A good read. Much better than the wild speculation that goes on here sometimes.

It would have been interesting, if they added 2015 Q2 as well. Because there would be some big differences then. Nevertheless, nice to read.

Really depressing to see ESO's competition release more varied content, specifically PvP and raids.

very true,
together with the utterly broken laggy pvp (if u even can get in with the gigantic Q's since TU) leave me with little to nothing to do, and I mostly only log in to collect some mails and feed some mounts, and play another game in the mean time

There's an old saying, "You spend your second year at University getting rid of the friends you made the first."

I think that's harsh in this case but the end of the veteran reward program, the absence of any company driven celebration on the first anniversary, the holiday months with no updates and thin maintenance, and these long drum roll large patches that do little, indicate they don't have a live team for the game.

They do have a development team certainly and it's taken 15 months to fully launch the product. One wonders if the reason there was no celebration reflects the feeling that they've yet to launch. Which is why so many players express a feeling of still being beta testers.

Some see evil in stuff like this. I see limited resources and management dictated deadlines. Which is the norm really.

Ashtaris wrote: »

Wow. When the Fanboys of TF post an article like this, you know things are getting serious ZOS needs to realize that the ultimate health of their MMO depends on keeping people interested in their game, and the ONLY way to do that is by releasing new content. I've been involved with other MMO's in the past where the developers had big dreams for their game only to find it fail simply because they couldn't keep up with the content demand. I don't expect new content every month, but the lack of new content since I started playing the game (since beta) has been abysmal, to say the least. If something doesn't change soon, then they will probably go down the same path that so many other buried and dead MMO's have taken before them.

They have basically written off the PC version in favor of consoles. So unless console people can buy it then it isnt coming out. They also just said nothing they showed in 2014 is even close to ready for release. Probably because months ago all PC development outside of the crown store was put on hold and everyone moved to the console version. So for the PC you might (maybe) see a new zone by christmas but most likely we are looking at spring 2016 before we see any new zones.

So ya this game on the PC is over pretty much. Sad too they failed on the PC. One of the biggest IPs in PC history and they turn it into a flop. Maybe bethesda will allow another company to use the IP for PC once they finally shut down the pc servers for good.

I don't think the PC game is dead by any means but we do need to know they are serious about new content and pretty soon.

Spellcrafting for example - hailed as being the next great thing last year then put in a cupboard and set aside.

If you want to put effort into the console release then fine. Bring in extra people to help do that - but don't drain the lifeblood of the PC game as a consequence.

Saddiq wrote: »

jamesharv2005ub17_ESO wrote: »

I agree. They are 100% focused on the console release and have put all new content on hold. We will be probably 2016 before we see any new zones on the PC. Thankfully we dont have to pay a sub anymore while waiting months and months between content releases. By the time new content comes out it will have been over a year since craglorn. Noone liked craglorn so it doesnt really even count. Poorly done zone with no solo play options even above ground.

I certainly hope Im wrong but most likely Ill be invested in another game by the time they put anything new out.

What is up with this 'no one likes Craglorn' I'm reading lately? "No solo able content even above ground?" I've been in Craglorn since v5, and I'm v8 now. I've only wanted to partner twice, and did so, for a couple quests that required 4 people. Otherwise I've soloed half a dozen dungeons with bosses and completely surveyed and 'completed' all of the 'above ground content'. Both mobs and bosses are very challenging at the sub-v8 level when you solo them, which takes care of the 'this game is too easy' blues, and the celestials theme is very well written and far more intriguing than much of the main story (I haven't yet started silver or gold). You also don't have any of the 'meaningless quests' people complain about in the 'pre-vet territory' either. Every quest is meaningful.

The only part I don't like is that the community won't bother looking at you for trials or DSA until you're v12+. The one time I did find a group to tackle DSA we were all sub-v12, most of us quite below it, and we made it 6 levels in and then quit simply b/c one of us had to go, so I'm not convinced by this 'there's no point b/c it's too hard' argument. But that's the community, not the game.

So that's just addressing that topic.

And yes, the console push is very frustrating and I cancelled my subscription b/c I don't expect new content before Fall 2015 at the earliest. So I agree with pretty much everything here--just not the negative 'Craglorn doesn't count' nonsense.

The quests in craglorn require multiple people not to complete it by fighting but you need those people or you cant do it period. I dont care if you have invulnerability and can fight 1000 mobs at once while sleeping. You physically cannot do the quests without having multiple people. So I somehow doubt you did the quests solo. Since thats impossible.

As far as content in the fall they already said nothing is even close to done. They will be working on the console long after the june launch. So you are dreaming if you think we will see any of that stuff live before 2016.

Anyone can write anything with some substitution of concepts and you'll eat this.
Keep going.

It was an enjoyable read, but there is not much new analysis in it.

Content is delayed, something that we all know. This is not following the original dream, also something that is plainly obvious. Other games have not delayed content, something we also know.

They missed opportunities to advance analysis based on more than just the latest ESO Live. I think that the writer of the article could have done some more homework and spent more time on analysis of the situation before writing the article. They missed two months of information from ZOS, including some relevant quotes to the central theme of the commentary, and ended up writing an analysis based on missing information.

