As some of you know, I've been conducting a series of polls on personal preferences regarding archetypes, races and alts. The purpose of this post is to summarize the results and interpret the implications.

Should a poll become active again and should the outcome change significantly, I will of course update the relevant figures.

LEVELING MULTIPLE CHARACTERS

I was interested to find out how people on these forums feel about leveling alts in areas they have completed once before.

The Poll (For Reference)

What's your take on alts in ESO?

Results

- 26% of voters enjoyed repeating zones with alts
- 31% of voters disliked repeating zones with alts (Or the idea of it)
- 31% of voters have not yet repeated any zones (22% have only ever played the same character)
- 12% of votes are unallocated (just wanted to see the results / lost in the rounding nethers / "other")

Interpretation

A vast majority of voters plays more than one character actively. Of those voters, slightly more than half disliked the act or idea of taking those alts through the same zones they have already completed with another character.

My Opinion (Full Disclosure)

I'm a completionist with my main. I would really like to level a different class for a different playstyle, but having done everything in every zone I've been to makes it really hard to find the motivation to do even just the skill point awarding stuff again.

When leveling is this story-centric it's only fun the first time for me.

In other MMOs I've been kind of an altoholic, but in those, at least the first portion of leveling areas were separated by race and/or the whole world by alliance, so it didn't feel this repetitive.

Also, as skill points are tied to quests and exploration, you can't really level by PvP and/or grinding, at least not before you have enough points for a decent build.

My mentioned alt is sitting at lvl 20 and I may have to wait a year (or however long it takes for me to forget most of the storylines) to continue leveling.

Takeaway for ZOS:

It might not be the worst idea to revisit the Cadwell's silver/gold scenario. I do not claim to have a perfect solution that works well with the established mechanics, though this may be a start.

By modifying the current VR experience to be less repetitive, or by offering alternatives that allow leveling and skill point collection at the same rate, leveling alts could be made more enjoyable for a considerable amount of players. Also, alts are a big time sink and that spells retention.

ARCHETYPES

This poll was about how people perceive class archetypes and how many stick to them or the idea of them in a game that decouples role from class.

The Poll (For Reference)

Where do you stand on class archetypes in ESO?

Results

- 48% of voters prefer to equip their characters according to class archetypes
- of those, 8% (percentage points. Else: 16%) or less are wearing light armor even though they would prefer not to

Interpretation

Almost half the voters prefer to equip their characters according to class archetypes, even though they have the freedom to use any class for any role.

Despite the prevailing "Light armor beats all and everyone should always equip light armor" mood on these forums, only 8% or less of voters stated they wear light armor even though they'd prefer not to.

My Opinion (Full Disclosure)

I'm one of those people to whom it just feels wrong to not wear heavy armor as a Warrior-type, medium as a rogue-type and light as a mage-type, including the weaponry that goes with it.

Takeaway for ZOS:

Half the voting players prefer to stick to archetypical equipment. Light armor is currently the best way to go for class skill efficiency, which means staves will be used for synergy. For those players who adhere to archetypes, this means only one fourth of classes is optimized.

As long as class skills scale only off of spell damage, armor types can't ever be balanced without giving OP perks to medium and heavy, which of course would lead to OP niche builds. Please see this post for a relatively simple solution.

FAVORITE RACES

I tried to find out which races are favored for which role and if the current racial passives match those preferences

The Polls (For Reference)

If there were no racial perks, which race would you choose for a ... type character?

Holy Warrior
Dark Knight
Mage
Rogue

Results

Holy Warrior

Imperial - 25%
Breton - 22%

Dark Knight

Dunmer - 31%
Nord - 14%

Mage

Altmer - 33%
Breton - 18%

Rogue

Khajiit - 31%
Bosmer - 27%

Overall Favorite

Altmer - 14.5%
Breton - 14.25%
Dunmer - 14%

Overall Least Favorite

Redguard - 4.25%
Orc - 4.25%
Argonian - 5.25%

Interpretation

First off, I know the overall favorite/least favorite category would only be accurate if every possible role had been polled, I found it interesting nonetheless.

One of two things is probably true here. Either the racial passives have (mostly) been well chosen and represent the majority's preferred role for the races, or those passives have influenced people's view of the races strongly enough for them to associate them as the favored choice for a role.

Takeaway for ZOS:

The racial passives seem to have been chosen well for the most part. The only way I can think of to make everyone happy is to decouple racial passive sets from races, rename them "role perks/passives" and offer them as a separate choice.

FIN

I hope this summary was informative and - for those who enjoy numbers as much as I do - entertaining.