[PS4] ESO social troubles...

Sevanity · July 2015

Don't get me wrong, the game is fun and I'm enjoying the game mechanics.

The problem is with the social side of things, I'm Level 24 and I haven't played a single group dungeon because I haven't had any chance to. I've tried using the group finder on multiple occasions, usually resulting in nothing happening after hours of waiting.

One time I tried searching for "Any Dungeon" and after the few hours I left it searching, it eventually found a group, but I was mid way through a quest when it found the group, I ran immediately outside and looked on the map, the group was split up and I couldn't even see half of them, I guess they were also in caves. I started to travel to the one I could see and minutes later the group disbanded.

None of my friends play ESO and I'm playing casually as I don't have the time to invest to play a lot at the moment, so from the start of my experience up to now with ESO, it just feels like I'm in a ghost town, doesn't feel like an MMO at all, and I blame it solely on the lack of a chat system.

I understand that this was left out to heighten "immersion" but when you put proximity voice chat in the game, immersion is thrown out the window. Unless you're meant to hear the latest Nicki Minaj tune in Grahtwood, whilst another dude is having a heated conversation with his friend about what the best gun is in Destiny.

I would also like to bring up the lack of an option for damage numbers, EXP numbers, etc. Again, I understand these were left out for "immersion", but why are they left out as OPTIONS? It's fine to turn them off as default, but at least give me the option to turn them on. As a new player, I have no idea how much damage I'm doing and when I use different weapons or skills, it is near to impossible for me to tell what is more effective. I have no idea when I land a critical hit, no idea when I take a critical hit, no idea if blocking reduces damage and if so, by how much, etc.

I can't help but feel like the developers think that console gamers are complete morons, like we're not the exact same people that enjoy PC games. I waited for and bought the console version because my PC sucks compared to my PS4, not because I thought it would be a dumbed down version of the PC Game. And don't even get me started on how this game must be to deaf gamers.

TLDR; Make all of the things you've left out for "immersion" OPTIONAL. Let us decide how immersive we want our experience to be, don't force it on us.

- Sev

[Moderator Note: Edited title to better match the discussion]

Sallington · July 2015

"Immersion" ruins MMOs. Social and community elements are what make them thrive. ZOS got rid of one in favor of the other, and I think that was a terrible decision.

BuggeX · July 2015

Summerhole, its a Problem of all MMORPGs

Pman85 · July 2015

no problem with the group finder ever with me. EVER. since launch (PC), my wait for the group finder has not been any worse than other games I have played.

Try joining a guild. Want to play with other players? Join a guild that doesnt suck. Find players around your level and go rock it out.

All your problems seem to be able to fix with a little effort on your part!

freespirit · July 2015

I understand your frustration @Sevanity, even on PC I have gone for long periods not being able to find a group......

My absolute best suggestion is join some Guilds....

I just had a quick look at the Guild Recruitment pages for PS4 and they seem to be pretty active.....

You may not find the right fit for you immediately but eventually you will and suddenly a whole new game will open up

Sallington · July 2015

Pman85 wrote: »

no problem with the group finder ever with me. EVER. since launch (PC), my wait for the group finder has not been any worse than other games I have played.

Try joining a guild. Want to play with other players? Join a guild that doesnt suck. Find players around your level and go rock it out.

All your problems seem to be able to fix with a little effort on your part!

Your solution is FAR FAR FAR easier with text chat.

Sausage · July 2015

I can assure you theres tons of MP/MMO content when you reach endgame and when they fix Craglorn and endgame rewards. I got like 100 gold key, gimme reason to do Vet Dungeons for example, or I'd love to do some Craglorn quests again.

Endurance · July 2015

Zenimax is new at this MMO thing.. if they had better experience from past games then ESO would have been much better.. they could let another publisher run the game

Pman85 · July 2015

Sallington wrote: »

Pman85 wrote: »

no problem with the group finder ever with me. EVER. since launch (PC), my wait for the group finder has not been any worse than other games I have played.

