling/etc. to destroy, and furnishings that don't go with anything I'm doing at the moment. It's not that big of a deal. Speaking from the perspective of my household, Christmas is more about the kids' excitement than it is about the parents' and I'm good with that.

emilyhyoyeon · December 19

whitecrow wrote: »

Syldras wrote: »

whitecrow wrote: »

I think that if he is able enough to go out fishing, he can make himself a baked potato. Even I can make a baked potato.

Why gift anyone anything, really? They can buy things themselves, after all?

When I first received the quest I thought it would be someone elderly and housebound.

Showing appreciation for someone by making them food from my experience is a common thing whether the recipient is able bodied or not, whether the dish is complicated or not. Do you really find this concept that strange? I mean this genuinely not sassy, I feel like this question sounds very aggressive, but I don't mean it that way.

AzuraFan · December 19

valenwood_vegan wrote: »

Overall there is no real reason to do them. ...

This is where there's a disconnect, I think, between people who play the game for stories and questing and exploration, and those who play for shinies (not that it can't be for both, mind you). Between those who do an activity because they enjoy it, and those who need the carrot to do anything, because if there isn't a carrot, it's meaningless.

I enjoy questing, so it doesn't matter to me that there isn't an achievement or shiny or whatever associated with every single quest in the game. For me, it's just fun to have another quest to do that I haven't done before, to hear some new voice acting (sorry to non-English speakers - yeah, it sucks that they released it without translations), to do another silly errand. That's the reason for me.

Aliniel · December 19

Lugaldu wrote: »

Aliniel wrote: »

ESO Event Design

Instead, ZOS is forcing housing stuff on people who don't want to have anything to do with housing.
They are forcing us to play PvP when it's something people don't want to touch with a hundred meter stick.
Same goes for dungeons, public dungeons, delves, world bosses...

They pick one thing and force everyone into it. Then you have overcrowded bosses who die in a fraction of a second and yield no loot because you didn't do enough dmg to it. Or you wait around for that public dungeon boss to spawn, because it died in 0.1s while you were browsing something while waiting (and now you have to wait again).

The design of these events is simply horrible.

I don't understand how anyone can call that "forcing"... They're trying to offer something for everyone, and nobody is forced to participate in things they don't like. In fact, it's the other way around: more people are complaining when there are specific events, for example, for PvP, where not everyone can find something they like.

I should've put that in quotes. By "forcing" I meant creating FOMO situation.

Every year, we get some themed cosmetics you can unlock with Event Ticket. You don't know how much tickets you'll be able to earn over the year. You can be sure you can earn at least enough to unlock everything. But what if you miss an event for whatever reason (in the future, or you already missed one)? This creates fear of missing out. So you want to get your tickets from any event that comes. bB it dungeon-themed, PvP, daily-quest-based, etc. even if you don't enjoy those events.

So, in a way, you are "forced" into activities you don't like. Instead, these events could be structured in a way where you can choose whether to go to Cyrodiil or dungeon. Both activities would reward you tickets. By "forcing" players into content they don't enjoy, and are not good at, they even ruin the experience of other people. E.g., AFK trolls in BGs just to get that event ticket.

katanagirl1 · December 19

Yeah, I’m not sure how the devs would take the comments in this thread. Some people are complaining that there are too many events, others are complaining that this one wasn’t engaging enough. Not everyone is going to agree, not everyone is going to be happy. Some of the recent struggles with the game have been because of them listening to the wrong players and trying to appease them, in my opinion. There is no way to tell here on the forums if a post reflects the majority or not, that is the main thing to consider.

I did the new quests and they were alright, I don’t know if I’ll do them again because of time constraints. I think we should give them some credit for doing them to add something new. I’m glad this event isn’t too exciting, it’s the end of the year and things are really busy and I don’t have as much time to devote to the game right now. I would like things to buy with the extra tickets I will have, that would be great, but I’ll be ecstatic when I don’t have to get tickets and can just play the game and do what I want to later in the event. That’s the best New Life gift to me.