The article is largely saying what people have been speculating and chatting about for months, but with some newer data and broader comparisons bolster to bolster such talk. That isn't to say it isn't worth reading, as many of the speculations have stronger support now that we've seen and heard more about what is and isn't being worked on. Basically though, for the most part (big things like console release as exceptions) we won't ever know for sure what ZOS is doing next with ESO until it is a few weeks away from being on the PTS, and while the speculations offered in the article are reasonable, astute observations and predictions are neither intended to nor capable of doing anything to address player dissatisfaction surrounding persistent long-term bugs and a dearth of new playable content.

After the surprise console announcement relatively late last year I had hoped that there would be a new vet dungeon before the console was released, but now any new playable content before late August at the earliest seems really unlikely. Unless something like a new vet dungeon gets released at no extra charge with the console drop, which I won't be holding my breath for (but hey, I wouldn't object to a pleasant surprise! C'mooooooooon pleasant surprise!).

If they had been able to fix many of the longstanding bugs that people are still complaining about and had made a serious dent in PvP lag, the new Championship and Justice Systems would go much further for more people, but with no new playable content and bug-driven challenges to basic game play for existing content, this dry spell has already/will continue to test the patience of some of the most loyal fans of the game. I make no dire predictions and I hope for the best, but something needs to give if ZOS wants to fully capitalize on the interest generated by Tamriel Unlimited/Welcome Back Weekend/Console release.

And even if ZOS has finished/quickly completes much of the new playable content super-quick over the summer, if they don't spread it out a release dump would deplete their reserve of new major content to sell and would upset at least some players who would be overwhelmed by the cost all of the new pricey DLC being dropped all at once. So, here's to hoping that there is still free stuff being added in addition to buy-to-play content. (C'mooooooooon pleasant surprise!)

This is what's killing MMO's as a genre.

Most people don't want 500 more generic fetch quests.

They're working on systems stability on an in-house engine that still has considerable networking issues; and they're working on a console port which is no small task.

Behind the scenes ESO does a lot of things other MMO's don't do. P2P networking and particle based game mechanics.

Whoever wrote this article is technically illiterate from a software engineering perspective and lacks the needed insight to imagine what's going on in their studio right now.

All those other games? All they did was tack on more content that was made by artists with their in-house world building tools. ESO still has a team working on it's core components, which still aren't complete. Given the scale and nature of this product, two years is a timeframe I consider reasonable to have it working with fluidity. There's no way to truly test a multi-player environment with ESO's architecture without thousands of people in it.

A lot of those other games will have shut their doors long before ESO because what they're building is a low-cost, low-maintenance, highly-redundant system. It might look the same to you, but one could describe the networking component of some modern games as "next generation" and that's why you're seeing it take so long to get running smoothly.

Interesting article, but as pointed out, most have come to these conclusions already.
Good comparison though on content time lines and releases.
Personally I think they have gone for the cash grab with the console market.
Much more cost effective for them as they don't have to run any of the server infrastructure or network.
Produce anything further, it will be chargeable DLC.

Shunravi wrote: »

jamesharv2005ub17_ESO wrote: »

Saddiq wrote: »

jamesharv2005ub17_ESO wrote: »

I agree. They are 100% focused on the console release and have put all new content on hold. We will be probably 2016 before we see any new zones on the PC. Thankfully we dont have to pay a sub anymore while waiting months and months between content releases. By the time new content comes out it will have been over a year since craglorn. Noone liked craglorn so it doesnt really even count. Poorly done zone with no solo play options even above ground.

I certainly hope Im wrong but most likely Ill be invested in another game by the time they put anything new out.

What is up with this 'no one likes Craglorn' I'm reading lately? "No solo able content even above ground?" I've been in Craglorn since v5, and I'm v8 now. I've only wanted to partner twice, and did so, for a couple quests that required 4 people. Otherwise I've soloed half a dozen dungeons with bosses and completely surveyed and 'completed' all of the 'above ground content'. Both mobs and bosses are very challenging at the sub-v8 level when you solo them, which takes care of the 'this game is too easy' blues, and the celestials theme is very well written and far more intriguing than much of the main story (I haven't yet started silver or gold). You also don't have any of the 'meaningless quests' people complain about in the 'pre-vet territory' either. Every quest is meaningful.

The only part I don't like is that the community won't bother looking at you for trials or DSA until you're v12+. The one time I did find a group to tackle DSA we were all sub-v12, most of us quite below it, and we made it 6 levels in and then quit simply b/c one of us had to go, so I'm not convinced by this 'there's no point b/c it's too hard' argument. But that's the community, not the game.

So that's just addressing that topic.

And yes, the console push is very frustrating and I cancelled my subscription b/c I don't expect new content before Fall 2015 at the earliest. So I agree with pretty much everything here--just not the negative 'Craglorn doesn't count' nonsense.

The quests in craglorn require multiple people not to complete it by fighting but you need those people or you cant do it period. I dont care if you have invulnerability and can fight 1000 mobs at once while sleeping. You physically cannot do the quests without having multiple people. So I somehow doubt you did the quests solo. Since thats impossible.

As far as content in the fall they already said nothing is even close to done. They will be working on the console long after the june launch. So you are dreaming if you think we will see any of that stuff live before 2016.

Only some of the quests are strictly group only. And he did group for those.

The ENTIRE game is solo/group in all zones. With the landscape (with the exception of world bosses and dolmens) is meant to be solo friendly as well as delves. Then you have the group dungeons for the challenging group content. Then craglorn comes along and has none of that. Who thought that was a good idea?