Try joining a guild. Want to play with other players? Join a guild that doesnt suck. Find players around your level and go rock it out.

All your problems seem to be able to fix with a little effort on your part!

Your solution is FAR FAR FAR easier with text chat.

these forums have guild upon guild looking to recruit players. how much easier can it get?

eventide03b14a_ESO · July 2015

We have been telling them to fix the group finder tool and improve the layout for over a year on the PC. They don't listen. At least on PC we have addons for most of the things they left out. It's a shame they didn't take us seriously on the forums and instead just disregarded us as complainers. Now it seems like the console players are the ones who are really going to suffer.

DecayedZombies · July 2015

Sevanity wrote: »

Don't get me wrong, the game is fun and I'm enjoying the game mechanics.

The problem is with the social side of things, I'm Level 24 and I haven't played a single group dungeon because I haven't had any chance to. I've tried using the group finder on multiple occasions, usually resulting in nothing happening after hours of waiting.

One time I tried searching for "Any Dungeon" and after the few hours I left it searching, it eventually found a group, but I was mid way through a quest when it found the group, I ran immediately outside and looked on the map, the group was split up and I couldn't even see half of them, I guess they were also in caves. I started to travel to the one I could see and minutes later the group disbanded.

None of my friends play ESO and I'm playing casually as I don't have the time to invest to play a lot at the moment, so from the start of my experience up to now with ESO, it just feels like I'm in a ghost town, doesn't feel like an MMO at all, and I blame it solely on the lack of a chat system.

I understand that this was left out to heighten "immersion" but when you put proximity voice chat in the game, immersion is thrown out the window. Unless you're meant to hear the latest Nicki Minaj tune in Grahtwood, whilst another dude is having a heated conversation with his friend about what the best gun is in Destiny.

I would also like to bring up the lack of an option for damage numbers, EXP numbers, etc. Again, I understand these were left out for "immersion", but why are they left out as OPTIONS? It's fine to turn them off as default, but at least give me the option to turn them on. As a new player, I have no idea how much damage I'm doing and when I use different weapons or skills, it is near to impossible for me to tell what is more effective. I have no idea when I land a critical hit, no idea when I take a critical hit, no idea if blocking reduces damage and if so, by how much, etc.

I can't help but feel like the developers think that console gamers are complete morons, like we're not the exact same people that enjoy PC games. I waited for and bought the console version because my PC sucks compared to my PS4, not because I thought it would be a dumbed down version of the PC Game. And don't even get me started on how this game must be to deaf gamers.

TLDR; Make all of the things you've left out for "immersion" OPTIONAL. Let us decide how immersive we want our experience to be, don't force it on us.

- Sev

easy chat option would help so that when we travel to dungeons we could team up...
feel free to send me a friend request. DecayedZombies
28/M/USA LA

nine9six · July 2015

Well at least they didn't have to pull a lot of resources to make the console versions.

demendred · July 2015

While we hate to see you go, we wish you the best of luck on any other game you decide to play.

markt84 · July 2015

Ha

Sallington wrote: »

Pman85 wrote: »

no problem with the group finder ever with me. EVER. since launch (PC), my wait for the group finder has not been any worse than other games I have played.

Try joining a guild. Want to play with other players? Join a guild that doesnt suck. Find players around your level and go rock it out.

All your problems seem to be able to fix with a little effort on your part!

Your solution is FAR FAR FAR easier with text chat.

Hahaha what? Yeah sending a text is a lot easier than getting in guild chat and saying, hey who wants to do a dungeon

drogon1 · July 2015

I actually think that a significant problem with dungeons in ESO is new players finding them too difficult and thus avoiding them. Thus, the group finder tool is not used sufficiently by the community, and the dungeons lie comparatively idle compared to other MMOs.

ESO dungeons take some getting used to if you're coming from a traditional MMO like WoW or Rift (and a lot of getting used to if ESO is your first MMO). ESO dungeons require players to block and dodge to be successful, in addition to traditional trinity roles. ESO dungeon encounters often throw many more mobs at players than in the traditional setting where a tank can be counted on to tank pretty much everything.

Once you understand how ESO dungeons work, however, I find them a much more enjoyable and active experience than, e.g., WoW's dungeons. I'm just hoping that ESO extends its dungeon systems and tool, as its the best PvE experience to be found in the game imo.

Some changes to the dungeon finding tool that should be considered is to make it cross-factional. I can see no reason why folks of different factions should be prevented from running dungeons together, especially if this would treble the number of players seeking dungeon opportunities.

Aunatar · July 2015

Sallington wrote: »

Pman85 wrote: »

no problem with the group finder ever with me. EVER. since launch (PC), my wait for the group finder has not been any worse than other games I have played.

Try joining a guild. Want to play with other players? Join a guild that doesnt suck. Find players around your level and go rock it out.

All your problems seem to be able to fix with a little effort on your part!

Your solution is FAR FAR FAR easier with text chat.

Indeed!

RadicalSpirit · July 2015

This game is not dead if you know where to look.

You are level 24 so you don't know anything right now about the game.

The matchmaking is terrible, that much I agree with, it's not that there aren't enough people, because there certainly is, it's just that the system for matching people together is a joke, and not efficient at all.

Also I don't know what time you're generally playing the game, but considering you're on here whining about the game being dead leads me to believe you have just queued up recently (within a few hours) and got no result.

Let me remind you that it is still working hours for the bulk of EU, and also working hours/school hours for most of the US.

Take that into account when you say a game is "dead" it's quite often that the majority of the game population , i.e. casuals, are still in school or at work.

SIXR_sCaR · July 2015

when you finally find group for dungeons

King Bozo · July 2015

We need text chat problem solved. Many are looking for groups and text chat would solve grouping problems.

Kazzy56 · July 2015

PS4 EU

Its alive and kickin'....

Slonekb05 · July 2015

Forget the social aspect, although i do agree. This game will die just because of how easy it is... there's so much content but you blow through, enemy's might as well not even be there.

Tolmos · July 2015

The whole character transfer thing didn't help you guys either. A whole group of console users starting at level one suddenly flooded by a bunch of VR14 PC players, on day 1, grinding away at CP so that by the time any of you hit level 50 they will, for all intents and purposes, be raid bosses in PvP and top all the PvE trial charts.

Every time I come to this forum I feel worse and worse for console players lol

xoduspaladin · July 2015

Tolmos wrote: »

The whole character transfer thing didn't help you guys either. A whole group of console users starting at level one suddenly flooded by a bunch of VR14 PC players, on day 1, grinding away at CP so that by the time any of you hit level 50 they will, for all intents and purposes, be raid bosses in PvP and top all the PvE trial charts.

Every time I come to this forum I feel worse and worse for console players lol

Eh, I don't care so much about the PVP/PVEers coming to console, I'm more concern about the folks buying out the guild traders and having an instant monopoly on that. Between that and the lack of text communication to have an alternative way of trading your wares, the gaming market isn't going to do well.

I'm assuming that plans for PVP/PVE progression will be fix soon enough for both the PC and console version. We'll see I guess.

waterfairy · July 2015

I don't see how this has anything to do with immersion and how you think that they focus on immersion when we can't even see custom character names.

DenMoria · July 2015

My solution is: Don't worry about groups. Just follow them and let them do the work. And don't turn on any chat features since all you get is awful music, children screaming and profanity. Join all the guilds you want, but don't participate since they offer nothing and everything they have is far too expensive.

So far, my group experiences have been disastrous, my guild experiences have offered me nothing and my social functions are full of jacka**es that are all apparently 10 years old.

Ah, the joys of being low level and on console.

Fah!

ch.ris317b14_ESO · July 2015

Sevanity wrote: »

Don't get me wrong, the game is fun and I'm enjoying the game mechanics.

The problem is with the social side of things, I'm Level 24 and I haven't played a single group dungeon because I haven't had any chance to. I've tried using the group finder on multiple occasions, usually resulting in nothing happening after hours of waiting.

One time I tried searching for "Any Dungeon" and after the few hours I left it searching, it eventually found a group, but I was mid way through a quest when it found the group, I ran immediately outside and looked on the map, the group was split up and I couldn't even see half of them, I guess they were also in caves. I started to travel to the one I could see and minutes later the group disbanded.

None of my friends play ESO and I'm playing casually as I don't have the time to invest to play a lot at the moment, so from the start of my experience up to now with ESO, it just feels like I'm in a ghost town, doesn't feel like an MMO at all, and I blame it solely on the lack of a chat system.

I understand that this was left out to heighten "immersion" but when you put proximity voice chat in the game, immersion is thrown out the window. Unless you're meant to hear the latest Nicki Minaj tune in Grahtwood, whilst another dude is having a heated conversation with his friend about what the best gun is in Destiny.

I would also like to bring up the lack of an option for damage numbers, EXP numbers, etc. Again, I understand these were left out for "immersion", but why are they left out as OPTIONS? It's fine to turn them off as default, but at least give me the option to turn them on. As a new player, I have no idea how much damage I'm doing and when I use different weapons or skills, it is near to impossible for me to tell what is more effective. I have no idea when I land a critical hit, no idea when I take a critical hit, no idea if blocking reduces damage and if so, by how much, etc.

I can't help but feel like the developers think that console gamers are complete morons, like we're not the exact same people that enjoy PC games. I waited for and bought the console version because my PC sucks compared to my PS4, not because I thought it would be a dumbed down version of the PC Game. And don't even get me started on how this game must be to deaf gamers.

TLDR; Make all of the things you've left out for "immersion" OPTIONAL. Let us decide how immersive we want our experience to be, don't force it on us.

- Sev

[Moderator Note: Edited title to better match the discussion]

Honestly the only voice chat was probably THE stupidest decision in gaming history.

I have not yet had a single positive experience with anyone on a mic.

Its not even the arguments or static.... 99% of the human population, including myself have annoying as hell voices... especially on VOIP.

HexWeaver · July 2015

Needs text chat. I usually play late at night and i don't want the whole house listening to me talk on mic.

Reeko · July 2015

Have you tried standing outside of the dungeon you want to do and using area chat to form groups? That right there is the "social" aspect you are looking for.

xionicc · July 2015

markt84 wrote: »

Ha

Sallington wrote: »

Pman85 wrote: »

no problem with the group finder ever with me. EVER. since launch (PC), my wait for the group finder has not been any worse than other games I have played.

Try joining a guild. Want to play with other players? Join a guild that doesnt suck. Find players around your level and go rock it out.

All your problems seem to be able to fix with a little effort on your part!

Your solution is FAR FAR FAR easier with text chat.

Hahaha what? Yeah sending a text is a lot easier than getting in guild chat and saying, hey who wants to do a dungeon

Sometimes yes it is. Some people can't chat all the time. Or when you do all you get back is tv feedback

ch.ris317b14_ESO · July 2015

Reeko wrote: »

Have you tried standing outside of the dungeon you want to do and using area chat to form groups? That right there is the "social" aspect you are looking for.

If ESO had the same PVP rules as EVE Online... I would kill everyone doing that, and I am 100% carebear....
"Do you wanna do a dungeon" x 100???? ... yeah how about NO

Mighty_oakk · July 2015

Reeko wrote: »

Have you tried standing outside of the dungeon you want to do and using area chat to form groups? That right there is the "social" aspect you are looking for.

This was my plan originally until i realised it only works with 1/3 of dungeons till caldwells silver/gold